Spithill
vs. Coutts, in a contest eventually won by James Spithill, who went on to win
the Gold Cup.ALL THE ISH FROM 2005 is HERE (i think)
nbayracing.com 2005 PAGE
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REPORT FROM BERMUDA....PHOTOS FROM SELWIN GRAY . october 23 2005
Spithill
vs. Coutts, in a contest eventually won by James Spithill, who went on to win
the Gold Cup.
Talk about some match racing talent. Check out the Royal Bermuda Yacht Clubs coverage of this event and click on the "Seeded Skippers" list...and then take a look at the "Unseeded Skippers" list...you can probably say, "what the hell, I'm going to get hosed with either roster!"
In any event the regatta is sailed in IOD's, classic keelboats designed by Bjarne Aas, 33'5" LOA. Interesting stuff about the boats on the RBYC website.
Big green envies to Selwin for getting to be there to take these shots, and big thanks for taking some great shots and sending them on to nbayracing. Again, check out the Royal Bermuda YC for some neat stuff...glad to see someone actually has a decent YC website.
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Scurrilous Rumors Dept. 10.23.05
Those on-course umpires in the runabout pictured above might've been a good idea at this past weekend's Leukemia Harbor Cup, the race to Baltimore from Baltimore Light off the mouth of the Magothy. Word has it that protests and huge fusterclucks with the scoring are a factor in this year's post-race agony. Shame about these charity events getting all slimey with this kind of thing, isn't it?
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NBAYRACING.COM gets a lot of hits from a bunch of POKER and gambling sites. I have no idea why, except maybe i'ts because the official boat of nbayracing.com is "Dire Wolf" (Deadheads will get the connection). Anyway, as a way of keeping those folks happy, here's a shot the West Towson Queens, a home and private poker playing crowd, put together using their pups as talent.
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PUFF ON!
well, for a few minutes anyway. Boats got stood up a lot, too.....
This was during the Breton Trophy, a college club regatta that UMBC hosted (with help from Loyola & UMCP...all three schools supllied the boats) a few weeks ago. From all reports, they did a bang-up job of hosting the event. College sailing is about having a good time while learning...probably makes a few of us wish we'd done a LOT more sailing in college!
This is not a bad venue...it's the turning basin in the corner of the Canton/Baltimore Marine Center/Bay Cafe complex and there's a great little park there with tons of room to stretch out and watch the show.
Here's the data for the weekend: Cool that the some of the out-of-towners, that came from farthest away, finished well!
The Breton Trophy - 2005
Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County
September 24 - 25, 2005
Saturday: Winds 12-18 kts from the NE becoming
E and no waves. Three and a half sets sailed
Sunday: Winds 10-15 kts from the East. One and
a half sets sailed.
Courses sailed were Gold Cups, non-modified Triangles
and Windward/Leewards.
FINAL RESULTS
A division = 10 Races
B division = 10 Races
A B TOT
1. Univ. of Michigan 23 27 50
2. Univ. of Florida 59 32 91
3. Fordham University 55 40 95
4. U. MD, College Park 29 72 101
5. Loyola College 51 51 102
6. Drexel University 54 70 124
7. U. of Pennsylvania 69 65 134
8. McGill University 68 71 139
9. Univ. of Virginia 54 106 160
10. Villanova University 98 78 176
11. U. MD, Baltimore Co. 112 66 178
12. Ohio University 110 104 214
13. George Washington 117 138 255
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10/11/05
I've never really had the pleasure of actually meeting John Rousmaniere, but I did ask him a really stupid question, once, in a very public forum.
Nonetheless, he was nice enough to send me this great pik of a terrific boat, the Herreshoff designed, 23' canoe-yawl, "Rozinante," shot here off Tenants Harbor Light, Penobscot Bay, Maine.
Classic boat from a classy guy. Thanks to Mr. Rousmaniere. BTW, his "Fasnet, Force Ten," is still one of my all-time top three sailing books.
(photo: John Rousmaniere 8/03)
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BRETON TROPHY collegiate regatta is this weekend...
Sept 24 & Sept 25. Teams from as far away as Canada, Florida and Michigan will be competing for UMBC's first perpertual trophy, named for Dr. Michael Breton who founded the UMBC sailing club.
The location is Canton's Waterfront Park (just east of the Bay Cafe and Tin Deco). Come on down to watch college sailors do their fast-thing and support local teams from Loyola, UMBC, College Park...and if you've made it all the way from Montreal or Gainesville, then good on ya!
links to UMBC's team are a little bit further down this page.
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MORE from NYC.
You know, I could stand living in NYC, if I had the bux and a J24 or something waiting to play down at North Cove. Like this couple (below, left) out on a Sunday afternoon in just about perfect condits. And there's always some neat stuff going on in the harbor and obviously, terrific scenary, if you dont mind an urban aesthetic.
Cool
Cornish Shrimper or something Lyle Hessy...I dont know. But it looked neat getting
under weigh just off Canal Street, on the Hud.
I asked these folks(below) what the hell they thought they were doing and they told me "practicing for the I-14 worlds."
I call B.S....
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(left)
Yellow Jacket finds a bit of breeze at ARW 2005
GOLF!...............is looking better every day.
Ever have a period where everything you touch turns to crap?
(An agonizing 7 races over an 8 day period)
I know that, what with the hurricane and the war and all that, it’s not a great time to complain about a couple of minor regattas that mean a lot less than nothing to most of the people on the planet, but this is a sailing site so I’m going to weigh in with some serious whining.
--------------- A Jonah...who? ME?---------------------------------------------------------
Annapolis Race Week, two weekends ago. A modicum of incompetence first day, but it was a new boat and I wasn’t totally up to speed with the hoist/douse teamwork. No big, 'cause we made tactical calls that were far worse than our sailhandling. Results: a 10th and a DNF.
Day two…again, teamwork issues and not getting into phase with the shifts and we didn’t finish too well, but showed a glimmer of hope with a 7th out of 21 boats in the second race of the day.
(left)
"Hey...I just hallucinated a bunch of boats BEHIND US that are in our fleet....what's
IN this stuff"
Day three, final day…real slow in race 1, going off shorthanded in a breeze, but in race 2 we finally get it all together and round the topmark right there with the big dogs, in fine shape to finish in the money when all-a-sudden, just before hoisting, the spinn auto-deploys into the bay and we come to a complete and ridiculous halt. With 18 boats bearing down on us. And we hit a mark. And we rip the chute pulling in the shrimp net.
FFFFFFOOOOOOOCCCCHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And it’s the foredeck’s fault.
And I’m the foredeck.
(left)
Getting home to Jabins, Monday afternoon, after ShrimpFest '05.
It's a beautiful world.
For you...but not for me.
ahhhhh...GOLF! A sweet, gentle game played on green pastures with birds and crickets chirping.
-------------------------and then there's...LAST WEEKEND:------------------------------------------------------------------
(left)
Wavelength 24 "Cheap Shacht" starts to air it out at DC's Leukemia
Cup
Leukemia Cup, D.C….boat is tricked out with new bottom, new main, guest driver and switched out O/B to take some weight off the tranny. We are set, and it shows! We are not scratch boat by any stretch, yet we are first to the topmark, first to the bottom mark, and we stretch out a lead going back to the topmark again…we round and begin to really air it out and we are within a few dozen YARDS of taking line honors and almost certainly winning our fleet, when….
when….
when…
The breeze shuts off and we begin drifting backward,
away from the finish line. And for the next half hour we sit there gasping,
almost making the finish two more times, only to have the breeze toy with us
and shut off whenever we get within 2 BL . Meanwhile, a few boats tack off to
the left and get out of the foul current, sail a quarter mile above the finishing
mark, outside the pin, tack over and drift back downstream to round
up and finish inside the pin.
AGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Like I said: GOLF! is something that just keeps
looking more and more attractive.
(left)
"Cheap Shacht" begins to seperate from the fleet at the topmark...dont
get too excited, they're about to get hosed.
(left)
"Cheap" lapping the non-spinn fleet...loving life. Until 5 minutes
later when life began to suck, big time.
I once shot par on an 18 hole par three course. Wonder if I could ever learn to hit those woods....
9/11/05
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NOT ONE PLACE LIKE HOME.
I
recently spent a week in NYC and while there, hung out a lot on the East River,
up a few blocks from the U.N.
Man, that's a nasty piece of water what with the 3-4 kn current and a bunch of big boats squeezed in between the FDR and Roosevelt Island.
If I ever get the notion to ply these waters, talk me out of it, okay?
Here's
a perfect example:
This marker is about 90 feet off the FDR bulkhead on the west side of the East River. IT'S RED.
The NAVREGS that I grew up with would tell me to try to leave this puppy to starboard as you navigate upstream in the East River towards Hell's Gate...but if you did, you'd have a helluva time fitting between the marker and this nasty black thing in the extreme foreground of the picture at left.
So, I guess, the rule in the East River isn't Red Right Return...I have no idea why.
(left) Hmmmmm...I think I can stick a J24 in there...shame about the crude oil barge coming downstream doing 12 kn.
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UMBC's Breton Trophy Regatta is September 24-25!
Here's
Sailing World's look at college clubs that are in the ascendancy. (click on
the link to get the whole blurb as a .pdf file)
Nice that they included UMBC, whose program certainly deserves mention.
In September, we locals can get a look at the UMBC club and a bunch of other teams from around the country at the Breton Trophy, here in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
In fact, feel free to offer your services for the regatta, by either making a tax-deductable contribution to the team (tough to do, I know, in light of the Gulf Coast/Katrina situation) or lending a hand with particulars during the regatta weekend.
click here to get entire Sailing World blurb
The regatta will be held in Canton, right on Boston Street at the park in between Lazaretto Point and Baltimore Marine Center (there's a turning basin there). Hope to see some exciting races and also see UMBC end the weekend with some boats finishing in the money. Click here to visit the UMBC sailing site.
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Friend
and former crewmember on Dire Wolf, Kevin Duffy, invited me to go out the other
night on his trimaran. Great time, but we could've used a bit more wind.
These things are cool, no doubt about it. We rigged the thing in Phil Young's boatyard and used his ramp. Took about an hour and that's because Kevin hasn't had the boat in the water much since first acquiring it back in late fall 2004. But it's definitely worth the time it takes to set this puppy up.
Nothing new about the boat, it's been reviewed about a billion times and mostly with superlatives. Just a few snaps and comments about the evening. We finished DFL racing with NPSA's and RCRA's combined spinn fleet, but we had fun and picked off a few boats downwind after a somewhat agonizing uphill leg.
As
a multi coincidence, on the way out, we spotted the cat that everyone down there
has been abuzz about...it's a homebuilt and it was sailed from South Africa.
I haven't met the guy, but by all accounts he's racked up the sea miles and
is fixing up a Dufour nearby to continue his Odyssey. Twin stubbies, pretty
cool.
Prior to departure we had to launch and unfold the damn F-boat, though. Turns out it's a snap, but it sure looks ungainly sitting in a boat ramp. I can almost hear Lou Reyman, pictured, thinking, "WTF???" Actually, that was probably only me thinking that.
O/b
off, main goes up, and yeee-haaa!!!....except in 6 kn air, it was a more like
big yips. We finally got a bit more breeze out in the bay and with the spinn
up hit 8-9 knots. Nothing wrong with that. Meantime, John Gehrig's J46 was killing
us...(they owed us approx 30 sec. a mile)
(left)
Kevin doing his best Thomas Colville imitation...and Dr. Leno, bowman extraordinaire,
doing his best to look like Erwan Le Roux (below).
So,
we weren't lightning but it was the first time Kevin had raced the thing. His
main looks decent enough. What sucks is it's going to blow 15-30 tonight and
I'm here in the office!
An evening on this little beast in 15-20 would be slick!......Kevin, whatcha doing hombre? 8-31-05
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ASIDE
from all the other stuff there is to hate about PHRF (uh...let's
see...bogus ratings, whacky class breaks, unlike boat racing, etc.)
there's always the huge wait for results. In fact, it's probably the thing we
here at nbayracing.com hate most about racing that isn't One Design.
Well, huge props to the folks down at this year's Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge, who figured out a way to get results up in a hurry.
Anyone paying attention from a desk, miles away, had to have been delighted with the almost instantaneous posting of results. A source, down there, who's familiar with the drill, emailed me with some particulars:
employing some dedicated software, the RC boat used a cell phone (physically attached to their on board laptop) as a dial-up device to their ISP. Then, the results files were just ftp'ed to the on-shore webmaster. The webmaster could then immediately post these provisionals. So, even if protests were pending, unofficial results could go up right away and people around the bay (heck, people around the globe!) could see how the boats and crews they were rooting for were doing. That, to me, is very cool and should be the model for all clubs. This is not expensive tech. This is just some well conceived protocol and the thing that drives it is: respect for the sport and it's participants and fans.
Good on ya, L.G.!!!
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One
of our favorite sea stories, here at nbayracing.com, is Joseph Conrad's classic,
"Youth." Here's a story you should read on SailingAnarchy's site...you
just have to shake yor head and say, "ahhhh, youth!"
link to SA story: "Mac Daddy" (you'll have to scroll down a little to find the story)
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EASTPORT'S RACE TO ZAHNISERS...was July 15th.
Big Props to NPSA's Ted Diehl who skippered "Windmere" to a second place finish in PHRF C/D on a light night. Another NPSA boat ends up in the money in a fairly big bay race. Maybe it's time for NPSA to get legit and join CBYRA? Naahhh...why spoil a good thing!
Along those lines, everyone I've talked to, down at the mouth of the river, is psyched about the turnout on Wednesday nights now that NPSA & RCRA have teamed up for two summer series. (Okay, that's like two people, but still.) Makes you wonder why the two clubs don't develop an overall org to administer a full season of racing and maybe lure down some of the BCYA diaspora.
They certainly have a great Race Committee and very decent race management, under PRO, Dudley Boycott and the perennially on-station "Myth/"
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SAIL FOR SIGHT was July 10th...another light air, nerve-racking sweat fest. But a blast anyway. The best thing about these kinds of races is joking about it, during and afterward. When a 60 boat fleet collapses on itself 3 or 4 times in one 15 mile race, you know you've found light air hell.
(below) Here's the compressed fleet at a clusterfark at one of the marks, "23" in the Craighill Angle.
Check out the combination of boats. Lessee here, a fairly big tri, a J/27, a Farr 37, an SRmax and a Baltic 35...there's an Olson 30 off to the right. You gotta love PHRF racing accordian-style.
Here are the first and second place boats in A1...Muskrat and Flying Jenny V...props to these boats. We were neck and neck with these guys until...well, until we no longer were.
Explain to me, again, how this is fast? (below). This is NPSA's Steve Culfogienis's Tartan 3000 "Cookie" wrestling with a grouchy chute. So, Steve and company are flying this big masthead pennant for quite a few minutes and yet they still win their class by a mere 8 minutes and change! But then, "Cookie" has a history of pulling off some pretty amazing victories. And I would put Steve up there with anyone on the bay when it comes to light air performance.
The finish, way up in the Inner Harbor, was excellent. An 8 to 14 knot westerly, that finally arrived around 3 pm, was a huge help, in that regard.
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It's
about that time of year when large, convective cloud masses start spitting
that stuff and cooking off our masthead instroos. Are you sure you're grounded
properly? Does it make one damn bit of difference? The arguement goes on and
on....
I've
always felt comfy with the theory that the rigging provides a type of protective
envelope where the big charge just doesn't want to go...
but, then again...
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6/10/05 NAPTOWN - NEWPORT...starts in a few hours. You can use the race tracker provided by T. Rowe Price to see each boat's position in real time for the duration of the race. Pretty cool, but so much for sneaking by another yacht in the middle of the night.
Nbayracing will be watching and cheering for "Sirena," Ron & Karen Wilson's Wasa Atlantic 51, mainly because a bunch of people from UMBC sailing are on the boat and also the bow guy from a Wavelength 24 owner I know. Breeze looks a little soft as of this moment in time.
Wasa 51, "Sirena" in Annapolis
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PAIR of CLUBS, npsa and rcra combine forces for their Summer Series races. It's good to see the reemergence of large spinnaker fleets on the river!
Last night it looked like at least 15 in spinnaker class (the RC does not split fleets based on ratings) and a bunch of boats racing sans spinn. Also, good to see the perrenial favorite of all RC boats, "Myth," skippered by Mr. Dudley Boycott, on station, doing their usual spot-on job of running a race. There is no doubt that NPSA puts on a quality Wednesday night program that concentrates on having fun.
Bob
Yin's C&C110 "Dolce," third over the line last nite on the Patapsco.
Kevin
Duffy keeps Scot Reynold's "Scot-Free" in a groove as they close on
the finish line. "Scot-Free" took line honors by more than 4 minutes.
You gotta love "SZ's" awning/flag combo, pre-race.
6-9-05
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6-7-05
Hey, be a friend...
Considering how young UMBC's club sailing scene is, it has made some pretty major strides. To assist in the growth of this club program, the "Friends of UMBC Sailing" came together this week to consolidate a vision statement and set some goals for ramping up the program. Obviously, a key component to this is cash flow and fund raising. If you would like to get involved, especially if you sail and have some connection, past or present, to UMBC, contact someone on the umbc sailing club contact list or just shoot me an email at: webwolf@nbayracing.com
Consider making a contribution, no matter how large or small. Getting involved with a college sailing program and seeing it grow and succeed is a great way to give something back to the sport and a great way to give back to the school if you are an alum.
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Despite the awful weather, water temps have eeked up into the low 60's. Have you gone diving on your bottom yet?
This is definitely not fast.
Not at all.
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6-7-05
CHEAP HOT BOATS ARE AVAILABLE: 2 Evelyns for sale...oops make that 3!
"DIRE WOLF" AND "UTAH HIGHWAY PATROL" are up for offer...and now "JAMMIN" is, too. Are you listening, Cleveland and WLIS sailors? Either venue would benefit by having a few more E 32-2's on the line. <$20K for a boat that PHRFs under 100...you can spend 10 times that for a new Bennie or C&C stone. (Dire Wolf info link...click here) or (Utah Highway Patrol info...SOLD) or (Jammin...SOLD)
These boats are getting some decent ink with John Fries's "Remedy" taking first in class at this year's Key West Race Week and Block Island Race Week. A fast light air ride for peanuts, if you've priced anything new lately.
Also, newly offered is this Seidelmann 24 (details...click here)
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ALL A'TITTER...
J24 sailors (and performance sailors in general) have been all a'titter about the sinking of "Magic Hat" during the J24 Nationals in Puget Sound a few weeks ago. (Full story at http://www.j24class.org/usa/frames.htm)
"Make the boats unsinkable!" cried the surly masses."Have the class org. mandate this, have the class org. mandate that!" screamed the lumpen Proletariat. "Someone will get hurt, or worse!" yelled the Terminal Whiners. "Fill the boats with beachballs!" hollered the Hand-wringing Nannies...
Well, nbayracing.com thinks that skippers and their crews should take personal responsibilty for when, where and how to sail. Stuff like this happens...
(photo: Scott Wirs, Rhumbline Photography, www.rhumblinephoto.com)
...it's bad, but let's not make it worse by overregulating the sport. (my 2 cents. you getcha own dam website)
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Strap one on.
Here're some shots of a recent AYC wednesday evening finish...talk about O2 starved.
(BOTH PHOTOS: Bruce Glazer)
Jeff Hodor's Jeanneau "Warrior" seems to be truckin'along nicely though (compass rose chute). Jeff sent me these shots...his boat was also featured and reviewed in this month's issue of Sailing World.
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WX WHINE
Speaking of whining, here I go.
We have another couple days in a row racing starting tomorrow up at HdG. Weather forecast? Mid 60's and showers. It's been that same forecast for three months. Okay, the high has gone up 7 degrees. Big deal.
We don't live in New England. That's a conscious choice we made at some point. The weather there is crappy. Ask my friend Dave if you don't believe me. It's been like 48 degrees there, all spring. That's the high. But, even on relatively nice days inshore, during the summer, it can get ugly on the coast. Here are some shots from R.I. last year (Pt. Judith). This was in August. Felt like October. Penetrating fog. Ugh.
So, crap....if we wanted this we may as well have moved to New England. At least they have some decent schools.
--------------------------------------------------- end of rant ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaking of Weather Rants, here's a shot someone sent me. I think it's from Scuttlebutt. It's after one of the Carib hurricanes in 2004. Look closely and find the yellow multi that looks like it came through relatively unscathed. Sure it's probably pretty bogered up, but it looks smart sitting there among all that kindling. Strange how things work out sometimes...
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"Dude,
I can't find the RC boat...oh
wait, it's over there behind that starboat. I think..."
Pat Phelan's Lightning "T2" doing Thursday night duty at Havre de Grace a few weeks ago. Nice Lightning but it's no "Myth."
(stupid inside joke meant for NPSA's wednesday nighters)
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PROPS: to the folks at HdG Marina who saved all the stuff I left on the dock back in mid April! And then were nice enough to call me and had the decency NOT to rub it in about what an idiot I was to leave all that stuff there (camera, bibs, fleece jacket, sea boots). Great folks and my heartfelt THANKS!
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P O W E R B O A T S ....
WE HERE AT NBAYRACING.COM are not sailing snobs. We appreciate a decent enough powerboat.
Here's a beauty my friend Larry owns. Larry has a house on a lake in Virginia and a sizeable armada of suitable lake boats with and w/o engines. But this is his gem. All he needs now is a lifetime subscription to Boy's Life.
It's
an Old Town 16 foot runabout. Cool huh? Check out the power plant.
Yeah, that's a fly on the cowling. The motor didn't run great when I was down there, but big deal. You don't need to go far in a boat like this. Even the dock is fine.
But when you do fire up that growling "Flying Scott," the lapstrake hull does cut through the suds pretty nicely.
So,
it doesn't have spreaders but nonetheless, you gotta love this little outfit.
Even more so if you read outdoor magazines in early 60's.
---------------------------------------- end of gush --------------------------------------------------------------------
PINK MOON REGATTA...
(PHOTOS: Garrett and Bruce FROM THE PINK MOON RACE COMMITTEE)
...happened.
Dont you just love the first regatta of the year?
Screw-ups galore, broken gear, big air, bruised and bloodied bodies and outright misery can often be key components. It sure was for us. Okay, me.
DAY ONE: something like 9-6-5-1...ONE? Yep, after we skyed a halyard in race 3 we bulleted out for the last race of the day. Nice way to head for the tent.
DAY
TWO, all set to redeam ourselves and 15 seconds before the first start, the
jib halyrad says "adios" and there we go again, swapping out halyards
for two races and narrowly avoiding consectutive DFL's.
Aint the first regatta of the year fun?
The
Un-boatla.
A full set of headsail halyards for 3 out of 6 races.
Can that be fast?
Trail of blood from the mast to the knee...can you race with a HepLock in and a few units of A positive hung from the spreaders?
We'll continue to cover J24 racing at HdG this spring and summer!
Speaking of which...can we finally get some warm weather?
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I already mentioned (above) how I blew it by leaving a perfectly good Nikon Point&Shoot at the dock at HdG in mid-April, so I dont have any shots of the NOOD regatta this year. But it was a pretty decent regatta, by all accounts.
There were lots of props to the RC and the regatta organizers on the SailingAnarchy forum. Not much griping or whining about the race management. On the boat I was on for all three days, "ToyBox," we exceded our Owner's pre-race goals to improve on last year's NOOD by:
1) NOT HITTING ANYONE
2) NOT FINISHING DFL IN ANY RACES
3) NOT BREAKING TOO MUCH STUFF
All this despite:
1) a skyed halyard race three and
2) having a crew that had never all sailed together until Race Day One.
so, that's progress, eh? progress is good....
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GET MEASURED:
I thought I had some idea of how tight the tolerances are for J24 OD racing.
i THOUGHT.
Then I watched Tim Winger measure in hull number 4201 for owner, Tom Schwartz. Holy micrometers, Batman. These boats are m e a s u r e d .
(photo,
left) Crew member Martin Bertold grins while
Tom steps off a few cubits. Tim Winger, at right, with
his ever-present clipboard, keeps the mood light with frequent and occassionally
pertainent quips.
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(photo:
K.Ford)
C O L L E G E . S A I L I N G
DOMINO EFFECT...
Things fell into place nicely for the UMBC Sailing Team at last weekend's "UMBC Open/Central 1 [MAISA]" regatta.
In the lee of the sugar processing plant, Kevin King and Kent Phillips took First in "A Division," and Jessica Tuenis and Laura Wallach took Second in "B Division."
Not too shabby against the likes of schools with bigger and better funded programs! I seem to remember UMBC's team is not a part of the school's varsity athletics program...it exists as a club sport, as do most of the other sailing teams that participated in this regatta, Washington College being the exception. A brief glimpse at the competition's various websites reveal quite a few "more ambitious" programs, including Ocean County College's hope to "house the premier sailing program on the East Coast." They plan to "develop clubhouse facilities, acquire floating docks and purchase seven additional 420 Sailboats." Not bad for a junior college!
Overall for the event, UMBC finished second to Penn's bullet. Loyola also made a strong showing, finishing 5th.
above photo: Princeton (bow #12) throws a starboard in front of UMBC's Jessica Teunis and Laura Wallach (bow #1)
Huge congrats to UMBC's sailors! Their performance qualifies both schools (Penn & UMBC) to compete for the America's Trophy (similar to a MAISA Championship Regatta). This year, the America's Trophy will held at the Naval Academy on April 30 and May 1. The UMBC team would love for anyone wishing to see some great college sailing to come down to Naptown at the end of the month and support them. (We'll have more details to come, here at nbayracing.com, closer to the date.)
As far as the racing Saturday was concerned, we witnessed the UMBC "B Division" team, skippered by Jessica Tuenis with crew Laura Wallach (a former DIre Wolf regular, I might add) completely nail a start and find nice lanes to the weather mark. The Princeton boat carved out a nice lead uphill, but by the last leg UMBC had closed the gap immensley, footing down on the Ivy boat in a fickle southeasterly. The name of the game was lanes (narrrow at best) and figuring out where the wind was apt to be 30 seconds later.
above photo: UMBC (bow #1) pops out of the start to win the favored left side.
above photo: Princeton (sail #12) rounds the top mark a few boatlengths ahead of UMBC (sail # 1)
Results for the two day event looked like:
1) Penn 2) UMBC 3) Washington 4) Princeton 5) Loyola 6) Ocean County 7) Fordham 8) UMCP 9) Delaware 10) Penn State 11) Drexel 12) Lehigh 13) Villanova
6 races total for each division
Baltimore's Downtown Sailing Center was nice enough to host this event. I have to hand to DSC, it's a super place to spend the day and it's convenient as heck, somewhat isolated from the nutzo north side of the harbor with excellent views, nonetheless. With the 99 year lease the place just negotiated, and the improvements to the waterfront that are slated, DSC ought to become a real mecca to Baltimore's performance sailing community.
The atmosphere at DSC is decidedly friendly and laid back and that's an absolute bonus. I mean, even the harbor sweepers went out of their way to be accomodating! (below)
A
rather gnarly shoreline gave regatta sailors strong incentive not to overstand
the starboard lay. Improvements
scheduled for DSC's waterfront will, one day, make the derelict hulls and pilings
a thing of the past.
btw, nbayracing.com hopes to follow area college sailing a little more closely in the future (seeing as how we all but ignored it last year, we can only improve, but, uh, it's all about improvement, anyway, right?)
link to more UMBC Spring Open Regatta pix. (broadband highly advised for the downloads)
click
for link to UMBC's team website
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A bunch of stuff from 2004 that might be worth a look.
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riding WAVELENGTH 24's in FLORIDA at the
Was a blast !
A huge organizational blunder put me on the bow of one of the boats that was expected to do well...especially with boatbuilding and performance sailing icon, Tom Schock, at the helm. Despite the handicap we had on the pointy end of the boat, we still finished third in the Wavelength 24 class (9 boats).
Weather was ideal...big morning breeze to provide a wake-up call (some people responded better than others) and a little less in the afternoon for fun & games with finding the lanes.
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Here's the yellow boat at KWRW. PIX are courtesy of Andrew Sims at Wavelengthstudios.com. Andrew took some outtasite shots at KWRW and you can see his work at: www.wavelengthstudios.com
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Racing in Havre de Grace has started! A few pix and comments from the Pink Moon Regatta and will be up soon, as well as some stuff regarding HdGYC. That'll have to wait until after the Annapolis NOOD regatta is over...
.
Havre de Grace: a Susquahannock indian word meaing "Pass under many bridges to get to Race Area"
J/24
#4201 getting ready to splash with owner Tom Schwatrz and trimmer, Greg Harrer.
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ANNAPOLIS 2005 NOOD REGATTA IS: APRIL 29 - MAY 1 2005............be there.
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KWRW 2005...big air, big names.
Take a look at the entries in the Melges 24 class, for instance and then think about how much you would enjoy shelling out thousands of bucks getting the boat, your crew, and your accomodations down there and then showing up on the race course to get totally hosed by the likes of James Spithill and Dave Ullman. Fun!
Then, for the mere mortals, there were classes like PHRF 5, that saw the Evelyn 32-2's kick butt once again. Congrats to John Fries and his crew aboard "Remedy" who put together a string of bullets to ride herd over the boats that usually slaughter us up here on the Chesapeake...I'm talking about "L'Outrage" and "Invincible." We on "Dire Wolf"know how dialed in these two boats are and we have huge amounts of props to offer the guys on "Remedy."
"Remedy"
on her home waters in Conn.
KWRW results
Go here for some decent KWRW racing videos (low bandwidth is free) from Tucker Thompson's video site.
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nbayracing.com's
2004 Annapolis Sailboat Show Awards...the good, the bad, and the
really, really ugly.
DIRE WOLF IS FOR SALE.......(click)
PAGE
2...2004 nbayracing stuff
Some
boats for sale, locally and of interest regionally: