Sail Sequim Bay

SBYC members Jim Conachen and Rudy Heesels are building the first two Hadrons in the United States. UK designer Keith Callaghan describes the Hadron as:

… a singlehander which will fulfil the requirements of the experienced dinghy sailor who is perhaps, like myself, getting on a bit, but who nonetheless demands good performance, and without too much pain. In other words, the boat must have impeccable handling characteristics, be comfortable to sit out and to sit in, easy to right after a capsize, and of course be a joy to sail.

From Callaghan’s website:

A lot of thought has gone into making sailing the Hadron dinghy a pleasant and rewarding experience. Here are some of the main features:

• The performance-orientated but forgiving hull form and rig produces a versatile, manageable dinghy which can be sailed on lake, river or sea, with good performance to windward and also offwind. An easy performance dinghy for novices. Excellent handling and exhilarating performance for experienced sailors.

• Hadron has a long, low bow tank and aft of this buoyancy is provided by a fore and aft compartment along the centreline. This configuration will ensure that the boat floats low in the water when on its side, thus facilitating righting. The boat floats on its side with the centreboard just clear of the water, and when righted retains a modest amount, which can be evacuated via the transom flaps within a minute or so, even in light conditions.

• The high boom provides plenty of headroom for ease of tacking.

• The large, deep cockpit area and ergonomic side decks provide a comfortable sitting out position, and allows 2 people to be aboard for leisure sailing. The central buoyancy compartment acts as a useful seat in light conditions.

• The hull has 3 separate buoyancy compartments. One acts as a dry storage compartment at forward end of cockpit for gear and picnic items.

• Rig controls are led to cockpit sides for easy adjustment afloat.

• The flared hull, good freeboard and wide gunwhales minimise spray and keep the crew dry in all but the windiest conditions.

It will be interesting to see how the Hadrons compete with V-15s and Lasers during this year’s Small Boat Series. Stay tuned …

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It’s been a wonderful April … the weather cooperated and we had a lot of fun at the Orcas, Silverdale and Port Townsend regattas. The SHS team has been racing in much larger fleets against varsity teams that are “peaking” as they get ready for the NWISA championship in early May. I think a couple of egos have been lightly bruised by the experience, but there are few things that will make a sailor better than tight competition followed by debriefing sessions and chalk-talks. Lots of evidence that key lessons related to starting, mark roundings and boat-handling are being internalized.

One more NWISA regatta to go, and then it’s on to the SBYC Junior YC season including an open house at John Wayne Marina on June 2nd.

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Three top-3 finishes in an 11-team, 8-race series was enough to earn a combined Sequim/Port Townsend JV team a fifth-place overall in the annual WWU / Lakewood fleet regatta held yesterday on Lake Whatcom. Rain, sleet and snow did not dampen the spirits of our team as they sailed Alphas for the first time against forty other sailors from Anacortes, Bellingham, Central Kitsap, Everett, Friday Harbor, Orcas and SYC.

Thanks to the Port Townsend High School sailing team for joining us at the regatta: Reid and Grant really enjoyed racing with Anda and Miguel. Look for sail numbers 11, 5 and 6 for great scenes of them starting well and leading the fleet around the marks during several races. The triple rainbow that appeared during the last race was an added bonus:

Our next regatta is March 24th-25th on Orcas Island. We will be taking between 4-6 sailors and everyone is looking forward to the toga dance at Orcas Island High School on Saturday evening.

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Sequim High School sailors Grant Shogren, Robert Tadina and Reid Henry competed yesterday at the NWISA opening regatta hosted by the Seattle Yacht Club on Portage Bay. Sailing Vanguard 15′s against Olympia, Anacortes and Everett high school teams, the trio placed second in the Silver fleet, missing first overall by only two points after sixteen races. The team sailed consistently in a shifty southerly breeze, recording a total of 4 firsts, 10 seconds, 1 third and 1 fourth-place finishes. Skippers Shogren and Henry drove their boats well, with excellent straight-line speed and good starts, especially in the latter races.

Highlights of the regatta are on YouTube. Our next regatta is March 17th in Bellingham at the WWU Lakewood facility on Whatcom Lake. The SHS sailing team is open to students on the Olympic Peninsula in 8th-12th grade.

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We have a full schedule of activities planned for 2012.  We’re always looking for new sailors (and their parents) who want to join us on Sequim Bay.

SBYC Junior YC / SHS Sailing Team – 2012 schedule

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2011 was a great year for the SBYC Junior Yacht Club – we had an incredible amount of fun.  To make 2012 even better, I decided to survey our members and their parents to understand the activities of interest for this year.  The results were a bit surprising, with the top 5 being as follows:

#1 – Big Boat Racing Series. A number of our juniors already race on SBYC senior member’s boats.  The races are exciting and dramatic.  With the SBYC sail fleet increasing in size, it should be easy to place our older kids in regular crew positions during the Spring Series and Duck Dodge.

#2  – “Sail-Aways”.  We had a blast at Lake Crescent over Labor Day weekend and a brisk sail on Port Angeles Harbor in June.  The takeaway is that we need to do these more often.  Perhaps a trip to Mystery Bay on Indian Island or a day sail / dinner in Gig Harbor. Some blast reaching off of Point Wilson would also be a hit …

#3 – Overnight Races/Cruises.  Last month SBYC member Dave Spencer gave a fantastic presentation to the Juniors about a group of high school students who chartered (with adult supervision) his Beneteau 42s7, Kipper Kite, on a sailing expedition through BC up to SE Alaska.  Nothing appeals like raw adventure, and several of our kids are ready to study, mentally prepare, then poke their heads out of Sequim Bay into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  A good opportunity may be the SBYC Mackaye Harbor Pursuit Race scheduled for July. We might also do a simple cruise such as an overnight on the buoys at Sequim Bay State Park.

#4 – Learning to Sail.  There’s typically a split between the kids in our group who have mastered sailing and are confident in their boat-handling, and those who still need to get their bearings and have some un-pressured “tiller-time”.  A focus this year needs to be on peer mentoring as well as working some basic sailing lessons into each of our Friday Fun Sails.  “Learning to Race” also scored fairly high.

#5 – Small Boat Series.  In 2011 we learned that holding a small boat series on Sequim Bay in August is compelling.  We found an ideal location for the course on the north end of the Bay where the wind fills in each afternoon.  It’s largely unaffected by the tidal current that runs past Middle Ground.  We’ll open up the series to the public this year in an effort to get even more participation.  We’ll also start later in the afternoon to ensure more wind.  There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t get to a high-water mark of 10-15 boats in a race (the max was 8 last year).

Not in the top 5, but of significant importance to some of our members, was high school sailing (NWISA) as well as sailing in the Lido 14 Nationals which will be hosted this July in Anacortes by Lido 14 Fleet 78.  We’ll continue to create opportunities for our hard-core racers to mix it up in competitive venues.  We’ll also send teams out again on the Northwest Youth Racing Circuit to race Lasers, V-15′s and (perhaps) Optis.

At the end of the day it’s all about experimentation and maximizing “smiles per hour”.

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Fantastic end to the small boat series.  Great wind conditions, a decent course and a complete turnout with 8 boats and 13 sailors on the line.  Starts were incredibly tight as seen in this video titled “The Weave”:

Congratulations to “A” fleet winners Adam DiDomizio (1st) and Austin Henry (2nd), and to “B” fleet winner Sarah Henry (1st).  Adam DeFilippo received the Junior Sportsmanship award for being the youngest skipper to complete all of the races.  Special thanks to Mary & Joe DeFilippo, Curt Miller and Virginia Shogren for their assistance with running the series.  Here are the final results, with the full details available through this link.

Easily the best day yet for shooting video, with the RC boat being an ideal location for filming starts, finishes and downwind legs:

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Fourteen Thistle teams from Seattle, Tacoma, Portland and Eugene descended upon John Wayne Marina this weekend for the 2011 Sequim Bay Thistle Regatta.  I had the good fortune to run the chase boat and set some fairly long (and reasonably square) courses in the middle of the Bay.  This was some of the tightest fleet racing I’ve seen in years, with aggressive starts and compressed leeward mark roundings. Thistles are fast – they have big mainsails and spinnakers — and require expert boat-handling skills. I made close to 90 minutes of HD video and will consolidate and post when time permits.  A slideshow is available here.

Kudos to local PRO Dale Dunning for pulling off a solid nine-race series in challenging wind conditions.

The final four races of the SBYC Small Boat Sailing Series will be held next Saturday.

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Challenging wind conditions for races 5-8.  Because it was an unusually cool day, the sea breeze took longer than forecast to arrive. At least the wind we had was from a consistent direction.Provisional results (note: adjusted for wind scale), with individuals races available here:

Thistles are in town next weekend for their annual regatta.

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Took a break last week to spend time with my sister and three nephews who were visting from New York state.  The fishing at Sekiu was absolutely “lights out” — we limited on pink salmon in about three hours.

This fishery seems to be amazingly healthy, with over six million pinks forecast to enter Puget Sound over the next couple of months.  Thousands will make their way up the Dungeness River to spawn.

The “hiking”, of course, was more of the Vanguard 15 variety, although we did spend a nice afternoon at Mt. Rainier.

Racing resumes this Saturday …

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