Summer is here! This past weekend the FBYC Juniors kicked off their summer with the start of Opti Kids and RaceTeams.
On Saturday and Sunday, Julie Ann and Paul Wash, along with coaches Claire Lennarz and Austin Powers, welcomed 44 juniors and their parents to Opti Kids and their first FBYC junior sailing experience! Opti Kids is for our youngest sailors, aged 5 to 8, and is one of our most important programs. By the end of the first day the new sailors were steering the Club’s Optis around marks under sail and learning “tiller-towards-trouble”. It was hot, so it was a perfect weekend to practice capsize drills. Everyone-but …
This year for the Cruise with Children - our primary destination will be Little Bay, a relatively short cruise just above the Rappahannock River. There we will raft up during the day, and dinghy into the beach for various games.
In case of inclement weather, we will head for the Piankatank and quieter water. Friday night, we will gather at our Deltaville cottage at 5:30 PM on Jackson Creek, for hamburgers, hotdogs and the fixings. Each participating boat will be asked to bring a side dish. Soft drinks, juice, wine and beer will be provided.
On Sat., lunch will be on your own. We will raft up for an early dinner of BBQ provided by us; we will …
On Thursday, June 4, four intrepid boats started out from Deltaville bound for Hampton: Tad and Sue Thompson in SWIM CALL, Vice Commodore Ted and Myra Bennet in PHAROS, Dan and Barbara Lindsay in IOLAR DA NARA, and Tony and Kate Sakowski in MISS KATE. It was not a sail for the faint of heart; it was a nor’easter with winds gusting over 25 knots, foreboding skies with intermittent rain, and seas up to 6 feet! We brought up the rear in SWIM CALL pounding into it from Stove Point until rounding Gwynn’s Island. Things got better for us all after that when we could put out jibs and motor sail with a quartering wind and …
The first Laser Regatta of the four event season was held on Sunday, 7 June. The 10 competitors, including two from North Carolina and one from Florida, enjoyed five races in a moderate and tactically challenging breeze. Austin Powers demonstrated that he has not forgotten how to race a Laser since moving on to his Tartan Ten. PRO Mark Stephens and his team did an outstanding job of adjusting the course as conditions changed throughout the day.
As is a long standing tradition with Laser regattas at FBYC, the post race food and beverages were excellent. A variety of gourmet sandwiches prepared by Brad Squires were enjoyed by all.
FBYC RACE TEAM MEMBERS SHINE AT UNITED STATES TEAM TRIALS!
Benton Amthor, Nathan Smith and Ian Street on the front row; and Boyd Bragg in the middle of the back row, at the 2015 Team Trials in Miami
Incredibly, four FBYC Opti Race Team Members have qualified to compete on teams representing the United States in international competitions this year!
Because of their top finishes at United States Optimist Dinghy Association events in 2014, they first received invitations to the Team Trials, which were held in April in Miami. Based on their excellent performances at that qualifying event, all four earned spots on teams representing the United States!
Nathan Smith will represent the United States at the British Opti Nationals …
Saturday's J/70 Summer Regatta saw 4 light air races sailed. Guthrie Braun skippering E.L.E. was the top boat taking 3 bullets. Followed by Inconceivable and and Nostalgia. The threat of storms chased the sailors off the water before more races could be sailed. Thanks Noel Clinard for being PRO and Joe Nelson for your help on RC and the social.
Fabulous racing on three courses, dining, dancing, fellowship, and making miracles happen.
The 17th Annual Leukemia Cup Regatta is just 5 weeks away Friday Night, July 10-Sunday, July 12- featuring two days of racing, dining, a live auction and other activities at The Deltaville Maritime Museum. FBYC will be providing race management on three courses and dozens of FBYC boats will be taking part in the racing. With classes for PHRF, Non-Spinnaker, Cruising, Classic and One-Design boats there's racing for everyone.
The Leukemia Cup Regatta is designed to raise funds for research to cure blood related cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. It has raised over $50 million dollars since it began. In 2014 over 10,000 sailors …
Nanuq, Glen Doncaster's Sabre 42.5 was the 2nd boat accross the finish line of the Annapolis to Newport Race. Leaving Annapolis Thursday morning Nanuq sailed the course in 3 days 8 hours and finished 2nd in PHRF2 and 2nd in PHRF. They were beat only by another familiar boat Persuit.
Carina - skippered by FBYC Member and New York Yacht Club Commodore Rives Potts finished first in IRC1 & IRC Overall.
Members from FBYC will race in their 2nd team race event this year at FBYC this Saturday hosting Hampton YC in Flying Scots. Last month they raced against HYC in Hampton on Sonars.
Anyone interested in joining the team for Saturday is encouraged to contact Mike Toms.
Schedule:
1130 FBYC Team Meeting
1200 Skippers Meeting
1300 First Warning
1600 No warning after this time
Followed by social/wrap up
Race Format: 3 boats vs 3 boats, with no spinnakers, using 3 minute whistle start sequence, sailing a port-rounding square course (We will explain all of the details at the skippers meeting). Depending on the number of participants, we expect to be sailing either 2 or 3 per boat. We will also …
On Sunday, June 7, your Historian visited Yorktown to board the Hermione, the magnificent recreation of Lafayette’s frigate that conveyed him to America in 1780 to support General Washington in the defeat of Cornwallis which virtually ended the Revolutionary War. The accompanying picture shows the scale of the frigate in comparison with the Godspeed nearbythat looks like a dinghy in comparison. While there was a two and a half hour wait before boarding, it was certainly worth the time and effort to do so. I was in the company of member Owen Davidson who drove all the way from Christiansburg for the tour and happily ran into David Porter, one of our accomplished Laser Masters, who is in the …
The J/70 Fleet starts their Friday Night series starting this weekend through most Fridays through August. Usually 4-8 will will head out around 5pm for a couple short informal races until the sun starts to set.
It was a winning weekend for the 13 FBYC boats at Southern Bay Race Week in Hampton last weekend. Two boats Afterthought and Mad Hatter won the PHRF-A and PHRF-B divisions while Cheeky Monkey took 3rd in the PHRF-C division. Mad Hatter was also took home the Black Seal Cup (the third time the Fleck's contingent has won the regatta overall on two different boats).
The three days of racing were plagued by light winds in the morning that filled later in the afternoon enabling 6-9 races for the various fleets including a single distance race on Saturday. The last race on Sunday included a phenomial pileup at a leeward mark rounding.
Members of the Spring Opti Race Team with Coach Cori
Last Saturday and Sunday, while the club’s keel boats were away racing in Hampton in the Southern Bay Race Week, the Opti and Laser Spring Race Teams held their final week end of practice for this season. The teams have had a great spring! A total of 19 of our juniors practiced or raced from March through May under the tutelage of Coaches Bobby Lippencott and Cori Radthke. ODT Coach Claire Lennarz also helped out for the final practices.
Members of the Spring Laser Race Team with Coach Cori and Coach Claire
Besides being great fun, the fall and spring program has helped to lift our kids to new successes …
Nice conditions for the One Design Spring Series #3 to cap the Memorial Day Weekend. Most of the competition was in the 7-boat Flying Scot fleet sailing in 10-15 knot breezes.
The Offshore Spring Series wrapped up on Sunday with the 4th and final day of racing in mostly clear skies and a building breeze. The first race was sailed just east of Stove Point while a second race was sailed just out into the Bay when the breeze kicked up into the low teens.
It was a beautiful weekend and the club was abuzz Friday-Monday with members and guests enjoying the great weather on the water. Friday evening started with the Young Adult Member group having a cookout with several dozen in attendance.
Saturday the conditions were perfect for a 8.5nm course in the Piankatank River. The persuit race pitted boats of all types ranging from 13-47' against each other. Top 5 finishers were:
Radio Flyer (Hampton One Design) - Latane Montague
Schiehallion (Benetau First 305) - Brad Miller
Red Sky (Hanse 370) - Doug Anderson
E.L.E. (J/70) - Ainsley Braun
Grey Ghost (J/24) - Hunter Davidson
Complete Results - big thanks to Jim Raper and team for organizing the racing.
FBYC had the largest contingent of boats racing in the 66th Down the Bay Race starting Friday in Annapolis and ending a day later in Hampton. Spread across the 4 fleets were 6 FBYC boats who enjoyed a relatively uneventful mostly jib reach down the bay.
FBYC Finishers (overall):
7. Mad Hatter - Bob Fleck 8. Nanuq - Glenn Doncaster 9. Afterthought - Craig Wright 11. Nereid - Eric Powers 13. Blew By You - Austin Powers 23. Incorrigible - Greg Watt
Fabulous racing on three courses, dining, dancing, fellowship, and making miracles happen.
