FBYC/NYYC Campaign Practicing in Earnest
on Monday June 7, 2010 08:49AM
For the last two weekends, the club members participating in the campaign for the 2010 New York Yacht Club Qualifying Series Campaign have been ramping up their practice schedule. For several hours, four out of the last five weekend days, a dozen sailors have practiced in the campaign Sonar and two Colgate 26s generously provided by Jim Snowa and Den Roberts. The sailors have rotated through the three boats and various positions to hone their skills in each position and give those with the weighty responsibility for ultimate crew selection an opportunity to assess their talents and team work. Although temperatures have been hot, the winds have been unusually good in speed and direction. Yesterday, while landlubbers suffered excruciating temperatures ashore, the campaigners enjoyed 12 to 18 knot winds steadily from the south as they practiced offshore of Stove Point under blue skys. The practices included dozens of starts and close mark roundings. All participants are getting the benefit of sailing among the best of FBYC in intense college practice type environment. Everyone is impressed with the maneuverability, acceleration, comfort, and straight-line boat speed of the Sonar, and long term interest is growing in building a fleet at FBYC. Soon, the campaign will be adding the tonic of professional coaching to the mix, and retrieving a chartered Sonar from Shumway Marine, the exclusive distributor in Rochester, New York This will help give the Sonar crews the fun of racing in more evenly matched boats.
View Photos of this weekend's practice here.