Floatline - Chesapeake Bay News

Senator Kennedy Honors Cup Winners in Annapolis

On April 25, Senator Ted Kennedy sailed off Annapolis with the U.S. Naval Academy's Varsity Offshore Sailing Team (VOST) on their last day of spring practice and presented the Kennedy Cup trophy to the winning team from last November's Kennedy Cup Intercollegiate Regatta.

The USNA hosted the three-day regatta last fall, the team winning six of 10 races and never scoring worse than a third against eight competitors.

Navy's crew included skipper and VOST team captain Matt Recker, helmsman Cullen Shaughnessy, trimmers Will Arnest, Owen Brooks, and Alex Fletcher, pitman Kenneth Endicott, mastman Wes Jahraus, and bowman Mark Picinich. The same crew also won the McMillan Cup and their division at the Storm Trysail Intercollegiate Invitational Regatta.

By winning the Kennedy Cup, Navy earned the right to represent the U.S. at the Student Yachting World Cup in La-Trinité-sur-Mer, France October 25 - November 1, 2008.

~ M.W.

Photo courtesy of Frieda Wildey

Hospice Regattas Championships in Annapolis

"Sailing is a metaphor for life, teamwork, dealing with the unknown, and working with each challenge, which is why it fits so beautifully with Hospice," says Jean Kluttz, President of the National Hospice Regatta Alliance.

Nineteen local J/105s filled with teams from all over the country will compete off Annapolis this weekend for the Hospice Regattas National Championships. Each team has won its hometown Hospice Cup, of which there are 24 around the country each year, increasing to 27 regattas in 2008.

Chesapeake Bay sailors from Havre de Grace, Annapolis, Rappahanock, and Hampton are competing this weekend to determine the national champion and to raise awareness for Hospice Cups. Storm Trysail Club Chesapeake Station is out there--in the rain today--managing the races.

A CBYRA-sanctioned event since 1983, the 2008 Hospice Cup Annapolis edition will be held a couple weeks later than usual this year on September 27. To learn more, visit www.hospiceregattas.com.

~M.W./SpinSheet

SpinSheet Gallery Hot Shots

SpinSheet has launched an online photo gallery where sailors and their friends may view and purchase Chesapeake Bay sailing photos ($10 each for personal use only). SpinSheet photographers will be out and about on the Bay in full force this season, so smile on deck!

Photos from the Sperry Top-Sider National Offshore One-Design Regatta (NOOD) and last weekend's USODA Optimist Team trials can be downloaded now. Check it out!

~M.W.

Photo by Mark Talbott/SpinSheet

195 Optimists on the Severn River

Nearly 200 kids from around the country sailed Optis out of Annapolis YC at the foot of the Easptort Bridge this morning.

The US Optimist Dinghy Association (USODA) 2008 Team Trials, the most competitive junior regatta in the country, is taking place May 1-4 out of host club AYC.

Junior sailors aged eight to 15 have flocked to the Sailing Capital for this international qualifying event, which is the first major USODA regatta AYC has hosted for 10 years.

The Optimist sailors on the Severn River and Chesapeake Bay this weekend have qualified for this event at National or Regional Championship events. Top finishers this weekend will qualify to represent the U.S. at the World, European, and North American Championships, as well as international regattas in Belgium and the U.K.

This is not just a bunch of kids on boats. These are serious sailors, who are the future of our sport. Go check them out!  ~M.W.

The May SpinSheet is on the Docks

Creaky, leaky old boats (that we love anyway), Nine tips for "hitching a ride" for weeknight racing on the Bay in 2008, Dock Walkin', being a "green" crewmember, Mother's Day gifts, and chatting up sailing to the "non-sailing" world... The May SpinSheet presents this and more.

May brings spring breezes and fun festivals to Chesapeake country. Starting with those three May Days (Friday through Sunday, May 2-4) of the Maryland Maritime Heritage Festival in Annapolis and continuing through Chestertown's popular Tea Party (May 23) and Hampton's Blackbeard Festival (May 30-June 1), the print edition of SpinSheet highlights the ones worth checking out.

This is an exciting time for the team at Spinsheet. We've been working hard to bring our web presence into this century, and are very close to launching the first piece of it: the photo gallery, where sailors may click through hundreds of updated Bay sailing photos and purchase them... Stay tuned!

To find a place where you can pick up SpinSheet, please visit our website at www.spinsheet.com. We're working on the June edition. For advertising information, call 410.216.9309.

~ M.W.

Cover photo by Pride of Baltimore II crew member Michael Fiorentino

What a Weekend!

Those April showers are still washing the pollen off our windshields and decks, and it's officially sailing season on the Chesapeake Bay. 268 boats participated in the three-day Sperry Top-Sider National Offshore One-Design Regatta (NOOD) off Annapolis this weekend.

A steamy Saturday afternoon, with enough wind to keep sailing, was followed by a sudden drop in temperature and a pleasant gap between the time the thunderstorms were supposed to hit and when they really did, which made for a great big party.

Sunday breezes capped off another successful regatta. Chesapeake sailors topped most classes. Full results and daily photos are posted on Sailing World.

By Wednesday, SpinSheet will be launching our new online photo gallery, with hundreds of 2008 NOOD photos and more Bay racing photos to follow all season long. For $10, regatta photos will be available to download. Stay tuned...

Top photo by Dan Phelps/SpinSheet, party photos by Molly Winans/SpinSheet

In the NOOD Again...

The Sperry Top-Sider National Offshore One Design Regatta (NOOD) Annapolis edition is off to a slow start due to light winds. Please stay tuned for updates as the weekend progresses. SpinSheet is on site taking on-the-water photos, which will be posted as early as Wednesday next week on our new photo gallery. We'll let you know when it's up and running.

In the meantime, pray to the wind gods, check out daily photos on Sailing World's NOOD page, and stay tuned... ~M.W.

Photo from 2007 Annapolis NOOD by Dan Phelps/SpinSheet

Tangent Takes Top Honors at Bald Head Island

Thirty-one boats were part of the Bald Head Island Regatta in North Carolina, April 4-6. The event is based out of one of the east coast’s premier vacation destinations and is hosted by the Bald Head Island. Tangent, a Chesapeake-based Cape Fear 38 owned by Jerry Taylor (Pasadena, MD) took top honors in the Spinnaker A class, winning three of the regatta’s four races.

Learn more about this fun and growing event at www.bhir.org.

Photo: Tangent, a Chesapeake-based Cape Fear 38, leads Limited Inventory, also a Cape Fear 38, at the 2008 Bald Head Island Regatta in North Carolina. Tangent  finished First in class and Limited Inventory took second. Photo courtesy of the Bald Head Island Regatta

Olympic Hopeful Rios Still on First

Olympic hopeful windsurfer Farrah Hall only has hope for future Olympic games, not Beijing in 2008. A U.S. Sailing protest committee reconfirmed their decision from last October to rescind her first place title at Olympic trials and give it to Nancy Rios (left), who had sought redress following a collision. Rios will be nominated by the U.S. Olympic Committee to represent the U.S. at the 2008 Olympic games.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/15/AR2008041502840.html

http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0415a/

On a Wing and a Prayer

Annapolis resident and St. Mary's College graduate, Farrah Hall, who won the U.S. Olympic Windsurfing Trials and then had her title taken away an hour and a half after she received it, will be in Providence, RI April 9-10 at a special US Sailing hearing to revisit her case after a six month wait. Hall's team will admit new photographic evidence, which aims to prove that competitor Nancy Rios's collision and torn sail did not affect performance enough for her to have been awarded first place.

Shown here at a press conference last week are John White, CEO of Hall's corporate sponsor Compass Marketing; Olympic hopeful Farrah Hall, who later did an on-the-water demonstration on Spa Creek; and her supporter John Bertrand, Olympic silver medalist and President of Bertrand Racing. The sail in the background was a gift from Compass Marketing.

When asked why he took Hall's "cold call" when he turns down so many as a businessman, White responded, "There was just something about Farrah that made me listen. She had no money--she had nothing but a dream and a passion for winning." She still does. Hall is optimistic that her dream of going to Beijing next summer will come true despite setbacks. Stay tuned to SpinSheet for updates.

Photo by Molly Winans/Spinsheet