J World Annapolis annually participates with students in the Annapolis Yacht Club Frostbite Series.  Thee student racers helm, trim and help call tactics as we race around Annapolis harbor.  Frostbite racing is a fun way to spend time on the water through the winter.  Frostbite Racing is a special discipline that requires a racers to think differently than they normally do in windward/leeward races.  Due in part to the use of fixed government marks and static start lines, downwind and reaching starts are common and overwhelmingly favored sides of the race course are De rigueur.  This makes for fun and interesting racing that is a somewhat different challenge than we face the rest of the racing season.

Annapolis Yacht Club is the host of the annual Frostbite Racing. The official Notice of Race (NOR) has been posted on their racing website, along with the Sailing Instructions, Attachment Aand Amendment 1.

Note that while the updated racing rules of sailing have been released, the AYC Frostbite racing series will be governed by the current rules.  If you are curious, you can download the “new” rules here.

“Just as sunflowers turn their heads to catch every sunbeam, so too have we discovered a simple way to get more from our sun.”

Some would say Daylight Saving Time gives us the opportunity to enjoy sunny summer evenings by moving our clocks an hour forward in the spring.  But now that summer has passed it is time to set our clocks back this Sunday. Please factor the time change into your planning for this weekend’s first Frostbite Racing event.

This is a great time to update the batteries in your smoke alarms too!

In the U.S., 2:00 a.m. was originally chosen as the changeover time because it was practical and minimized disruption. Most people were at home and this was the time when the fewest trains were running. It is late enough to minimally affect bars and restaurants, and it prevents the day from switching to yesterday, which would be confusing. It is early enough that the entire continental U.S. switches by daybreak, and the changeover occurs before most early shift workers and early churchgoers are affected.

Yet, the implementation of Daylight Saving Time has been fraught with controversy since Benjamin Franklin conceived of the idea. Even today, regions and countries routinely change their approaches to Daylight Saving Time.

We will see you this Sunday!