2008 J-DAZE Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
I took the Skeeter out this morning and photographed the first few races of the 2008 J-Daze J-24 Regatta that is being hosted by Canandaigua Yacht Club this weekend on Canandaigua Lake in Canandaigua, New York.
(I secretly wondered how many times Canandaigua could be used in a sentence. Now I know.)
2008 J-DAZE Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
I watched the first few starts and they seemed to have about 35 boats on the line. I measured steady winds at 11 mph with some puffs to 14. (The racers will say it was much higher.) It was a perfect day for racing with an occasional sprinkle of rain but the predicted storms held off until the evening after racing was finished.
Everyone looked like they were having good times – even the folks that ripped a headsail on someone else’s rigging – The collision was near the bottom of the course as the boat that rounded and was heading back upwind on port tack and tried to thread the needle between a whole lot of boats coming downwind.
That’s racin’!
2008 J-DAZE Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
I may try to wet the hull on my 2.4 Meter tomorrow and see if I can pace on the outside of the race course with J-24s. More storms with heavy rain are moving through this evening but tomorrow is looking like it will be another great day.
All of the small versions of the photos and a slideshow are posted over at flickr.com and I’m going to give Pam and John (Albatross J-24 #3024) a disk with the full-sized images if anyone wants a print from the higher quality photo.
2008 J-DAZE Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
Feel free to leave a comment and tell about the Saturday afternoon races, the party, Sunday’s races and the results!
Tags: canandaigua yacht club
Bill,
Fantastic photos of the J-Daze Regatta! We really appreciate you taking these and providing them for us to view. We had a great time and CYC is a great club. Thanks for the great pics! Sure makes the Monday morning a little better after a great weekend of sailing.
Jon
Hi Bill ~
WOW!! Excellent footage!
Thank you for coming out on Sat and making these FANTASTIC “up close and in the action” J-Daze 2008 photos available to everyone so quickly.
It’s no wonder you worked for the Associated Press and now the Great (local) GateHouse Media…your Talent TRULY shines!!!
‘Cheers’
~ Pam
Bill –
We never met, but I greatly appreciate the shots you got of this regatta. Actually the best I’ve seen of any regatta I’ve ever been in. I’m would like to know if there is any way for me to get the hi-res of any of these still. (I don’t know how to get ahold of Pam and/or John) Either way, thanks so much.
-Jared
Most of the photos are posted to Flickr under my account “sailorbill” and you can get the larger files there but you could also just email Pam through the Canandaigua Yacht Club site where she is the current Commodore. She has the full-sized images. After I burned that disk, I only kept the shots I really liked so I probably don’t have the high-res of the shots you want anymore.