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!