Fleet 9 Onshore Regatta

When John Wyles is involved you don't need the finest excuse for a beer. Mike Holt was passing through New York City, so a planned gathering, by a few Fleet 9 members was all it took to squash a few pints last Tuesday night. It was Wyles that lead the pack into The 3 Kings down on 14th Street. The plan was then to head over the East River into Williamsburg, Brooklyn to a hearty old tavern called Mugs Ale House. This is a really cool spot if you are a beer maniac. The list of beer they have to offer is as long as any tiller extension.


We had a really fun evening as Mike and John are like encyclopedias on just about every 505 sailing. If you are in a fleet the chances of one boat being an ex Holt or Wyles boat are fairly high. These two exEnglishman living in sunny America offer a lot Five0 history and experience. And Mike, or Holty as he is more commonly known, is still beaming from his Worlds credentials, has a wealth of knowledge to share. Like what are these west coast boys really smoking out there?

Our gathering quickly got settled into beer and talking shop, 505 confessions and how to break a mast in San Francisco. There was the usual ramblings about the Kirwoods, Rondars and the waterats. I am convinced there is this secret partisan nod waterat owners have. Its an acknowledgement that they are sailing a rare species. We extended our discussion to the spreader situation and the sheeting angles and who has what strings to pull this and that. And then things got more interesting as confessions on weight, fitness and pain tolerances started to spill out, and what we all did to get ourselves to San Francisco. One particular helm had an amazing win win technique for warming up the stiff swollen hands before going sailing each morning. He would massage his wife before a race. Unbelievable! However this technique was quickly turned on its head. What if the wife wasn't around? Who would get the massage then? How many beers could you massage? Yes there was a bit of mumbling from the crew's union as it's a very dodgy situation. So if you are at the next regatta and you see two Five O sailors massaging each other before sailing its not because they've gone all mushy.

Between all this banter we had moved on and emptied out a Turkish restaurant and then into a Tiki bar with sand and surf boards. We could have been down at the mid winters? No way man we were still in Brooklyn!

Then all of a sudden it was that lousy hour on a school night. John had passed the point of no return home. Holty had to get back to the upper west side and got sucked up by a passing yellow cab. The fresh cold air spurred the rest of us on. We were keen for another round so when news came that Olav and Katrin might have some scotch back at their place right round the corner. Blaine, John and myself broke into a trot. Wow what a spot! Ha ha there is enough space in the front driveway of their house to park ten 505s, right in the heart of Brooklyn. This is where we should start the Fleet 9 splinter group for Onshore Activities! And Olav , the little hoarder, has a fine scotch collection. It is still a wee while till the next sailing event so we could keep up the Fleet 9 training by placing the weather mark at Mugs and the finish line at Olav and Katrin's. It's a sound course. That night I'll confess to putting in one more tack for another bar before running a ground. Getting home then seemed harder than sailing from the Berkley Circle to the beach. A good night.

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5o5s at the 2009 Heineken HPDO

What another great year for the 5o5s at the HPDO at American YC! For those of you who are unaware, the HPDO was started now over 5 years ago by Fleet 9 guru John Wyles, in an effort to create a premier multi-class regatta for high performance sail craft otherwise lacking in the NE area. The HPDO, has since become just that: that the premier event on the US East Coast for high performance sailboats. Every year the turnout seems to build and build, and with the support of great sponsors such as Heineken, has really prospered as a go-to event for "Great Racing, Great Friends, and Great Beer!"

To add to the usual components of great parties, free stuff, and great competition, Long Island Sound served up a true treat this year in 2 days of excellent racing conditions - not too cold, sunny, and WINDY! The 5o5 fleet, with a number of members fresh off of a "full metal jacket" world championship in San Francisco in August, certainly enjoyed the blustery fall conditions, and worlds teams who had spent 2 weeks sailing in 25+ against the best in the world showed off their newly acquired heavy-air skills.

Saturday morning opened in a flurry of activity in the newly converted base camp of AYC Parking Lot. One of the best parts about the HPDO is getting together a huge group of people who are really passionate about sailing in fun, fast boats; the rigging area inevitably becomes an interesting hybrid of a high-performance boat show, rigging shop, and regatta venue as competitors check out each other's rides, make last minute adjustments to their own boats, and talk about the days' forecast. The excitement was tangible as competitors launched their boats and linked into the first bands of the 15-20kt NWer outside of the harbor, rocketing their myriad of craft out towards the starting area (some at over 20 kts of boatspeed!).


Out on the water, Ted/ Doug made the best of their extensive ramp up at SF Worlds, putting on a clinic with three bullets and a second on the first day of racing. The big man in the wire and the experience of sailing against the world's best for two weeks in SF seemed to truly give them the edge when it came to upwind boatspeed and crisp downwind boathandling in the big breeze. Lesson learned: if you want to get good, go to Worlds! Conditions were challenging for the fleet with a steady 18-22 and higher gusts towards the end of the day - Ted even conceded that by SF standards, it was "moderate" out on the racecourse. Despite their dominant performance, racing was incredibly close amongst the entire fleet, and small mistakes cost a lot of boats in the shifty NWerly. Uncle Henry/ Dustin, John/ Team Silver Seahorse, Nick Burke/ Trevor Burd, and a number of other teams gave a valiant chase effort at various points throughout the day. As the breeze picked up to the mid-upper 20s for the last race of the day, the chest hair really started to sprout on the surviving competitors, with only 3 boats deciding to make the final turn downhill (and away from home) after the first windward mark. Those who did were treated to full liftoff, in the East Coast's best impersonation of the Berkeley Circle.


Day two dawned with a slightly more moderate forecast, with the second day of the post-frontal NWer promising to continue the fun but challenging racing conditions. With many competitors nursing battle scars from the prior evening's festivities, most were at least relieved that they would likely not be spending the entire day practicing the breaststroke in LIS. Indeed, Sunday ended up being another great but challenging day for racing, with a more moderate 10-15kts hanging on for most of the day. Not to be characterized as heavy-air specialists, Ted and Doug continued their winning streak, taking 4 of 5 races. Class newcomer Matt Barry and crew Zach Brown joined the hunting pack, putting up a number of strong finishes with the Bassmaster and fighting off some strong competition in this only their 3rd regatta in the boat. Competition was once again very close, with the streaky NWer putting a premium on smooth upwind and downwind transitions as well as staying in pressure. Congrats to Ted and Doug for pulling off a dominant performance, as well as earning Boat of the Week honors for the entire regatta!

Of course the big thanks goes out to John, Carina, Kevin, Sally, our RC and hosts at American YC, and the generous sponsors of the event. As illustrated by the great racing and high-profile media coverage, the HPDO has really become a one-of-a-kind gathering for high performance sailors in our part of the world. We really have a lot to be thankful for that our very own Fleet 9 finds itself smack in the middle of this carbon fiber-and spectra-entangled mecca, and we can only hope that the trend of increasing turnouts and great memories will continue for years to come. With John and Sally Wyles leaving for the Emerald Isle next year (at least in between 5o5 events!) Fleet 9 and the regatta organizers have some big shoes to fill, but their hard work and dedication to making this event a lasting tradition has given us the best foundation we could hope for to build on for the future. Make sure to put it in your calendar for next year!

John and Gareth linking in to a nice puff on Day 2

Full regatta gallery courtesy of Photoboat.com

All photos above are copyrighted and courtesy of Photoboat.com- any unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.

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2009 Fleet 9 AGM

Thanks to Doug for putting together the below write-up of this weekend's Fleet 9 AGM:



Fellow 505ers and Friends:

We had a most enjoyable evening Saturday at Doug and Marie McKeige's house for our year end Fleet 9 party and Annual General Meeting. There were 25 or so of us -- a nice turn out. Those of you who were not able to attend -- here is a report:

1. I was elected co fleet captain with our other new co fleet captain, Ted Ferrarone (elected in absentia). While we have plenty of willing and enthusiastic fleet members, the thinking was that I could help coordinate things with AYC and Ted can do the same with LYC and also especially help with fleet development among the folks who have come out of school and working/living in the metropolitan area. This new arrangement has come about because our great friend and leader John Wyles and his beautiful and wonderful wife Sally are relocating to their home in Ireland. John is, of course, irreplaceable and so we will all need to rally our energies to take advantage of the solid foundation and huge momentum that John has brought us. THANKS AGAIN JOHN WYLES!!! The good news is that John expects to be in the U.S. on a regular basis going forward and we will see plenty of him in the future.

In this spirit, Olav Schluter agreed to take on responsibility for our fleet loaner boat, 8464. Keith Longson said he will work on trying to get a better turn out from AYC members for fleet sailing. Carina Prakke-McCabe said she's interested in helping with the 2011 505 NAs organization (which we all are going to have to work on with the help of other E. Coast 505 sailors.)

2. Schedule: A lot of time was spent on this. The big events in 2010 are the 505 Worlds in Aarhus Denmark from July 25 to August 5. There appears to be strong interest for this and there will most certainly be an E. Coast container going over. The 505 North American Championship is Chicago, tentatively scheduled now for June 23 to 27. I'm not sure those dates are set and there was some concern about whether a container could be packed after that event and make it to Denmark in time for the Worlds.

Midwinters. There is strong interest in the midwinters and John W indicated his view that we should be able to load a tractor trailer (which can take upward of ten or eleven boats) at AYC and have it stop and pick up additional boats at Hampton, where a few of our fleet will be after the Hampton regatta this coming weekend. (John has been emailing on this subject).

After Midwinters, there was discussion about trying to do a training session or two in Miami with some help from Augie and Ethan in terms of a venue.

There will likely be a regatta at Hampton Virginia in early April and then the West River regatta in late April. We then currently plan to have the Larchmont Memorial Day regatta. There will likely be a Wickford regatta in early June and perhaps a regatta later in June at Beach Haven NJ on Long Beach Island. There was discussion around the fact that many fleet members spent so much time sailing at other venues that local participation suffered. There was also discussion around the need to balance local sailing with support for other E. Coast venues. We won't have the benefit of them sailing with us if we don't go to sail with them. We are going to look at trying to have at least one more local weekend event to add to the schedule. At the same time, it is a real plus if we can travel closer distances (like Wickford and Beach Haven) where we can have a better shot at breeze and where the travel time isn't so onerous. After June, as mentioned, there are the NAs at Chicago and the Worlds at Denmark. We should be good to go again this year for the Buzzards Bay Regatta in early August. There will likely be an event in September (perhaps a local one) and then we will have the HPDO in early October.

The schedule will be set over the coming months after discussions with the schedule coordinators for New England (Sol Marini and mid Atlantic Henry Amthor). We will keep you posted.

3. New Boats. Loic Bleuez indicated that he is interested in purchasing Xavier's boat. Loic attended Saturday and he lives in Morristown NJ. He is interested in finding somebody who could crew for him (correct?). We have a lot of boats locally now, so anybody out there who wants to skipper or crew should not have trouble finding a way to get something figured out. Let's all show some iniative on this.

4. 505 NAs October 2011. This is a four day event scheduled for the weekend in October 2011 after the HPDO. Joerg, who just finished organizing the J105 NAs at AYC said it is a lot of work. Fortunately, we have at AYC a pretty enthusiastic and able group of RC personnel which is a great place to start. We are going to need a ton of additional pieces. For the time being, Ted, Doug, Carina, Kevin (with some advice from Joerg and John W) will get on top of this.

That's about all I've got.

Best,
Doug McKeige

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505 Fleet 9 - Fall Schedule & 2011 NAs

Hopefully you have all had a good summer and are getting ready for sailing in some breeze through the fall.

There is a good program at AYC leading up to the Heineken HPDO in October with 3 Sunday High Performance events.

Early arrivals at AYC for the HPDO are welcome especially if they are joining in the Sunday sailing. Eight 505s have registered to date and I’m sure that number will easily double.

If you have not registered go to: http://www.yachtscoring.com/emenu.cfm?eID=276

For those who want to travel there are events at WRSC and SSA, MD and Hampton YC, VA.

AYC/Fleet 9s bid at the North American section AGM in SF to host the 2011 NAs was successful with unanimous support. Time to think about that new boat?

John
505 Fleet 9
www.505fleet9.blogspot.com

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Mark Lindsay at the Heineken HPDO

2009 Heineken High Performance Dinghy Open Updated Coverage

Long Island Sound’s only high performance dinghy event, the 2009 Heineken High Performance Dinghy Open is returning again this Columbus Day weekend on October 10 & 11, 2009. Hosted by American Yacht Club, in Rye, NY, the 6th running of the Heineken HPDO promises exciting action for all racers and spectators.

This year, racers in all classes will be greeted at the HPDO with a surprise. The group will be joined by Mark Lindsay one of the most celebrated boat builders in the New England region. Mark is responsible for construction innovation that produced what are widely regarded as the first of the “modern” 505s for the likes of Steve Benjamin, Gary Knapp, Steve Taylor, and Cam Lewis. Now of a 20 year vintage, Mark’s 505 hulls are still finding top finishes in national and world class events. His focus on structure and lightweight construction yielded boats that tolerate impressive amounts of rig tension. The boats are also far more durable than other boats using construction methods at the time. In addition to his work in the 505 class, Mark has produced Olympic and World Championship winning boats in both the Flying Dutchman and Fireball classes as well as countless regatta winning keelboats. HPDO attendees will have the opportunity to hear him speak about his experiences at the dinner on the Saturday night. Mark might also be sailing one of his boats.

Participation will be well up on previous years with over 100 boats expected, with strong fleets from the International 505, FD, Foiling Moths, RSK6, Viper, A-Cat classes, many of which are locally based. A new class taking part this year is the F18 Catamaran, with promises of 10+ boats. Other classes expected to sail in the as classes or in a PY division are International Canoe, 49er, Contender, 470 and I14. An invitation is also out to Solo Swifts and Musto Skiffs to take part. Class starts will be given to classes of 6 or more boats, and the Heineken HPDO welcomes additional attendance from other high performance classes. Please contact the event organizers at HPDO@cloud9.net or visit www.hpdo.org for additional information.

High performance small boat sailing continues its local renaissance at American Yacht Club with the 505 fleet now at 13 boats, the RSK6 approaching 20 boats plus members with I14s, Foiling Moths, Tempests, A-class and F18 class catamarans.

The NOR and online Entry (by Yacht Scoring www.yachtscoring.com ) for the 2009 Heineken HPDO is posted on the AYC website at www.americanyc.org Competitors are encouraged to sign up early to help the organizers and make sure you get the shirt size you want.

About Heineken USA

Please visit “EnjoyHeinekenResponsibly.com” for additional information.

About American Yacht Club

Please visit http://www.americanyc.org for additional information.

About other supporters

Tribeach Holdings LLC please visit http://www.tribeach.com

APS please visit http://www.apsltd.com

Ronstan please visit http://www.ronstan.com/marine

Zhik please visit http://www.zhik.com

Media Contact Regatta Chairs

Justin Shaffer John Wyles johnwyles@cloud9.net

Email: shafferj@mac.com Carina McCabe carina.mccabe@gmail.com

Phone: +1 646 996 3698

John

505 Fleet 9

www.505fleet9.blogspot.com

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Memorial Day Training with Peter Alarie

We had a phenomenal training weekend with coach Peter Alarie this past memorial day. Below are Teds notes for those who weren't able to attend. We will be trying to get some pics and video up shortly, so stay tuned.  

Top Ten Takeaways from Memorial Day Training Weekend

1. Calibrate your boat up to the Glaser tuning numbers – even if you your sails call for something else, you must be on this system in order to compare settings boat to boat. I have the tuning grid and ram scale for anyone who did not get one. We used North Sails and were 100% on the Glaser grid the entire weekend.
2. Do not assume that your boat is setup correctly – nearly every boat measured was off significantly in some meaningful dimension – mast butt position, ram or rake
3. When in doubt, put your boat on the Glaser numbers if you do not feel fast – rake/ram/board – do not adjust one variable independently of the others – they are meant to work together
4. Mark everything – rake, ram, CB, vang, shrouds, jib leads, jib sheet. If it is marked, you can compare setups and replicate settings from day to day – there are too many variables in 505's to eyeball it
5. Gear must be setup to work throughout the range of conditions – this means the ability to rake from 25'8" – 24'10", ram from 0 to 15. Flattening reef is a must for lighter teams.
6. Biggest cause of flipping was hesitation on the windy gybes – boat must make a smooth turn from full wire through gybe – crew must come in off wire (trimming kite so it doesn't flog), blow pole, duck, flatten, and then get the pole right out and get back on wire. Peter noted that mounting the pole launcher cleat upside down helps in this evolution – crew swings in (already unhooked), blows pole while ducking under the boom in a single motion. Turn has to be smooth and fast - once the boat slows with the crew off the wire, pinch your nose because you are going swimming. Teams need to pick a good place to gybe – turning into the face of a wave was a sure invitation to capsize.
7. In breeze, crews must work to minimize time spent off the wire – this means getting out immediately once the kite is up in wire-running conditions, and out on the wire immediately once you tack – as Skip said "the crew's job is to put their head through the next wave on every tack". Peter noted repeatedly the length of time it took for teams to get off and running once they got the kite up – Parry set the bar, getting the pole out as the kite neared full hoist and swinging out on the wire as he made his final pull. Same concept on gybes. Crews can minimize this delay by pre-setting trap ring higher on final approaches to mark on port and starboard.
8. Keep the boat moving on windy wire runs – keep the heel and power constant – find the line where you are high enough to keep the boat ripping, but not heeling up and dumping power in the puffs – skippers need to make smooth turns down in the big puffs, but heat it back up as the power bleeds off. Many boats were consistently sailing too deep - you must be passing waves for wire running to be effective.
9. In light air – progression upwind with crew to leeward would have no vang, ram up past 0 and shrouds on hard (400 lbs as a starting point) – as crew comes to weather, uncleat ram up (should drop a few #'s), pull some light vang and ease shrouds for more power, ram no lower than 4 until you start to rake
10. Light air gybes are all about keeping the boat moving – big keys are to rotate the kite sufficiently, get a good roll in, and come out of the turn on the appropriate angle. Telltales on shrouds are a big help here.
11. Extra credit: contents of your lifejacket pocket should include a cassette tape for telltales, chapstick, a piece of spectra, some food, and the bag your sunglasses came in.

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Memorial Day Training Event at LYC

Ted has put together a great schedule for this weekend's Fleet 9 Memorial Day event at Larchmont YC. 16 boats have already registered to take part in the event, with 505 ace Peter Alarie leading a constructive weekend of tuning, coaching, and racing. The weather is supposed to be beautiful, the regatta is free, and spots are still open for both skippers and crews. Get in touch with Ted or John asap if you'd like to join in! See you on the water...

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Wicked Wickford Regatta!

Fleet 9 had a great turnout of 9 boats at the first Wickford Regatta for many years. Skip Whyte upheld his promises of great racing and great social activity. Fleet 9 champs Ted & Doug maintained their winning form but only just!They were tied on points with Drew & Ramsey, both teams with 4 firstd and 4 seconds, so the tie went to the winner of the last race.

Saturday night WYC laid on free beer and a sumptuous buffet (satisfying even Drew!) with everyone dining in the Great Hall. Naraganset Lager flowed freely aided by the local distributor, an I14 sailor. The I14s, in moment of bravado challenged the 505s to a boat race. It took some time to get everyone under starters orders due to boisterous discussion and clarification of the rules. The race was pretty even until 505 anchorman Blaine chugged his beer at an incredible rate to win the race for the 505s.

Final results at https://event-manager.compete-at.com/Manager/event/results.do?eid=921

The venue for the racing was the Wickford Town Beach, a great place to sail from, and WYC even laid on helpers to bring your dolley to you in the water after racing.

How did I get to 9 boats? the far reaching arms of fleet 9 include the Breton's, mostly based in NY/NJ, and 7068(8083) Russ & Mike's boat, which spends some of it's time at AYC.

John

505 Fleet 9

www.505fleet9.blogspot.com

 

 

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Another AYC member buys a 505

Congratulations to Tim Dowling who, even after drifting around last Saturday crewing for Keith Longson, was still keen enough to do a deal with Olav and took possession of 7566 this week. We look forward to seeing him on the water, especially our local events. Tim is new to 505s so please give him as much help and advice as you can.

John

505 Fleet 9

www.505fleet9.blogspot.com

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Ferrarone/McKeige Chalk One Up for Fleet 9 at WRSC

Ted and Doug sailed a stellar regatta this past weekend to take top honors at the WRSC Spring Regatta in West River, Maryland this past weekend in a fleet of 13 505s. Olav and Katrin also had a great weekend, sailing 8441 to a solid 5th place finish. Nice breeze, flat water, and air temps in the mid 80s left everyone who was able to make it glad they came! Full results can be found here.

Next weekend, 470 World Champions Isabelle Kinsolving and Erin Maxwell will be practicing out of AYC, with interested Fleet 9 teams invited to join them to “buzz the leadmines” finishing up AYC Spring Series Weekend 2. With a number of available boats, be sure to get in touch this week if you’d like to join in...

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Spring Starts off in High Gear

Fleet 9 has had an active few weekends to start off the 2009 season. Last Saturday, Fleet Captain John Wyles and Kevin McCabe put the best of Fleet 9 “past and present” on display on the front lawn for American YC’s 126th Commissioning on the front lawn of AYC. A number of Fleet 9 Members were in attendance, enjoying the warm weather, the re-opening of the club, and the bar. Judging from the smile on John Wyles' face below, it was a pretty good time!


Not to leave all the activity for the weekend ashore, the fleet met for a first successful training session on another nice day on Sunday. After surviving an hour of Long Island Sound’s finest east-south-northerly, a nice frontal southerly filled in for 3 exciting windward-leeward practice races in 12-15kts. Class newcomer Keith Longson had Tyler Moore’s old 8883 going well in the fresh breeze, with 8931, 8939, and 8441 also out having fun. The day served as a great starter to polish rusty boathandling around the short course, with water temps in the 40s providing additional incentive not to botch those wire to wire gybes!

Looking good...even off the water.

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Opening Day...Sort Of

Fleet 9's opening day was met with conditions that tested even the most diehard spring sailors in the fleet. Upper 40's/ low 50's and a soaking rain saw more than a few fleet members head for the greener pastures of the AYC bar and the Masters tourney. After a few hours of rigging and "are we really doing this?," a three boat contingent made up of Mike/ Russ, Matt/ Zack, and Dan/ Joerg ventured out after the worst of the front had passed through for a nice moderate air session in the later afternoon. It was great to see the Bassmaster out and having a blast, with due credit to Ted who managed to pull everything together in time for the new guys(in sandals no less!). A great time was had by all.

We'll be meeting again this Sunday for round 2. With any luck, the weather will cooperate and a 6-10 boat fleet will be there to enjoy!

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Fleet 9 Opening Day 2009

Last Sunday’s bright sunshine produced a flurry of 505 activity at AYC. Six boats were pulled out of winter storage and rigged ready for the season. It was good to see Keith Longson getting to grips with 8883, with a double spreader rig.

Fleet 9’s season kicks off next Saturday, April 11, with a rigging and tuning session at AYC. Ted Ferrarone will be on hand to check and give guidance on settings and measurements.

Come and join us on Saturday afternoon, if not to sail just to look at the variety of boats and rigging and talk 505s.

Look forward to seeing you all.

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Welcome to the 505 Fleet 9 Homepage!

The site is currently under construction, but stay tuned for more content to come!

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