2014 Dana Dillon New Year Madness Regatta

New Years Madness is a great way to describe the racing that went on last Wednesday in Hampton Roads. The light and shifty breeze combined with a ripping outbound current made for some interesting strategy including tactical anchoring. Let us not forget Dana Dillon. 

Dana was an Army DELTA / Airborne badass awarded the Silver Star; Defense Superior Service Medal; Legion of Merit; the Bronze Star for Valor; Soldier's Medal; Purple Heart; and other medals and awards, including the Combat Infantry Badge and Master Parachutist Wings. He skippered his Catalina 30, Amarylyn competitively in the PHRF C fleet out of OPCYC. Additionally he started the New Years Day Race back on Y2K, rumor has it. I first participated in the race on Pterodactyl in 2011. 

This years race was FBG's first time attendance. The pre-race skippers meeting was special as Dana's crew shares "Danaisums" that were pretty cool. Then we're off to the Hampton River where we stagger starts (based on ratings) racing from the HYC bar, around Hampton Roads bar and finishing at the OPCYC bar. 

Also this was the first race I used the raceQs app on my phone. The starting line and wind shift function was pretty good but the playback is awesome. I am still learning how to download the track and put it on the blog. Hopefully by spring I will figure it out. Reviewing the track was really cool. 

We did a great job on the start, about 20 seconds late with the traffic we had was not bad and we were in clear breeze the entire way out. Thankfully it was light as the crew of three, Tim, Mike and myself, were able to tack out of the Hampton River competitively. We were the 4th boat to pass the first mark and 2nd in our fleet behind Callinectes.

On the 2nd leg we took a deeper line in an attempt to fly our spinnaker but this proved to be the wrong move as the boats that sailed higher gained. This has Wham Bam getting around us just before we rounded the 2nd mark. The reach to the 3rd mark was uneventful. 

But the run towards Ft Monroe was amazing. We were making 2.5 knots over ground with no wind in our sails (all current). Eventually we drifted up to the leaders. We managed to find a couple of little puffs that put us in the lead. 

This would be short lived as we missed the exit; the current would not let us make the turn into Mill Creek (Ft Monroe). All of the leaders were stuck at the Mill Creek entrance. Callinectes was able to get into the entrance a little before they started being pushed out and smartly dropped anchor awaiting the new breeze. When it filled it provided enough power to beat the current. We went out to try to catch that breeze early but the current was much stronger in the bay so we ended up dropping out. Congratulations to the race finishers and Happy 2014.    

Give it all you got!
Fat Bottom Girl
USA 30812