Posts for March 2005

The amazing thing about Michael Blackburn's "conquering" the Bass Strait isn't that he sailed single-handed across the Bass Strait--that's been done before--it's that he averaged 8.6 knots in a Laser for 13 hours. No, Blackburn didn't pick the Bass Straits because of daring-do, but because it's one of the few places in the world where you could pull this off. See photographs, videos, and a piece Alden Bugly wrote about it here.

A US Sailing Level 1 course will be given on four weekday evenings in Charlottesville (April 11, April 13, April 18 and April 20) and at Fishing Bay Yacht Club all day on Saturday April 23 with Sunday April 24 as a rain date.

This course leads to certification as a US Sailing Level I dinghy instructor, and provides the instructor with personal liability insurance, as well as instruction information. Our instructor has promised to make this course very oriented to Optimist sailing, so attendees will learn proper rigging, and Optimist sail control, topics that are not covered when the course material must be more general.

The instructor has a two-week work commitment in Charlottesville, and so is able to …

The location of the Cruising Class gathering for this coming Saturday, April 2, has been changed from the FBYC second floor facility, to the Deltaville cottage of Tony and Kate Sakowski, 76 Sunrise Lane. Brief directions to the cottage would include taking a left at Ruark’s Marina, and then going three speed bumps until you see Sunrise Lane on the left (200 yards). Turn left and park after going up the hill, but be sure to leave room for our neighbors to pass. Parking will be available at the very end of Sunrise Lane (Hay Hardy cottage) if there are no areas open. Please don’t park in the large field in front of our cottage.

I will distribute …

From today's Scuttlebutt with no added comments.

* From Michelle Slade (edited to our 250 word limit): I just attended the Corinthian YC (Tiburon, Calif), first evening of its 2005 speaker series with Gary Jobson. I know this has been said before but it simply can never be said enough - Gary is truly a gift to the sport we all love. It's been both a heart rending and heart warming experience to watch him over the past few years battle through his illness. To see him healthy and happy today, his humor-incensed enthusiasm for the sport a complete inspiration is awesome. I wonder how often we stop and appreciate how much he's brought to this sport in this …

Greg Fisher will be conducting a workshop on successfully racing Flying Scots. This will be held on Sunday, April 10th from 11:00 to around 4:00 at FBYC. A $5.00 per person fee will include lunch.

Greg is one of the top One-Design sailors around and is head of the O/D Loft at North Sails in Annapolis. He has won over 36 Nationals, North Americans, and Midwinters Championships in 9 One-Design Classes - including the Flying Scots five times (the most recent this year's Midwinters)!

This will NOT be an on-the-water clinic but we will have a Flying Scot rigged in the parking lot for demonstrations. Among the topics of the day will be a discussion on …

Since the Laser was introduced in 1972 more than 180,000 boats have been built and are sailed in every country in the world. Adding to the Laser as the established men's single-handed Olympic boat the Laser Radial has been selected as the women's single-handed class for the next Olymics in place of the Europe. A major reason for this change was the ready availability of Lasers on a world-wide basis as well as their lower cost.

Along with other major classes Lasers hold Mid-winters regattas each year, and in the case of Lasers these are held on both the East and West coasts. An unusual incident earlier this month at the Mid-winters West at the California YC …

Fishing Bay was fortunate to host John McCarthy for two seminars on Saturday March 12th. Fifty members and guests attended the morning session on the Rules. Attendees included at least one Junior racer and 9 former Commodores -- we can all use a little refresher. John's presentation was informative and entertaining and should add to the quality of our racing in 2005 with a focus on not only the rules, but how they should figure into strategy on the course. He encourages communication between the racers and recognizes that some issues are not black and white and simply must be handled in the protest room.

Twenty-eight stayed for the afternoon session on Race Management. The session focused on the mechanics …

Two independent sources have confirmed that the Middlesex County Cable TV people were on site last week and have now buried the Cable TV line to Stove Point as it crosses the FBYC property. They successfully avoided cutting all water lines that we knew about. Apparantly some water lines were unknown! The next step is to remove the old above ground cable TV wire, which might be done Monday.

Great job and thanks to Chip Hall, Grounds Chair, for getting this long awaited project underway.