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Eighty-two boats raced in the rain off Annapolis today in the second and final day of qualifying for the Lightning North American Championship regatta, hosted by Severn SA and the Eastport YC. The breeze came up as the day unfolded. Results of the qualifying series have been posted.
Thirty-six Comets assembled at the Miles River YC last weekend for the Comet International Championship and 75th anniversary celebration. Wick Dudley (Queenstown, MD) emerged from the seven race fray as the class's new International Champion. Dudley sailed on a 1949 Horner-built Comet with his son, Wick, for part of the regatta and his daughter, Elizabeth, for the balance.
Bermuda sailor Rudy Bailey finished second and Ohioan Dick Harmon sailed to third. Patrick Kana of the Tred Avon YC sailed to fifth overall and was the event's top junior.
Busy mark rounding at the 2007 Comet Internationals in St. Michaels. Photo by Cathy Downes / CRYC
Comet International photo page at Corsica River YC
Comet Class homepage
Since just after World War II, the U.S. Naval Academy has kept a fleet of 44-foot racer/cruisers in Annapolis for use as training platforms for midshipmen. Two fleets of Luders yawls, one wood and one fiberglass were followed, in the late 1980s, by a fleet of 20 solid fiberglass McCurdy & Rhodes sloops
The boats are sailed up to 250 days a year inshore and offshore. After nearly 20 years of hard and productive service, officials approved a new generation of training boats.
Much like the transition from wooden to fiberglass yawls a few generations ago, the move from Navy 44 MK1 to Navy 44 MKII includes the fruits of years of “lessons learned” and will update a proven design. Newport’s Pedrick Yacht Designs handled design work for MKII, and the hulls are coming out of the Pearson Composites factory in Rhode Island. Earlier this month hull #1 was launched at New England Boat Works. It is expected to arrive in Annapolis within the next month.
Hull #1 of the Navy 44 MKII hits the water in Rhode Island.
Photo courtesy of Tom Wohlgemuth / Chesapeake Rigging
Look for a full report, including a closer look at the Annapolis-based company charged with building the spars and rigging for all 20 of the new boats, in the September issue of SpinSheet magazine, on the docks August 30.
Tomorrow, floatline takes a closer look at what happens to the various 44s after they leave the Academy.
A number of CBYRA sailors attended the United States Optimist Dinghy Association’s (USODA) New England Championship earlier this month, where a new participation record was set: it was the largest one-design regatta ever at 458 boats. The Annapolis YC was especially well-represented on the podium as Alex Ramos was ninth of 150 in the Red Fleet, Sammy Stagg was ninth of 195 in the Blue Fleet, and Kyle Comerford was ninth of 42 in the White Fleet. Alex Ramos was 12th of 387 overall. Ally Askew was fourth of 36 in the Green Fleet and was the top girl in the Green Fleet. Madeleine Alderman from Fishing Bay YC was sixth of 127 in the overall Girl’s Fleet. Graeme Alderman from FBYC was eighth of 42 in the White Fleet.
Annapolis sailor Allie Askew en route to a strong Green Fleet result at the Optimist New England Championship regatta, in Newport earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Sailing / Chubb Junior Championships have just wrapped up on Barnegat Bay, NJ where they were hosted by the Lavallette, Mantoloking, and Bay Head Yacht Clubs. Chesapeake sailors on the scene included Patrick Kana and Elizabeth Dudley (Tred Avon YC) who finished fifth of 20 in the doublehanded Bemis Trophy championship, Brian Stout and Elizabeth Weaver (Severn SA) who finished 17th in the Bemis, the team of Alex Bertrand, Alex Steele, and Sear Harr who finished fourth of 11 in the Sears Cup championship, and Severn SA's Brendan Heussler who finished 10th of 20 in the singlehanded Smythe championship. Congratulations to all of these sailors!
Full results and reports from U.S. Sailing / Chubb 2007 Junior Championships
The Lightning, a 19 foot trailerable centerboard sloop, was originally designed in 1938 by Sparkman & Stephens as an affordable family day-sailor and triple-handed racing boat. More than 15,000 have been built and the boat is actively sailed in more than 13 countries. This week, the center of the Lightning universe is in the mid-Atlantic.
Racing for the class's Women's, Junior, and Masters (WJM) North American Championship begins today at Leesylvania State Park in Virginia (about 30 miles south of Washington, DC). About 25 boats are expected to be on the line in the Masters class. Nearly 20 teams will sail in the Junior class. And at least 10 will compete for the Women's championship. Racing continues through Saturday afternoon. The event is hosted by the Potomac River SA and Lightning Fleet 50.
Stay tuned at the Lightning WJM Championship website.
Following the WJM event, the action quickly shifts to Annapolis where Severn SA, in cooperation with the Eastport YC, hosts the Lightning North American Championship. After a two-day qualifying series, racing for the Championship begins on Wednesday, August 22. Competition will be fierce at this event. At posting time, 81 teams were on the registration roll including some of the top names in one-design sailing.
Lightning North American Championship Homepage
Lightning North American Championship schedule
Stay tuned, we'll post some photos and a report from the NA's once they get underway.
It was breezy at Screwpile 2007 and the guys from Heli-Photo were the ones up in the air shooting the action. It's a unique perspective and the 2007 shots are winners (see the cover of SpinSheet's August issue for another example). This shot comes from photo ace Jack Hardway, a longtime friend of SpinSheet . 
E-mail requests from the Screwpile via the Heli-Photo.org website.
Harold and Billie Chappelear chose Dennis Elzey in Cambridge, MD to build Billie Anita, their 48-foot jade green Bay-style cruiser. In early July, the gracious owners, builder, and designer gave us a tour and a test ride on this very interesting custom yacht. Complete with bow sprit and swim platform she measures 52 feet LOA with a 15-foot 11-inch beam, and she draws about three and a half feet."
Mike Kaufman reviews the new Elzey-Sintes 48 in the September 2007 issue of PropTalk Magazine. The issue is available for free at more than 700 locations throughout the mid-Atlantic.
Photo: Elzey-Sintes 48 at pace. Photo by Joe Evans / PropTalk
The 2007 Comet International Championship and 75th anniversary celebration of the class will be held this coming weekend, August 17 through 19, at the Miles River YC in St. Michaels. In an effort to get as many boats on the line as possible, entry is FREE for those who pre-register.
According to the class website, "The Comet was designed by C. Lowndes Johnson as a trailerable version of the Star. The design combines a 16 foot hard chine planing hull with a classic sloop rig
with a distinctively large mainsail. The result is a boat
that can plane downwind and on a reach in just 10 to 12 knots of wind, yet remain stable upwind."
Comet #1, circa 1932, is enshrined in St. Michaels at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.
Keeping it moving aboard a Comet in August, 2006.
Photo by Don Biresch
Comet Class site
Background on the state of the class and the 75th anniversary celebration/Internationals (PDF)
The pattern of breezy weekends on the middle Bay continues.
On Friday, August 10, a fleet of 43 boats raced from Annapolis to Oxford in the best conditions in recent memory. Just a few years ago, the "Summer Oxford" race featured as many as 150 boats and it has always been considered a fixture on the calendar. However, attendance has waned in recent years. The calendar is packed with events before, during, and after the race and the scheduling conflicts have affected the headcount. Let's hope the solid conditions of the 2007 edition, as well as the always-solid hospitality on the Tred Avon YC end bring things back in 2008.
Sailient and Restless race for Oxford on August 10, 2007.
Photo by Don Biresch
Saturday brought the annual Oxford Regatta out of Tred Avon which is always a unique event as it features everything from Log canoes, Optimists, Stars, and PHRF boats racing in the same stretch of water. Tred Avon YC Race Page
Back in Annapolis, Saturday featured the debut of the Boatyard Regatta for CRAB. This non-spinnaker event fills the old Bacardi Cup calendar slot and is a fundraiser for Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating. Eastport YC ran a nice 7.2 miler in pursuit-start fashion for a 59 boat fleet. Charlie Scott and his family based crew aboard Smiles, the green J/35, crossed the finish line first. The Boatyard-CRAB Regatta is going to be a winner. Mount Gay hats, lots of racer-cruiser types, and superb management on and off the water bode well for its future. Hopefully the CRAB Regatta and the Oxford Race can get off the same weekend in 08 and both events will thrive going forward.
Boatyard/CRAB Race results (WORD DOC)
Severn SA hosted the J/22 Mid-Atlantics over the weekend. Allan Terhune and team took top honors in the 16-boat fleet. Check here for results.
Late summer brings a rush of Log Canoe racing on the Eastern Shore. Spectating opportunities abound. 
Upcoming Log Canoe Regattas:
August 11-12: Tred Avon YC Annual Regatta, Oxford
August 25-26: Tred Avon YC Heritage Regatta, Oxford
September 8-9: Miles River YC Labor Day Series, St. Michaels
September 15 Miles River YC, St. Michaels
September 16: Bartlett Cup, Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels
Official Log Canoe website (a nice site but infrequently updated)
Look for a feature on the canoes in the August issue of SpinSheet magazine. It's on the docks now!
Photo: De-rigging a Log Canoe, Oxford Regatta, August 2006.
Photo by Dave Gendell / SpinSheet
