Naples Sailing and Yacht Club, 2009 Messmer
Cup and Gulf Coast Sailing Club's Black Cup Challenge
#12 April 25-26, 2009 |
 The Spin B
Fleet: Shock, Vee Jay, Foreign Exchange and T-Bone with a little bit of
smoky sky to the east. |
Tim, Tom, Larry, Steve with guests Mike and Katie. Tom and Mike
do not tease their hair ... that's what happens when you are on the foredeck in
strong wind. You also don't get to wear hats very long on the
foredeck.
 |
It is really sad
to see a great season close out here in Naples. We have had really strong winds
most of the last three months with never even a hint of "waiting for the wind
to pick up" that we experienced sailing here in prior years since 2000. Not one
race was delayed by lack of wind the entire
winter. Messmer Cup 09 was a
fine ending ... with five exactly the same two round, 5.4 mile, hour - long, WL
races for the Spin B Fleet. Wind seemed to want to average 20 - 25 with pretty
abrupt shifts. Under spin downwind speed pretty steady 7.5-8 kts GPS. Saturday
saw Vee Jay picking up two 1st and a 3rd. Sunday it was a 4th with a mechanical
problem and a 2nd. In looking at the times it seemed that race results between
boats were determined by a 50-100 seconds in hour long
races. At the awards we
picked up Vee Jay's favorite color red flag as second. We corrected the error
of the last two races and changed to a smaller genny which worked out well.
Everyone was glad to see 1st go to S2 7.9 T-Bone. Jason ran that boat with just
three total crew. Now that was a challenge, but I think those guys did it just
to show off to Shock, Foreign Exchange and Vee Jay with our crew averaging
twice T-Bone crew's average age.
Shock's crew is getting
well trained and picked up the
Black Cup to hold it
until next October.
 Tiny Messmer presented the
flags 45 years after she and her husband launched the annual regatta. Jerry
Watkins was MC. |
Unfortunately,
the Everglades was burning away pretty much uncontolled for most of the week,
which provided enough smoke to close down Alligator Alley nearly every night
and for several days of restricted hours of
travel. The migrating birds
suffered the most as the smoke drove them west out over the Gulf. Then they
buzzed the boats looking for a place to rest and figure out how they would get
back east to land. This
little Gold Finch settled in front of the tachometer on our start panel and
seemed to want us to start the motor up and drive him home. On the committee
boat a dove landed at the start of the first race and stayed on board til they
drove him home. |
May 17 was the last sail of the 2008/9
season with Ben taking over the tiller. Not much different from his Opti
sailing.
|
Marco Island Sailing Association Bud Light
Regatta, and Gulf Coast Sailing Club's Black Cup Challenge
#11 April 18-19, 2009
|
Another heavy wind regatta with races ranging from 2.4 to over
10 miles. Hard to believe we thought the wind would lighten up ... but it did
not. Vee Jay tied with Foreign Exchange for third but the tie breaker was the
one race we scored 1st in and we picked up a 3rd Spin B out of a fleet of five.
Crew included: Tim, Steve, John, Vic, Larry, and John, and Jim S |
George LoR, John, Jim, and
Steve. John ran foredeck well as he had just joined the crew the week
before. |
On the way back
to Dr. Pass, Dave demonstrated his style of driving, tailing with a can of beer
in the same hand, trimming the genny, and checking out the pretty gal. |
Gulf Coast Sailing Club's 33rd Annual Regatta and Gulf
Coast Sailing Club's Black Cup Challenge #10 March 28,29, 2009
|
The GCSC regatta opened with an
initial wind of 20+ and growing short, closely-spaced wind-driven waves
from the south. We started to
have our doubts when Midnight Rider blew up its main before the start of the
first race.
It was just not a Vee Jay day as
an early afternoon weather warning of 25-30 with peaks above 35 caught the
fleet in its second race and Vee Jay with the wrong genny on.
The wind driven waves running over a sea depth
of 25 ft exceeded 6 ft. The weather update warned "drivers of high profile
vehicles to use caution while driving." Vee Jay bailed out in the middle of the
first race. Sunday saw a front with serious lighting strikes moving in from the
north toward Naples and forced cancellation of Sunday racing. |
 Ken, Vic, Tim, Fred, Rae,
Randy, Richard, and Tom |
On the way back to the windward mark
Shock was way out in front showing no hesitation running full power, while
Foreign Exchange was conservatively reefed and T-Bone ran on genny
alone. |
|
Marco Island YC Spring Regatta, March 21-22, 2009 and Gulf
Coast Sailing Club's Black Cup Challenge #9 |
 With shifty wind averaging over 20 kts for two
days Vee Jay was happy, happy, happy. The highlight was the 8+ mile pursuit
race where we arrived nine seconds after a J105 and 2nd in an overall spin
fleet of 10 that included 3 Melges 24. So OK we also picked up a first for Spin
B and got the Black Cup back. That's Vee Jay on the right flying the Spin from
Fuzzy Wuzzy. Competition was tight with three spin b boats scoring 12 and one
14. Vee Jay fortunately had two firsts out of five races to tip the hat.
|
 Gulf Coast Sailing Club Commodore Lisa presenting
the Black Cup. |
Shock,
Foreign Exchange and T-Bone
   |
Skipper Vic
Specializing in NonChaLant.
 |
Jorge, Tom,
Rae, Tim, Randy Steve, Vic, Richard
|
Every once
and a while a few things may go wrong at the same time ... like when we lost
the spin sheet on a takedown while rounding the downwind mark on the wrong side
of T-Bone who had wrapped his spin solidly around the forestay and couldn't get
it down ... for a while.
 |
Bruce
Garreau, first bowman on Vee Jay from its first splash in 1985,
and solid first mate sailing out of Newport for nearly 20 years, passed away unexpectedly early this
year. Vee Jay's participation in this regatta was dedicated to his
memory and in wind conditions that he loved ... Maxed Out Spinnaker! We
had anticipated to make good on an extended trip to the "islands" on his
Lagoon
380 later this year, but sadly that didn't happen. |
 |
1st Annual St. Pat's Spin B Tune up Weekend,
2009 |
Vic, Tim,
Joan and George K on Vee Jay, Friday
|
Once we heard
that St. Pat was going to visit the City Dock to launch the
festivities for the Naples' St. Pat's
Parade, it was clear the weekend could only be a GCSC Spin B Tune Up Weekend.
We had two regattas
coming up the following two weekends: Marco Island YC's Spring Regatta and the
GCSC's 33rd Annual
Regatta. And the crews on both Vee Jay and
Shock needed some serious time on the
water.
Out came the
shamrock pennant, St. Pat and the 108 ft. ketch
Keewaydin
to set the mood for a fine, sunny, good-wind, three-day weekend. |
Racing
foredeck crew Richard, Bruce and Steve. |
Ryan and
Richard doing the foredeck gibe. |
 George K, Walker, MaryBeth, Tim, Frank B, Frank
L, George C and Dave on Shock on Saturday. |
That's
Keewaydin just over Bruce's shoulder with MaryBeth and Rae preventing. |
Fuzzy Wuzzy Day, Feb. 28 2009 |
Fuzzy Wuzzy, J30
#452, up in NJ, found its old spin from the 90s looking to retire. And retire
it did to Naples. Our first day out with Fuzzy Wuzzy's spin looked like this.
That's Skipper Vic and Dave giving it the once over with the required beverage
in hand.
Foredeck crew included Richard, Dave, Rae,
Vic and Ryan .
Back of the boat with Frank, Tim, and
Jim.
 |
1st
Winter Regatta, Naples Sailing & Yacht Club; GCSC Black Cup Challenge #8
Feb. 22 2009 |
We have to give credit
for this new regatta to Doug Cohn from the NSYC as it was a last minute program
designed to give the Naples/Marco sailing community one more great day on the
water.
Yes, it started out
in traditional 46 degree Vee Jay style with baking cinnamon buns in the Vee Jay
oven to warm up the cabin ... then we forgot the assigned driver on the dock,
then we hit mud in the slip on the way back to pick Tom up. I had asked the
question ... "How come I have extra buns left?" as we originally left the dock
... but did one person count the
crew?
Conditions
started 48+ and 15-20 for the first race, then warmed up to near 80 and dead
calm just after the end of the second race as the on shore effect completely
wiped out the wind from the east.
We started to use our Easter
Spinnaker complete with all the traditional Easter colors and it certain does
pop out at you from the distance.
T-Bone back from the NOODs in St. Pete, showed what a lot of on the water time
will do, and captured 1st place in the combined spin division beating
Tippycanoe (Farr 39), Vee Jay, Shock, and Foreign Exchange. AND T-Bone picked
up the Black Cup for the second time in eight challenges this
season.
Vee Jay and the Farr
39 tied for second place on points, as Vee Jay was ahead of Tippy in the first
race, Tippy ahead of Vee Jay in the second ... but Tippy got the "second" on
time differences, leaving Vee Jay as a "close" third. Skipper Vic did some
foredeck training during the races. Crew was Tom, Steve, Richard, Jorge, Ken,
Fred, Rae, and Vic.
Earlier
in the week the President's Day Crew tested out the Easter Spin: Dave, Helen,
Tim, Richard, Lisa and Frank -- the only one working. [note the wake as we ran
about 6 miles down Naples beach with a GPS speed averaging 7.5] |
GCSC 2nd Gal's Cup Challenge, and Black
Cup Race #7, Feb. 7 2009 |
Vee Jay retained the Gulf Coast
Sailing Club's Black
Cup for the third consecutive race, but lost the
Gal's Cup.
The GCSC decided that for this one
race all that was required was a gal on the helm for the Gal's Cup ... and with
competitors like Shock, [right] a Wavelength 30, loading up their boat
with crew to sail flat we knew it was going to be tough. We also made the basic
mistake of agreeing to a race that matched spin boats against non spin boats.
Because of a wind shift we
were unable to spin and thereby tossed away any hope of keeping the Gal's Cup,
which went to Jabu, a Sabre 40 racing non spin. Fortunately for Vee Jay, Shock
had radio problems and missed the
change in the time of the start. Vee Jay was then able to continue our
possession of the Black Cup for the third straight time. BUT there seems to be
a call out there for REMATCH ... which is being considered by the BOD of
GCSC.
We have to give credit
to Cheryl, the gal helm on Shock. With that crowd of unruly guys on the deck
the only way she could drive was to keep on her toes at the stern. Cheryl is
the one with the black jacket, and driving with 10 guys on board was a new
experience for her. On the upwind legs Shock did some serious catch up from
their delayed start. |
Shock Team
at Rest
 |
Shock Team at Work Keeping the Keel out
of the Sand
 |
On Vee Jay, it remained business as usual with a fine
performance of Lisa at helm on the Gulf. Our only excitement came when Vee Jay
bounced really hard in the Gordon River on our way out to the Gulf ... as it
appears that the osyster beds continue to grow along the edge of the channel
and caught our river pilot by surprise. |
Tim
[Starboard Trimmer] and Lisa at helm for the 6.7 mile
race.
 |
Richard, Randy, MaryBeth and Ken on
rail. Cap'n Vic handled port trim.
 |
Avow Hospice Regatta, Jan. 2009 |
Carol, Tim and Tom Ken, Randy, MaryBeth
and Jorge (photo by Cap'n
Vic) 
|
Twas a cold
blustery wind out of the cold northeast averaging over 20 kts that greeted a
cold Vee Jay at 7 am for this one day regatta. Max gusts were said to tip
35.
Foreign Exchange damaged
two gennies, T-Bone bailed out after the first race with crew sea sick, and
Shock couldn't get through the mud at Doctor's Pass to make the
starts.
A number of firsts for Vee Jay ... 1. first time Vee
Jay ever set out on a regatta in mid 40 degrees 2. first time it took 20
minutes to push our way through the mud just to get out of the slip 3.
first time we baked cinnamon buns on board for a cold crew and to take the
chill out of the cabin... the buns were nicely baked by the time we broke free
from the mud. 4. first time we achieved the class weight limit of 1400 lbs.
here in Naples 5. first time we managed to hourglass the spin AND wrap it
around the forestay with three people working the foredeck. --- so OK it was
the first time they worked the foredeck at the same time and we had some 3-5 ft
waves giving us a lot of boat motion. 6. first time we blew the nicropress
pennant that secured the genny at the tack 7. first time we had rooster
tails off the
stanchion bases here
in Naples 8. first time we raced with a double reef in the main and used
just a quarter of the roller furling genny for balance and were still
overpowered. Remember Vee Jay is set up for cruising not racing (Vee Jay
doesn't carry spare jibs for every wind speed and has a heavier cruising full
battened 7.8 oz main.)
But
offsetting all that it was also the first time Vee Jay took a First in a Spin B
regatta. First time we actually beat T-Bone on corrected time as we give him 18
seconds a mile. First time we did 1st in all races in a Spin B
regatta.
And we retained
possession of the GCSC
Spin B Black Cup. |
|
New Year's Day Cup ... Naples Sailing and Yacht Club, Jan,
2009 |
Helen,
Lauren, Holly, Jacklyn, Carol Steve, Vic,
Tim

All a J30 needs to do well
is have five great gals on the crew.
 |
Great day ... we
ended up third in combined spin class sailing against the two top local spin A
boats Tippycanoe [Farr 39] and Maria [Soverel
33].
Rolled over others in
our class in spin B --- 17 minutes in front of Foreign Exchange, 19 minutes in
front of T-Bone (who missed a short mark and had to sail back for it ... it was
our fault as we waved cans of cold beer at Jason while he was still racing and
we had already finished.) ... 10.7 mile race.
Vee Jay also
picked up the GCSC's
Gals Challenge Cup which required more Gals than Guys -- and a Gal at the
helm. We were really pleased that Vee Jay had Carol drive and it came out so
well as this was the first time she had helm'd Vee Jay under spin.
Skipper Vic was happy up
on the foredeck with
some pretty polished spin handling by Team Weinstein (Lauren, Jacklyn and
Holly).
And we picked
up the GCSC Spin B Black
Cup. |
|
|
Christmas Week 2008 |
Vic with
Holly, Larry, and Lauren

The Weinstein Team of Lauren,
Jacklyn and Holly

Steve and
Tim
 
Dolphins cruising
by
 |
Several great days
during Christmas week.
Mike
running north at 7 GPS kts. on Wednesday then relaxing as foredeck crew on
Saturday.
Wednesday started
pretty calm until we had to dodge a squall line and reef the main and furl the
genny. 20+ wind, high 70s, wind driven
waves turning flat as the wind went east and the genny went back
out.
Saturday great wind as
well with the Xmas spin flying north, but we needed to put a double reef in the
main returning south.
Sunday
was light wind and Vic practicing foredeck to get ready for the GCSC's Gals
Challenge Cup at the NSYC's New Years Regatta on Jan.
3
The "Back" of the
boat runing spin as Vee Jay leaves a nice wake.
Airborne
First
Short Test of Video of Vee Jay Action Don't
Blink! |
|
|
Xmas Spin Tune up Day, Dec,
2008 |
While the northern part of
the country was burried in snow storms in the midwest and ice storms in the
northeast, Vee Jay needed to test out its Xmas Spin ... over 30 years old and
salvaged from an ebay auction with few bidders.
Well OK ... it may be a bit too
Red and a bit too Green and that's why normal people didn't bid on it. But Vee
Jay needed a Xmas Spin to run up and down Naples beach.
Just a great Gulf Coast sailing
day with the wind out of the east and the seas flat. Temp on the water high
70s.
 We probably will use it in
the NSYC New Years Cup Regatta. Great crew of seven: Tim, Larry W, Jacklyn,
George, Steve, Randy and Vic.
Our
thanks to Randy for great spin photos.
Clip of the Xmas Spin undergoing mid December
testing |
See
that little curl ... that's what we want.
 |
Finally ... decent weight on the rail.
 |
Larry coaching daughter Jacklyn  |
Steve ... trim it in a little ... I hear it talking to
me. |
First Annual GCSC Naples Spin B Revival
Association (NSBRA) Tune Up Dec.
2008 |
Shock being shocking
 |
Having no race
scheduled in December to keep the crews busy, NSBRA ran a tune up between Shock
[left] and Vee Jay [below] on Fri./Sat./Sun first weekend of
December. It worked well with seven on Vee Jay Friday, eleven between us on
Saturday, and eight total on
Sunday.
Two great spin days
followed by a high wind day with short crew. To keep things interesting we
mixed crew between the boats to give everyone a real
challenge.
These photos were
from Sunday when we only had four on board ... but with decent waves running
during the "spin" leg giving us a bit of boat motion ... we elected to not try
to see if we could plane under spin. The waves and wind settled down later in
the day.
Shock went with a
full main and #3 and Vee Jay reefed the main but kept the #1.
|
Dave, Larry S, Tim, and Steve
 |
Larry W,
Vic, Bill, and Carol
 |
 |
 |
Marco Island Yacht Club
Fall Regatta. Nov. 2008 |
Unfortunately, the first
day was mid 80s, light wind and a pursuit race for the whole fleet that just
went on and on and on. Followed by a nice short 2 mile, once around WL.
Unfortunately, the second day
brought heavy winds out of the North that helped drain the tide so low that we
had 6 foot waves running across an ultra low shallow pass. The fleet just
couldn't get out to the Gulf. And it was in the high 60s which is "freezing"
for crew down here.
I'm glad
someone at MIYC took this picture of my .5 spin ... I thought it was solid red,
but there's a white stripe ... Vee Jay is white with a red stripe. Classy boat
compared to that solid blue T-Bone. And yes those are three Melges 24s, a J105
and a Soverel 33 screwing up the light wind for Vee Jay and T-Bone off to the
left. But we did have crew of
seven each day including Dave, Rich, Frank, Tom W., Larry, Steve, Randy and
skipper Vic. |
 |
 |
Naples Sailing & Yacht
Club Commodore's Cup .... Nov. 2008 |
Heading for Doctor's Pass
|
Vee Jay was not really
up for a two day spin regatta this early in the season as Saturday saw skipper
Vic pretty much roped to the Vee Jay's foredeck as we raced against four other
Spin B Boats in three tight races. The race committee barely gave us five
minutes between those races to catch
up.
Sunday, as Vee Jay only
had 3 crew, we opted to join Shock to set up a decent seven man crew on that
boat.
Ryan and Sven took over the foredeck
allowing Vic to take a break.
But
both boats still need to get up to speed as both Shock and Vee Jay have only
had a few weeks to get their winter racing act
together.
Yes, that's Senior
Skipper Dave wondering what his mixed crew is going to surprise him with
next. |
Youngest foredeck crew in the regatta take over for
Vic: Sven and Ryan
 |
Shock's Frank coordinating driver training.
 
|
Vee Jay's Tom and Steve on Shock
 
|
Naples Yacht Club Off Shore 90-Mile
Regatta Naples to San Carlos to Boca Grande to Naples .... Black Cup
Challenge #1, Oct. 2008 |
 Stern lights off Sanibel
near midnight. T-Bone way over to the West. |
Vic out front
 |
Vee Jay competed in its second
Naples Yacht Club Off Shore Regatta which ran 90 miles from Naples Pier to the
SC light in San Carlos Bay to R2 at Boca Grande and returned back to Naples
Pier. Vee Jay's crew all had a good time ... and we provided a great time for
the T-Bone crew as well.
A
few notes: Jason (T-Bone) sort of explained why we couldn't keep tabs on him
... his outboard obscured his stern running light, and his red port nav bulb
burned out, etc. etc. However ... he did admit that they kept their eyes on us
most of the night when they weren't trying to go to Texas. His spin run south
from the Boca Grande mark took him so far west he was out of sight of land.
Unfortunately for us after
the wind died, it came back from the west and gave him a solid advantage over
us on that last run.
In a 90
mile race around just two marks, both boats were so close at those two marks
(one 45 miles out) to be in hailing distance of each other ... that sort of
kept everyone awake. Actually at the Boca Grande mark we ended up 4 ft. from
each other. I think our vote to abandon in the face of a 5 hour calm was
absolutely right on, and I enjoyed my shower and nap before the
dinner.
Vee Jay doesn't like
competing against Spin boats that are so fast you never see them after the
start. The fastest spin boat Obsession (A MELGES 24 !!!) finished five and a
half hours earlier than T-Bone, and the other 40 ft. spin boats were just
slightly slower than 1st place Obsession ... all coming in over five hours
ahead of T-Bone.
T-Bone did
manage to win the Naples Black Cup Challenge for Spin B this time ... we'll see
how they do next. |
Randy and Tom
  |
Lisa, Tim and Dave
  |
Member:
Naples Gulf Coast
Sailing Club Vic2009@CaptainVic.com
© 2009 by Captain
Vic, Naples, FL 34102 |