| Subcribe via RSS
2008 Flying Dutchman Cannonball Regatta, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
Flying Dutchmans sailing, with crew hiked out and approaching the windward mark on Saturday, June 28, the first day of the 2008 Cannonball Regatta held at the Canandaigua Yacht Club in New York.
Tags: canandaigua yacht club, flying dutchman, regatta
Tracy sailing her 2.4 Meter, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
Tuesday night after work, Tracy and I headed down for an evening on the water.
I plopped in the fishing boat while Tracy got her 2.4 Meter rigged.
We met at the lift and got her pointed towards the middle of Canandaigua Lake at about 6 p.m.
The winds were light and other than me, there weren’t many other powerboats out creating chop. We chased each other around for about two hours.
The wind dropped off as she approached the docks and she got to try out the “Praddle” for the last 200 yards. We met again at the dock and put the boats away.
It was a great evening for sailing and putting around in the powerboat.
There were 10 or so cruisers out reaching up and down the lake. You could see each crew straining as we (or they) passed by to get a look at the little sailboat being chased by a bright red powerboat.
The sun was setting as we packed up and headed out.
As we were leaving, vehicles pulling trailers full of Force 5 sailboats were pulling in to the camping area to prepare for the Force 5 US National Championships being held at Canandaigua Yacht Club later this week.
The restaurant and bar are apparently closed on Tuesday nights so we picked up carry-out pizza on the way home and pulled into the driveway at 9:30.
Perfect.
Tonight is the “GO Fleet” race series. “GO” stands for “Geneoa Only” (whisker poles aren’t even allowed) and I’ll be out there with the cruisers tooling around a triangle course a couple of times.
Tomorrow night we are meeting friends after work and taking out several of the club’s Sunfish sailboats and participating in the Thursday night Sunfish races. That should be a trip! I haven’t been on a Sunfish since I was in eighth grade sailing on Brandermill Lake in Chesterfield, VA.
Stay tuned, that should be a real story!
Tags: 2.4, canandaigua yacht club
2008 2.4m USA Nationals champion Mark LeBlanc headed for a swim, (Photo by Bill Blevins)
Mark LeBlanc (USA #137) edged out John Ruf (USA #88) to take the 2008 USA 2.4mR Open National Championship. Both sailors ended up with 21 points after 11 races. I wasn’t around when it was explained how the tiebreaker was decided but Mark took home the Overall regatta trophy, the US National Championship trophy and the US Disabled National Championship Trophy. (Mark was also thrown off the dock for a short swim by two of the coaches after the races on Friday.)
I ended up in 12 out of the 17 competitors. I had a horrible day on Friday because I couldn’t use my backstay so my main was as flat as a pancake and I couldn’t get moving upwind. I have some boat modifications on my list of to-do’s this week!
The regatta was a great time and everyone here was wonderfully helpful and friendly. Tracy has recovered from whatever bug she had during the week. We are heading over to the Noroton Yacht Club now to pick up the trailer and get the boats home.
Photos are posted on Flickr and you can get them by clicking here. They are probably at a quality level for reprinting small images using Flickr’s order form but if you want the high quality pics, just email me and I can send.
Again, a great week of sailing. Thanks Roger & Brit and everyone else involved! See you in Toronto next month!
