THE SAILING BEAT

This Monday, April 16 marked the first race of the Dahlgren Yacht Club (DYC) racing season. Monday's race was the PHRF Spring Low Point Series race #1. Conditions for the race were cloudy initially with a 3 knot breeze from the north. Thirty minutes into the race the clouds moved off to the northeast allowing the sun to come back out making for a beautiful sunset. The 4 boats at the start were Ol'Blue, Melee, Frigate, and Honey-Do. The 5:01 pm start went off without a hitch, with all skippers adjusting to the new starting sequence admirably. Mondays race course was TB, a 5.33 nautical mile triangular course. The race was uneventful due to the light wind conditions and the first leg of the race was a downwind leg. Melee picked up were she left off last season by nailing the start and being first over the line, with the rest of the fleet following in close pursuit. After an hour and half of racing and with Ol' Blue in the lead, the light breeze dropped down to no breeze and race course was shorten by 1.7 nautical mile. Unfortunately for all the participants, the race had to be officially abandoned when none of the competitors was able to complete the race in the maximum allotted time. While it was disappointing to abandon the race, everyone enjoyed the time spent on the water and a valuable lesson on course selection was learn by the race committee. Monday, April 23 will be race #2 of the PHRF Spring Low Point Series. Skippers or crew wishing to participate in the PHRF Monday Night series, or the daysail / centerboard series should contact the DYC for details. In addition to the PHRF and Centerboard series, DYC will be running a race during the Colonial Beach Festival on June 9 and is hosting invitational events including a Daysail regatta on June 23 (originally planned for June 9), the St. Clements Island Pursuit race on September 15-16, and the "Under the Guns Regatta" on October 7. DYC is planning to run a novice sailing / racing series for those wanting to learn but not quite ready for prime time. Again, DYC is looking for people willing to crew on several local and newly arrived boats so anyone interested in participating in any of these events should contact the race committee.

This coming year will 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.

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