SSA Summer Series - Day 1

This past Saturday, June 20, our fleet had the first of our 3-day Summer series. Unfortunately, due to either the Father's Day holiday, kids and babies, or other summer plans, we had a small turnout of just five boats. Fred Mertes, a longtime Rehobeth Beach Lightning sailor, showed up with his great-looking 1962 woody, complete with wood rig and jumper struts. The mahogany interior was absolutely beautiful! The rest of the crowd included Joe Friebele, Mark Boaz, Steve Constants and myself. Saturday morning didn't look too promising when we got to the club, with T-storms in the area and rain. But at least there was the promise of wind. We headed out to area C, but the first race was abandoned on the first leg when a storm rolled in with some thunder and lightning in the area. We sailed back to the club, tied up the boats, and by the time we finished eating lunch in the clubhouse, the weather had cleared and there was a new south-easterly breeze building. So Ian Burman, PRO, sent us back out and set up a short course in the river.

From what I can recall, we thought there was better breeze towards the middle-left of the course, which was towards the center of the river, rather than on the right which put you kind of in the lee of Horn point and the far shoreline. So we set up and started beneath the fleet and sailed that out to the left until we thought we could cross Steve who was hipped up on us. When a small lefty came to us, we checked for Steve to go a little bow-down and then tacked. He tacked as well, and we got to the weather mark a couple boat-lengths ahead of them. From there we sailed a pretty conservative race, gybing to the inside early down the run. With the short course, we managed to hold on for the win. Joe was not far behind Steve.

In the second race, I believe we again rounded first, extended a bit on the run as the breeze built, but had a small problem with the spin sheet caught under the boat and Steve closed to within a BL or two by the top mark as we got that sorted out. The puffs were coming in from the upwind-right so an early gybe seemed to be the correct move. Steve was able to gybe a few seconds ahead of us and pull ahead down the run to take the race, with Joe again not far behind us. I recall Mark showing some nice speed as well going to windward.

In the last race of the day, things got a little weird. We started to leeward of the fleet again, but Steve showed nice speed and was able to hold us out past the layline. Joe, who hadn't sailed off the track like we had, had a nice leg and rounded the weather mark first. Steve and us gybed before Joe and slipped past down the left, and on the way back up, we found a shaft of breeze up the middle that for some crazy reason neither Joe nor Steve got. We were able to get bow out from Steve who was to our right, Joe tacked from the left back over to the right, and we hit some good pressure near the port tack layline to bring us into the mark ahead. We learned our lesson and gybed early this time to hold on down the final run. Joe had a good downwind leg and brought some breeze up with him to slip into second at the finish. At that point, some thunder could be heard in the distance, so the RC sent us in for the day.

All in all, we had some fun, tight racing on a day where we weren't sure if we'd get in much sailing at all. Once in at the club, we enjoyed the fine afternoon weather with some dark n' stormys on the cluhouse deck.

Let's get some more SSA boats out for the next Summer Series day on July 11, as well as the final day on August 1. Unfortunately, I will have to miss July 11 as we're heading to Camp Sea Gull in NC, where I first started sailing Lightnings, for an alumni Lightning regatta to raise money for "camperships" for under-priviliged children to attend camp.

2009 Dixie District Championship

Congratulatons to Allan Terhune, Katie Terhune, and Collin Kirby on winning the Dixie District Championship, held at Southern Maryland Sailing Association (SMSA), June 13-14. 21 boats competed, with 7 boats representing Annapolis - Fleet 329. Steve Constants and Jon Guth battled it out for 2nd, with the tie-breaker going to Jon this time. Peter Rich and Martin Hermida sailed with Jon, while Todd Johnson and Chloe Constants were on board with Steve.

Other Fleet 329 skippers were Joe Friebele, Jason Werner, Jason Cosler, and newcomer Mark Boaz.

The conditions were particularly light and shifty on saturday, and Sunday brought a bit more breeze, but with large velocity changes and huge shifts as well. The RC did a nice job to get 2 races in on Sat, and three on Sunday.

Next up for our fleet is the start of the Summer Series at SSA this coming Saturday. Hope to see a good turnout!

No Gas, May 16-17 - Who's Coming...

Greg Virgin
Steve Constants
Jon Guth
Joe Friebele
Jason Werner
Gary Hurban
Joan Hurban
Jason Cosler
Diana Lohmeyer
Jonathan Lange

Who's Coming - SSA Spring, April 18-19

Steve Constants
Jason Cosler
Jonathan Lange
Greg Virgin
Geoff Becker
Mark Boaz
Joan Hurban?
Gary Hurban?

Jon Guth (Sunday)
Allan Terhune (Sunday)
Joe Friebele (Sunday)

Fleet 329 at Southern Circuit

Fleet members Allan and Katie Terhune won the first leg of the Southern Circuit at the Deep South Regatta in Savannah over the weekend, moving up from 2nd after Saturday. Sailing with them was Fleet 50 boat grant sailor Collin Kirby. Here are links to the SC blog and Savannah results.

http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7178

http://www.lightningclass.org/racing/results/2009/deepSouth-2009/results2009.asp

2009 Fleet 329 Schedule

Here is our Fleet 329 SSA Schedule:

April 18-19: Spring Series
May 16-17: George Shapiro No Gas Invitational
June 20: Summer Series I
July 11: Summer Series II
August 1: Summer Series III
September 20-21: Fall Series
October 17-18: Frigid Digit

Here are some other key regattas of 2009:

May 2-3: Doc Gilbert Potomac Cup
June 13-14: Dixie District Championship
July 25-26: ACCs, Tom's River, NJ
August 4-14: NA's, Sodus Bay, NY
August 22-23: Duck Challenge, Havre De Grace
September 11-18: World Championship, Burlington, VT

Here is a link to the full Dixie District Schedule:

ACC's This Weekend at Rock Hall

So Far 32 boats are registered. Hope to see some of you over at Rock Hall Yacht Club this weekend.

No Gas Regatta

What a weekend!!!!! As seems to be the case here in Annapolis, when the weather forecast is ominous but not completely accurate, we usually get some great racing in. Squeezed in between two fronts, we were able to run seven races this past weekend for our annual No Gas Regatta. 17 boats competed in what is becoming once again a great early season test. Thanks to Jon Guth for chairing the event this year and keeping the Yuenglings flowing throughout the weekend. Hopefully, we'll get a post from some of our winners, Allan, Jon, Geoff.

Here's a link to the results.

Dixie District Championship to be held at SSA June 14-15

Here is the NOR

Here is the list of skippers planning on sailing...

Total = 29 and counting...

Steve Constants
Jon Guth
Allan Terhune
Jason Werner
Joe Friebele
Bob Harmon
Joe Buczkowski
Greg Fisher
Jim Bielefeld
Greg Virgin
Russ Roberts
John Pemberton
Craig Cobbum
David Thompson
Frank Gallagher
Nabeel Alsalam
Jonathan Lange
Jim Alman
Gary Hurban
Joan Hurban
Red Fehrle
Ron Buchanan
Mark Whitson
Pat Phelan
Trevor Prior
Charlie Wardwell
Mark Hergan
Carol Park
Frank Hanson

Spring Series

We sailed our Spring Series this past weekend so I thought I'd provide a synopsis for those who couldn't make it (unfortunately, there were quite a few of you...). We had 5 boats sail each day. Jason/Heather, Greg Virgin, new fleet members Gary/Joan Hurban (with Todd crewing on Sunday), and Joe Friebele sailing Saturday, and Alistair sailing Jonathan Lange's boat on sunday with his daughters and their friend.

Saturday was summed up by my crew Kimberly's comment as we were getting towed in after the 2 crap-shoot races, "I think I'd rather be working!" Suffice it to say, it was rainy, chilly, and light air, and at times, no air. Jason and Heather sailed nicely (or at least managed to stay out of the huge potholes around the course) to win both races fairly easily. At various times, the rest of us found one or more of those holes and languished helplessly until some semblance of breeze returned our sanity to us.

Sunday was much the opposite. While somewhat brisk, at least we had a nice, typical, gusty northwesterly, about 10-15 kts. The courses ranged b/n 315 and 325, and we were sailing in Area A, so the weather mark was tucked up in Whitehall bay, towards Mill Creek. It was one of those days when some puffs came from the left, and about the same number from the right, so you had to stay on your toes and keep looking up the course to see where the next one was coming from. It did seem that more often than not, a righty would filter down out of Whitehall near the top, so it paid to be on that side under the layline and get lifted up to it. The RC got 3 races in for us in rather swift fashion, using the 3-minute starting olly, and we were back at the dock by 2:30 or so. In the first race, we were leading by about 8-10 BLs around the leeward mark, but Jason sailed a great 2nd beat, playing the shifts nicely, while I struggled to cover while also playing the shifts, which I was reminded doesn't work too well, and by the next rounding he had me a boat-length. After the set, we got a little puff before he did and we surged even with him. It was neck and neck down the run until we finally pulled ahead on another series of puffs to win by a small margin. In the second race, Gary and Joan Hurban showed some great speed and smarts, and it was Jason, them, and us very close around the track. On the second beat the three of us were heading toward the right, wile Greg and Alistar were working the left. I was hipped up on Gary, while Jason was on the outside. They went pretty far, and I looked over the saw we were pretty close to the S/B layline, but still under it, so we tacked before we reached them. Puffs had occasionally been coming out of whitehall as right-handers and we hooked into another one that lifted us to the mark just ahead of Gary and Jason. We protected on the run by soaking low whenever possible, and held them off, while Gary just nipped Jason at the finish.

We were now tied in points with Jason/Heather so whomever beat the other in the final race would win the regatta. I started near the boat but a lefty had come in so I tacked immediately. Greg Virgin either port tacked the fleet or tacked and crossed everyone easily, but all 5 boats were very close at the weather mark. From what I remember, we rounded right behind Gary and Jason, gybed early and ended up with an inside overlap at the bottom mark. We took the kite down a tad earlier than Jason so he surged into the mark slightly ahead and was able to round clear ahead with us on his transom. I tacked away and then came back at them to stay in touch. We had a couple close crossings, and I think it was back and forth as far as who was ahead, neither by more than one boat-length. At the top we were right of them and they came back towards us. We crossed with the S/B advantage, then tacked back towards them one last time. It appeared we were 1/2 BL ahead and we were able to make a lee-bow stick on the layline of the finish boat. The RC decided to shorted to 3 legs and finish us up-wind. Gary and Joan hadn't tacked nearly as much and ended up nipping us by a half a length. Congratulations to them for their first race win as members of Fleet 329! And congratulations also to Jason and Heather, and Dave their third, for some very close, competitive sailing. Thanks to Jim Urban and the RC for setting great courses, and for not keeping us out there too long on Saturday! Martin Hermida and Kimberly Frank did an outstanding job, not having been in a Lightning for awhile, and in some difficult conditions that required alot of gear-changing.

Let's get more boats out for the No Gas...May 10-11. The weather should be MUCH better. Lastly, anyone in the fleet should feel free to post to the blog for regatta reports, or anything else related to our fleet.