Check out this recap of this month's Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship including some behind the scenes on how it came together.

Watch the video here.

ILCA Masters took over Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the 43^rd Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship last weekend. Of the 39 boats – Dave Chapin from Lake Eustis Sailing Club was the top Great Grand Master and took the overall title while Dorian Haldeman from Severn Sailing Association was the 2^nd Master and top female for her 6^th time. The fleet launched on Saturday to light winds out of the North and a long downwind sail to Godfrey Bay on the Piankatank River. The first race was started shortly after 11 in light wind and was shortened for the second leg when the wind shifted to the east. Top finishers in race 1 were Gavin O’Hare (SSA …

Registration is open for the 43 Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship.

Get all of the details and register online here.

View on YouTube

Some footage of the 2000 US Laser Masters has been re-digitized and is available for viewing on YouTube. This was one of the last major events in the old club house before it was torn down to make way for the new one.  Check out the footage to see some of what things looked like and some of the people who helped put on this 92-boat event or sailed in it.  The video is not short, so use the text in the description to jump around and find the parts you want to see.

Also if you have any video footage of the club or club events that is 20+ years old, let me know and I …

Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship Video

Light rain and approaching thunderstorms limited the 32-boat fleet at the 42nd Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club to just two races on Saturday and no racing on Sunday. James Jacob from Severn Sailing Association won the overall title for his 7th time while Dorian Haldeman from Severn Sailing Association won the women’s title for her 5th time.

The weekend started with hot conditions on Friday as sailors were arriving and many elected to hit the pool to cool off, not something this group is used to needing or doing when the event is in October. Those who elected to go out for practice were treated to an awesome afternoon sea breeze from the SSE …

Registration is now open for the 42nd Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship to be held at Fishing Bay Yacht Club on September 9-10.  Get all of the details and sign up online here.

This year the masters event is at a new September date (to make way for US Masters in October on our regular date). In fact - we might even still have the pool open!

And not only is FBYC home to one of the best sailing sites on the Chesapeake Bay - it's also known for one of the best regatta dinners. Chef Alain Vincey has a fabulous planned. Add in the breakfast, plenty of room to rig, easy beach launching, on-site camping or nearby hotels and you’ll …

Our 5 day season-long ILCA Series concluded in October with the Frostbite Regatta.  18 races were sailed over 4 days (1 canceled due to weather).  7 sailors sailed in 50% of the races to qualify for the series out of 16 total sailors who participated in at least 1 race. Holly Sears was the only sailor to compete in every race. The best high point scoring went to Reed McAllister. He was followed by Scot Adam and Jon Deutsch.

Fishing Bay Yacht Club hosted 27 sailors in November for the 41st Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship after postponing from the weekend in October when Hurricane Ian came through. Five races were sailed Saturday in 8-15 knots and another 4 races sailed in 6-11 on Sunday. Both days saw temperatures reach into the 70’s with southerly winds felt much more like mid-September than early November.

James Jacob, Severn Sailing Association, was the overall winner, picking up the title for the 7^th time in the 41 year history of the event. Natalie Burls, Severn Sailing Association, was the top woman.  Scott Adam was 2^nd overall and was the most consistent on the weekend, winning 4 of the races …

Registration is now open for the rescheduled FBYC Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters on November 5-6. There is a NEW Regatta Network page, so if you were previously registered you will have to register again and you should already have an email with instructions on how to do that and a coupon code for the fees already paid.

If you didn’t register the first time - NOWS YOUR CHANCE to come join us in November for the best (and only) November ILCA regatta on the bay!

Details and registration at: https://www.fbyc.net/events/2022/221001-onedesign-41st-chesapeake-bay-ilca-masters-championship/

Hope you can join us!

Due to the anticipated effects of Hurricane Ian, we are postponing the 2022 Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship and will not be sailing it this weekend. Given the forecasted track of the storm - it doesn't look like are going to have conditions that would support having the event this weekend.

I want to thank everyone who was ready to come this weekend and all of the volunteers who had set aside their weekend to help put on a great event.  We are going to try and plan a make up date later this year and there is more information for competitors on the event page.

Registration is now open for the 41st Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters on October 1-2 - get all of the details and sign up online here.

We’re planning another great year of racing food and camaraderie and would love to have you join us! Entry includes racing, a world class dinner Saturday night (including alcohol), breakfast Saturday and Sunday, awards, drinks and snacks on the water and a regatta keepsake.

New for this year:
Now the Chesapeake Bay ILCA Masters Championship

AND
The ILCA class has dropped the age limit for who qualifies as a master - so if you were 1-5 years away from being a master - you can join our Apprentice group THIS YEAR if you’ve reached your 30th …

Our 2022 Schedule is posted and here are some ILCA Sailing highlights to put on your calendar for this year. 

Club Series - these are 5 single day events spread throughout the year that count towards the season series using the high point system. Anyone who sails in 50% of the races held qualifies for the series.  Some of these race days are sailed during one design events with the other one design boats, and other days will be stand alone days.  We'll run a Radial fleet and radial series on the days we have enough boats.  There's no entry and first warning times vary depending on the day.

• Saturday, April 30 - Spring Regatta
• Saturday, July 9 - Summer Regatta #1 (Sea …

Our fleet has a new name! At the last Board Meeting - the club agreed to begin formally recognizing the Laser Fleet as the ILCA Fleet. The old name will still be used informally and will still appear in some places. Starting this year, all of our events on the event page will be listed as ILCA events. Otherwise it’s the same boat and the same racing we’ve been doing.

Why the new name? Well, the class we sail has changed it's name and this keeps us in line with that change and should prevent any confusion over the equipment and rules we are using to race with. Some more details on that can be found here.

The results for the 2021 FBYC ILCA series have been posted. The season-long series consists of 5 days of racing with Spring, Summer 1 & 2, Fall and Frostbite Regattas. With one day (Frostbite) canceled due to weather the standard fleet sailed 19 races with 21 boats taking part in a race. 5 boats qualified for the series by sailing at least 50% of the races.

Final standings:

1. James Jacob
2. Jon Deutsch
3. Michael Colbert
4. Britt Drake
5. Holly Sears

The complete scores can be found here.

We only had a separate fleet of Radials in one event so no series award for Radials this year.

The Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters prove that things do get better with age – both the sailors and the regatta itself which celebrated its 40^th annual this weekend. Special guests Happy Hubard and Jim Rodgers were both toasted at dinner along with current competitor and Chef Alain Vincey who all sailed in the very first FBYC Masters regatta in 1981. Alain shared the story of how the regatta was founded – in typical fashion sailors sharing a beer after racing labor day weekend decided to bring their boats and race with only the masters the following weekend and such the event was born. 40 years later the tradition continues and hundreds of sailors have taken part over the years.

Happy Hubard …

47 Lasers will take to the waters of Fishing Bay this weekend in what will be the 40^th annual Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters.  We’re also very excited to honor a few sailors who participated in the inaugural regatta as specials guests at dinner thanks to Alain Vincey, Laser sailor and chef extraordinaire who started the event back in 1981 and has brought this group back together.

It takes a lot to run these regattas and a huge thank you to everyone who has helped over the past 4 decades. This event is special not just for the Laser fleet members at FBYC, but also the guests who come from up and down the east coast, year after year …

Sunday started breezy and sunny for the 8-boat fleet at FBYC’s ILCA Fall Regatta being sailed alongside a 4-boat  Flying Scot Fleet. The ½ mile course was set on the south end of Area A just north of the channel with the wind out of the North. David Waiting (SSA) won the first 3 of 5 races to win the day overall. James Jacob (SSA) was two points behind with Jon Deutsch (FBYC) in 3^rd another two points behind him.

In the early races the wind was up in the mid-teens, 2 boats retired early and the rest of the boats did well to sail left and pick up the shifts and pressure coming from up the Piankatank …

The Notice of Race has been posted for the 40th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship this October 2-3, and registration is now open.

It's hard to believe it's been 40 years since this event started and is now one of the longest continuously running events at the club.

This year we're extending the scoring to include a Legends division. Instead of having Great Grand Masters covering 65+, GGM will be 65-74 and Legends will cover 75+. This is in line with other masters regattas and will better recognize that age group.

Alain is planning another great dinner and we've got a highly experienced RC group led by Rick Klain back for another year. We'll have a commemorative t-shirt and have …

The ILCA Summer Regatta I on Saturday saw beautiful weather – mostly sunny with winds starting around 12 and building to about 15-16 knots out of the south west. We had 14 boats with 9 ILCA 7 (Standard) and 4 ILCA 6 (Radial) all starting on the same line making things more fun with more boats to race with around the course. Some of the Radial sailors were really fast and were nearby and beating many of the standards around the course. It kept things interesting at mark roundings.

FBYC’s junior coach for the summer, Francisco Renna, put on a clinic in the ILCA 7 (standard) fleet. He was fast all the way around the course and nobody came close …