[note pictures of airplanes
is related to Vee Jay being under the landing pattern of Naples' airport -- one
of the most used airports for private planes in the U.S.]
Season Tally: Oct. 2010 thru Mar. 2011:
Races -- 31, Spin legs -- 46 Training
Camp: Program A -- 33, Spin legs --
35 Program B -- 12, Spin legs --
15 [Vee Jay crew on
Shock]
Cap'n Vic and
the Vee Jays Winter 2010-2011 Naples
Surf breaking at G5, Gordon Pass
channel to Naples Bay
April, 2011--- End of Season MOB Party
It is always sad to
close down the six-month winter program, but some of Vee Jay's crew used the
opportunity to gather in some potential new crew, and say good by to our Port
Trimmer for the last two years, who is graduating Ave Maria Law School and
going back to Alaska, where the only 80 degree water is in a hot tub.
March, 2011 --- Gulf Coast Sailing Club 35th Regatta
and Porsche of Naples Cup
Randy, Katrin, Taylor,
Steve, Robert, Rosie, Vic, Tom All in all, the crew had
a great time at our Gulf Coast Sailing Club's 35th regatta.
Naples' "local" Olympic
49er team of Trevor Moore and Erik
Storck decided to show Vee Jay what they could do. In the second half of
this video, Vee Jay was trying to gibe around them, but failed as they gibed
around us.
"Shock"
provided a bit of entertainment at one start.
March, 2011--- Playing with the Dolphins on Gordon
River
Conditions were just
right with a strong wind pushing us down the Gordon River, at just the right
speed for the dolphins to play. Brian driving and trying to keep eyes on
"road." Video by Taylor.
March, 2011 --- Naples Sailing and YC, 37 nm San Carlos Pursuit
Race and Spring Regatta
Naples
Yacht Club canceled its annual 90-mile Boca Grande race this season, but Naples
Sailing and Yacht Club was looking for at least one decent length race out of
the ~40 normally scheduled for the Naples/Marco area.
NSYC opted for one long pursuit-start
race instead of their standard program. Couple of tacks north with light wind,
one long spin leg south with wind picking up to ~20 mph. Vee Jay ran well under
spin at 8-9 knots with one peak hitting 10.5 on the GPS track.
With the
pursuit start, Taylor decided he wanted to try the start and we made it by one
second, which couldn't have been any better. Randy, once he had set the spin,
decided to drive the 18 miles back in some pretty nice strong spin wind.
February 2011 --- Test Run Naples Sea Scouts
Alligator Boy Scouts try out NSS Spinnaker Training
Camp
Ben driving, Sean and
Joe getting Spinnaker ready, Eric trimming spin.
February 2011 --- Marco Island YC Winter Regatta
"Sloppy weather threatened the first race
of Marco Island Yacht Club’s 2011 Spring Regatta. Misty rain and higher
than normal surf pounded challengers. The temperature at race time hovered
around 50 degrees. Chill in the raw 16 to 20 knot wind made conditions feel
much colder". More at:Regatta coverage in the MarcoEagle
Shock
narrowly able to capture the Blue Flag at this seven race, two day regatta.
January 2011 --- NSYC New Year's Cup Regatta + AVOW Hospice
Regatta
December 2010 --- 90 mile Dropped, Xmas Break Highlights Month,
Training Camp Continues
We
were surprised when the Naples Yacht Club dropped its annual 90 mile overnight
race to Boca Grande, the only Naples based race in December. The race, when Vee
Jay started racing it, was a couple of months earlier during a warmer part of
the year, but the change to December seems to have killed it permanently.
We had a couple of decent weekends with
enough sailing days to help tune up Shock and Vee Jay for the New Year's
Cup. Keewaydin, a 108 ft ketch
joined us for one weekend and Luke on Shock's crew caught some unique higher
wind action video on his cell camera, now on YouTube: Pre Xmas Break Tune up
For Xmas Break, Michael and family from J30 Belle
Faster joined us for Spinnaker Training Camp which included Björn, a boat
builder from Sweden.
During December Vee
Jay flies its Xmas Spinnaker as much as we can as its design is a copy of the
Xmas Seals Cross and logo. A short YouTube video shows how well the junior crew
adapted to this year's training camp: Xmas Break Training Camp
Conditions Vee Jay doesn't like to sail in .... when wind
gusts hit 30 mph. Early December
Naples Airport
November 2010 --- Marco Island YC Fall Regatta Nov. 13-14
Despite
some crew mishaps, (Aaron to be out for a month because of overzealous bike
riding), and crew schedule conflicts ... Vee Jay managed to ace one race and
squeak out a 2nd for the regatta. But then we always let the kid on T-Bone win.
These are the Naples Spin B skippers now
in their fourth year of competing against each other: Kid Jason, Dave, Vic, and
Wild Man Gunar. We were written up in the
Marco Eagle here.
Unfortunately Dave is going back north ... give me a few months and I could
have made him a star.
Crew
Sunday
Our competition
Vee
Jay's vintage .5 Spin
There is no telling with
whom the Vee Jay Crew is going to party with.
November 2010 --- Optimist Practice Nov.
6
Winds N 15-25, 4-6 waves NNW, cold snap under
70. Other than a corporate team building regatta by the Naples Dock
charter sail group, only Vee Jay and the
Naples
Community Sailing Center's Opti fleet ventured out to the
Gulf. Rosie, Katrin and Meg insisted that if the ~10-year-old kids could
go out ... Vee Jay could too. The vote was 50-50 with the gals
winning.
The Optis here in Naples have a
mid-November statewide regatta off the beach at Lowdermilk Park. Generally a
couple hundred Optis, Lasers, and 420s jam the park for the mid November event.
The park is on the beach, and for all intents and purposes the regatta
is "off shore" generally within the 3 mile limit.
Vee Jay action photos by Rosie and Katrin
October 2010 --- Naples Sailing and YC Commodore's
Cup
Racing season starts fast for Vee Jay: three
weekends after we arrive back in Naples, but ahead of many of the crew who
haven't been racing for the last six months. Basically it makes this
regatta the first serious two-day "practice" session of the
winter.
"Shock," the boat
we tune up with during the winter, had just arrived a week earlier. Dave
managed to net in a random crew, but his chief foredeck guy had broken his foot
a week before and is out for a couple of months.
Temps on water ~90 ... Sunny ... wind
7-20 but mostly 15. Port trimmer on Saturday started sailing week before, and
our new team physical therapist had Laser sailboat experience and seeking keel
boat time. But we had Tom, Randy, Steve, Rosie and Aaron from last
season. The Race Officer has a long history of running Melges 24 races ... we
started Saturday at 11 am because of tides, and struggled through four
short-leg races, five minutes apart, with eight spin legs for the day.
This amounted to a four hour+
merry-go-round and a practice challenge for out-of-practice crew. Sunday was
simply just two races. All total 12 spin legs and the crew then showed what
practice can do. Missed second place by one point, but did get Second Place
[last winter] for the Regional Boat of the Year Award at the banquet.
Vee
Jay
Shock
Vic, with BOTY 2nd, Spin B ... along with
racing-to-be-skipper Wallace, and Jason ... the usual winner of 1sts in spin
B.
Thoughout the season Vee Jay and Shock do a
Training Camp for both "old" and "new" crew. There is a lot of crew turnover in
a winter resort area ... and that means we are always looking for more crew,
eventually to be race ready.
Vee Jay Coach Boat with
Tom T, and then calling the starts.
Rosie at work
Katrin resting
Timmer team Rosie and Robert
Taylor
Driving
Rosie and
Vic
Never
enough crew
Tom W, Aaron
Dirk
Robert
Chief Broken Foot
Bob N
Foredeck
Training
Vee Jay Colors
at English Pub
They have music in Alaska?
"What do you mean close ... you had this much room!!"
October 2010 --- Boat Prep
Takes a week to get the boats back in shape
after the summer, then a week to fix the things we should have fixed last
year.
Randy working on exhaust elbow.
Steve replacing the tiller.
Dave trying to get it to
go.
2010-2011
Naples Race Crew
Aaron --
Mast and Foredeck, Physical conditioning coach Dave B --
Starboard Trim backup Fred -- Port Trim
backup Katrin -- Team Vee Jays Physical
Therapist Randy -- Foredeck Robert --
Starboard Trim Rosie -- Port Trim Steve --
Everything Else Taylor -- Main and Traveller trim {Team Vee
Jays Teen Recruiter} Ted -- ex-Marine setting up for next
season Tom -- Tactician, and foredeck backup Vic --
Skipper Dr. Helen -- Team Vee Jays Ship's
Doctor
Naples
Yacht Club canceled its annual 90-mile Boca Grande race this season, but Naples
Sailing and Yacht Club was looking for at least one decent length race out of
the ~40 normally scheduled for the Naples/Marco area.
"Sloppy weather threatened the first race
of Marco Island Yacht Club’s 2011 Spring Regatta. Misty rain and higher
than normal surf pounded challengers. The temperature at race time hovered
around 50 degrees. Chill in the raw 16 to 20 knot wind made conditions feel
much colder". More at:
For Xmas Break, Michael and family from J30 Belle
Faster joined us for Spinnaker Training Camp which included Björn, a boat
builder from Sweden.
