2008 Annapolis NOOD and American Spring Series

It was foul weather gear over sunblock this weekend on both the Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound, where two big beginning-of-season regattas were taking place.

See more photos from both AYC Spring Series and Annapolis NOOD at http://www.photoboat.com/

American Yacht Club kicked off 2008's Spring Series with a powerful Easterly and chilly temps.

Despite the cloudy day, the shots are dramatic and as always, a lot of great boats were out racing, including Rima, Devocean, High Noon, Swan 42s, and a bunch of JBoats looking good.

In Annapolis
...conditions were very light on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday's 15 knots helped create some drama on the Chesapeake. Around 270 boats are a lot to cover in one day, but Allen did his best to get as many as possible. The Melges 32s and Mumm 30s were looking particularly good, with 15 boats in each fleet. Other fleets, also looking good, of course, included J24s, Etchells, J22s, Cal 25s, Catalina 27s, Stars, Alberg 30s, S2s, Beneteau 36.7s, J105s, J30s, J80s, Melges 24s, and J35s. That's a lot of One Designs...nice job Sailing World and Annapolis sailors.

Getting There...And Back

Our plan was to hit Annapolis NOOD on our way North from Florida, just like we did for Charleston Race Week. But Friday's conditions on the Chesapeake were far from photogenic and Saturday's forecast called for more of the same.

We had wanted to take some shots at AYC Spring Series and saw that the forecast called for a strong Easterly. On Long Island Sound, that means big seas and good photos, so a day trip to Rye it was. Then back to Annapolis for Sunday's action.

We officially have a screw loose for making that trip, especially with gas prices where they are, but dramatic conditions generate our income, so we have to be a little crazy sometimes.

See more AYC Spring Series and Annapolis NOOD photos here: http://www.photoboatgallery.com/lightbox/index.php

Charleston Race Week 2008

Check out our photos of Charleston Race Week 2008.

With around 140 boats ranging from Melges 24s to J105s to racer-cruisers (just because you have a bimini doesn't mean you can't race), Charleston Race Week is quite an event. Charleston is one of our favorite cities and it's great to have a reason to come here every year. In 2007, we arrived by sailboat and spent the week at Charleston Maritime Center. It doesn't get much better than that, but this year we were still happy to be here.

Racing was tight on all three courses for 2008. The sea breeze kicked up in the afternoons, so mornings were spent waiting for it (and sometimes drifting backwards because of the ripping current in Charleston Harbor), but the wait was worth it- especially for the photos.

The city is beautiful and the buildings and the bridge provide great backgrounds for photos on the inside course.

We had a great time at Salty Mikes, where Sailing Anarchy threw another great party complete with a slideshow of our photos.

This regatta marks the beginning of our 2008 summer season (which includes Spring and Fall) and we're looking forward to another great season of sailing photos on Long Island Sound, the Chesapeake Bay, Newport area, and more.

Next on the agenda: 2008 Sailing World Annapolis NOOD photos.

Check out more Charleston Race Week 2008 photos here: http://www.thephotoboat.com/CharlestonRaceWeek08.html

A Wedding on the Schooner Liberty

Daniela is shown here, taking a photo of the wedding party during John and Niki's nuptuals on the Liberty in Key West. We covered this wedding from two boats- a little one and a big one. Daniela zipped around in a dinghy taking shots of the Liberty underway and the group lined up at the rail; I was on board documenting the day and capturing the bride and groom's interaction. The Liberty crew was great as usual, all the guests had a blast, and John and Niki got a photo with the coordinates at which they were married, courtesy of the Liberty Fleet.

Find out more about Liberty Fleet weddings in Key West and Boston here.

See more of our work at www.PhotoBoat.com .

Sail Fast 2008 Line Product Shoot

We just finished shooting SailFast's brand new 2008 line and the t-shirts look great! We had a good time with models Wells, Trip, Joe and Stacey, taking shots both at the St. Petersburg Sailing Center during Flying Scot midwinters and at the laid-back Pass-a-Grille beach. Both the Flying Scot fleet and Pass-a-Grille embody the SailFast mentality quite well. Flying Scot sailors love the sport and sail a lot, often with families and spouses. Fleets are located in sailing hotspots such as Long Island Sound and Tampa Bay, but also on smaller lakes in non-coastal states. Pass-a-grille beach and the accompanying small neighborhood is picturesque, but quiet. The beach is accessible to the public but never crowded or over-commercialized. It's a great place for watersports or beachcombing- both important parts of the SailFast lifestyle.

One of Allen's photos was used to create the artistic fleet image in the grey shirt pictured above.

See more SailFast products and learn about their dedication to raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at www.isailfast.com .

See our client list and learn more about hiring Daniela and Allen for commercial photography including catalog product photos such as these at www.PhotoBoat.com .

Flying Scot Midwinters 2008

The Flying Scots experienced conditions at both ends of the spectrum for their midwinters this week. The fleet has a heavy population of lake sailors and Monday and Tuesday's weather was a bit much for some, with 15-20 from the Northeast and a really lumpy Tampa Bay. Many competitors were happy with Wednesday's dying breeze and Thursday was a complete drifter. That's undesireable for us, but we were happy to get the two days of great action photos. The Flying Scots are a great family fleet, with many parent-child teams and even more wife-husband teams. In fact, they have an annual Wife-Husband Regatta. It was also great to sit in on some of their Top Gun training and debrief sessions. It's always great to see sailors that are so dedicated to helping each other improve.

See Flying Scot Midwinters results at St. Petersburg Yacht Club's website: http://www.spyc.org/.

Take a look at the event photos, sorted by sail number, at http://www.photoboat.com/ .

St. Petersburg Winter Lightning Championship 2008

The Lightning has been around for a long time but despite its more classic shape, it still goes fast and looks good doing it. 69 crews proved that at this weekend's Winter Lightning Championship at St. Petersburg YC, the last stop on the Lightning Southern Circuit. There's nothing like 69 boats on the line and 15 knots of breeze on a lumpy Tampa Bay. The result: Allen took 3,000 photos on Saturday. We had a great time showing a slideshow at the Banquet on Saturday night in St. Petersburg Yacht Club's ballroom, particularly because we got to learn a lot about the Lightning fleet's history and the members' dedication, friendship, and generosity. Maybe we'll end up in a Lightning when we finally find time for sailing again.

See the lightning photos at www.PhotoBoat.com and the results at www.spyc.org.

Miami Grand Prix '08

Conditions were beautiful off of Key Biscayne today for Acura Miami Grand Prix racing Saturday. With a stiff breeze but relatively flat seas, particularly compared to the bumps the day before, the Farr 40s, Melges 32s, and more were just flying. It was an easy day to capture boats looking good. See more photos at http://www.photoboat.com/ .

Laser Midwinters - wrap-up

Racing conditions were up and down for the rest of Laser Midwinters East. Friday was a great day for racing and for photos. Competition was really tight. See more Laser Midwinters East photos on PhotoBoat.com .

2008 Laser Midwinters East - Thursday

Laser Midwinters East started off with good breeze this morning, but conditions diminished throughout the day on the Laser S/Radial/4.7 course in the Gulf of Mexico. There was a lot more breeze funneling down the inland waterway than there was just off the coast of Clearwater Beach where the racing took place. Clearwater Yacht Club will host three more days of sailing for the series and we look forward to some more tight racing in all three fleets.

See our photos at www.PhotoBoat.com .

Miami Boat Show 2008

We were hired to do some sea trials and interior shots for Mad Mariner, a daily online boating magazine. Pictured here is a Nordic Tug doing 15 knots. That's something we didn't know was possible, so we took this slow shutter-speed shot to show high boat-speed. Not bad for a comfortable home. Still, the boats are intended to cruise around 8 or 9 knots, but can go 15 in a pinch. The other boats we covered included models from Luhrs, Grand Banks, Mainship, Parker, Catalina, Lagoon, and a new Electric-powered cat. A few more of our slow shutter-speed shots can be seen at http://www.photoboat.com/ under Melges 24 Northeast District Champs 2007.

Yngling Worlds 08 - Medal Race

Yngling World Championship team GBR 12 was celebrating during a high-speed tow back to the US Sailing Center after today's quick medal race. FRA 9 won the 10-boat medal race, held in about 6 knots of breeze on Biscayne Bay.

See more details, results and our photos at http://www.yngling.org/ .

See all of our photos at http://www.photoboat.com/ .

Yngling Worlds 08

Today's final day of Yngling Worlds was full of happiness for some and tears for others, as several teams locked in spots in the Olympic games in China and others had to bid that prospect farewell. In this photo, the GBR 12 team celebrates after the finish of today's second race. The women had the world championship locked in with one race still remaining. France and Russia also had teams that took bullets today.

The conditions on Biscayne Bay were very light at the beginnng of the day, but the wind slowly picked up to around 12 knots and the racing got a lot more exciting. The fleet got three races in.

We were both out there taking shots for the International Yngling Association, Allen in the dinghy and I on a RIB. Conditions were tricky for photography with the combination of light breeze, low booms, and sun and wind coming from opposing directions...it made it challenging for us to capture the girls' faces in bright light. But we like a challenge and still came away with some nice shots. We were also asked to get some shots that can be used to advertise match racing since that's how the Ynglings will compete in China.

See more details about Yngling Worlds and the path to the Olympics at the Yngling Association's website,
http://www.yngling.org/index1.html

For more photos, go to www.PhotoBoat.com .

505 and A Cats finish with a great day

With 20 knots from the North on the heels of a cold front today, conditions were perfect on the South end of Tampa Bay for everybody but A Cats. Only one A Cat lasted all morning and no races were held for the class. Most of the high-performance cat sailors made a decision not to go out before breaking any gear or having serious wipeouts.

The 505s, on the other hand, were loving life (and breaking a little bit of gear and having a few serious wipeouts).

It was a great day for photos, and we really like the silhouette photos taken into the bright sun. When you take as many as 5000 photos a week, something different is really nice...


Check out the sequence below, caused by a big wave from a container ship's wake.


Hopefully Mike doesn't mind us posting this. He was not the only one who hung out in the water today.








See the photos at http://thephotoboat.com/505ACatMidwinters.htm and see the results and more info about the active 505 class at www.usa505.org .

505 and A Cat Midwinters 08 - Saturday

This Hall Spars-owned A Cat has a rigid wing "sail" which had us oogling. It is the only one of its kind at the regatta, but is still class-legal because it meets the sail-area specs. Cool.

We're looking forward to getting some good shots of this A Cat and all the other A Cats and 505s in action tomorrow, with 15-25 knots and sunny skies in the forecast. Today's weather was tough...while the wind was supposed to increase in the afternoon, threatening squalls forced the sailors to hit the beach at noon and they weren't able to go back out. We're concentrating our photo efforts on tomorrow's action. But still, we had a good time at dinner with the competitors and they had a good time too...

505 and A Cat Midwinters 08 - Friday

There wasn't enough breeze for the 505ers to really get out on the wire today, so the PhotoBoat coverage was brief. The forecast calls for increasing breeze throughout this three-day regatta with around 45 boats. Still, the A Cats can look fast in any breeze.

Having been to more Yacht Clubs than we can remember in the last few years, Allen and I find the venue for this event in St. Petersburg refreshing. The sailors are launching from East Beach in Ft. DeSoto on the Southern tip of the peninsula that makes up Tampa Bay. Ft. DeSoto National Park is one of our favorite spots around here and in anticipation of light breeze, we brought our bikes with us today.

Schooner Wharf Wreckers Race Series 08

We had a great time photographing Sunday's Wreckers race hosted by Schooner Wharf Bar. Conditions were perfect, if a little windy for some of the boats, but there were several schooners racing.

Here are some excerpts from an article I wrote last year about the Wreckers races. I never did anything with it, so might as well post it here....

Key West, Florida is host to one of the biggest, most well-known regattas in the world. During the annual Acura Key West Race Week, over 200 boats and the accompanying racers, t-shirts, kegs, photographers, and sailing gear explode on the laid back capital of the United States.

But once the Race Week circus leaves, the locals put on their own spectacle with a very different kind of regatta. Schooner Wharf Bar’s Wreckers Race is a series of four races held on the last Sunday of every month in January through April. Vessels race from a starting line inside Key West Harbor to a buoy at Sand Key, a reef about eight miles away. The participating boats range from schooners to daysailors to liveaboard cruisers.

The race is named in honor of the men and women of history—well, let’s face it, the men—who would go out to salvage booty off of ships that wrecked on local reefs. Word has it they would save castaways when possible, but the lore tends to focus on their less altruistic actions.

The story, easily gleaned by any Key West tourist in the course of a few museum or monument visits, goes something like this: in the 1500s, Key West wreckers sacked Spanish ships that floundered on the way home from South America. Key West’s position close to the Gulf Stream was fortuitous for treasure-hungry inhabitants.

Political changes in the 19th Century put a fire under the wrecking business in Key West. Because of burgeoning commerce on the Mississippi River after the Louisiana Purchase, Key West’s location became even more strategic. Now the island lay in the path of not one, but two major shipping lanes. Even better (from the wreckers’ point of view), as America seized Florida from Spanish hands, Congress passed an act prohibiting the transportation of booty found in Florida’s waters to foreign ports. This move uprooted the wrecking industry from the Bahamas and it became so large and lucrative that for a brief period of time during the 1850s, Key West was supposedly the richest city per capita in the United States.

With a sense of pride in Key West tradition and a desire to get that first place prize, today’s Wreckers Race participants storm the route of history’s wreckers. With a rather barbaric attitude that comes from a lack of rules, no shortage of rum, and, well, just being Key West locals, they play the role very well. It’s too bad the Race Week crew can’t stick around to witness this, or even participate. Sailing is sailing and I know I could learn a few things about making a schooner go fast.

Day 5 - Key West racing at it's best

The sun and wind made a joint appearance today for the first time all week at Key West Race Week. A strong NE breeze upwards of 20 knots made for an intense last day of racing. Conditions were choppier than they were wavy, which makes Allen's life more difficult. He decided to stick with the Div 2 course after taking a few shots of the Mumm 30s, Farr 40s, and Melges 32s first thing in the morning.

On a day like today it can be hard to catch boats like Numbers (J/V 66) and Gwaihir (Class 40) in an 11' dinghy with a 20 hp, but that's part of the challenge that keeps Allen interested. We talked to some crew on Gwaihir who mentioned that they prefer distance racing. They are so fast downwind in breeze like today's that as soon as they got their chute set, it was just about time to take it down.

Radio chatter was busy today and included several boats retiring early due to equipment failure, several protests, and an MOB in the J105 fleet (was quickly recovered by another boat). There was nothing boring about today and the sailors returned to the docks charged up with stories about blown out chutes.

So the awards are now given and another Key West Race Week comes to an end. Before we know it, the logo-covered trailers will be gone from the parking lots in town, the carbon fiber forest in Key West Bight will transform back to one of wood and aluminum, and the dogs will once again own the place at Schooner Wharf Bar.


See more Acura Key West Race Week 08 photos at photoboat.com .