Sunday, June 4, 2017

J/70 Sailors Love GPYC Stadium Sailing!

J70 stadium sailing (Grosse Pointe, MI)- Here is the commentary from Wally Cross, the Grosse Pointe YC Sailing Director:

“The wonderful aspect of stadium sailing is that you never know what the day’s conditions will bring for sailing.  We were lucky to get a fantastic 12-17 kts easterly with big chop.  It would have been nice to have sun and warmer temperatures, but we did have a great wind speed and direction.

We are working hard to make the next event, the June 23rd evening Stadium Sailing event even more fun.  We will have music and a commentator announcing the action for the spectators for our next event.  We will also have a bar set up for the spectators and sailors during this four hour sailing work out.  After the event, at 9pm we will have pizza and a keg on the Gazebo bar deck area. I am hoping we have wonderful summer like conditions and hope everyone will all attend the after party.  Consider bringing your J/70 over on Thursday or early Friday and leaving on Saturday.  It would be fun to share stories of the racing with each other.  Encourage more boats and spectators!

J/70 sailing league at GPYCWe are talking to sponsors now and my goal by the last event is to supply each boat racing a set of ‘Stadium Sails’.  The sails would have graphics and numbers for just this event. Each boat would also have the rig adjusted by one person to make all the boats the same.  Only adjustment you would be using is backstay. Once our sailing center is complete, we will truly make this a spectator sport. Sailing has to be fun and any ideas you have that could make this better, please let us know.

For now, keep enjoying your J/70 and spread the word to get more boats from out of town to sail in our stadium.

‘Thank You’ to boats that traveled to this event- Jerry Hines, Kevin Meier and the winner, James Prendergast.

The boats that scored well got off the line.  Boat handling was hard for most boats, but starting was the single biggest difference from the top to the bottom.  This is why the races on Tuesday and Stadium races will make you a better sailor at any regatta.

Thanks, again, for everyone for taking the time to sail at GPYC’s inaugural stadium sailing event, we look forward to seeing you all at the June 23rd event!”

“MarkSetBot” made its debut this weekend at Grosse Pointe YC for Premiere Sailing League's Stadium Races in J/70s. Over the 36 races this weekend, there were at least 30 mark changes and MSB performed flawlessly. It was quite the test, too, Saturday's races saw winds of 15-20 knots and waves of 3-5 feet. Learn more here-   MarkSetBot- facebook.com/MarkSetBot   For more J/70 GPYC sailing video. Add to Flipboard Magazine.