Temperature – 70° mostly cloudy
Wind – NE 7-8 knots, gusting to 10

My mentor has always told me to practice to race and not race to practice so when the rest of the BLYC PHRF fleet said they were unable to race on Sunday, we decided to do as my master and commander had taught me, Go Practice. Our team consisted of our regular crew members Bill and Chad, plus Gloria who had never sailed before, and myself.

First, we got the trimmers to practice tacking & gybing with the jib and main only. This was very successful with the light winds so we decided to fly that dreaded 3-cornered sail called the spinnaker. We furled the jib, set the spinnaker pole for a bare-away launch and hoisted the kite that filled with a pop–what a great sound. We practiced trim, made a few end-for-end gybes, then decided to take down the main so this crew could easily watch the sheet and guy trim and its affects. At one point, we were free flying the kite–what a beautiful sight. We continued to practice a few takedowns and relaunches from the cabin.

It was a beautiful light wind day so we let the trimmers take turns driving, allowing them to see our trimming so they could get a better understanding on how their trim affects the boat’s performance. We were having so much fun doing ring-around-the-Rosie (no wake markers) we lost all sense of time. After we put the boat away, we slid up to the YC bar for a few barley-pops to discuss the day’s adventure. A good time was had by all.

Prep well & sail fast… Dave for “No-Name-Yet” 

Submitted by Dave Paligo for No-Name-Yet

This entire summer has been plagued with light to no wind for our SOS series.  This week, we put 3 boats on the line for three races with start #3 being a photo type start with all of us hitting the line almost at the same time.

All in all, we had three good races.  Our starts on “Team No-Name-Yet” weren’t the best, but in each race we improved by staying tighter in the start box and closer to the line. After the starts, we knuckled down to the basics, kept working on those tacks, gybes and weight placement and that was what kept us in the hunt and in the race. I want to give big kudos to our team Bill Collinson, Marsha Bendle and to welcome Chad Schrock who is a new crew member and has never sailed or raced before. We will see everyone next week at the starting line.

Winds: SW, 7-8 knots
Climate: 89°F, 58% humidity with sweaty T-shirts
Course: S-1-2-F (all three races)

No Name Yet #1049

I want to thank the RC for the great job they did, the crowd of spectators that gathered in the RC shack for their support and our team which consisted of Bill Collinson, our first-time racer Ed Romito and myself.  I also want to commend both Alex Fischer and Chuck Bendig who single-handed all three races as they are both tough competitors.  A big congrats to Chuck with his O’Day 26 Big Girl on winning the coveted Rabbit Flag.

FINALLY, after 6 weeks of races being cancelled because of no wind we were able to get back out on the race course.  We had steady SW wind at the start line and our strategy was to hug the line and cross on port tack. We did okay and were about 15 seconds behind the O’Day 26. We held our port tack all the way to the north bank and with a few good lifts we were hoping it was enough to round the windward mark w/o any additional tacks; but the wind shifts and lifts would not cooperate and we ended up asking for Rule 18 rights (3 boat rule) from the Catalina 22 to round the mark. We ended up having to duck her stern at the last moment to avoid contact (I really owe Alex a few barley-pops on that one) and rounded in third position. We made up the distance with good sail trim and rounded the leeward mark for a second position but corrected out to a third place finish. Second race, we were the same strategy for our start but, with a wind shift while in our start sequence, we were forced to start on starboard. We were again a little late, but seemed to make up good position and held this all the way around the course.

Third race we had to take a DNS as our team had prior commitments so we put the boat away while the race was going on.

David for Team No-Name-Yet

It’s been a busy summer of sailing – so busy that it’s been some time since we put up a SLOG post.

The most recent happening was the I-LYA Junior Sailing Championships at Put-in-Bay – Junior Bay Week.  This year, the BLYC team consisted of five juniors – Matthew Davis, Oliver Krajewski, Katy Schroeder, Susannah Schroeder, and Olivia Smith – and our coach, Michael Davis.  Over 35 BLYC members were up for at least part of the week supporting our juniors and many also helping with the regatta.  4 days of GREAT sailing weather in the Lake Erie islands and a whole lot of fun.  This was the final year of eligibility for Matthew, Oliver, and Susannah.  They have represented us well through the years!

Here are some  pics from the week: