Sailing
EF1 Tornado hits Canandaigua Yacht Club
Aug 29th
Canandaigua Tornado, originally uploaded to Flickr by SailorBill.
Boats everywhere!
An EF1 tornado scored a direct hit on the grounds of the Canandaigua Yacht Club in Canandaigua, NY on Saturday afternoon, August 29, 2009.
There are trees down everywhere. Power lines were also down because the poles had been snapped in half.
Several boats were sunk in the mooring field with just the masts or a small portion of the hull showing. But the major damage was done in the parking area where “Shark Park” was a total mess. I don’t think I saw one Shark that was unscathed.
J-24’s were tipped off their trailers or blown across the lot.
The whole Vanguard 15 fleet was blown off the end of the parking area and most were in the water by the beach and underneath the North dinghy rack which landed on top of them.
The pavilion was off of the foundation and will have to be seriously repaired before it can be safely used again.
Wow! For a storm that reportedly lasted only 90 seconds, it caused a major mess. No one was hurt, so there is some good news.
Cleanup begins as soon as the insurance companies do their documentation.
More to follow… There is a post on the Canandaigua Yacht Club homepage with a note to stay away until Tuesday and to keep checking the site for updates.
I’ve posted damage photos on Flickr.
Sunday Racing
Jun 5th
You may need to get a free account at http://kattack.com to view these. It will be worth it.
When? Sunday May 31, 2009
Where? Canandaigua Yacht Club
Who? J-24’s Albatross (Blue boat) and Dr. Heeks (Red boat)
What? Sunday morning one-design racing!!
Here’s Race #1.
Race #2.
Race #3 (Note: Dr. Heeks veer off to Starboard on the first downwind leg. That was what sailors call a broach. Too bad there isn’t video or pixs!)
Fun was had by all.
Velocitek SpeedPuck Video
Feb 16th
Video review of the Velocitek SpeedPuck posted to YouTube by Stern Scoop.
Time Warner Cable “PhotoShow” live in Rochester
Oct 9th
Time Warner has partnered with Roxio to use their PhotoShow program to allow the public to upload photos, create a slide show and then publish them on a local TV channel at no cost.
This free version also hosts the finished “show” for people like me to post to a blog like this test I that did today.
The site will also email the show to your friends and another option is to order the show on a DVD. Premium members (paying members) get additional slide show styles, borders, music, transitions, etc.
Neat. A few of my friends have already tried this out and I’ve received several invites to their shows on local Rochester channel 822. I had to try it out too.
Oh, don’t forget to click the button below the show above to turn on the groovy music (also free).
J-22 Worlds first day wrap-up
Aug 21st
Before yesterday I couldn’t have said, “Well, I remember this one time when I was in a regatta that was so large that in one race we tied for 64th place with 42 other boats”.
Now I can tell that sailing story!
After waiting for the winds to build and settle in a somewhat straight direction, the race committee tried to get all of the 105 J-22’s heading towards the windward mark. A general recall and then a timing error on the second try delayed the race for 30 more minutes. We were in position to nail both of those starts on the pin end but that didn’t matter in the end.
The third try send all of the boats off without incident. We were one boat length behind a bunch of over-early boats that didn’t get caught and we were mid-line on the pin end side of the line.
After about 5 minutes, the wind went left and got lighter and we tacked to port and headed up the middle of the course. Wrong call!!
The middle went almost totally dead and we struggled with the steering and trimming in the light conditions finally making it to the top mark and then half-way down to the leeward mark before the breeze dropped to under 2 knots.
Finishing somewhere near the back of the fleet, we crossed after the time limit expired and joined company with a third of the fleet in the same predicament as us!
Race committee called it a day and then I had another “first” for my sailing career – being the 17th boat in an 18 boat tow line back to the harbor!
Today, the weather isn’t looking much better as far as sailing goes. Winds of 5-7 from the East (which means ‘no wind’ up here in New York). I hope we get another race in today.
Tonight, I’ll post photos and links to other blogs and report on what happens out on the water. Time to head to the boat!
J-22 World Championships
Aug 20th
I’ve never been in a race with 15+ OCS (on course side) boats and no general recall, but, I guess when there are 105 boats on the line, that isn’t many!!
Nelson, Mike and I went out yesterday and practiced with everyone. We had light and shifty winds and 3 foot seas, so there was a lot of bobbing up and down.
The winds died down to less than 5 knots right at race time after blowing all day from the North.
Not much fun for a practice race but probably the toughest sailing we’ll see for the rest of the week.
Today, for the first day of races we are supposed to see very light and shifting winds from SW changing to NE so we may not even get a race in.
Here is the boat I’m helming: “Changes in Attitude” #1378, Bow # 82
Here is the results page: http://myyc.org/result
More updates to follow!