Category Archives: Sail

DF95 FUN & FOWL REGATTA

A healthy group of DF 95 skippers faired well today with no fowl weather and no fowl language.. Jess Atkinson was the master of ceremony and directed a full day of sailing on Mission Bay Model Yacht Pond. At stake today was winners rights to a booty of fresh fowl for the Thanksgiving table!

Prior to racing skippers gathered around Dennis Rogers for an informative tuning seminar. Dennis shared valuable setup and tuning tricks for the DF95. I think everyone learned something from the class..Dennis is FAST!

Jess got us all thinking about the four boat circle with four DF95 yachts parked bow too stern on the grass . The visualization gave us a good refresher on how to avoid problems when rounding the leeward mark. The stage was set and skippers were eager to bring home the bacon! Tom Warren backed up the class with expert assist at the start and finish. GREAT JOB!

Chris & Team Rogers
Race #2, Race #5, Race #8, I think

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS

Don’t Forget

SOLING 50 & ODOM-NOVEMBER 25

OCT.21-DF95 & IOM Points

A fantastic day greeted a nice group of skippers, on our last points event for October. DF95 and IOM fleets experienced consistent 6-10mph north west breezes that held trough out the day.

Craig-Mike

Craig Mackey was our volunteer Race Director for the DF95 fleet and managed 6 races on our standard medium course. There was some tight racing in the in the top ranks but Dennis Rogers came out on top with some beautiful sailing.

DF-95 Fleet

Chris Staiger stepped up as Race Director for the IOM fleet. The wind was favorable for long courses, so five longs and one modified (“Freddy”) medium course filled up the day. Mike Fruciano made the road trip from Arizona.. Thank you Mike for your participation! Congratulations Dennis Rogers for some very consistent sailing!

Bob Williams, once again, pushed that semi-portable grill half way around the world to serve up his specialty.. HOT DOGS!! Thank you Bob!!

Thank You Pat Nevitt for the beautiful score sheets.. YOU ROCK!! After all, scores are the meat of this post!

DF95’s DON’T FORGET NOVEMBER 11

SEE YOU AT THE POND.. Gil

OCT.7-ODOM & Soling 50 Points

Argonauts skippers experienced a beautiful summer like day on Mission Bay Model Yacht Pond. A perfect time of the year in San Diego to enjoy a day of sailing! The sea breeze held through out the day with the typical and unpredictable shifts, making for a challenging day on the water.

Special thanks to our volunteer Race Directors that stepped in at the last minute to fill the void. Chris Staiger set the marks and called the action for our ODOM fleet. Pat Nevitt was the Race Director for the Soling 50 fleet and tallied the scores. We truly appreciate what you do!

SPECIAL NOTE:

Saturday October 14 is an IOM Fun Day

November 11- DF 95 FUN & FOWL REGATTA

Don’t be a chicken!! Provide name and sail number to: Jess Atkinson or Gil Jansky

SMOOTH SAILING, Gil

SEPT. 9 Points- IOM & DF95

IOM and DF 95 skippers experienced perfect end of summer conditions for our second points event of September. The wind was onshore early with a WNW flow on our pond. Chris Staiger was our Race Director for the IOM Fleet and Gerry Wold ran the DF 95 series. Each class completed six medium course races. It was a good day of challenging and competitive sailing!

SEPT. 9- IOM POINTS
SEPT. 9DF95 POINTS

Steve Delva filled in for Pat Nevitt, while he is on vacation, providing the scores cards above. We will get caught up on cumulative scoring in October. Thank You Steve!

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FUN & FOWL REGATTA

SIGN UP EARLY & SAVE THE DATE!

Jess Atkinson announced that The San Diego Argonauts will be running a special sailing event for DF 95 skippers and their friends on Saturday, November 11!

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Special note: This event was organized to promote R/C sailing and enhance skippers skill level, cooperation and camaraderie.  Trophies will be awarded to the top three finishers.  There will be a short tuning seminar and Q&A session lead by Jess Atkinson

VC Sail Announcement:

Hello Sailors,

Originally the Bayfair thunder boat regatta was scheduled for this coming Saturday. However, Bayfair has been cancelled. Let’s make this Saturday a fun practice day. Who knows, Hot Dog Bob could show up with his legal hot dog cart. 

See you at the pond for a fun day.

Steve Ross

SEPT. 2 Points- Soling 50 & ODOM

Welcome to September on Mission Bay! We were greeted this morning with light drizzle and flukey onshore breezes. The Soling 50 fleet continues a strong showing of yachts. Considering the holiday weekend we did great with 10 skippers! The ODOM class seems to be holding steady at around a half dozen boats.. It was especially challenging for the Soling 50 fleet, as wind was lighter in the first three heats and there were obvious moments of ghosting with tell-tales sticking to the wet mylar. The ODOM fleet was second on the pond and managed a little more pressure as the air warmed up and blue sky pushed the clouds inland. Nice sailing by all skippers today!

Special thanks to volunteer Keith Sternal for a full day of race direction. He was out on the water early setting the marks and managing a full day of medium courses! Six races for each fleet, then back in the skiff at days end retrieving all our pins! I think we owe Kieth a cold beer or two! Steve Ross was backing up the score cards with his pen. I bet he earned a beer as well!

Everyone got these scores really fast considering Pat Nevitt had a tough time with water on his wind screen. GO Pat!

We have a expert drone pilot in our group that spends many hours (battery packs) capturing Wing Foiling action on East Mission Bay. I am sure following our pond sailing action was a piece of cake for him. We are very lucky to have Steve Ross documenting some of our racing activities.. THANK YOU Steve! (Check out his YouTube channel at Steve Ross 1965)

Summer might be coming to an end but there is plenty of great wind in San Diego year round. Get your rigs down to the pond!

Smooth Sailing, Gil

AUG.5 Points-ODOM & Soling 50

The sea breeze was up early today. Bob Williams opened the shed and wheeled out our trusty skiff. Gil Jansky dropped the marks and set the standard course. Steve Ross collected the $3 toll. Tom Warren officiated the skippers meeting. Prior to sailing, Tom installed a GoPro surveillance camera on the starting mark. Hopefully we will see a number of honest mistakes! Racing commenced at noon with ODOM’s on the pond first, with Bob Williams calling medium courses. Seven ODOM’s and away they go – Check out the scores.

After a short break, Tom Warren managed the six heats in the Soling 50 fleet. Seven skippers and a good day on the water. Pat Nevitt was right at the finish line with his pencil, keeping there score cards legible for his evening scoring calculations. THANK YOU PAT!!!

Thank the volunteers that make this possible!

Smooth Sailing, Gil

July 15 Points-IOM & DF95

July 15 Club Points attracted a nice group of skippers eager to sample some beautiful Mission Bay summer weather. The sea breeze cooperated most of the day with fairly consistent wind in the 3-8mph range.

Chris Staiger manned our skiff and set marks to accommodate a light onshore breeze. He also served as our volunteer Race Director for our IOM fleet. During the skippers meeting crews agreed to sailing a gate, as apposed to our reaching leg, opening up more opportunities for our medium course. Good work Chris!

Mike Fruciano was our volunteer Race Director for the DF95 fleet, along with scoring assistant Ken Titilah. Thank you for your help.

Kerim Baran has been active with the San Diego Argonauts for many years as a spirited competitor In Soling 50, ODOM and DF95 fleets and has provided spectacular drone footage of many of our racing events. Kerim will be leaving the San Diego area for other adventures and will be missed on or pond. Smooth Sailing, Kerim!

July 15 IOM Points Races – Playlist

Thank you to all skippers and volunteers that participated today. Club members appreciate your support!

Without Bob Williams we wouldn’t have the shirts on our back!! Thank you Bob for for ordering a fresh batch of T’s..

Smooth Sailing, Gil

JULY 1 Points-Soling 50 & ODOM

Mission Bay has come to life with summer activities.. beaches, barbecues and lots of boats and cars! Our pond was equally active with much of the same action, only in miniature scale! We even experienced a water skiing demonstration prior to our day of sailboat racing!

Dave Woodward drove from Yuma to volunteer as Race Director. He set the marks, called the line, and fetched everything at the end of the day! Dennis Rogers assisted with scoring the finishes. Great job guys!

Our pond was overcast most of the day with light and variable onshore breezes. Fleets experienced a mixed bag of long, medium and short courses as the winds fluctuated. A challenging day of sailing!

Pat Nevitt provided these beautiful score cards! We all appreciate your contribution!

SOLING 50 RACE 1 – Start & Finish
SOLING 50 RACE 2- Start & Finish

See You At The Pond!

Foster City IOM Regatta-Tom Warren Perspective

Four Argonaut IOM Sailors traveled to Foster City June 10 & 11 for the 2023 IOM Regionals – Dennis Rogers, Jess Atkinson, Jason Brooks and Tom Warren. There were just 13 entries but a highly competitive field leaving Jason and I feeling at least this was a gaining confidence event.  I was desperate for “B Rig”  experience as I was told it can blow stink at the lake. I was also warned of Kelley fish and weed wrapping around our IOM appendages!

As it turned out,  weed and jelly fish were the least of our concerns as Jason and I observed the rock stars show up on Saturday morning. These are the guys our parents warned us about.  

George Pedrick decided to forego the competition and became PRO as Freddy could not attend.  George moved us south of the Rec Center for more favorable course, and we all ran A Rigs the first day. But the winds did not cooperate early as George was able to get off several races before postponements and resetting the courses became the rule of the day. With a 180 wind shift, the first critical races required us to start from right to left and dyslexic vision hampered the rookies. Finding our speed was also difficult and we made major adjustments between the many races thus far. With another 180 windshift and wind building to upper limits of A Rig, Jason took the bait and was the only sailor to mount the B Rig. Unfortunately, he could not overcome the lulls.  Saturday’s end results placed Dennis and Jess in the upper echelon with Gary Boel and Mark Gollison,  and Jason and I scoring in the Top 20!  

Sunday morning brought more challenges to George Pedrick as the City of Foster City booked two events…the Bay Area Dragon boat regatta took our Saturday race course away, and we had to push the course North of the Pagoda and into a short course configuration. And alas the wind gods came to play and pushed us all into B Rigs!  “This ought to be interesting!”  Lots of action!  Be awake!

I quickly found I had boat speed up and down the course- Kantun K2 conditions.the boat from Croatia was flying!  Planing, diving, and a hell of a lotta fun!  I started moving up in the order, but also found close quarter port and starboards required situational awareness. Several times I sailed passed outside the finish line’s smaller balls, and had to circle back, costing me valuable positions.  When George suggested we target completing 32 races total, I felt my last chances of improvement.  Alas!  I steal a second place, then a fourth, and finally I got the start of my dreams, and fought hard for another 2nd place…but dang!  I nailed the final tack and WON my first race!  I did a Fernando Tatis 3rd Base Shuffle and got Congrats from all!  So that’s how it’s done!

We all had an excellent time, and as the results don’t lie, Gary Boel and Mark Gollison went One Two.  The entire fleet gained a great deal of attention from the locals and the Dragon participants, who constantly banged their drums all day long. 

I was very impressed that every IOM player is willing to help each other out, are extremely friendly and enjoy the spirit of competition. There were no protests!  Penalties served without bantering.  And the sailing skills outrageous!  

George Pedrick announced that The 2024 US Nationals will likely be held in Foster City. 

SIGN ME UP!  And the Argonauts need to come up and play with the Best of the Best. They won’t bite!  We will all benefit in enjoying top- level competition with classy people. 

PS Gary Boel paid me off with a cookie!  And Jess…thank you for encouraging Jason and I to compete. You are a true warrior!

Tom Warren IOM #48

The Crew

Hello IOM Sailors,

The regatta turned out pretty good.  We had a bit of a crises as the City scheduled two water events on the same day.  We both needed the same water and the Dragon Boats got there first and had bigger boats.  So we set up a bit shorter course to leeward of them which worked out fine.  The shorter course also meant we got in 17 more races Sunday for a total of 32 good races for the weekend.  The day started out in A rig and switched to B just after lunch.

Special Thanks to Dick Hunter, Sandy Winton, Chris Sullivan, Gary Boell and Gene Harris for their contributions to making the event a success.

I need to confirm with Freddy, but I am confident we will be hosting the 2024 National’s on one of the first two weekends in June of next year.  Pencil it in and start making plans to attend.  Be sure to bring a friend or two.

Thank you to all that attended.  I enjoyed the time we spent together, and I look forward to the next time we cross paths.

George Pedrick

JUN. 10-DF95 & IOM POINTS

San Diego Argonauts welcomed new member, Len Bose, to our group. He will be sailing IOM and DF95. We hope to see him often!

This is starting to sound like a broken record! Our June overhead is still very grey!
Despite that rather chilly detail a good group of skippers turned out for DF95 and IOM Points races. Light winds ruled our pond and in fact became lighter as the afternoon progressed. Chris Staiger set the marks and Kim Robbins managed collections while Gil scrambled back home for his missing transmitter :{ RD Gil got the DF 95 fleet on a short clock a few minutes after noon, with a mixture of 4 medium, 1 long and 1 short courses to complete six heats. Nice sailing!

Sean O’Connor was our volunteer Race Director for the IOM fleet today. Thank you Sean!

Our IOM fleet was about 5 skippers short today, as they are competing in the Region 6 Regatta in Foster City. We missed them on the starting line and wish them good luck!

Volunteers make this all possible! Lend a hand when you can!

Thank You Volunteers!

Sean O’Connor, Patt Nevitt, Steve Ross, Kim Robbins, Chris Staiger and Keith Sternal

Smooth Sailing, Gil