Tag: ILCA

ILCA sailboats and sailing. (Prior to 2021 known as Laser)

This has been the most anticipated regatta I have ever been a part of.  Back in 2005 I was the event chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship for the first time.  I got put in charge then because I was the most active fleet member at the time who couldn’t sail it yet. It would be 12 more years before I finally aged into being able to sail and something we’ve been discussing ever since.  I got a taste of masters sailing earlier this year when I went to Florida Masters Week and I can’t wait to finally be able to participate in an event I have put so much effort into over the past nearly 20 years I’ve been a member at FBYC.

Jon getting registrations into the scoring system

The last two days have been a whirlwind of pulling all the details together.  Being the 13th edition of this event I’ve chaired – the script for it is pretty well established, but it is a bit of a 48 hour mad dash to get all of the food, trophies, souvenirs, and other gear plus my own sailing equipment loaded, transported and readied at the club for the weekend.

some went for a sail friday afternoon

Throughout the day sailors began to arrive and some went for a sail in the mid-teens wind and light misty rain.  Later we piled a bunch of folks into the van and all went into town for dinner.

High high tide

I also got to check out Rob’s new setup.  He now has a sprinter van loosely modeled after my setup – so now there’s two laser sprint vans on the circuit.

Rob's Sprinter

Each year one of the preparations is to make a breakfast casserole that can be easily heated up and served for breakfast.  I make 4 of these a couple days before the regatta and keep them refrigerated.  Here’s the recipe I’ve been using:

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 role breakfast sausage
  • 1/3-1/2 bag cubed potatoes
  • 3-4 slices of bacon
  • 18 eggs
  • 13×9 pan
  • 2 cups of cheddar cheese
  • preheat oven to 325
  • Brown breakfast sausage
  • Cook strips of bacon, once cool – crumble into small bits
  • Cook cook cubed potatoes
  • eggs into a large mixing bowl and mix
  • Add potatoes, salt, pepper, mix
  • Add sausage, bacon, mix
  • Add all but 1/8 of the cheese, mix
  • Pour mixture into a pam-sprayed tin
  • Bake 45 minutes
  • Add remaining cheese over the top, bake another 6 minutes, let cool.
By Posted on Posted in ILCA Sailing, Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , , , ,

In July I drove out to Dallas for a week to help Jess pack up and move.  It wasn’t all work though – I got to go sailing two days with the Dallas Laser Fleet and raced a night in their summer series.

It was tight fit getting everything into the van and ended up spilling a few things over into a Uhaul trailer.

We visited with Jess’ Dallas friends and said some farewells.

And two days of driving later we were back in Richmond.

PICTURES

By Posted on Posted in ILCA Sailing, Life No Comments Tagged with , , ,

The Laser Frostbite Regatta was the last event of the year at FBYC and we made it quite easy on the RC by setting a course that allowed them to signal it from the dock.  The wind was just the right direction out of the south west where the RC could run the races from the end of the dock.  We used a boat to move the weather mark and pin.   They had a great time and the proximity to shore enabled the sailors make breaks at the club in between races.

10/30 FBYC Laser Frostbite Regatta

The wind was a little light for this one, but we rolled through the races doing short courses with 10 boats.  While I seemed to have good boat speed – I did find myself on the wrong side of some shifts and occasionally out of the top 3.  Charlie Brewer once again sailed incredibly consistently and took the day.  I followed in 2nd with Len close behind.  What a great way to end the season!

RESULTS

By Posted on Posted in ILCA Sailing, Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , ,

It was the 35th Anniversary of the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship and the regatta is finally old enough to be a competitor.  The color coral commemorates a 35th anniversary and the shirts we designed turned out pretty cool:

Regatta tshirt

The first day saw medium winds just into the double digits with mostly clear skies.  In 5 races we had some close competition up top between Gavin O’Hare and Charlie Brewer who both finished the day tied with 20 points.  Mike Schmidt was close behind in the 41 boat fleet.

Alain and his kitchen crew prepared another fabulous me and a tent city popped up full of sailors.

Sunday started out with no wind and we waited ashore as it began to build about an hour later.  A little lighter than yesterday we ran a little shorter courses and made it through 4 more races.  Charlie and Gavin stayed close and Gavin managed to edge just ahead of Charlie to win the championship.

Thanks to Alain, Rick, Len, Frank and everyone else who helped make this another great Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship.  And after 13 years of only being the event chair – I’ll be looking forward to next year where I can both run it and qualify to sail in it!

PICTURES | RESULTS | VIDEO

By Posted on Posted in Life, Photography, Sailboat Racing, Sailing Photography, Video No Comments Tagged with , , , , ,

For the 2016 FBYC Laser Fall Regatta we took a novel approach to running the races: since it was nice weather and light winds and we had no RC helpers – 7 of us took out 6 Lasers and a RIB.  We then took turns on the RIB to run races and I jumped on the boat of whoever was on the RIB.  We did two cycles so everyone missed 2 races and we got in 14 races.

All in all it worked pretty well, everyone had fun and it was good racing.

RESULTS | PICTURES

By Posted on Posted in ILCA Sailing, Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , ,

Nearly a year in the making this would mark the first time I was the event chairman for the 77th Annual One Design Regatta.  With that role came a lot of additional responsibilities and unlike the single-class regattas for Lasers that I have often chaired – this one involved organizing for many different classes.  In the end I think we did the best we could to balance the wishes of the sailors vs the sailing conditions we had and the volunteers and resources we had available.

Being the event chairman I was focused on making sure the event ran smoothly and so I only made it out for two races.  I had a good first race and ended up in a bad spot in the 2nd race that I couldn’t get out of at a mark rounding and ended up fouling a boat and had to retire from the race.

PICTURES | RESULTS

By Posted on Posted in ILCA Sailing, Life, No Quarter Sailing, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , , ,

No wind in the morning so we postponed onshore for 2 hours and then went out to catch the sea breeze.  The Braun family ran 5 races for us and we had 8 standard rigs and 4 radials out racing.  Generally I had good speed all around the course, but wasn’t as clean in transitions as I could have been.  Charlie Brewer sailed a superb day and wasn’t able to be caught taking 5 bullets.  I settled for 2nd scrambling to stay ahead of Rob W and Csilla Gal. Big thanks to Matt Braun and Doug Bendura for heading up the RC.

RESULTS

By Posted on Posted in Life, No Quarter Sailing, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , ,

To complete the July 4th weekend the Lasers joined the Summer Seabreeze Regatta at FBYC and 7 of us had some quality racing in overcast and 7-10 knot breezes.  I focused on my starts and started well and had good speed upwind and downwind.  Just couldn’t get ahead of Charlie Brewer and settled for 2nd in 2 races.

RESULTS

By Posted on Posted in Life, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , ,

Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club was host for the 2016 Laser District 10 Championship in mid-June.  Winds were light for the first 5 races on Saturday and I finished 13-11-5-11-9 to be 10th after the first day.  That evening had dinner with a few of the District 10 sailors and caught a beautiful sunset at Brant Beach Yacht Club.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BG0P2TyK-6R/

On Sunday it took 2 hours of postponement for the wind to fill and then we sailed 2 more races in 10-14 knots.  I finished 9-10 and stayed in 10th overall.

RESULTS | PICTURES

By Posted on Posted in ILCA Sailing, Life, No Quarter Sailing, Sailboat Racing No Comments Tagged with , , , , ,