THE SAILING BEAT
This Monday, April 23 marked the second race of the Dahlgren Yacht Club (DYC)
racing season. Monday's race was the PHRF Spring Low Point Series race #2.
Conditions were beautiful and sunny at the start with a S-SW breeze at 6-10
knots. The 7 boats at the start were Ol'Blue, Melee, Frigate, Honey-Do,
Radio-Flyer, Destiny, and Night Moose. The 1657 start went off without a
hitch with no boats over early. Monday's racecourse was TA, a 3.77 nautical
mile triangular course. The race started with Ol'Blue in the lead on the
first leg with Frigate, Melee, and Night Moose closely following. Both Melee
and Night Moose didn't make the first mark, tacked away, and got tangled
up like a "bunch of buggers" at the mark costing dearly by at least a finishing
place or two. Ol'Blue led to the second mark but had to douse their spinnaker
midway when it became unruly. Frigate gained and rounded first followed by
Ol'Blue and then Radio Flyer who had been coming up from behind like a freight
train. The third leg was a reaching drag race to the finish and first over
the line was Radio-Flyer followed by Frigate and Ol'Blue. Once handicap
corrections were applied, the top finishing places were 1st Ol'Blue, 2nd
Frigate and 3rd Radio-Flyer. After securing the boats and gear, skippers
and crew hung around to reminisce and celebrate their victories and losses!
This Monday, April 30 will be race #3 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 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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