We had a classic Chesapeake spring day for the Open House Regatta — cool temperatures, clear skies, and a steady breeze out of the northwest at 6–10 knots. Perfect conditions to spend the day racing on the water.
I sailed aboard the J/99 Battle Rhythm with a solid crew: Chris B, Chris R, Todd, David, April, Jon, and Kevin. This was a pursuit race, which meant the slower boats started first, and the faster boats (like us) started later. We ended up starting near the back of the fleet, side-by-side with Orion, another fast-rated boat.
The course took us from Godfrey Bay into the Piankatank River channel, then out toward Gwynn’s Island. We passed east of Stove Point before turning back upriver and finishing in Fishing Bay. It was a fun, tactical sail — plenty of opportunities to chase down boats ahead and make the most of every shift and puff.
After crossing the finish, the fleet gathered for a raft-up with about a dozen boats tying together — a great chance to relax, catch up with friends, and relive the race. We eventually headed back to the dock and capped off the day with a BBQ dinner at the club.
Over the weekend, our crew aboard the J/42 DIANTHUS took part in a 20-nautical-mile race that started near Thomas Point Light and finished near Miles River Yacht Club. The course took us southeast past Kent Island before turning into the river for the final leg.
We had six on board: Dave, Carol, Wendy, John, Mike, and Jon D. Conditions were breezy throughout, with steady winds over 20 knots and gusts reaching 27. Whitecaps were visible across the Bay, making for a fast and challenging race.
Our fleet was the fourth start of the day. We managed a well-timed reach at the boat end of the line, staying high and clear of traffic. A few of the faster boats eventually came through below us, but we held a solid position early on.
As we crossed the Bay, the course shifted to another reach into the Miles River. We started passing some of the slower boats ahead of us while faster boats from behind caught up. Many boats were flying symmetrical spinnakers—some handling them well, others less so.
When the course turned to a deeper run, we put up our own spinnaker and stayed in control, even with gusts still hitting 25+ knots. We saw boat speeds up to 10.5 knots. Around us, a few boats wiped out in the breeze, but we managed to keep things clean.
Rather than gybe in those conditions, we chose to drop the spinnaker for the final short leg to the finish.
After the race, we rafted up at the club and checked the results: 4th place, just under a minute out of 2nd on corrected time. A strong finish in heavy air and a good day on the water.
Spent Memorial Day Weekend on the water – on a float, stand up paddle board and sailing the Open House Regatta. Here’s a clip of paddling on Queens Creek:
We had a nice day for the Open House Regatta with a light breeze out of the east that eventually built to the double digits. Jess and I were sailing aboard Todd’s J99 Battle Rhythm with me doing pit and her trimming the main.
The course would take us from Godfrey Bay out the Piankatank near Stingray Point and back up the river around a mark and then up into a finish in Fishing Bay. The first part of the race was mostly upwind while the 2nd half of the race was mostly downwind.
It was a progressive start race meaning the slower boats start first and the faster boast start last. We were the 2nd to last to to start and as we sailed east on the 2nd leg of the course we started to catch up to a group of boats. We hoisted our spinnaker to head from Piankatank 8 to FBYC B and passed most of them. On that first spinnaker hoist we had a sheet run incorrectly and had to just muscle hold it while we re-ran the lazy sheet as the new sheet and didn’t loose much ground.
By the time we got to FBYC-B we had Sting, Wendas and the Thistle ahead of of. We passed them by the time we got to back to Piankatank 8, but were only just ahead of Sting. We split with Sting and went North while they went south and after crossing we went south as we went north as we worked our way downwind to the west up the Piankatank. They stayed in better pressure of Stove point and were just ahead of us by the time we got to 12. We had a cleaner rounding, came out higher and had a little more speed to be just ahead of them at the finish and get the gun.
Chris T, Mark, Erin, Chad, Mayo, Todd, Jon & Chris aboard Excitation
It had been 10 years since I last sailed the Down the Bay Race, also on Excitation and we were hoping for a little less excitement this time around from the high winds in that edition. We got what we wanted in Annapolis with a light air downwind start. With a storm off the South Carolina coast the wind from this area was being sucked south south. That storm would slowly move north and begin to impact the southern part of the Chesapeake Bay on Saturday.
We were the 2nd class to start in PHRF-A and we had a front row seat to the ORC start 5 minutes ahead of us. Most boats were approaching on port with spinnakers ready or hoisted as they were approaching the line. Nanuq timed it perfectly coming in on Starboard at the pin and jibing just at the start and hoisting. This had the affect of causing their competition to give way and one of the boats already under spinnaker under port tack had to duck behind Nanuq, miss the pin and ultimately douse their spinnaker to get back upwind to the pin to start.
While we had considered a similar move, our much larger fleet would have made that more chaotic and given we were a symmetric boat, we wanted our spinnaker up below everyone else and took the wide open part of the line down by the boat. We had a good start just a few seconds late and had our spinnaker flying before we crossed the line.
We sailed downwind for a couple hours down the bay as the fleet stretched out and boats took different angles and lanes in the deeper or shallower water. We criss-crossed the bay sailing our angles under spinnaker – generally favoring the eastern side and the deeper water. We did 4 spinnaker changes and used all 3 spinnaker as the wind went up and down and we got pretty adept at pulling one spinnaker down, swapping the lines and putting the new one up in about a minute.
Mid afternoon we were still going down the eastern side of the bay and had a close rounding of the Sharp’s island mark. As we went west of it we noticed the boat Allegiant just on the other side of it and we radioed to them that they missed it. Within a few minutes they had their spinnaker down and were going back upwind to round it. Just after that, another boat radioed Raven who was even further east and they had an even longer slog back to the mark. We continued an easterly path down the bay sailing deep under our symmetrical spinnaker and caught up and passed some of the faster boats who had gotten ahead of us, and even one of the faster boats in the class ahead of us who all were much further west sailing asymmetrical spinnaker angles.
By early evening the wind was building and we had switched down to the smallest spinnaker. I was driving and I could see boats a mile or two ahead of us with upwind sails up going nearly the same angle we were headed. We quickly raised a genoa, dropped the spinnaker and soon the wind was dead and we hunted for a few minutes before continuing in the new wind.
By then we were approaching the Potomac and the wind continued to build. Just before dark the wind was starting to get into the teens and we switched down to the number 3 while we had daylight. We all took turns going below to change into our heavy gear for the night and we carried on across the mouth of the Potomac as the seas and wind built.
Another 20-some miles we were off the Piankatank and we retired from the race and turned in for our dock at Fishing Bay. With the storm south already making for winds in the 20-25 and possibly more by the time we got south, the fun factor wasn’t going to be there and risk to breaking something on the boat ahead of a big regatta the following weekend wasn’t worth it. We pulled in to our slip just before 1 and were all in beds at Mayo’s house by 2. In the morning we cleaned up the boat and took some of the crew to Hampton by car to retrieve their vehicles.
J99 Battle Rhythm at Bert Jabin’s Yard in Annapolis.
For the delivery of Battle Rhythm to Deltaville we had some unfavorable weather for our original plan yesterday which allowed me to jump on the race committee for the Down the Bay Race start. After another night in Annapolis we had an early start on Saturday. Battle Rhythm is a 32′ J99 sailboat #94 and was docked at Bert Jabins near Annapolis.
Battle Rhythm under spinnaker.
Once we were off the dock and into the Chesapeake Bay, we did a quick instrument calibration and then headed south around Tolly and Thomas Points. We started with good wind on the beam and with just 4 of us onboard we got the spinnaker up and were seeing 7.5 to 9 knots under spinnaker. Eventually the wind eased and we dropped the spinnaker and motor sailed again. When we were close to the mouth of the Patomac early in afternoon the wind again built and we raised the spinnaker again.
Eventually the wind dropped off to almost nothing and moved forward so as the sun was setting we struck all the sails and just motored the rest of the way to Deltaville. We arrived just after 9pm with a total trip time of 13 hours and just over 8.5 hours of motoring.
We started the weekend hosting a cookout for the YAM group at FBYC in what has become a Memorial Day Weekend tradition. We had great weather and a nice turnout.
Saturday was to be power boat day getting Jess’s father out in his power boat for the first time. We got it in the water just fine and motored out into the creek and the newly rebuilt engine ran just fine. While out there I checked the bilge and saw a lot more water than we should have seen for only being in the water for 15 minutes. We could see the thru-hull that water was seeping around and the bilge could keep up with it, but we headed back to the ramp anyway. Back at the ramp I touched the thru-hull fitting for the raw-water intake for the bait wells and it disintegrated leaving 1/2 inch hole for water to come through. We quickly put the boat back on the trailer and gave up hope of power boating this weekend while seeking professional help.
Later in the day Jess and I went for a swim in the creek and Jess’s father was give a dozen crabs caught by a neighbor that we scrambled to figure out how to cook for dinner. We ended the night cooking smores on a fire down by the water.
Sunday we sailed the Snipe in the Open House Regatta. Monday we visited the Hallieford beach and then did boat-work – we added fiberglass to reinforce the back deck of the snipe.
This year for Fishing Bay Yacht Club’s Open House Regatta – Jess and I finally got the Snipe out for this event. This was a progressive start race and we just barely made our start time. The wind started out good out of the west and we had more of it to work with as one of the first boats to start.
By the time we round Piankatank 8 we had passed the boats ahead of us and had a few shining moments in the lead before the big boats rolled us. We got through 80% of the course and were just off Stove Point when the wind shut off again. At the prospect of sitting out there for a while and missing the raft up – we dropped out and took a tow in.
The raft up was fun as ever and we got to cruise on Mad Hatter for ride back around afterward.
After the Snipe broke yesterday, Jess and I were without a plan for racing FBYC’s Open House Regatta on Saturday. At 9pm Saturday night that plan came together and we would sail on Mad Hatter with the Flecks. This race is a progressive start distance race – meaning the slowest boast start first and the fastest boats start first and whoever finishes first wins. This year featured a wide variety of boats including a 30′ trimaran and a Wasp. The weather was slightly overcast, warm with 12-14 knot winds.
We had a great start, hitting our time perfectly. Only two of the legs were downwind for us, so that kept the spinnaker work for me up on the bow down to a minimum. We sailed the rhumb line and kept the boat going pretty well. In the end the boat to beat was a 29er – who were able to fly a chute on the tight reaches much better than any of the other boats. We finished 4th.
Following the race – we rafted up with a couple dozen other boats in Fishing Bay and got to hang out with everyone for a couple hours. Later we took the boat back around to the dock and joined the dinner and listened to the band.
