THE SAILING BEAT
On Saturday, June 9th, the DYC ran a sailing regatta in conjunction with
the Colonial Beach Summer Festival and the Colonial Beach Yacht Club. The
regatta was held in the Potomac River just off the Colonial Beach Municipal
Pier. The regatta originally had 2 races planned followed by a "race-off"
between DYC and CYC. Due to dying conditions, only the first race of the
regatta was conducted and CYC called off the "race-off" due to a lack of
wind. For the race that did happen, conditions were beautiful and sunny at
the start with a N-NE breeze at 3-6 knots. The 7 boats at the start were Melee,
Night Moose, Frigate, Ol'Blue, All Ridy Then, Destiny, and Lively Lady.
Due to a wind shift, there was a last minute course change from a triangular
course to a 3.4 nautical mile Windward - Leeward course. The race started
with all boats on a beat to the windward mark, "D". Conditions were dying
as the first boats approached the mark in a strong downriver current. Frigate
squeaked around the mark first and headed towards the finish line. All others
watched in despair as they were swept down river away from the mark by the
current in the wind dying. Melee managed to gain ground in light air and
make it around the mark about 30 minutes after Frigate and Night Moose rounded
the mark about another 30 minutes after that. The only other boat to make
it around the mark was Destiny. Ol'Blue, All Ridy Then, and Lively Lady
couldn't make it around and withdrew from the race. Frigate finished in 1st
followed by Melee 2nd, Night Moose 3rd, and Destiny 4th. During the tail
end of the race, the river was descended on by a fleet of power speedboats
competing in a "Poker Run" which had started earlier in the day upriver in
Northern Virginia. They all came flying by in 3 or 4 waves of boats just
screaming through. Overall it was a frustrating race but still better than
not being out on the water!
This coming year will continue to be exciting so bring your boat out to race
or just show up and crew. See you out on the water! Jibe Ho.
Josh Colwell, DYC Race Governor, skippers Night Moose berthed at Dahlgren
Marine Works and is an Image Scientist with Boeing-Autometric. He can be
reached at jcolwell@autometric.com
Page Last Updated 1/25/2023
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