ILCA Fleet Sails Richmond Yacht Club’s ‘Big Dinghy’ Regatta
April 25 and 26 brought out Richmond Yacht Club’s (RYC) Big Dinghy Regatta. No, it’s not a regatta for big dinghies. The name derives from RYC’s Bob Klein, beloved commodore and mentor to many junior and adult sailors. He was known as Big Daddy, and in the early spring the Big Daddy regatta is run in his name. Then, a couple of weeks later, RYC’s race committee volunteers do it all again for the non-ballasted (and minimally ballasted Wabbit and U20) crowds. We could call it the Little Daddy, but that name went to a high school regatta.
The ILCA 6 fleet on day one had some competitors missing. On Saturday we had four boats on the line, sailed by Chris Boome, Jon Andron, Ernie Galvan and Riley Shear. PRO Robin Van Vliet (herself a big deal in J/24s and very generous with her time running races for dinghy sailors) set us up between Brooks Island and Southampton Shoal. Saturday was overcast. Breeze was moderate and shifty. Chris and Jon made short work of the shifts, trading first and second place (except for race two, when gear failure sent Jon back to the cheap seats). We got our full four races on Saturday. Thank you, Robin.
Day two, Sunday, was greeted by the warmth of partially sunny conditions, and the return of the prodigal David LaPier and Toshi Takayanagi. Now we were up to six boats for three races. Jon, David and Toshi came hot into Sunday’s race one, and their OCS scores allowed a one, two, three by Riley, Ernie and Chris. By Sunday’s race two, David and Toshi had dialed in their starts, and got the first and second positions, followed by Jon and Chris. By the last race, the wind was up quite a bit, and the two Laser sages retired for the day, leaving David, Riley, Toshi, and Ernie to finish out the regatta in that order.
Chris Boome and Jon Andron took home the ILCA 6 first- and second-place trophies, and then the fleet crashed the RYC new-members’ buffet.