Fishing Bay Yacht Club
Saturday was a beautiful day for racing and Wavelength had a great day at Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Offshore Spring Series #2. We had good boat speed, good crew work and manged to go 3-2-1-4 in 4 races putting us into 3rd overall for the series. Results.
Photo: Andrea Winner
Sailing continued on Sunday with a a string of 3rd places by Wavelength in the 3 races on the 1st day of the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Offshore Spring Series. Results.
Photo by Andrea Winner.
Got the sailing season off to a great start on Saturday with the Opening Day Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club sailing aboard the C&C37 Wavelength. We did one 12.5 mile race out around the channel buoys to the entrance of the Rappahannock River and back. We did some great sailing which included a spinnaker peel and managed to finish 2nd in some very close racing – only 36 seconds separated the top 4 boats on corrected time. Results and Pictures.
Recently finished a video which will be used in early 2012 to promote Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Crew Training Program.
Saturday, Fishing Bay Yacht Club hosted their Annual Meeting & Awards Dinner. I put together this highlight film. I also won the Blanton Bowl as the clubs top Laser sailor in home and away regattas.
Fishing Bay Yacht Club‘s Laser Frostbite Regatta was the last sailing event of the year for the club and the last sailing event of the year for me as well. We had nice winds about 5-8 out of the north east. It was cool, but sunny and comfortable with a full set of layers on. Having not sailed the Laser in 6 weeks I was pretty inconsistent on the water today. Won 3 races, but wound up 3rd after some deep finishes were factored in. Kudos to Ron Thompson and Michael Moore who both put up top 3 finishes in every race to finish first and second. It was a great day of racing and it was nice having the Hampton Roads sailors come join us.
Results are here.
With that event my sailing for 2011 is complete. I finished the year having sailed 54 days. Up 5 days from last year.
The Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship has been sailed by Laser sailors over the age of 35 since 1981. In the early years of the regatta Alain Vincey had beautiful plates made that were given to the competitors as prizes. The last of these plates was made into a perpetual trophy for the regatta. About 10 years ago the trophy fell over, and the ceramic plate was shattered. The plate was painstakingly repaired and has hung in the clubhouse ever since.
As great of a trophy as it was, I wanted to be sure the plate would be protected and that the regatta would have a trophy that would last for years to come. With those goals in mind, I planned a trophy that looks like a serving tray with sides that would protect the plate mounted to it. And although I’m not yet of age to sail in Masters regattas, I made sure there would enough room for winners to cover well past the time that I ‘age out’ of Laser masters sailing.
The trophy was built at the beginning of October out of 13 pieces of 3/4″ mahogany.
Next chocks were made to hold the plate in place and the plaques were aligned and drilled.
The trophy was then finished in a natural glossy finish.
Then the rope border was mounted.
Finally the plate and plaques were mounted to complete the trophy.
Winners at the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship on October 15-16, 2011.
More pictures of the trophy and the build process can be seen here.
I want to thank my father, Stan, for his help and tools. And thanks to Alain Vincey for the kicking off the regatta years ago and providing the plate and original trophy for it.
This weekend Fishing Bay Yacht Club hosted the 30th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship for Laser sailors 35 years of age and old. Since I don’t yet meet the requirements to sail, I’ve been made the event chairman. The event went off without a hitch and 36 sailors participated. The RC did a fabulous job getting 7 races in, including 3 in 20+ knots of wind on Saturday. Alain’s pork Ossobuco was fantastic as all of his meals were. I just want to thank everyone who helped out and all of the sailors who came.
Results and photos have been posted. Here are a few of my favorite photos:
The weather for Sunday at Fishing Bay Yacht Club started out a little questionable. The wind was blowing 20-25 out of the North at the buoy at the point. There were 5 of us there to sail and we all decided to take radials out. We raced inside Fishing Bay in winds in the teens and the Radial sails made for good close racing without any of us being over powered and having to fight the boat.
Ron Thompson and I traded for the lead throughout the races today. Richard Biggs was not far behind pouncing on any mistakes we made. With shifty winds in Fishing Bay there were plenty of passing lanes by picking the right shifts both upwind and down.
After 5 races in about 2 hours with off-and-on rain we called it day and retired to the clubhouse for chilli. All-in-all it was a fun day of sailing and I had to work hard to finish 1-1-2-1-1. I’m glad this weekend went how it did and I’m even more ready to head up to SSA next weekend for the Crab Claw regatta.
*Photo by Lud Kimbrough
Saturday I sailed in Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Smith Point Race aboard the Farr 37 Excitation. It was a 57 mile race out of the Piankatank River, east across the bay and then north near the mouth of the Potomac River and then back to the entrance to Jackson Creek.
It took about 13 hours to sail. The first 2 1/2 hours were in little to no wind. From the start most of the fleet continue on starboard towards the mouth of the Rappahannock before tacking towards our mark. We spent our time in the light wind sailing on port along shore and out of the current. We picked the layline pretty well from over 10 miles out and were first around the mark. Being the furthest south and the first to catch the sea breeze certainly helped.
Aboard Excitation
We led for a little while longer, but soon the faster J109, Afterthought, passed us heading downwind as we sailed North up the bay to Smith Point. It was this leg where the sun set and the wind increased into the mid-teens. After rounding Smith Point around 11pm we slogged upwind for another 3 1/2 hours to the finish.
Afterthought passing us downwind as the sun set.
That was the longest offshore race I’ve ever sailed and doing most of the driving upwind was a good experience. In the end we finished 2nd – only a minute and 43 seconds out of 1st place. We had a good crew, ate well, and we all enjoyed the trip. Thanks Mayo Tabb for taking me along!
