No wind. No racing.
Mike Scardaville and his team were ready to give racing a try but both boats had completely dead batteries, because the battery switches were left on and on one boat the ignition switch was left on. I’ll make up a card for each boat to remind members about the importance of turning off those switches.
Battery switch on the 17 is inside the big black box behind the seat
Battery switch on the 19 is mounted to the rear deck
Lloyd Leonard ran the races. He was assisted by Jacob Donkersloot, Will Phillippe, and Natalie Rehberger.
Lloyd’s report:
We had a lovely autumn day on the water. The sun was out the entire time and we had moderate to low winds. The RC set the windward-leeward course where the wind seemed to be for the first start, and though it shifted back and forth throughout the racing, the marks did seem to be right for the overall average. The winners were the ones who played the very significant shifts and kept their boats moving when the wind temporarily lessened.
The Albacores had a distinguished visitor from Great Britain, Peter Snowden sailing a Barney-boat, and he won three of the four races. The Lightnings traded the top spot and, with the single I-20, went in after three races.
Thanks to our RC team, Will Phillippe, Jacob Donkersloot, and last-minute addition Natalie Rehberger. See you next week,
—Lloyd Leonard
No racing. No RC. Ugly weather.
Report from PRO Laura Albert:
Conditions for the third fall series were better than forecast. The rain mostly held off and the wind mostly held on with winds from the N-NE around 6-8mph. Four Lightnings and four Albacores started together and finished pretty close together for four races. Chris Goethert did a great job with the flags and recording the starts and finishes. Kaitlyn Lucey and Lars Rathjen managed to thread the needle and set a course that worked well in the shifty conditions. Race committee polled the racers about another race after the fourth race and the consensus was to head back to the docks to help Barney Harris drink the beer in his van. Barney and Spot helped RC get the racing skiffs in and out of the water. Many thanks to the volunteers who made racing possible!
Results:
Pictures:
Tim Dickson, Dana Schuster, Nate Miller, and AE ran the races. Here is Tim’s report:
The turnout was thin but the Albacore’s were mighty. We had five Albacores and no other classes for the day. I queried whether the area by the power plant would suit for the smaller group, but even though we were at high tide in a full moon with the last vestiges of the Nor’easter, it was thought the water might still be too thin. So we elected concierge service for the Albacores. If they wanted to go we’d go: you paid your money, you get your racing!
Forecast held pretty true but we had enough of a Northerly angle to set up windward/leewards with a decent distance, which is what the group had wanted. The Nor’easter held on with some pretty gusty conditions; several gusts in the high twenties. The rain was off and on but fairly merciful… We got used to not saying “I think it blew through” after the fifth or sixth wave of wind and rain.
We had three capsizes, and AE and Nate were on the scene right away in each case, getting a workout. For one boat, one was enough and retired, and we kept an eye on them as they headed home. For the other, one wasn’t enough, so they capsized again! That did the job and they went home.
AE and Nate and Dana were splendid. Kept in constant contact and chugged over to help capsized boats right away. We set the marks at a true north/south with a pretty square start and finish line, but the ravaging current and wind caused some pin travel which was fixed between starts. Nice to have a one-design regatta without other classes testing their patience! Dana did flag and scribe duty nearly flawlessly, and I think our Albacore fleet was happy. After three races some were ready to go home, and the radar with buckets of rain on the screen suggested we call it a day. All were in by three or so without any issues.
Pictures
Stew Harris stepped up to PRO and Aiden Molesky, Dan Miller, and Reed Wescott stepped up to help him. Here is Stew’s report:
That was a seriously fluky day but we got one race off with some pressure that diminished mid race. A 90-degree shift to the east as we began the sequence for albacores left us with a reaching drag race. I preferred to get that first race off instead of further delay to reset.
Not my best work but the pressure continued to fall at noon (1-4 at airport) and just did not support race 2.
Below are the final cumulative results for the 2026 Spring Sunday Series.
Albacore-SS 21 races; 10 are dropped; Lucey, Miller, and Scardaville did RC and get RDG.
Inland-20-SS 13 races; 6 are dropped; Albert and Harris did RC and get RDG
Lightning-SS 17 races; 8 are dropped; Alsalam (via Hutton) did RC and gets RDG.
Note that other people also did RC on days when no races were completed (e.g. Molesky) or no boats in their fleet were racing (e.g. Astrove and Pedersen).
The details of the scoring are specified here. A boat’s worst races (half rounded down) are dropped. Boat’s on RC during races in their fleet, get the average for up to four of those races after the worst races are dropped.
Kaitlyn Lucey, Tyler Philips, Lilly Anderson, and Eliza Pearce ran the races. Laura Albert submitted the check-ins and race results. From the DNFs, it appears it was a very light wind day.
No races were held. Aidan Molesky and a helper were there to run the line boat but no one signed up to run the mark boat. And only three sailors came to race: one Albacores (Goethert) and two Lightnings (Astrove and Pedersen). Many of the Albacores were on the Eastern Shore for an invitational regatta.
Mike Scardaville, Laura Albert, Dan Miller and Nic Brogen ran the races.
The wind was shifty and very light. Attendance was also light, in part because most of the Lightning fleet was away at the Potomac Cup at Leesylvania State Park and a group of Albacore sailors were running the races there.
Just getting up to the race course against the current proved to be a challenge. Five Albacores and one Lightning made it and the RC was able to start one race before the wind died. Albacore sailors Kaitlyn Lucey and Aidan Molesky demonstrated their mastery of light wind sailing and the ability to find and string together small, sporadic puffs to finish the race. The other boats were finished in place.
Kudos to all the sailors that persevered in less than ideal conditions. A big thank you to Georgetown for lending their race boats and to Pete Fanta who generously offered to help the RC with the boats after he had just returned from Nationals the night before.
And welcome to new Lightning Fleet skipper and member Ron Frerkner.
— Laura Albert
Results: