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

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