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| August 2010 --- J30 North American
Championship Regatta, Marblehead |
 There were serious concerns of
competing at a national regatta in the MIDDLE of the summer as we had no racing
crew trained in Newport and not much time to cast our nets.
The serious competitors have core crew
working together for years. Faced with only 3 Newport crew, Vee Jay was able to
find crew from other J30s not racing in Marblehead: two from Detroit's
Wildcat and two from Long Island Sound's Belle
Faster.
Three days of racing
... with the standard Vee Jay program of using the first day of a regatta
[Friday] with new crew ... as a practice session, and to absorb local knowledge
such as currents. So OK near bottom of pack.
Saturday we kicked it up four notches;
and on Sunday we raced in the "top" half of the fleet of 17.
[photo of
Vee Jay flying borrowed Spinnaker in Vee Jay colors from Belle Faster
#537]
Additional
action photos of Vee Jay are here.
 Vee Jay had set the challenge to
get to the top half of a race, and the crew met that challenge on the longest
and only race on the final day of the Regatta. Had we all raced together
starting earlier in the season ... this crew would have been near the top for
all races.
[It would also have helped if
the Race Committee hadn't elected to stack 4 races on Friday, just because they
guessed incorrectly there would be no wind on Saturday and Sunday. Out of 7
races, the only light wind race was the first race on Friday ... with wind
starting at 5 but climbing to 30 kt gusts by end of the fourth race that
day.]
Ron [J30
Vee Jay]; Nate [J30 Wildcat]; Zack [J30 Wildcat]; Chris [J30 Belle Faster],
Lisa [J30 Vee Jay]; Michael [J30 Belle Faster]; Vic [J30 Vee Jay]
More Crew photos as they all looked really good in Vee
Jay Red!
Vee Jay NA2010 on
YouTube:
Nate
Dousing Spin
Double
Team Start
Can the
air get any lighter and still have this kind of action?
We thought we were clear, but
then again. |
| August 2010 --- 100-mile Overnight Return
Delivery to Newport |
| Return delivery to Newport saw
Vee Jay leave Marblehead at 2 am Monday in convoy with Blue Meanie. Ron said he
would like to see if he could do it single handed with Skipper Vic just taking
it easy ... so off we went with marginal wind and autohelm for over six hours.
Ron raised sails when the wind picked up and we were joined south of Scituate
by Rhapsody. At Cape Cod Canal the wind was 20 kts directly on the nose and the
current was with us ... which created a really tight chop and slow going.
Arrived Newport after 10 pm ... a long tiring trip for us. |
J30 Rhapsody flying along with Vee Jay in CCC |
J30 Blue Meanie off shore at sunrise |
Keeping traffic in check. |
|
Ron raising Blade |
Just
hanging out. |
| July 2010 --- 100-mile Overnight Delivery to
Marblehead |
 Goal was to move Vee Jay the
weekend before the August 2010 North American J30 Regatta -- so Mikko and Lisa
could get their first overnight delivery logged.
The Game was for Skipper Vic to keep
hands off and let the two of them do all the work. A great plan thought up by
the Skipper himself.
So 20 hours after
leaving Newport, the two got us to Marblehead right on schedule. The
trip was 100 miles ~north, with Vee Jay sailing through Buzzards Bay and half
the Cape Cod Canal.
At sunset however,
just at the Railway Bridge on the CCC, the wind died and the second half of the
trip was mostly autohelm and motor.
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| This
mainsail is heavy! |
Setting
Genny up. |
Cleveland
Ledge Light right where it should be. |
Driving
with Autohelm. |
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| Dropping
Genny at RR Bridge. |
Wrapping
delivery main up. |
"How many
channels do they need to get to the CCC?" |
"Go 5 hours
this course, then wake me up." |
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| Only the
passenger gets
refreshments.
Sunrise at arrival at MBHD. |
|
| July 2010 --- NB Yachting Association Top Gun
Regatta |
  In the fleet at
Narragansett Bay Yachting Association's Top Gun Regatta were special starts for
a couple of 12Ms --Columbia and American Eagle; and five J30s looking for
practice before the J30 North American Regatta in Marblehead early August.
This time of year the wind up bay is
generally light in hot spells, but after a couple hours of hanging out at Half
Way Rock ... the wind filled in and one race started. We should have had a hint
that something was funny when Columbia called in to the Race Committee and said
they were going home early because of the weather on the radar.
[Photo off Vee Jay's bow going home. Photo of another boat at Newport
Bridge about the time we were there, taken by NYYC race photographer Daniel
Forster on his way back to Newport] |
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| Crew: Ron, Vic, Lisa,
Mikko and Kevin |
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| J30 Good News and Columbia
waiting for the wind to settle. |
|
| July 2010 --- East Greenwich YC Annual Regatta |
 We planned
to use this regatta to get some of the crew from J30 Wildcat out of Michigan
familiar with Vee Jay as they had joined the Vee Jay North American Crew.
Not quite sure whether Nate and
Zack enjoyed Newport night life better than the 12-mile pursuit race in upper
Narragansett Bay. But it certainly was an interesting day for them with a long
spin run. |
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| Nate |
Ron |
Mikko |
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| Vic |
Lisa |
Zack |
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| Bill, visiting skipper of J30
Rhapsody |
Falcon ... our
competition. |
Nate -- overboard |
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| July 2010 --- Last Sail of Vee Jay's First
Foredecker |
 It had
been 18 months since Bruce passed away, but we had to duplicate Vee Jay in
Newport. It had to be his favorite month to sail (July), with one of the NYYC
Rolex Regattas simultaneously being held off R2. The wind had to be out of the
SW and 15-20 kts., the Bud had to be really cold, and it had to be Sunny and
Hot.
Here's how
Vee Jay did it. |
| June 2010 --- Newport to Bermuda Start, Castle Hill |
The Vee Jays have attended a number of
Newport to Bermuda Race starts over the years ... this was the first for Vee
Jay 2. Not much to say ... you sort of had to be there. Clifford and Emilio
kept watch so we sort of didn't get in anyone's way ... too much. We hung out
between R6 Castle Hill and R4 Brenton Reef. Coast Guard only looked hard at us
once. Spectator fleet seemed a lot smaller than two years ago.
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| JUNE 2010 Gould Island Training Program
[ Vee Jay NPT Program GI ] |
Saturday: Sunny with Mikko driver
training |
The Gould
Island training program involves circumnavigating Gould Island in Narragansett
Bay ... Used for crew skill building on relatively flat protected water, and to
develop sailing skills at the procedural memory stage.
Part of the GI program also
involves Challenges including a double handed program where Cap'n Vic stands
back and coaches the crew hands off, such as the Lisa/Jane Double Handed trip
in fog. In this case sailing in part with no visibility and navigating with
GPS. |
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| Sunday: Heavy to
light Fog, windy -- Lisa and Jane double-handed round Gould Island, also
checking out guy who seemed to be too exhausted in the middle of the bay ...
till he saw the crew checking him out, thereupon hauling himself back up on
board to prove he was "OK." |
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| June 2010 --- Leukemia Cup Newport |
 This was the first Narragansett Bay
J30 OD regatta of 2010... with Six J30s on line for our division start:
Nemesis, Rhapsody, Falcon, Wicked, Good News and Vee Jay [finishing in that order].
12+ mile race starting in marginal
visibility fog, which partially burned off. See how well Vee Jay's "Fuzzy
Wuzzy" spinaker stands out against the white spin boats in the fog.
Crew: Mikko, Kev, Joe,
Mike, Ron, and Vic
Vee Jay was at a little
disadvantage with new crew and recent race practice cancels for no wind,
lightning, and fog. We won't mention that Vee Jay's inventory of beat up sails
... may be ok for practice but a bit shy for real competition ...
We are having more cancels than action
here. A tornado watch was in effect during the race in parts of the state
nearby ... remember RI is a small state. Host was NYYC.
Nevertheless Vee Jay did accumulate three new You
Tube videos as a base to see how much we can fine tune our operations over the
next couple of months.
Start of Leukimia
Cup
First spin set
for new crew
Vee
Jay vs. Falcon
[You won't see videos like these from the
NYYC's fleet of six Swan 42s, also working their own division
start.]
Headed back into
Newport Harbor off Rose Island Lighthouse. |
| May 2010 --- Getting Vee Jay 2 into Water |
 On schedule:
the transformation from "Daisy
Cutter" July 2009 -- choked by a sea of weeds -- to "Vee Jay 2" -- a
fighting machine. [Ok don't Laugh]
Vee Jay was launched, floated, and
moveable -- sail/diesel. Three club races this month, but three others
cancelled because of conditions. New crew in and out and in and out. Vee Jay's
version of
Pick
UP Basketball with the coach too busy sailing the boat rather than
coaching. Need to continue to build crew base.
  The schedule combines Tuesday night
Jamestown YC races with Wednesday night Newport YC races ... with some practice
sessions on the weekends.
Delivery Crew to
NPT included Lisa and Ron ... a calm, peaceful delivery with nothing else going
wrong. |
| Vee Jay Program
A |
Bruce ...
473
Bernie ... 305
Bill ...
34 |
Jane ... 2
Mikko ...
2
Robin ... 2
|
Erik ... 1
Terry
... 1
Lisa ... 1 |
|
Cap'n Vic's "other" life
