Any posts that contain videos that I’ve created
After yesterday’s Opening Day Race, Fishing Bay Yacht Club started the offshore spring series on Sunday with some buoy racing. We only had about half of the crew we had yesterday and had several new folks in new positions. Overall we held our own going 3-2-3 on the day. Results.
From the creator of ‘Shoveling the Driveway 2014’ comes the sequel: ‘Snow Blowing the Driveway’.
This weekend Greater Richmond Sailing Association invited Fishing Bay Yacht Club Flying Scots and Lasers to join them for frostbiting out on Swift Creek. Dan and I were the only two Lasers; there were 10 Flying Scots and 3 Thistles. The goal for the day was simply get back in the boat and try a few things out. I tried a new GoPro Camera (Hero 3+) and a new stern mount for it. I got to try out some new boots and I got to try sailing at a club I had never been at before. Thanks again to GRSA for inviting us to come sail!
Photos courtesy of Sharon Wake.
This Columbus Day weekend I got to be in Destin Florida for my college buddy Chris K’s wedding along with a bunch of other college friends. It was quite a trip covering over 2000 miles with plenty of fun along the way.
We started out Go Karting when we arrived Thursday night. I had a little incident (video) which would scar my nose for the remainder of the trip.
Friday was the guys hanging out with bachelor activities. Most of the day was spent lounging on a pontoon boat at Crab Island and exploring parts of the Choctawhatchee Bay and inter-coastal waterway.
Saturday was a rehearsal cookout and watching ECU football.
Sunday was a beautiful beach wedding followed by the reception.
Congratulations Chris and Jaimie! Thanks for having me as part of your special day and what a blast!
This weekend I was the event chair for Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. This is the 9th year I’ve been the event chair and by now I’ve gotten a pretty good gameplan and a great team of volunteers to help execute it. And of course it could not have gone more smoothly from the food to the race committee to the social activities – everything went off without a hitch for 42 competitors.
A complete wrap-up of the event can be found here including more pictures and results. I’ll have some videos of the sailing and the paddle board competition later this week.
Some of my favorite pictures:
watching the America’s Cup on the screen I rigged up.
Saturday’s Cut Channel Race at Fishing Bay Yacht Club had a bit of everything from the weather. Light air, heavy air, storms, chop, smooth seas, etc. Lud Kimbrough, Mike Karn and I sailed the J/70 Nostalgia in the PHRF-B fleet of 6 boats out of 15 total for the race.
The race took us south and east and then due east across the bay before heading north up the shipping channel and back to the Piankatank. We had a great start and did well on the first upwind and reaching legs. On the 2nd downwind leg out to the channel we made a bad bet on the weather and fell back into the fleet.
After rounding the channel marker to head North we could see storms in the distance but with being so far out into the bay we didn’t have reliable cell service to check the weather. We donned our life jackets and battened down the hatch – we really did this – and prepared for some weather. We were also monitoring VHF 16 instead of the race channel so we could hear ships coming up the channel, etc so we didn’t hear any race announcements that the race was being shortened at the next mark.
Most of the storms stayed away and we could see lightning in the distance. One frontal system did come through and as the wind hit the boats behind us, we quickly executed our emergency chute down procedure to get it in the boat just before we were hit with a 25-30+ knot gust. We rode out the rest of the leg under jib and main still making 6 knots and as we approached the mark we saw Mr. Roberts there and saw the race was being shortened.
We didn’t save our time, but we had fun and got to try something different on a boat none of us had ever done a distance race with. Unfortunately for us, we finished at the farthest point of the course from home, which meant we still needed to sail upwind back home. We definitely didn’t have enough fuel aboard to motor the whole way, plus the boat goes faster under sail anyway. 2 1/2 hours later and after narrowly dodging another squall line and motoring from about 6 miles offshore once the wind died, we made it back to FBYC.
It’s rare that I can get to the river for a weeknight for a sail. Len Guenther was there too and we got to get a little practice in before our races on Sunday at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. What a beautiful sunset!
