Public Service Announcement: Boating Under the Influence

Coast Guard

Public Service Announcement: Boating Under the Influence

Boating and booze… is that redundant? Asking if a yacht club has a bar … is that even a question? Aren’t we now in ‘Beer Can’ racing season? Yes, it’s hard to escape the connection sailing has with spirits, so consider what follows to be a helpful reminder to be responsible…

* A boat operator is likely to become impaired more quickly than a driver, drink for drink?
* The penalties for Boating Under the Influence (BUI) can include large fines, revocation of operator privileges and serious jail terms?
* The use of alcohol is involved in about a third of all recreational boating fatalities?

While it is not illegal to drink alcohol while boating, it is illegal to operate a boat while under the influence of alcohol or drugs in every state. The U.S. Coast Guard also enforces a federal law that prohibits BUI. This law pertains to ALL boats (from canoes and rowboats to the largest ships) – and includes foreign vessels that operate in U.S. waters, as well as U.S. vessels on the high seas.

The marine environment – motion, vibration, engine noise, sun, wind and spray – accelerates a drinker’s impairment. As a result of these factors, a boat operator with a blood alcohol concentration above .10 percent is estimated to be more than 10 times as likely to die in a boating accident than an operator with zero blood alcohol concentration. Passengers are also at greatly increased risk for injury and death – especially if they are also using alcohol.

The Coast Guard and every state have stringent penalties for violating BUI laws. Penalties can include large fines, suspension or revocation of boat operator privileges, and jail terms. The Coast Guard and the states cooperate fully in enforcement in order to remove impaired boat operators from the waters.

In waters that are overseen solely by the states, the states have the authority to enforce their own BUI statutes. These penalties can include the suspension or revocation of one’s vehicle driver’s license.

Spread the word on the dangers of BUI. Many recreational boaters forget that a boat is a vehicle – and that safe operation is a legal and personal responsibility.

Thursday Night Racing Amendment No. 3

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The race committee posted at 0858 this morning the following amendment to the Thursday Night Racing Sailing Instructions.

 

2013 J WORLD Thursday Night Racing

May 9 – August 29

Hosted by J World Annapolis with support from Eastport Yacht Club

Annapolis, Maryland

SAILING INSTRUCTIONS AMENDMENT #3

 

Sailing instruction 7.2 is deleted and replaced with:

7.2 If the race committee signals a shortened course (displays flag S with two sounds) the finishing line shall be at a rounding mark, between the mark and a flag displaying flag S.

Maryland skipper sails TP52 to record run in Virginia Cruising Cup

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Irie, a TP52 skippered by Greg Alden, smashed the course record for the Virginia Cruising Cup Race – a Chesapeake Bay classic that begins off Annapolis (MD) and finishes off Hampton (VA).

Starting on May 24, Irie covered the 120-nautical mile course in seven hours, two minutes and 32 seconds. That shattered the previous mark of 11 hours and 9 minutes that had been established in 1974 by Running Tide, a Sparkman and Stephens 60-footer owned by Al Van Metre.

“It’s always an honor to do historic things. We were fortunate to get ideal conditions while the boat and crew performed tremendously,” Alden said.

Conditions were ideal for a record run with winds ranging from 20-30 knots out of the northwest with gusts up to 36. Irie, which sailed downwind under asymmetrical spinnaker for most of the race, recorded an average speed of 17-plus knots.

Alden said Irie started with a jib top as headsail then switched to a Fractional A6 asymmetrical and staysail configuration after changing angles near Thomas Point. Irie reached speeds of 25 knots while roaring along under spinnaker for almost five hours before returning to a jib reach near the finish.

“We got the ride of our lives. It was an absolutely epic trip, the most fun I’ve ever had aboard a sailboat,” Alden said. “We were surfing down waves and burying the bow. We were just ripping along the whole way and everybody had a blast.”

Storm Trysail Club-Chesapeake Station started the race at R2 off Annapolis while the Hampton Yacht Club finished the fleet at R22 near the mouth of Hampton Roads. Irie crossed the finish line off Fort Monroe at 5:27 p.m. on Friday evening.

“We got to the dock in time for happy hour, which I never would have imagined,” Alden said.

Quantum Sail Design Group professional Scott Nixon served as tactician for Alden and helped organize the crew. Dr. Robert Razenbach, a renowned Naval architect and aerodynamicist, was aboard as navigator. Boat captain Pete Pendleton and fellow Annapolis professional Mike Beasley doubled as drivers and trimmers. Former North Sails pro Matt Beck also handled both roles while Teddy Haaland (bow), Chris Schasiepen (trimmer), Chris Conway (trimmer), Rob Lancaster (grinder) and Brian Karlisch (mast) completed the crew. Ron Nixon, Scott’s father and a longtime Hampton Yacht Club member, was along for the ride and received a nice welcome in his home port.

This was the 64th edition of the Virginia Cruising Cup Race, which is known as the “Down the Bay” by lower Chesapeake sailors and the “Hampton Race” by upper bay competitors. First held in 1934, the Virginia Cruising Cup Race reached its highest popularity during the 1970s when it annually attracted 130-150 entries.

Run every year from 1934 to 1999 except during the World War II years (1942-45). After a 10-year hiatus from 1999-2008, the venerable race was revived in 2009 and has increased in participation every year since. This year’s event drew 31 boats in five classes.

“An exciting record like that posted by Irie raises the profile of the Virginia Cruising Cup race and shows that top-tier boats are once again competing in this Chesapeake Bay classic,” said regatta chairman Chauncey Wu of the Hampton Yacht Club.

Race website: http://www.hamptonyc.com/downthebay/

Print From Home NOAA Charts

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NOAA Charts are available for printing at home in booklet form.  http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/BookletChart.html

“The NOAA BookletChart™ is a product that you can print at home for free. BookletCharts are made to help recreational boaters locate themselves on the water.

The BookletChart is reduced in scale and divided into pages for convenience, but otherwise contains all the information of the full-scale nautical chart. Bar scales are also reduced in scale, but are accurate when used to measure distances in a BookletChart. Excerpts from the United States Coast Pilot are included. Most chart notes are consolidated on a single page for easy reference. Emergency information for the charted area is printed on the back cover.

BookletCharts are updated every week with Notices to Mariners.”

Week Two – Thursday Night Racing

J World Annapolis Thursday Night Racing is off to a great start!  More than 75 boats are registered for Thursday Night Racing which is taking place on two racing areas this season.  Our supporter, the Eastport Yacht Club, is doing a great job on the water and off by hosting the apres sailing social activity.  Here are last week’s official scores:  Thursday Night J_World Racing_5.16Final

Check out Dave Manheimer’s latest video post from last week’s Thursday Night Racing:

 

Thursday Night Racing – Series One Week One Scores

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Week one is in the books!  Dozens of J/22’s, J/24’s, J/80’s and J/70’s raced in light and shifty breezes last Thursday for the first of 16 weeks of J World Annapolis Thursday Night Racing.  Thanks to the Eastport Yacht Club and J World Annapolis Race Committees for putting on great racing for all fleets!

Due in part to changes to our internal scoring process (two racing circles this year!), a new scoring system (thank you JavaScore!) as well as a number of unregistered participants (no pay, no score) we are publishing scores that are provisional.  We know of several errors and are working to correct them.  We fully expect the final results to be published by Thursday.  Your patience and understanding is appreciated.

Here are the PROVISIONAL scores from week one:  Thursday Night J_World Racing – Series Standing – 3 races scored

You can help!  If you know of a scoring discrepancy, please fill out the ScoringReviewRequest (required this season) and send it to info@jworldannapolis.com or drop it by the office.

J/80 stalwart Brian Robinson submitted the following report from the J/80 course – other fleets are encouraged to submit too!

Thursday Night 5/9/13

Welcome back. Everything is the same as you remember it and also everything is different. JWorld ThursdayNights have started. There is racing, great sailing and a party. However, the J80s now start first and the party has been moved to EYC. 

We had two really nice races with the J80s starting first and the J70s following right after. That was the interesting thing that we have not experienced before, there were boats coming upwind at us before we go to the starting line. We are so used to dodging the J22s and J24s as we approach the leeward mark but having the J70s piling up on the port tack layline was a new experience.

Breeze from about the west at 5-10 (hovering in the 7 range), no chop. There did seem to be a geographic shift to the left as we got closer to the windward mark, or the current was pushing us out or Thom is just that great of a driver. 

Race 1 we started in the middle, closer to the pin side. No real plan other than going left almost always works. Once we were at the layline and clear to tack, we did and ended up reaching into the mark. I think we were somewhere between 3-5 around the top mark. I did a piss poor job of setting the kite, (hey not my job on this boat). Once we got rolling, we pushed out above the pin end, waited for the layline to the leeward mark and gybed. Once we rounded, we continued until we got to the layline for the boat and tacked. It was very very close between us and R80 (Crump) for 1st. Boat was definitely favored at the finish. 

Race 2 was very much like race 1 except that we got off the line with no speed. Mango was holding us from driving down for speed, so it was much tougher and we had to wait longer to get the the layline. Oh well. From there, we got stuck underneath a couple of boats going down to the leeward mark and kinda just sucked it up until we had more clear air. Then we were on the outside of the pin wheel. The pin wheel was made even larger when Puffinator decided to start jousting with Dragonfly. Poor Kyle on Dragonfly never knew what hit him. Again we held until the layline a caught up to a couple of boats.

Party was a EYC, food and drink specials were everywhere and lots of people showed up which is really good. People got to see the new clubhouse and enjoy the view from the deck.

See you Thursday!

 

Thursday Night Racing – Letter to Competitors

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Dear Competitors:

Thank you for participating in the 2013 J World Annapolis Thursday Night Racing.  Racing this season will begin on May 9, 2013 and conclude on August 29, 2013.  July 4th will be a lay day.

We are excited to bring to you another year of intense, short course racing.  We will continue to try and get as many races as possible off each night.  To this end, we will set short windward leeward courses that should take each class approximately 30 minutes to complete.  While the first couple of weeks may be daylight challenged, with good winds and ample daylight will hope to have three races a night for all classes by mid season.

All of the necessary documents are available at the J World Annapolis, posted on the official notice board and available of the J World website.  The Registration Form, Notice of Race, Sailing Instructions and Amendments 1 & 2 have all been posted.  If you have not filed your registration form and paid for the first series, you will not be scored.

Racing will begin each evening no earlier than 1830.  There will be two racing areas – Alpha and Bravo.  Both of these racing areas will be in the general vicinity of our historical racing venue.

Bravo Course, for J/22 and J/24’s is made possible by the generous support of the Eastport Yacht Club.  This course will be set as close to Horn Point as is practical in order to help the J/22 fleet make it to and from the course without engine assistance.

The Alpha course will be set a little further out from Annapolis harbor and will host the J/70 an J/80 fleets.

Race committees will attempt to make courtesy broadcasts to each fleet.  Alpha Fleet will be on VHF Channel 72 and Bravo Fleet will be on VHF Channel 71.

Both Alpha and Bravo courses have the option to use either course one or two as shown in addendum A of the sailing instructions.  In general, we will use course one, due to the fact it requires fewer RC resources and enables us to quickly get off races.  Please note that sailing instruction amendment one specifically discusses this course and details that the start line is closed for those boats on the leeward leg.  Also note, that the sailing instructions state that an offset mark may be set.

In the event of protests, please check the sailing instructions for how to take your penalties on the water or to file your protest.  Protest forms are available online and also at the J World offices.  Protests may be filed in person or submitted by email, but must be received by 0900 the Friday after racing.

The post racing social has been moved this year to the Eastport Yacht Club.  EYC is graciously supporting J World by providing RC support for the Bravo course, so in support of EYC (and deference to our neighbors) we have moved the social to their wonderful new facility.  EYC will provide inexpensive beer and food options as well as a great venue for socializing, debriefing and discussion.

Parking can be an issue at the end of the Eastport peninsula.  Everyone is encouraged to walk, but if you do drive PLEASE DO NOT PARK IN THEIR PARKING LOT.  The Yacht Haven parking lot, directly across the street from the club, is available for visiting cars.

Questions regarding Thursday Night Racing, protests and scoring inquiries should be directed to J World Annapolis.  You may call between 0900-1600 Monday-Friday or email us anytime at info@jworldannapolis.com

Thank you, sail fast and have fun!

The J World Annapolis Thursday Night Racing Team

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