Century Club: Jonathan Nepini

Dewey got tied up at work so I rode on Elysium. Nice conditions at the top of the range for the light #1, and a good, if short, windward/leeward. I trimmed headsails and enjoyed more time on one of my favorite boats in the fleet.

Dangerous wasn’t able to make it down for the regatta as we originally planned, so Dewey and I managed an invite on Bad Cat, a J/111 out of Solomons. We have several friends on the boat and I was glad to have the opportunity to sail on a new boat with an asymmetric spinnaker.

After our usual Wednesday night race on Dangerous, we enjoyed an uneventful delivery overnight Wednesday and arrived in Deltaville early Thursday morning.

Dewey and I were up on the foredeck all weekend, and did a lot of quick learning on how asym boats work. Friday’s distance race featured Clarke McKinney as a guest, bringing the level of seriousness on the boat up a notch. The breeze was moderately light, and we did a couple tidy sets, gybes, and douses, sailed clean, and managed a third in class for the day.

Saturday provided similarly light conditions, and we kept the boat moving well for most of the races, landing a 3rd and a 5th on the day. Some sloppy race committed work resulted in a misunderstanding of the proper course, a big protest hearing, and the third race being thrown out.

Sunday provided the best sailing conditions of the weekend, and we got two great races in with perfect conditions, taking a 5th and a 3rd for the day, resulting in a third overall for the regatta.

We left in the evening and had an uneventful return to Solomons and arrived early Monday morning.

As always, FBYC’s hospitality was great, the parties were fun, and we all had a fantastic time camping and enjoying the weekend. I look forward to this event every year and this one certainly didn’t disappoint!

After rebuilding the hubs on the trailer I decided to go for a sailing adventure on the Potomac as a dry run for an upcoming trip to Lake Anna. After some time getting the boat road-ready, we had an uneventful trip to Abell’s Wharf. Unfortunately, we forgot the jib in Solomons, so I had to go get it. We finally got the boat rigged and launched, and had a nice ride around Breton Bay for a couple hours. We stopped by a friend’s house to say hi, and I showed Dewey some different parts of the area.

The inaugural “Shambles Wednesday”, where everyone on the boat swaps out of their usual crew position to try something new. I was on the helm, and drove the boat in moderate conditions. We got a clean downwind start, and I drove the boat on a short course to the mark. We were at the top of our ability to carry the spinnaker on a reach, and boats that favored the right side of the course ended up having better breeze. We rounded the mark well, but I had some trouble keeping the boat in the groove on the upwind leg. Fun to mix it up, but I definitely have some work to do on the helm to figure this boat out.