Greetings!
This newsletter contains stories about last weekends packed schedule as well as some long distance training going on this week. This weekend is pretty open. There is no Oakcliff programing but you are welcome to join in the match racing for classics on Sunday. Be at the dock at 2:30 for a great gentlemanly sea breeze powered match race. Also it looks like we will have sea breeze for our match racing drills tonight, tomorrow's Wednesday Coached Fleet Racing and Thursday's Classic Sunset Race. I will be on the water all three nights and look forward to see you. Remember just go to the calendar and sign up. Please take a moment and read on for some reports on some really cool sailing! |
100 Mile Match Race to The Herreshoff Museum
|  Coming off a fantastic Youth Match Race Clinegatta with Dave Perry this past weekend, the trainees at Oakcliff are as busy as ever. On Tuesday morning, after a lesson from guest lecturer Forrest Williams, of Marlow Ropes, five Acorns and eight Saplings depart on an in-house match/distance race from Oyster Bay to Bristol, RI.
Taking the two Farr 40s, the race is the culminating experience for this first crop of Acorns, who are finishing their three weeks at Oakcliff, now better sailors, better leaders, and ready to take on all their future ambitions, sailing and otherwise.
Thanks to Sapling and RA Seth Cooley, the whole crew will take a tour of the Herreshoff Museum and the America's Cup Hall of Fame in Bristol, before taking some junior sailors (and future Acorns!) for a ride. Then they'll have a Volvo-esque spectator start with the Wednesday night fleet in Bristol, rounding the buoys before heading out to sea, and back to Oyster Bay. With Saplings behind the helm and the nav station, the boats will stay in constant communication, engaging in exacting two-boat testing even as they are competing. An additional challenge on the return trip will be to navigate without using GPS - going back to the old school, the essential skills that so easily get lost in this day and age.
|
Winds Blew Hot on the Water & Plentiful in the Classroom
|  The combination of Dave Perry, Match 40s and Oakcliff Sailing's completely unique training and coaching was too good to miss as a sold out crowd of fifty two young sailors showed up to learn and to match race. Sailors aged 15 to 24 from, California, Florida, USVI, Illinois and Canada to join local sailors for four days of intense coaching from Dave Perry, the current national match racing champion and Board member at Oakcliff.
In the end of the day it was the team from Newport Harbor Yacht Club (CA) led by Michael Madigan who was victorious but all participants went away winners.
Saplings and Acorns comments included; ; Dave Perry blew my mind up with information. The debriefs never stopped and we didn't want them to stop, well maybe for a snack. I learned so much it was incredible.
Full Report and Results Here |
| Ervin is Swervin' Across the Atlantic |  Our own Ervin Grove, Sapling, is sailing aboard the 92 foot super-maxi Med Spirit across the Atlantic. His notes below and on the blog are well worth reading. We have left it 'as is' so it is most authentic.Greetings from the North Atlantic,
Here is the write up of my daily journal. For those who know me well you already know i can not spell and using a french keyboard should make it that much more interesting.
Day 1
We docked out at about 10:20 am Saturday July 7th. Watched the MOD 70s start their transat race in the harbor but by the time we reached Ambrose light they were long gone. we hqve two different groups on board for this crossing. 9 russians 7 french and 1 American. From the get go their was a disagreement on the navigation. some people thought go north which we did then ran out of breeze. After 2 to 3 hours of motoring SSE we ran into breeze. 2 different crews qnd languages for sure. Sails: J4, J2, Code 0, A6, Code 0, Main only, Code 0
Night 1
2:30 to 4AM Lightening storm so all electronics turned off and i worked the bow the rest of the night... it was crazy READ MORE HERE |
Saplings to Campaign an Etchells
|  This Friday Oakcliff Saplings Collin Weston, Solomon Krevans, Chris Kennedy, and Madeline Gill will be headed back to Newport but this time by car. There, they'll be racing the Etchells Atlantic Coast Championships at Sail Newport.
For all of four it is their first regatta in the boat but they are excited to jump right in and race in this highly competitive one design fleet. The team is hoping to use this regatta to build their overall knowledge of tuning and finding boat speed. This tricky and technical sloop is an ideal training ground for this aspect of racing. Follow the Oakcliff Twitter and Facebook throughout the weekend for updates live from the regatta. |
|
We are so busy with all of these activities that it seems like we forget to invite all of you to come and sail. COME SAIL!
Sincerely,
Dawn Riley
Oakcliff Sailing Center |
|
|
|
