Organization meeting for the 2017 fall season

On Thursday, May 18th, we had a short organizational meeting for the upcoming fall sailing season. The following points were emphasized:

(1) All team members need to have completed a school physical. Physicals are being given today at 3:30 as have been advertised for the past few weeks. A pre-physical is required. See the trainer.
(2) All team members must be academically eligible (GPA>2.0). Also note that team membership is very time intensive with ~20 hour/week occupied with practice and regattas. You need to carefully manage studies and extracurriculars.
(3) All team members must be able to commit to the regatta schedule. The schedule has not been published for 2017 yet, but should be similar to last fall's schedule, i.e., most weekends beginning the Saturday after Memorial Day and running through the first weekend in November. If we only have two skippers and one is unable to make s scheduled regatta the team will forfeit participating that week. Yes, I do hope to have more than two skippers so we can have a reserve or two.
(4) All team members must provide a personal flotation device, preferable a Type III.
(5) The team is not a learn-to-sail opportunity. All skippers should be experienced dinghy helmsmen. "Experience" should include participating in fleet races. Boats can be anything from Optis, Sunfish, Lasers, or double-handed dinghies (420s, FJs, etc.) Experience in keel boats only is less useful. Crews should have experience, but it is not absolutely required.
(6) Potential team members should take advantage of summer junior or open regattas to hone skills. Local regattas include Fishing Bay Yacht Club junior regatta on June 24/25, Hampton Yacht Club junior regatta on June 29, and Norfolk Yacht & CC regatta on June30/July 1. Club races (Wednesday night races, for example) are also good. Even one on one match racing can be beneficial.
(7) The anticipated dates of try-outs are August 14, 15 with practice starting on August 16th. Practice last year was M-F from 4:00-6:00. While the exact dates, times, and location are not firm for this coming year, we hopefully will be able to follow a similar schedule.

A roster of students who are expected to participate is:

Sabrina Savage
Jake Kiggans
Matt Lassalle
Matt Marsh
Gus Gustavo
Oliver Hudson
Tyler Kurtz
Charlie Schoening

VISA Championships

Results here.

We beat teams from Hampton, Kecoughtan, St Christopher's, Poquoson, Walsingham and St Catherine's.

More later.

JV season Championships at Fort Monroe

    On Saturday, at the end of October, we had a beautiful day on Mill Creek just west of Fort Monroe. This was the first time we sailed at this particular venue. The regatta was the VISA JV championships and 18 teams were entered. The crews had to be ferried out to a floating dock where the boats are stored. The day started a bit chilly but warmed to around 70 degrees. The breeze was about 8-10 knots all day.

    We had the best showing all year: we finished 5th of 18 teams, with Jake taking our first bullet of the season. The final scores are here.

    The shot below shows Jake and Charlie with a hefty lead approaching the finish line. It certainly helped that the boat in second just behind them at the final weather mark death rolled and created a lot of havoc for the rest of the fleet to avoid!

Below are a couple of additional shots. Thanks to Mrs Schoenig and Mrs Kiggans for the pictures!

MAASA Silver Fleet Champs

We participated with seventeen other schools in FJs supplied by the Washington College sailing team in Chestertown, Maryland. Saturday was very frustrating with very light winds and an aggressive ebb current. With general recalls, postponements and abandonments there were only two A fleet races completed in seven hours. After a nice day enjoying the sun and waiting for a steady breeze we went to Mass in a 160-year old church and then dinner. The motel accommodations were an adventure by Sunday dawned with a nice breeze the allowed another 12 races to be run.

The scores are here https://scores.hssailing.org/f16/massa-fall-fleet-silver/

Obviously it was a challenging regatta. We learned a lot and look forward to next season's out-of-district events. Next up are the JV champs at Fort Monroe (on the 29th) and our fleet regatta at NYCC (on the 5th.)

Bid received for MAASA Silver Champs

There are 85 schools in the MidAtlantic Scholastic Sailing Association.  The top eighteen teams will be sailing for the Gold Fleet Championship at Fort Monroe. There are 16 teams, including ours, that will compete for the Silver Fleet Championship at Washington College in Chestertown, MD. Each is a two day regatta on Saturday and Sunday, October 15th and 16th.

We will enter one A fleet and one B fleet crew. Since it is a four hour trip up the Eastern Shore, we'll be leaving at 4:30 Saturday morning to make the 9:00 a.m. check-in and registration. After sailing Saturday we'll go to Mass at a nearby Catholic Church and then have a group dinner. The hotel will be nearby. Sunday's activities start at 8:30. No races will start after 2:00 p.m. so we should be back on the road by 3:00 and home by 8:00 p.m.

Our first out-of-district event!

Regatta called on account of current.

Our fourth regatta of the season was on October 1st, again at NYCC. The day was warm and humid and there was very little wind for the 22 boats on the line. The first two A division races were run and our skippers struggled to find ways of generating speed. After the rotation, the first B division race was run in even less wind. Just as the RC was about to abandon the race, a slight zephyr filled in and most crews managed to finish. In this race our B division skippers Jake and Matt Beauchamp (who was filling in for Erynn who was taking the SAT) finished mid-fleet with a 14th and 15th.



After a postponement awaiting a more stable breeze, the second B division race was started. Unfortunately, the breeze fell out just as the tide began to ebb. When most of the fleet was carried down current of the weather mark out toward the harbor, the RC had no choice but to abandon. The fleet was towed back to the dock and the regatta was officially ended. Since a minimum of six races (3A and 3B) are needed to score the regatta, the day was basically a non-event.

The scores are here.

Our individual finishes were:
Iggy 20, 21
Nick 22, 22
Jake 15
Matt 14

I will upload some video shortly. If anyone managed to take some stills, please send them to me.

One ugly situation raised its head in the light air - Rule 42 and kinetics. After the start sequence of race 1B was begun, a few teams found themselves upwind/down current of the line and needed to get back to the pre-start side of the line. Any action is permitted before boats are racing ("racing" starts at the preparatory signal - with the sound signal starting system that is at the 2 minute mark.) So between 3 minutes and 2 minutes the boats may paddle, rock, pump, fan the sails - any action that can propel them back to the start area. However, at the 2 minute mark only the natural action of the wind on the sails is permitted. A number of boats were protested by the RC for using kinetics and were disqualified after a hearing.

I'll make a video about Rule 42 in the near future. All of our team should know what is permitted and prohibited by the rule and how to "call" others on their disregard of Rule 42.

NA Regatta at NYCC - Feast and Famine

Our third regatta of the season was again at Norfolk Yacht and Country Club in FJs. This fleet race had three more teams than a couple of weeks ago so there were 26 boats on the line (again 15 schools.) The day started with a very light westerly that fluctuated from 3-6 knots with big holes around the course. As the morning wore on there was a persistent veer as the front came closer.  Our crews struggled in the light stuff. A one knot current flowing down the weather leg didn't help. The starting line was right off the pier so we had great 50-yard-line viewing. I captured a couple of starts from the pier. The first has Jake in boat red 1 starting at the committee just a bit late, but crossing the line in the top half of the fleet. This race ended up being one of his better finishes.

The second vid is Jake's race 4A when he was in red 3. He arrived too early, got tangled in the mass of boats and had a poor start. This race ended up being one of his worst finishes. I provided a running commentary as I was recording so I'll let that speak for itself.

The wind kept clocking and gradually built. RC rotated the course to the new wind but just as the second set of B races were in their starting sequence the cold front came through. The wind swung 90 degrees to the North and the whole course had to be reconfigured. The breeze built rapidly and was shifty and very gusty near the new weather mark. The degaussing tower aeronometer in the harbor recorded the frontal passage. While we didn't get wind near 30 mph in the lee of the clubhouse, there were gusts close to 25 out by the start.

A couple of our crews flipped but neither turned turtle (as opposed to some crews from other schools.) The only casualty was the GoPro that I had rigged with the non-waterproof case (to record sound in the morning races.)

Erynn managed to copy an incident I had a few years back that made it in Sailing World's Dr. Crash. When hiking out it's important to make sure you catch the hiking strap! Matt adroitly managed to get on the centerboard as they rolled and pretty much stayed dry. Yes, having a crew can be very useful...

At the end of the day we finished 22nd and 25th. Results are here.

Individually Jake finished 18, 19, 25, 24, 24.
Iggy finished 12, 19, 17, 24, 18.
Nick finished 24, 25, 26, 26, 22.
Erynn finished 25, 22, 16, 25, 17.

Many of the low finishes were the result of taking penalty turns -- especially detrimental in light and heavy air (not so much in moderate breezes.) I'm proud that we acknowledge when we are at fault and readily take the spins. As we become more aware of tactical situations in future regattas the rule violations will decrease. I saw fouls at the start (usually windward-leeward) and on the weather legs (usually port-starboard.) Both the skipper and crew need to increase their situational awareness and not get caught sleeping. Next week we're back at NYCC. Let's hope for steady and moderate breezes and not the feast or famine we experienced today.

Thanks to Mr. Segerblom for the pictures! I'll leave you with one of his artsy shots.