Jack Gerity and crew on Extreme battle flukey light winds to take this year’s Marmetta Cup!

 

The predicted 10 – 15 knot winds never materialized on Saturday. Instead, eight boats began the race in 5 knots of wind which later died as the boats approached Point Francis Buoy leaving the entire fleet bunched up together. Persistence paid off for some and while rounding Eliza Island, the fleet separated with Extreme, Osprey, Blackfoot and Mora breaking away from the rest toward Dot Island. However, the winds continued to be light and variable with Extreme in the lead and Blackfoot, Osprey and Mora exchanging second, third and fourth place several times. As the afternoon grew later, Mora retired and the first three boats (Extreme, Osprey and Blackfoot) finished by 5:00 p.m. The only other boat reporting a finish before the 6:00 p.m. time limit was Mandalay. The word of the day for this race for most of the competitors was “frustrating”. Click here to view all the results as reported.

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Marmetta Cup to be held on October 1st!

 

The Marmetta cup is a reverse start with Small boats starting first and faster boats starting later. This makes for an exciting boat for boat finish.

If you have not registered for the full season race packet, be sure to register for the race using the Online Registration Form.

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The ABC challenge is coming up on Saturday September 24th!

 

What does “ABC” stand for?

• Anacortes Yacht Club
• Bellingham Yacht Club
• Corintian Yacht Club of Bellingham

What is the ABC Challenge?

This is a fun race to Blakely Island Marina on Saturday Sept. 24^th. Boats from all three clubs will race from Bellingham and Anacortes to a common finish line near the top of Blakely Isl. and meet there for an evening of fun, food and drink.  Mark your calendars and plan to spend the weekend in the islands with your friends from AYC and CYC!

Race will start in Bellingham on 9/24/2011 at 9:30am. Skippers meeting in front of BYC at 8:30am.  Return home at your leisure.

The ABC challenge is a race to Blakely island Marina on Saturday, September 24^th. This is a race that has quite a tradition but has been dormant for the past few years. It is being revived this year and the post race event will be at the Blakely Marina on September 24^th and 25^th.  We have spoken for the Blakely Marina this year and they will take reservations for boats that wish to stay over.  Please make your own reservations directly with the marina and tell them that you are part of the Anacortes / Bellingham group (or they may not take your reservation).

Cruisers that wish to attend are also invited and encouraged and do not need to be in the race to participate in the afternoon/evening activities.

 

Blakely Marina Moorage Contact
Logan Burkhart
Blakely Island Marina

(360)-375-6121

We have the shelter reserved staring at 14:00 hours on Saturday with the wine & cheese potluck starting at 16:00 hours.  This is a BYOB, wine, cheese, hors d’oeuver, and what else you want to bring event.

 

Whether you are cruising or racing, please register on the Anacortes Yacht Club web site at www.anacortesyachtclub.org under event registration.  Also please indicate which yacht club you are with.

 

For the racing participants, here are the race details:

Race Start:

0930 – Saturday, September 24, 2010

This is a joint event between the Anacortes, Bellingham, and Bellingham Corinthian Yacht Clubs. Boats will race from Anacortes and Bellingham around a prescribed course of similar distance to a finish line at Lydia Shoal.

Scoring:
Scoring will be based on the average of the corrected times using time on distance for all three clubs.  The club with the lowest average corrected time of all finishers will be awarded the perpetual trophy for the year

For all boats starting from Anacortes:

Start Line:

• Between R2 and Refinery Dock

Course:

• Keep Viti Rocks to Port
• Keep Sinclair Island to Starboard

Finish Line:

• When Lydia Shoal buoy bears 90 degrees magnetic

Distance:

• 15.32 nm

For all boats starting from Bellingham:

Start Line:

• Located at the outfall buoy- Rabbit Start if no RC on station

Course:

• Keep Sinclair Island to Starboard

Finish Line:

• When Lydia Shoal buoy bears 90 degrees magnetic

Distance:

• 15.57 nm

Time Limit:

• 1600 Hours, September 24th

You are responsible for taking your finish time and reporting it in prior to 8PM September 25th

All racers for all Clubs

Please contact Scott Lindberg for racing registration details prior to September 23.
scott.lindberg@gmail.com or 360.588.6923 (evenings)

This is a great way to finish off the summer and launch into the fall sailing season!

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The Dale Jepsen One-Design Regatta is Around the Corner

 

Another  successful PITCH regatta is in the books and we now turn our attention to the largest dingy sailing regatta in Bellingham…The Dale Jepsen One Design Regatta!  The bay will be filled with dingys on September 17^th and 18^th. If you are not racing and would like to be involved as a volunteer, contact Michael Poulos (regatta chair) at byclaserfleet@yahoo.com

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Governor’s Point Race is on August 14,2011. Start is at 10am. Skipper’s meeting is at 9am in front of the BYC flag pole.

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Etchells Regatta challenges cometitors with a variety of racing conditions…

 

Saturday morning greeted the racers with blustery 15 knot southerly winds and overcast skies.  Winds remained strong for most of the day, moderating to 10 knots for the last race of the day.  New owners Michele and Neil Bennett and Michell Bodtke sailing Voodoo, prudently decided that the conditions were not conducive to learning a new boat and retired for the day after completing the first race.  Other competitors were plagued with equipment issues ranging from fouled spinnakers to broken tillers.  After five races, the competitors were looking forward to burgers and brews at the club.  Craig Cooper and crew sailing Hurrah finished the day in first place followed by Jonathan Knowles and crew in Shamless and Paul Taylor and crew in Attitude tied for second place.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny with light winds resulting in racing being postponed to allow the winds to build out of the southwest. By 10:30 the winds had built to 5-6 knots of breeze which held pretty steady (in velocity) for most of the day.  However, the wind clocked more westerly throughout the day which kept the race committee busy adjusting the course between races.  Gary Baker and crew had Toast moving well in the lighter conditions, finsihing first in the first three races of the day, but had to retire after that as Gary had to go to work.  The race committee was able to get off five races for the day and still finish within the time limit set by the NOR. One throwout was allowed for the regatta and the final results saw no change in the position of the top three boats.  Craig Cooper and crew in Hurrah finished first, followed by Jonathan Knowles and crew in Shameless finishing second and Paul Taylor and crew in Attitude finishing third. Amazingly, Shameless and Attitude were again tied for second place, but Shameless won the tiebreaker with two first place finishes. For all the results click here.

Thanks to all the volunteers!!

• PRO’s Randy Nulle and Scott Wilson and the rest of the race committee for all their hard work for the weekend!
• Joe Bartlett for providing Jamoca as RC boat!
• Jonathan Knowles and the rest of the crew who bartended and cooked burgers for the participants!
• Gary Baker for arranging for the T-Shirts! There are still plenty left for sale if you didn’t get one.
• Tierney Owens for baking the delicious chocolate chip cookies!

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The Spring Series finished up Wednesday night with some exciting racing in a building breeze.

The PHRF division was hotly contested with four different boats winning each of the four races in the series. In the end, Blackfoot sailed by Mick Corcoran and his crew edged out Honker by 2 points to win the series.

On the Etchells side, 8 boats competed in the series and Craig Cooper, sailng John Pedlow’s Hurrah, won the series with bullets in 4 of the 7 races.

Jack Kienast was the PRO for the Spring series. Jack and his crew put on a tremendous  series getting all of the races in the books and everyone safely back to the harbor.

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Dinghy Racing Registration Is Now Available!

 

The 2011 Dinghy Racing Registration form is now available by clicking here, or you can select the “Dinghy Racing Registration Form – 2011″ link under the “Racing Links” section.

Racing starts May 4, 2011 with the Pitch Pole series!

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Osprey Takes Vendovi Island Race

 

Osprey debuts with a bullet in the Vendovi Isl. race! A fleet of nine boats had a Quick sail around Vendovi Isl. on a beautiful day last weekend. All boats got through the course in about 3 hours and were back in Bellingham almost in time for lunch!

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Race Results Are Now Available!

 

Results are now posted on the web site. Thanks to Terry T. for getting them posted. Just click the results tab above!

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Racing Season Is Underway!

 

Racing season kicks off with Honker leading the way!

Wednesday  racing got underway this week with 10 boats on the starting line!

A brisk 12 kt wind blew consistently throughout the evening and all crew members reportedly had a great sail.

Rich Veech and the crew of Honker won the PHRF class and Craig Cooper and crew won the Etchells division

 

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March 10, 2011 Sail Fleet Meeting

 

Sail fleet meeting notes

The sail fleet held its 2nd all fleet meeting on March 10th.

Here are the key points that were decided:

There will be one throw out race per series; there will be no educational races as all racers agreed PHRF racing is inherently educational. Race series name and schedule will remain unchanged. For PHRF,  NB  and Spring will have 4 races each. Summer  will have 5 and HAN will have 6. The Boat of the Year Committee presented criteria for calculations that was discussed and revised to include language for Off Shore races meeting PIYI Category 1 requirements and Non Off Shore Distance races would meet Categroy 2 requirements and be greater than 30 miles in distance. Terry Tavelli will be designated scorer. Mick Corcoran will be awards & trophy chair.  A discussion of the Time on Time scoring protocol for Wed night series was held. It was agreed that the fleet would like the ‘B’ factor included; Terry T. will research to determine if the scoring database can accommodate this before the end of March.  Dick Grimshaw is Race Committee Coordinator.  Additional volunteers are needed.  He has set up a SIGN UP FORM for both Tue and Wed nights.  All levels of volunteers are needed: mark boat drivers and helpers, Race Officers and helpers. Encourage friends and loved ones.  Dick has also set up a crew exchange on Google documents. All BYC race participants are required to submit PHRF certificates if appropriate and proof of insurance to Neil Bennett, PHRF Handicapper and SF Secretary c/o BYC office before start of series, or will not be scored. Discussion of ‘on the water’ SI and course changes was held; Randy will research and submit language for consideration. Johnathon Knowles announced that Bar prices have been lowered, especially Pitchers, so all are encouraged to participate in post racing eating and drinking. Race participation is open to all Whatcom County racers who purchase a BYC Race Packet - keel boats and dinghies.  Mick will coordinate with Terry  to submit weekly results to the Bellingham Herald. There will be a BYC open house on April 9, 2011 to introduce prospective racers to the Fleet.

Want to start racing sailboats on Bellingham bay? Check out the crew pool exchange site

Sign up now for this season!

Sailing fleet meeting #2 is scheduled for this Thursday, March 10th.  7 pm at BYC. All interested people are welcome to attend.

 

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January 27, 2011 Sail Fleet Meeting

 

The sail fleet had its first meeting of the season on January 27. Here are the key points that were decided.

1)      Race packet fees for 2011-Tue night $70.00; Wed night $130.00 This is a reduction in both cases from last year.

2)      The fleet agreed to participate in ABC challenge with Anacortes and Corinthian YCs

3)      Confirmed reciprocal arrangement with CYC will remain the same as 2010 (CYC Thursday for BYC weekend distance, both free with a paid race packet from the other club)

4)      Pt. Roberts will remain an overnight non stop race and was moved to June 25/26

5)      Sucia Island race will remain August 6/7 despite conflicting with summer Shaw Island

6)      The Etchells fleet would like to continue to have 2 races per night when there is enough daylight.

7)      No March Frostbite racing

9)      Boat of the Year criteria will continue to include ‘travel’ regattas and which races are in which  point categories will be more clearly defined in the new Race packet. We will also add a fleet voted sportsmanship element to this trophy

10)  Elected Positions

Since the meeting, I am delighted to announce that Richard Grimshaw has stepped up to fill the role of Race Committee coordinator for the 2011 season. He will make sure that all RC vessels are staffed each week with qualified people. I know that he is already assembling his volunteers and developing quite a list so if you would like to see the racing action from up close on the water, let Richard know that you are willing to help and be part of his team. It’s a lot of fun and a great learning experience. Thanks Dick!

Only a little over a month till our first Wednesday night race on April 6th!

See you on the water,

Randy Nulle

 

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Awards Banquet a success!

 

The racing year culminated Saturday night with the annual awards banquet. The three racing fleets each crowned their champions for the year and individual awards were announced.

1. Secretary and PHRF Handicapper – Neil Bennett (thanks Neil for taking these notes and for already filing all of the race permits with the CG! Yeah Neil!)
2. Protest Chair – Eric Yaremko (Eric is returning for another year as incumbent. Thanks Eric for some very late nights!)
3. Results/Awards – vacant
4. RC Coordinator – vacant

• Lily Grimshaw dominated the Laser fleet
• Dave Steffan won the Etchells fleet on Callipygian
• Mick Corcoran received PHRF Boat of the year with Blackfoot
• Dave Steffan also won the award for best overall Wednesday night performance for all boats.

Congratulations to all!

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Round the County 2010

 

Check out Neil Bennett’s race report from RTC ’10, with an awesome video by Ray Poorman. Illusionist, Vitesse, Hravn, Flying Circus and Blackfoot were all there to represent for the BYC.