Wind and Sun for the East Coast Championships Regatta

BABA racers and Meet at the Beach inspired windsurfers scored a big weekend at Mayo for the East Coast Championships on September 21 and 22.

We’ve got lots of pictures and words to share, but in case, dear reader, you don’t make it through the entire post, I’m going to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers who pulled together to put on the regatta.   As Myles Borash said when asked why he traveled all the way from Boston to compete – he makes a great effort to travel to our regatta because BABA still cares about racing and has volunteers who will work to put on an event, while his local windsurfing community gave up long ago.

Spring Sailing with Team Mayo

Chris jumping
BEL 29

by Tom Caswell, USA 60

April 18

The bay gave up another good day, but team Mayo was reduced to me and G today. It was time to get back on the Formula gear with the Kashy fins race only a few weeks away, I rigged the 9.4m with winds in the low 20 knot range, G-man chickened out and sailed his 5.6 and custom board. The gust seemed like mid 25 knot range.

My 9.4 has turned into my go to sail for Formula when wind are over 20 knots on average. The North Formula warp 2012 may be the best Formula sail I’ve owed in many years of Formula sailing.

North Sail
North Formula Warp

DSC01150

April 22 – Formula vs Slalom

Gman and I had an interesting experiment this evening running some upwind downwind legs as we had ENE wind. Now we both know the formula board would run deeper downwind and higher upwind, but what if the Formula board sailed angles closer to a slalom board angles?

Gman sailed 8m and Starboard 112 isonic which is a very fast slalom board. I sailed the Patrick Formula race and 9.4m, the wind speed was 18 knots with a few lulls and a few higher gust….long story short my asumption was the Formula board would fall behind the slalom board if we ran angles more typical of slalom boards on the upwind and downwind. But in these conditions with 1-2 foot swell and 18 knots, the Formula board was just as fast even on a reach. No advantage to either board–a draw.

The Formula boards continue to amaze with huge range. It’s really a shame more windsurfers dont take advantage of the wide style boards Formula like boards. Anyhow that’s 3 out of the last 5 days lit up on the cold cold bay.

East Coast Championships Regatta

Windsurfing Will Not Be Cancelled
ECC Skipper's Meeting group picture ECC Skipper’s Meeting

It takes a village to put on a regatta, along with a dedicated Commodore, and BABA has all that and more!  We had 2 days of beautiful weather and WIND for the 2012 East Coast Championships Regatta, part of US Windsurfing’s National Race Tour.  The first race started around noon on Saturday, September 22 but there were many hours of planning and organization ahead of the horn’s blare.

Big thanks to Commodore Tomaso for bringing all the pieces together and running a great regatta.  We’d also like to acknowledge Anne Arundel Recreation and Parks for co-sponsoring the regatta, and park manager Dary Lofgren.

Jeff and Darlene Forte spent Friday night on their sailboat Something Special, a 1973 41 Tartan sloop at the marina on the West River where it is moored. It took them about an hour to motor over to Mayo on Saturday morning where they anchored in position to serve as committee boat for the regatta – a much more luxurious committee boat than BABA usually experiences!  Thank you Jeff and Darlene.

Albert Pritchard and Tom Caswell brought out their motor boats for the regatta –  Tomaso and the committee would not have been able to put together such a great course if they didn’t have a boat.  The smaller boats also served as safety boats to rescue befallen sailors, including Amber who broke a mast far from shore and appreciated the ride.   I hope her string of bad luck has ended.  Thank you Albert and Tom C.

Jeff and Darlene, and Dave Iseri and his daughter Jasmine ran the racing from  Something Special under the tutelage of Commodore Tomaso.  They  ran a tight series over 2 days with excellent starts and undisputable finishes – some camera ready.