High water and impassible roads couldn’t keep the Laser Masters from sailing this weekend. Extremely high tides due to a harvest moon and a Nor’easter off the coast made Fishing Bay Road nearly impassible in 6-8+ inches of water at times. The road and Fishing Bay dock were still underwater at some of the low tides over the weekend.
On Saturday everyone arrived plenty early ahead of the mid-morning high tide and rigged and waited for the right wind. After a 2-hour postponement the wind filled in and 36 boats filed out to get in some races in the afternoon.
The wind filled in out of the SSE for 3 races with the first being won by Gavin …
The 38th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship is just over a week away and the event is set to feature all of the things it is known for – great racing, amazing food, dedicated volunteers and a fantastic group of competitors who are fun to sail and hang out with. This year competitors are coming from as far away as Florida, New Jersey, and beyond and also includes closer by contingents from Annapolis and the tidewater area. A couple competitors are even tuning up for the regatta by sailing the Laser Masters North American Championship in Marblehead MA this coming weekend. Those that aren’t tuning up in Marblehead will be sailing on Saturday in the Laser Fall Regatta at FBYC …
FBYC would like to welcome Laser Masters back to Deltaville for the 38th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship on October 12-13. Registration is now open.
Why do Laser sailors come back to FBYC year after year?
Alain Vincey's famously fantastic regatta dinner
Plenty of room to rig and launch
An open racing area with little power boat traffic
On Sunday Race Committee recruits got some hands on practice starting races and operating Mr. Roberts. David Clark and Rick Klein led the class and were eventually banished to the bow of Mr. Roberts as the recruits got comfortable with the procedures.
6 Lasers were there to practice starts for the RC and simulate some real-world start situations like when boats are over early or when a signal boat drags anchor. Thanks to Mike Toms for organizing and Finn Ciszewski, Britt Drake, Jess Hardin, Jon Deutsch and Paul Almany for coming out and sailing.
Saturday gave us probably the nicest weather we've had in a long time for an opening day for the One Design Division at FBYC. 6 Lasers sailed 5 races in a breeze that built from 8 to 15+ knots under partly cloudy skies. Junior Finn Ciszeweski sailed a standard rig sail for the first time and was very fast downwind and competitive all the way around the course. Dave Tabor joined the club this spring and was sailing his first Laser regatta at the club - welcome to the fleet! Guests Trip Ivey and Britt Drake made the trip from Richmond and VA Beach to join us for the day. Mike Toms executed his signature move by port tacking the fleet …
The Laser Fleet finished their season on Sunday at the Laser Frostbite Regatta that turned out to be a perfect fall day of air and water temperature around 60 degrees. The wind started out of the east at 13 and shifted around to the north and dropped to 8 by the time 5 races were sailed.
14 sailors attended including guests from Alexandria, Washington DC, Eastern North Carolina, Virginia Beach and Richmond. PRO Henry Latell and his crew of Bob Fleck and Jerry Latell ran the races and kept up with the changing winds.
James Jacob was the most consistent of the group winning 4 out of 5 races. Charlie Brewer was a close 2nd overall winning 1 race and …
Fifty-One Lasers were in Deltaville at Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the Laser Masters Atlantic Coast Championship this weekend where Rob Hallawell (USSCMC) won the overall title. Thursday night the remnants of Hurricane Michael roared through eastern Virginia knocking boats down in the dry sail area and leaving the club without power until Sunday morning. With some ingenuity, creativity and resourcefulness from Brian Akram, Eric, Mayo Tabb and Bob Fleck – generators were wired into the critical systems to inflate marks, lower boat lifts, refrigerate food, power kitchen appliances, light the bathrooms and power the water system.
The sailors were undeterred by the lack of lights, cold showers, no running water in residences they were staying at and not a single …
The Laser Masters Atlantic Coast Championship kicks off this weekend with the largest single fleet of the year approaching 50 boats sailing in the waters of the Piankatank. Competitors are coming from as far as Michigan, Colorado, New York and Canada for the not-to-be-missed annual laser masters regatta at FBYC.
This years uninvited guest is hurricane Michael that due to skirt the area in the early morning hours Friday as a strong storm and should be mostly passed by the time competitors are arriving Friday evening.
As always the regatta features an amazing meal of filet minon and salmon by fleet member Alain Vincey and Rick Klein is back as PRO with a great crew.
Laser Masters sailors are coming from across the country to the Laser Masters Atlantic Coast Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club October 13-14. Over 30 boats are already registered hailing from New York, Michigan, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC. FBYC’s Masters events feature great sailing, an easy to launch location, experience race committee and a not-to-be-missed dinner by FBYC’s own Laser-sailing chef – Alain Vincey. From Apprentices to Legends – there will be competition at all levels.
Register before Tuesday to receive a discounted registration fee!
Want to see what FBYC Laser Masters Regattas are like? Check out this video:
There was a great turnout for the Laser Spring Regatta - 11 standards and 8 radials were treated to a beautiful day of sailing with 5 races run. RESULTS
photo by Mark Mills. Thanks to Tom Roberts for heading up Race Committee.
Memorial Day Weekend Laser Fleet Captain Charlie Brewer hosted about a dozen sailors for a Laser clinic at the club. Look for them taking to the water and lasering soon! Thanks for running the class Charlie!
Fishing Bay Yacht Club has been selected as the host of the 2018 Laser Masters Atlantic Coast Championship Regatta – October 13-14. FBYC has been running a Laser Masters regatta annually since 1981 and the 37th edition will be the 6th time as host of the Masters Atlantic Coast Championship. FBYC regularly attracts sailors from across the mid-Atlantic from Florida to Canada and has included past world and regional champions.
Last year’s edition featured 44 sailors with FBYC’s Len Guenther and Charlie Brewer finishing in the top 10.
Len, Charlie, Jon, Frank, Mike, Ron, Alain and the rest of the FBYC Laser fleet are looking forward to hosting again in 2018 with Rick Klein serving as PRO …
It was great weekend all around at the 36th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship where 44 sailors had 7 races over two days in a variety of conditions and Rob Hallawell from Milford Connecticut won the championship. Sailors from as far away as Toronto and Miami began arriving at Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville Virginia mid afternoon Friday as the weather began to turn and cloud up with some misty rain. That didn’t deter some hearty sailors from going for a practice sail.
High tides on Friday night and Saturday made driving down Fishing Bay Road more of an aquatic adventure and cars queued up at the hose stations for wash downs much like sailboats do after racing …
Fishing Bay Yacht Club will host the 36th Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship this October. FBYC's Laser Fleet will welcome sailors from around the mid-Atlantic and beyond for great sailing, great food, and great friends.
Alain Vincey will be back to put on another great dinner, and our RC team, led by PRO Rick Klein, will be back again to put on solid racing.
FBYC's Laser Fleet introduced a number of new and returning sailors to the Laser. The clinic covered basic boat setup, some basic manuvers and on the water instruction. Mike Toms and Jon Deutsch led the effort.
This Saturday the Laser Fleet will be conducting a clinic and training day starting at 10am. Jon Deutsch, Mike Toms and other fleet members will be there to help anyone move people forward in sailing, no matter their skill level. Whether you hope to race or play, this clinic can help make Laser sailing more fun and safer.
The clinic will be started at 10AM and run for a little over 2 hours.
WHAT'S COVERED:
boat rigging - How to put a basic boat together, how to do some of the 'new' rigging, must-have rigging versus the nice-to-have stuff.
Safety - how to launch a boat from the beach, how to recover, how to tow a laser, how to …
There aren’t many things to look forward to in getting old – but Laser Masters sailing is definitely one of them. This was my first time sailing Florida Laser Masters week having just qualified a few months ago. The week consists of 3 events – Florida Masters in West Palm, Masters Midweek Madness in Sarasota and Masters Midwinters in Tampa. For over a decade now I’ve been running the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club and so I was familiar with masters sailing in general. I’ve also traveled to numerous ILCA-NA events from ACC to Nationals to North Americans and was eager to try out Masters week. Unfortunately, my schedule would …
We've got 40 boats registered and a few more expected to join us for some great sailing and food. As always - we've got a great group of volunteers and we thank them for their work to make this happen. And to the sailors - thanks for putting this on your calendar every year and making this part of your fall.
Here's a few things to know as you make your way to Deltaville:
PARKING Anyone arriving on Friday is more than welcome to go …
We had a great day for sailing on Saturday for our Laser Fall Regatta. We had 7 sailors out and we took out 6 Lasers and a RIB. Each sailor took two turns running the races while everyone else sailed. Jon jumped from boat to boat and sailed a different boat each race. We did 14 total races in just over 3 hours right off the dock in a 4-6 kt north east breeze. We used Ruthana Jenkin's auto horn to run a 3 minute horn start so all the RC person had to do was hit start, call the over earlys, and record the finishes.
