Greetings!
Memorial Day Weekend rushed by with yet another weekend of classics racing and the Oakcliff Ker 50 successfully racing the Round Block Island Race. The team finished 1st in class and 5th overall. As always it was an opportunity for training with this being the first offshore sailing for some and everyone on board stepping up and taking responsibility for their areas. It was also a full team effort by Oakcliff Staff to check, double check and triple check everything from stove fuel to optimizing the IRC rating of the Ker 50. All day long I have been fielding calls as to how the did it. Read below for a report from the boat. The team will also be posting photos and comments on the Oakcliff Sailing Facebook page. To join go to http://www.oakcliffsailing.org and click on the Facebook Icon at the bottom right hand corner of the home page.
Looking forward to this week. We still have lots of room for people to race Shields on Wednesdays and Sundays. It is a perfect opportunity to bring out a couple of friends out and introduce them to the Oakcliff Sailing Center.
|
|
Oakcliff 50 1st in Class
|
A report from our newest Acorn Collin Leon:For past two weeks, Oak Cliff Sailing Center has been
prepping the Ker 50 "Cracker 2" for the Round Block Island race held on
Memorial Day weekend. With a crew of sixteen, the boat set out from Oyster Bay
at noon for the start at Stamford, Ct. After a postponement for lack breeze, a
brisk southwesterly filled in and each division was sent off. With a great
start off the line thanks to skipper J.P. Blaise and navigator Bill Mooney, we
set the chute and were on our way to Block Island.
Constantly trimming for
speed, we started to work ourselves closer to the Long Island side of the sound
where we felt better breeze and the wind direction were in our favor. Watching
the IRC Zero class fly by, we settled into our watches, pushing the boat
through spinnaker peels and fast sailing in flat water. After a solid dinner of
pasta shells courtesy of Tina Blaise, the crew was eager to push the boat as
hard as we could in the constantly changing conditions. Throwing in a few gibes
before rounding Block Island we found ourselves close to a few other boats but
after choosing to sail past Block Island a few miles in hopes of better breeze,
we were unnervingly alone at sunrise with only "Starlight" from Kings point a
half mile in front of us. Working upwind in 9-14kts of breeze we tacked out
before a large hole which engulfed the Kings Point boat and allowed us to pass
them.
As the breeze got lighter we bounced from puff to puff to stay in the pressure
but the question of "where did the rest of the fleet go" was always lingering
in our minds. It seemed as if overnight everyone just disappeared for no
reason. The breeze started to fill in from the southwest and clocked south at
12-14kts which allowed us to keep a tight reaching angle towards the finish.
Setting the chute around the Stamford harbor marker, we crossed the finish line
and with a quick take down we had completed the race in just over 24 hours. As
we got to the dock we were happy to learn that besides the IRC Zero class, we
were the first boat to cross the line and the next morning confirmed that we
won our division and finished 5th over the entire fleet. Overall we
had a great event and with a solid crew and amazing meals, we were able to pull
off a great win for the team as well as for Oakcliff Sailing Center.
|
Match Racing on Saturday
|  We can accommodate 6 teams so that is up to 30 sailors and we also would love to have umpires and umpires in training, race committee and race committee in training out on the water. Register Here |
Safety Takes Planning
|  Safety is a big part of sailing and especially offshore sailing. Everyone who races needs to make sure that their boat and team are in compliance. Oakcliff used this race as an opportunity to check every box.
We not only carried a storm jib and storm trisail but we also hoisted them and confirmed that they fit and trimmed correctly.
We carried life rafts and also had each person get themselves into a survival suit. The team would agree that this is easier said than done but critical to know how to do it if needed.
We discussed potential disasters from rig down to a hole in the boat to a man overboard situation. But most importantly we talked about preventing bad situations. Safety harnesses are probably the single most important item to use and use correctly. Life jackets are also important but if you use a safety harness correctly you won't need to use the life jacket.
Safety is important and using quiet time sitting on the rail to visualize 'what if's' can make all the difference when the proverbial ... hits the fan.
|
|
|
One more congratulations to the Oakcliff Sailing team members who were onboard the Ker 50:
JP & Tina Blaise, Caitlin Chamberlin, Colin
Bunnell, Andrew Spalding, Alicia Martorella, James Ebenau, Bill Mooney,
Bob Zazzera, Vlad Shblinsky, Peter Buckingham, Ladi Oguntoyinbo, Mike
Tolsma, Jeremy Maccan, Colin Leon and Kevin "Chip" McKeon.See you at Oakcliff SOON!
Sincerely,
Dawn Riley
Oakcliff Sailing Center
|
|
|
ALL Boats on the Water!
|  | |
June 19th will be an 'all hands on deck' kind of racing. We will field as many boats as you all can fill up for the Friends of the Bay Regatta.
This is a one day event and the perfect opportunity to give the Melges a spin, or to do an encore sail on a classic or a mid summer bay tour on one of the IRC boats. Go HERE to sign up. We will assess registration on June 11th to determine what boats are going to hit the line so sign up early to ensure your first choice boat will be on the race course.
|
|
Quick Links
| |
A great article on Jeff "Soup" Campbell. Although I heard that "Coach" wanted to know why his excellent contribution wasn't mentioned :-).
I represented sailing in a debate on what teenager was the most impressive: Jessica Watson sailing around the world or a teenagers who climbed Everest or qualified for a PGA tournament.
Off air I challenged the host Skip to come sailing
|
|
MELGES NATIONALS
| Oakcliff is sponsoring the Melges 24 Nationals and Melges 32 North Americans in Newport June 24 to 27.
As a part of this we are offering boats for charter. If you know of anyone local or out of the area who is interested please have them call the office at 516 802 0368 or email: race@oakcliffsailing.org
|
|
|
