|
|
2009 Reports |
2009 Tennessean By Andy Carson: The 2009 Southeast District J22 campaign kicked off in Nashville at the Tennessean Cruisers Regatta on Old Hickory Lake. Although it was a multi-fleet regatta, we had our own race course and we were blessed with a professional caliber race committee in the form of Bruce Richards and his team. Turn-out was light, only four local boats and Bob Blythe from Birmingham to round out a very competitive fleet. It was sobering for me when sailing out to the starting line; I realized that every one of my four competitors could beat me. Saturday was a warm sunny day, with light breezes from the NE. The heavy rains from the recent cold front pushed a strong current down river. Success was all about finding a lane and minding the shifts. First race, Carson found his lanes and paid off the shift Gods. It was a classic Buddy Melges "Get in front of 'em and stay in front of 'em" race. Sometimes the lanes were very private. During the downwind leg of the second race, Bob Blythe picked up a private zephyr that pushed him through the fleet like he had a hidden propeller. I watched him motor through a 50 foot gap between two becalmed boats, then he zoomed by me, close by, and I never felt a whisper! Bob's luck didn't hold to the finish line. This time it was Robertson with the bullet and Blythe with second. But Bob got his revenge in the third race by ghosting past Carson 50 yards from the finish line for a bullet of his own. We completed three shortened course races before the wind Gods went home. At day's end, it was Robertson on top. One point back Blythe and Carson were tied for second and everyone behind them was in striking range. Sean Claire arrived between the second and third races, chomping on a cigar at the helm of his "chick magnet" power boat. (Is that how he snagged Karen? And, yes, she looked good on that boat!) He anchored near-by to give us a mooring to hang onto while we waited for wind and listened to him complain about not being able to get a crew for this regatta. Sean kindly did offer some words of encouragement and advice to Dennis Colby, who, with an impressive command of sailor's vocabulary, politely informed him that he wasn't going to listen to anything from anyone on a stinking powerboat. Sean didn't seem to mind because after the racing was canceled, he good naturedly towed Dennis and all the rest of us home. Sunday's forecast promised more power, 10 - 20 knots from the South. It didn't start out that way, though. Most of us had to be towed part or all of the way to the racing area. Eventually the wind finally filled in and held steady from the SSW, with remarkably few shifts, but it picked up in intensity all afternoon long. By end of the fourth race it was blowing a good 12-15 knots with gusts to 18 and 20. The current seemed even stronger on Sunday. The heavy rains from the week before brought a virtual Sargasso Sea of flotsam and jetsam through the race course. As Sean aptly described it, "The lake was like chunky soup with all the rain", and the color was like, well, you don't want to know. Going overboard could have been nasty! Sunday we got four races in. First race, Trotter took himself, Blythe and Robertson over early and we (Carson) never had to look back. Colby hung with us, but always a few lengths back. As the race progressed, Blythe managed to claw his way within striking distance of Colby on the final upwind leg. Three hundred yards from the finish, they engaged him in a tacking duel, and ultimately, Blythe passed Colby a few yards from the finish when Colby's traveler fouled up during a tack. It was Carson with the bullet, Blythe second, Colby third, Trotter fourth and Robertson DFL. Second race, it was Robertson with the bullet, Blythe second and Carson 4th. It was very tight racing! First to fourth was separated by four boat lengths. At the start of the third race, with Robertson and Carson each sporting a basement like performance in the first two, it was the three leading boats very close to each other. With a throw-out looking more likely, it was Robertson and Blythe tied with Carson one point back. The third race kicked off and again it was very close. All boats converged on the weather mark at the same time and most got around safely, all except Carson who fouled Colby and had to do turns, which put us in 5th by a good margin. (At that point, I apologized to my crew and told them I'd blown the whole regatta with that poor rounding) But, never say die! The first downwind leg saw jockeying and luffing duels among the four closely grouped boats. We stayed away from them and found ourselves 4th at the downwind mark. Trotter encountered a spinnaker douse problem that took him half way to Gallatin - make that 3rd. We found our lanes and rounded the second upwind mark in 2nd, behind Robertson. No changes on the second downwind, but on the last upwind, Robertson misjudged the lay-line (You gotta love that current!) and Carson snuck in for the bullet. Then it was 2nd and 3rd for Robertson and Blythe in that order. With the scores close, now Robertson and Carson tied, with Blythe back one, the last race of the day would decide the regatta for the top three boats. Good starts were had by all, but Carson found his lanes early and never gave them up. Trotter made it a personal best for the series with 2nd, followed by Colby, Robertson and Blythe, who tried to win the race by rudder dragging a nest of sticks up one leg. See you in Birmingham… It should be good. We expect 3 - 4 Nashville boats and if we can entice a few GA boats, we could see 10 - 14 boats on the water. ______________________________________________________________________________________ |
2009 IronMan At Birmingham Sailing Club By: Ashley Sukalski 850.621.2017 Emerald Sails 100 Old Ferry Road Shalimar, FL 32579 Here's our account of the regatta (we don't let the facts get in the way of the story): The regatta was great. Bit of a drive for us, but we were able to stay close to the club courtesy of the Reichs (thank you thank you thank you!). Saturday morning dawned stormy & windless (bummer) but USA202 made the best of it. We had a good start & found enough breeze the first race to finish with a first. The breeze kept dying between races which brought up the rather philosophical question: is it worse to sail in no breeze or try to run a race in no breeze? Judging by the looks on Harry's face, we decided the latter. At least we had beer. After a dismal ninth the second race, we cleaned up and hit the bsc party, which was great. Great food courtesy of the guy in the tie dye shirt and amazing stocked coolers of beer (Galen - you missed out on a LOT of cold Tecate), and we wrapped up our night at Pier 59! Sunday.. We reluctantly woke up and reluctantly looked at the rain and reluctantly went to the club. There are better things to do than sail on a rainy Sunday. Anyway, we followed our fearless skipper, and went racing. Our topless RC boat had found a huge umbrella and were looking pretty sharp and more importantly, dry!. We were able to pull off a close first, but it was hard to cover that red kite (Mach), they were fast and had some real good jibes. The second race, they worked over us upwind and we took a second. The third race on Sunday is where things got entertaining. After a decent start and impeccable boat handling (my skipper is awesome), we had a rather entertaining windward mark rounding (3 boat circle!), an aggravating downwind leg (no rule about jibing too close :o), GREAT tactics working back upwind ("hey doc, is that a header or a lift?" doc: "it would be a lift on the OTHER tack"... Tack, tack tack tack...) and a million tacks later, we were able to round the second windward mark first, but not by much, Shazaam was super quick that race!! We were bummed because they didn't have the radio on, which is the least they could have done when they were in front of us! (just kidding, but y'all were super quick). The last downwind leg, we noticed a yellow mark in the water... The RC's umbrella! After quick discussion as to whether it was a change of course mark (big and yellow ha ha ha), we were able to really put some boat speed together, and boy we smoked that umbrella!! Thanks to Baby J, it was rescued (no fair, extra sail area!!) and we were able to keep our lead for the first we needed for the tiebreaker. Great time, great racing. Some key points to note: 1. Radios on J22s are highly underrated. 2. Sean leaves everything important in Nashville. 3. It gets cold in May. Thanks to the RC for putting on the regatta, and to the members of BSC that made us feel so welcome. Thanks to Bob Blythe for putting out email reminders of the regatta. Thanks again for having us, we had a great time. Hopefully we can coax Sean to come down for Bowlegs at Fort Walton Yacht Club. Either way Doc and I will be there and we hope you will have as much fun as we did this weekend. Please let us know if you need anything to be able to come down, it's the second week in June. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
Billy Bowlegs Regatta Ft Walton Yacht Club June 13-14 If you didn't make it this year, you missed out. It has been a long time since I have seen such perfect sailing conditions. Many of us got in a couple of days early to enjoy some "down" time on the beach. We got there on Wednesday to discover the Meyhoefer's had been there all week. Thursday morning The Blythe and Freeman crew showed up and the crew on Mach showed up on Friday. That is all I can remember. I know the other boats were already in town. After a couple of days of relaxing on the beach, all of the crews found themselves at the club Friday afternoon getting their boats ready for the weekend festivities and getting their boats in the water. Getting in the water on Friday posed a problem. The breeze was about 20 mph coming in from the very direction the crane was putting in boats. To this day nothing makes me more nervous than seeing a J-22 hanging in the air on a hoist. This with the howling breeze made me decide to go have a few more beers and wait until Saturday morning to splash. Friday night a bunch of the crews from Birmingham and Nashville went out to dinner at the Old Bay Steamer. Talk about amazing food. After dinner we went back to the condo for a little impromptu party at the Blythe's led my Rob Borquin...imagine that! Saturday morning came and there was no breeze, but no worries the forecast by race time is 10-20. I was a little nervous because we were sailing with 4. It was a last minute thing. Doc Bellows and I were sitting in the bar at FWYC Friday night, remember the few beers, and realized with the forecast that we were about 165 lbs light. This is how I met Justin. He walked into the bar and immediately Doc yelled at him, "How much do you weight?" he said "150" Doc said "You are sailing tomorrow." I wish it was always that easy! So anyway, back to Saturday, We got the boat is around 10 am for the noon start. We tinker a little with the boat, but mostly took our ration of "PRB's" "Pre-Race Beers". We headed out around 11:30 and sailed to the coarse in fairly light air. Once we got to the starting line area a wall of consistent breeze at about 15-20 mph came in and never left. Funny thing was, it was right at noon. The race committee did a great job of getting 3 races off. Each race was in the range of 4 miles. 2 sausages, 4 legs, etc. Once we got in we all took a break to rest and drink more beer, then we put our boats away and the stories started and got bigger and bigger. Everyone went to get cleaned up for the Jerk BBQ Rib Dinner at 6pm on Smack point. The food was amazing. After dinner the stories continued but we added cigars, more beer and rum. After the party on Smack point we ended up with another party at the condo. That finally broke up around midnight when Rob just disappeared. Sunday, promised the same forecast as Saturday but it was light in the morning. We had another noon start and like clock work the same breeze came in. The race committee got off 2 more races and sent us in to pack up the boats. The line at the crane went very smoothly, but then again, I could not watch, it is that thing about seeing my boat hanging in the air. After the boats were packed we all met in the bar at FWYC waiting for the awards. More fun ensued. During this time my wife, Karen, discovered a great little "Lower Alabama" tradition.....The Bush Wacker. A very potent Adult Milk Shake! First Doc got her one, Then Rob, Then John, Then Ashley, The Doc. I had to find a way to get her out of there. It was 6:30 and we still had an 8 hour drive ahead of us. Doc came up with the solution...He got he one to go! The regatta is a great time and a great venue. I cannot say enough about the hospitality of the members. The Commodore welcomed us with open arms and offer any assistant we may need. Not just him but the entire club was that way. I am looking forward to going back. Sean #202 |
Leukemia Cup Birmingham Sailing Club September 19 & 20, 2009 By Vincent Priola The forecast for the 2009 Leukemia Cup at Birmingham Sailing Club was for lousy weather, but great sailing, as 10 boats came out to play in what everyone thought would be a miserable weekend of sailing in the rain. We were pleasantly surprised both Saturday and Sunday, for each time the race committees stepped on the dock, the rain stopped. Four out-of-town boats arrived from Nashville, Louisville, Atlanta, and Ft Walton to join six local boats. The race committee executed three races on Saturday with wind starting off light and shifty, but building to 7-8 from the NE for the next two races. The first race start, while messy, gave Doc time to run several calculations, and with Ashley's coaching, Sean Clare led the fleet around the course for the first of many bullets. Not knowing the eventual out come Bob Blythe, Wayne Cassidy and Trent Richardson (Shazam) battled it out at the front of the pack; while the rest of the fleet charged on dog eat dog. Jennifer Grant (Eve-n-Keeled), refining her "Pond Sailing" tactics, closed in. Fred Smith, after setting up the fleet and putting them strategically were he wanted them, came on strong in the third race. Bill Harshman, with excellent starts, impressive speed, and an energetic crew (who danced and celebrated on the dock to the tune of the yellow jacket on Sunday), charged out and found every wind hole in the race area. Jim Proctor and crew, two handing, had impressive up and down wind speed with only limited use of his spinnaker. Bo Smith, sailing Puppy Love, was nipping at the heels (and throat) of the fleet. This pattern endured for the first day. Saturday night Ziggy (Chef at Pier 59) provided a delicious supper, but not 'till after the Leukemia Cup event chairman and co conspirators hid the beer and pushed the rum punch. They followed up with Tequila shots, ensuring the auction was not only fun and entertaining, but also successful for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Almost $8,000 was raised! On Sunday with the wind from the SSE at 7-8, Sean Clare and crew again excelled with 1st and 2nd place finishes to seal the deal. Bob held on for 2nd place. Fred Smith and Jennifer Grant each picked up a 3rd place in Sunday's races. Vincent Priola and crew reviewed post race films Saturday night. They determined that right was wrong, and wrong was right, so they went left to maximize the leverage of the low pressure system camped out over Mississippi. This tactic gave team Priola a 2nd and 1st place finish on the last day. It also confused Wayne and crew and Puppy Love and the rest of the pack cut inside them at the leeward mark. This conspiracy bumped Wayne to 4th place overall and allowed Vincent to take a 3rd for the regatta. Sean and Bob wanted to make sure everyone knows the next event is the Halloween Regatta at the Augusta Sailing Club on October 10-11. Catch them if you can. |