Are you ready for the summer? Would you and your kids love a truly memorable experience that includes sailing, travel and FUN with friends? Join one of FBYC’s Junior Race Teams! Fishing Bay Yacht Club is renowned for the success of its sailing teams from Maine to Louisiana and across the Chesapeake Bay. Our goal is to get kids on the race course, and the best way to do that is on a team with expert coaches and great friends. From 7 year olds who have never raced to High School Seniors ready to sail collegiately-we have a team for everyone. Last year 46 juniors sailed on our five teams. This summer …
This fall and winter the event scheduling committee consisting of our fleet and division leaders led by incoming vice commodore Ted Bennett have been hard at work creating the 2015 events schedule. They took a close look at our events over the past year and have hopefully created an event that does more of what we liked and less of what we didn't. They've also done their best to coordinate with other local and regional sailing and non-sailing events to reduce conflicts where possible.
A couple noteworthy changes for this year:
FBYC will host the Laser Atlantic Coast Championship in mid May
Junior week a week later on the calendar, but that's still in line …
As we begin 2015 I wanted to introduce our adult One Design fleet captains for the year:
Flying Scot Len Guenther
Len has been fleet captain before and is a regular racer in the Flying Scot and Laser fleets. He also crews on J/70s when he has the chance. You'll often find Len sailing with his wife Barb. In addition to racing at FBYC, Len has taken his Flying Scot to numerous ACC and North American Championships.
Laser Frank Murphy
Frank is a long-time member of the Laser fleet and regularly participates in our Laser series as well as the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship. Known to Laser Masters as one of Alain's chef …
Winter may be here now, but that doesn't mean we can't relive the sailing season and think about all of the wonderful sailing we'll be doing in just a few short months. Here's some video from the Laser Masters Atlantic Coast Championship in October.
Exciting news: 60 juniors joined FBYC with their families in 2014! Most of these juniors have never attended any of our camps or learn to sail programs, and many of their parents have questions about our various programs, race teams, classes and organization; and most important, how to choose the most appropriate events for their sailor.
We very loosely divide the programs into two overlapping sections: educational and racing. We are especially proud of our educational programs, which will be covered in this newsletter. Opti Kids and Junior Week form the foundation of the Junior Division. All but 7 of the 46 racers on the 2014 Race Teams started sailing as campers during either Opti Kids or Junior Week. Both programs …
While most of us ate turkey over the Thanksgiving Holiday, 4 of the 14 juniors on our Fall Opti Race Team raced in the USODA Opti Midwinter Championship Regatta in New Orleans. Before you feel too badly for them, you should know that they had Thanksgiving dinner with their families at the Southern Yacht Club, which boasts one of the premier restaurants in New Orleans; and enjoyed breakfast at the famous Cafe Du Monde in the French Quarter!
The Southern Yacht Club, on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, is one of the oldest clubs in the United States and is the long time host of the Midwinter Championship. The Midwinter is especially important in the world of …
The Mariners Museum in Newport News is once again sponsoring a Safety at Sea Seminar on Saturday, Feb 21, 2015. Come for a day-long Safety at Sea Seminar designed and conducted by sailors and experts in their fields! The seminar provides both novice and experienced mariners alike with the information and skills required to safety sail the Chesapeake Bay. Seminar topics include: Emergency Communications; Damage Control; Crew Overboard & Emergencies; The A I S System; Medical Care & Prevention; Bay Weather; Life Raft Demo & Inflation. You’ll also earn a Near Coastal Safety at Sea Certification from US Sailing! SPACE IS LIMITED! Please register early to ensure availability. This seminar is open to all cruising and …
PHRF of the Chesapeake recently held a meeting to discuss changes for 2015. The PHRF Rating rules for 2015 will incorporate very significant changes that will affect all PHRF racers. The most dramatic is going to dual ratings with one for Windward-Leeward courses and a second called Random-Circular which will apply to courses with a balance of windward, reaching and downwind sailing. As we know certain boats are severely handicapped for certain wind directions and the dual ratings should help address the situation. Additionally we will expand the Genoa credit to now have three categories – up to 155%, up to 140% and class One Design which will provide a credit for cruisers that use 130% Genoas.
During the 2014 FBYC Annual meeting, a quorum of our membership elected a new slate of Officers and Board Members to serve in 2015. Please join me, your Nominating Committee Chairman, in welcoming these dedicated volunteers who have committed to serving our Club in the up coming year; and mark their names, because in their vigilance they need and welcome your input, your ideas for how we can improve, and your gratitude. They are as follows:
Last week after the upgrade, we identified and fixed a few issues. Yesterday we noticed a new Date issue. The Fall Project Day is on Saturday Dec 6, and it was showing up as Dec 5 in some cases. The issue is now fixed.
We are excited about the 2015 Junior Sailing season at Fishing Bay Yacht Club! We are looking forward to another great year of Fun. No matter your sailor's age, experience and sailing goals, we have an event to excite them and get them out on the water with their friends. Our philosophy is that if kids have fun sailing with their friends, they will come back for more! And remember-parents and grandparents are always welcome to join in the fun!
Here are some important ANNOUNCEMENTS and DATES:
FBYC Hosting the 2015 Chesapeake Bay Junior Olympics!
U.S. Sailing and the CBYRA Junior Division have awarded FBYC the 2015 USA …
It’s that time again. Join us for our annual “Fall Project Day.” We will gather in main Clubhouse for coffee and morning refreshments from 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. Lunch from Dano’s pizza will be served around noon at the Main Clubhouse for everyone.
On the agenda will be fall leaf pick-up and grounds winterization. Simply show up on Saturday and sign in or contact me at odellken@aol.com or 804.241.6080 for additional details or special assignments and/or register online.
Eugene has upgraded Zope, the engine behind the website to the latest version and a few errors are popping up. No event pages are visible and you may find you can not search the database for families at http://www.fbyc.net/Access/Members/Database though Search for Member works fine. Good thing we waited until the sailing season was over! Please let me know if you see other errors so we can address them.
FBYC Juniors continue to show up everywhere! Pictured above (and waiting for the wind) is Laser Race Team member Luke Hayes, who in September clinched Second Place in the Portsmouth Division in the year long series-also sailed against adults-at Lake Townsend Yacht Club, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Luke and fellow Laser Race Team member Nina Willms also mixed it up with the adults at the September and November Laser Regattas at home at FBYC. Team members Ralph Levy, Nathaniel Llewelyn and Graeme Alderman also completed their Fall series in 420s in High School racing in October.
For a great story about two of our juniors racing in the Offshore Division, check out the article about Ned …
FBYC Opti Race Team member Gannon Troutman skippered-and steered his parent's J-70 Pied Piper at the Chesapeake Bay J-70 Championships on November 1 at the Club to a 9th place finish against adults! FBYC Junior sailor and Laser Race Team member Daniel Resio was among the crew. The conditions were brutal, with gusts to 30 knots and very cold. At one point they suffered a severe knock-down, and Gannon’s Dad, also crewing, went in the water! In the photo above Gannon is receiving the trophy for the Youngest Skipper from Event Chair-and former Junior Division Commander-Noel Clinard.
As reported last month, Eric Roos and Alexander Hanna won the Cressy Singlehanded Qualifier sailed in Lasers and Laser Radials on September 13-14 in Oyster Bay, New York. Eric won the Full Rig, and Alexander the Radial, qualifying them for the Cressy Singlehanded Finals at Bellingham Yacht Club, in Washington State, on October 31-November 2. Both families flew out, and both our sailors raced great against the toughest competition in the country! The first day featured heavy, heavy rains and flat calms. The RC kept both fleets on the water for 8 hours in the downpour, and ran only two short races. Late in afternoon the rains cleared and for a few moments the sun …
Fishing Bay Yacht Club held its Annual Meeting and Awards Party on Saturday at the Commonwealth Club in Richmond, VA. The following is a list of all of the 2014 recipients of the club's perpetual trophies.
HENRY E. HUTCHESON, JR. MEMORIAL TROPHY – awarded to the Optimist skipper with the highest standing in Sanctioned Regattas and intra-club races. Benton Amthor
L. WOOD BEDELL TROPHY – awarded to the FBYC sailor under the age of 14 who is the highest finisher in FBYC races during the Regular Racing Season. Benton Amthor
YOUNG SALT TROPHY – awarded to the Junior FBYC Optimist sailor having the highest overall standing in club Junior regattas.Benton Amthor
On November 9th the Godspeed moored overnight in Fishing Bay. The ship is a replica of the original Godspeed, which brought settlers to Jamestown in 1607. She is normally berthed at Jamestown Settlement. Maybe we can get her back for Junior Week!
