Velocity Sailing

I just got off the phone with Phillip Mumm, and he reminded me of the marvelous product that we used at Spring Fever called McLube OneDrop. It is by-and-large, probably the best product to hit the sailing world that actually exceeds any expectation you have of it.

One drop on either side of the track, run the car back and forth rapidly over that area, and just feel your traveller glide like it was a maglev train over the track… its honestly amazing. Not only that, but they claim it repels salt and dirt (and sand).

Every boat that we put it on at SF – the skipper was honestly amazed at how much of a difference it made.

One of the best parts is that since it only takes two drops per application, one bottle will last you like 3 years.

You can find it at Murrays here.

This past weekend, Trey and I headed down to beautiful Charleston to hang out and help out with Sailing Anarchy’s On-the-water Anarchy coverage of the Charleston Race Week.   Trey grabbed his 18 foot center console powerboat, and we hit the road and arrived late Friday night.  We hooked up with Tripp Burd of team Accelerated Chaos who was calling tactics on a Sabre 36 whose name escapes me.  He hooked us up with a great place to stay – since every hotel within 30 miles of the event venue was booked solid.  Saturday morning arrived with no wind.   While it was calm, Trey and I blasted out to the offshore courses to check out the big boats.  We saw a nice Farr 60, a lot of J105′s, and other great looking keel boats.  We bobbed around outside the jetties for a while then headed back into the harbor where the sea-breeze had begun to fill in.  Shortly after we arrived, the Melges 24′s and the Viper courses started up.  We parked the power boat right between the start/finish line of the M24/J24 starting line, and the Windward mark of the Viper course and started enjoying the day’s racing.   It was a lot of fun to just sit there and watch for once – instead of stressing out over the starting sequence, which course to sail, trimming, etc…  We didn’t really help out as much as I would have liked, but we were able to fly the Anarchy Challenge Flag around the courses which was pretty cool.

Sunday was a whole different ball of wax.  The wind was up to 10-14, and MR. CLEAN of Sailing Anarchy needed us to take a photog out to the offshore north course.  Taking that 18 foot lake boat out through the jetties was harrowing, and wet.  We took tons of spray over the rails and got a thorough soaking – but we also got some great shots that should be showing up soon on the event website. 

Was a great weekend and a welcome decompression from the tireless Tybee 500 preparations we’ve been making.  Now its back to the daily grind…

Photo Courtesy Alan Block/Sailing Anarchy

This past weekend, four teams from the Team Velocity roster participated in the annual Spring Fever Regatta on Lake Hartwell Georgia.  This regatta was a great opportunity to knock the winter cobwebs off the sailing skills that had largely been put on ice for the winter.

Friday brought with it omnious thunderstorm cells rolling across the area.  Races were canceled for the day as the RC couldn’t ensure the safety of the competitors while on the water with unpredictable storms.  So the party at Nigel’s place cranked up early and fun was definitely had by all in attendence.  Nigel promised everyone at the skippers’ meeting that he would, for sure, not run out of rum this year.  Some took that as a challenge.

The next two days of racing were truely superb.  Saturday and Sunday both brought days of 10 to 15 knots of breeze and the RC capitalized on these conditions and got in 8 races between those two days.  In the Nacra 20 fleet, Alex Shafer put on a clinic with straight bullets.  Jake Kohl of Team Seacats fame put on a strong showing with Trey of TeamVelocity coming in third.

For anyone who has sat on the fence regarding this event — you can’t miss this event.  Its truely the best regatta for beach cats on the East Coast of the US.  The RC and host Nigel Pitt put on a world-class event and make sure that everyone goes home happy.