April 1, 2024
by Earl Thomas #5121
Commodore & Fleet 62 Captain
Commodore & Fleet 62 Captain
Ahoy,
The Harry Wood Regatta was held last Sunday, March 17, with a St Patrick’s Day theme at the Balboa Yacht Club in Newport Beach. The BYC is a beautiful venue and club. The regatta was started years ago to commemorate a great local sailor famous in Southern California. He won this regatta as well as many others. We had nice weather, but experienced light winds from the south, an unusual direction. Everyone launched with the hoist; this seems to be the norm in SoCal. There is a link below with photos from the event. You might see me in a couple of shots. We were wearing green and sailing #5121.
We all received blue, long-sleeve shirts as well as a white 5-gallon bucket with “L14” on it (to use for putting in all the accessories and the needed supplies for a day of sailing). The skippers' meeting was at 11am, first warning at 12 noon, and we finished racing at around 3:15.
Rather than drive down towing my boat, I decided to fly down and borrow John Papadopoulos’ #6300 - using my #5121 sails. (I took my sails down in very large luggage.) JP's 6300 was good, but I hadn’t sailed a 6000 in years. The tiller extension length was a little long for me (it hit the main sheet) and we had trouble bringing down the c/b at the leeward mark 3 times. (It’s a known challenge and frustration on the 6000 series.) Once in the boat, I recalled the problem of keeping the crew forward enough in the boat due to the 6000’s integral forward seat.
I got there early to prep the boat and was first in the water. My crew was Wally Geer, an architect from San Diego's Mission Bay YC. He has a 6000 himself. I didn’t think about it when I decided to go without my boat, but it's difficult to develop a good rapport with your crew, essential for good racing, when dealing with a new boat (for both of you), when it's your first time sailing together, when it's a new venue, and when you have to content with a fickle wind, due to an incoming storm. Needless-to-say, we didn’t do as well as we had hoped.
There were 12 boats in the A fleet and 7 boats in B. Each fleet had 5 races and separate starts. The wind direction changed all afternoon. They moved the marks and the starting line for every race. Competition in the A fleet was difficult with Stu Robertson, Jamie Gregory, Kevin Thomas, Michael Oliver, John Gresham, and John Papadopolus to name a few. Sailing with exactly the minimum boat and crew weight is taken very seriously down there; most boats I saw added weight to get up to minimums -- and didn’t go over by even an ounce.
Newport Beach harbor is a popular destination, filled with boat traffic of every kind especially on a Sunday. Luckily, with my Shoreline experience, I was accustomed to dodging other boats; in this case, other sailboats, motor boats, Duffy’s, party boats, and even a Hornblower brunch cruise ship. The races were held in the large turning basin at the end of Lido Isle. The races were windward-leeward and sometimes twice around. They used horn signals with flags and a 3-minute sequence.
There was food and drinks at the conclusion of the racing and the awards ceremony. The awards were mugs for the top 5 in A and the top 3 in B. Stu Robertson and Erin Batchelor (MBYC) won first in A along with the grand master trophy for highest finisher in the over 60 group. Will Vrooman and Joseph Barbeito (MBYC) got first in the B fleet.
___
Earl Thomas #5121
Fleet 62 Captain
The Harry Wood Regatta was held last Sunday, March 17, with a St Patrick’s Day theme at the Balboa Yacht Club in Newport Beach. The BYC is a beautiful venue and club. The regatta was started years ago to commemorate a great local sailor famous in Southern California. He won this regatta as well as many others. We had nice weather, but experienced light winds from the south, an unusual direction. Everyone launched with the hoist; this seems to be the norm in SoCal. There is a link below with photos from the event. You might see me in a couple of shots. We were wearing green and sailing #5121.
We all received blue, long-sleeve shirts as well as a white 5-gallon bucket with “L14” on it (to use for putting in all the accessories and the needed supplies for a day of sailing). The skippers' meeting was at 11am, first warning at 12 noon, and we finished racing at around 3:15.
Rather than drive down towing my boat, I decided to fly down and borrow John Papadopoulos’ #6300 - using my #5121 sails. (I took my sails down in very large luggage.) JP's 6300 was good, but I hadn’t sailed a 6000 in years. The tiller extension length was a little long for me (it hit the main sheet) and we had trouble bringing down the c/b at the leeward mark 3 times. (It’s a known challenge and frustration on the 6000 series.) Once in the boat, I recalled the problem of keeping the crew forward enough in the boat due to the 6000’s integral forward seat.
I got there early to prep the boat and was first in the water. My crew was Wally Geer, an architect from San Diego's Mission Bay YC. He has a 6000 himself. I didn’t think about it when I decided to go without my boat, but it's difficult to develop a good rapport with your crew, essential for good racing, when dealing with a new boat (for both of you), when it's your first time sailing together, when it's a new venue, and when you have to content with a fickle wind, due to an incoming storm. Needless-to-say, we didn’t do as well as we had hoped.
There were 12 boats in the A fleet and 7 boats in B. Each fleet had 5 races and separate starts. The wind direction changed all afternoon. They moved the marks and the starting line for every race. Competition in the A fleet was difficult with Stu Robertson, Jamie Gregory, Kevin Thomas, Michael Oliver, John Gresham, and John Papadopolus to name a few. Sailing with exactly the minimum boat and crew weight is taken very seriously down there; most boats I saw added weight to get up to minimums -- and didn’t go over by even an ounce.
Newport Beach harbor is a popular destination, filled with boat traffic of every kind especially on a Sunday. Luckily, with my Shoreline experience, I was accustomed to dodging other boats; in this case, other sailboats, motor boats, Duffy’s, party boats, and even a Hornblower brunch cruise ship. The races were held in the large turning basin at the end of Lido Isle. The races were windward-leeward and sometimes twice around. They used horn signals with flags and a 3-minute sequence.
There was food and drinks at the conclusion of the racing and the awards ceremony. The awards were mugs for the top 5 in A and the top 3 in B. Stu Robertson and Erin Batchelor (MBYC) won first in A along with the grand master trophy for highest finisher in the over 60 group. Will Vrooman and Joseph Barbeito (MBYC) got first in the B fleet.
___
Earl Thomas #5121
Fleet 62 Captain
