Vento Solare is finally launched! Normally this is just a check in the box but this year a major milestone. The week prior to Easter I felt miserable and had no energy. After a couple of calls to the doctor on separate days, I went to the Emergency room at Newport Hospital on Friday and ended up spending 5 days over Easter in the ICU being treated for pneumonia. I am feeling much better now but have about a 6 week period as my energy level and lung capacity gets back to normal. Let’s just say that grandpa is taking lots of naps these days.
Anyway, all this would not be possible without the help of Gardner Howe and my son-in-law Scott Moeller who spent a day at the boat wet sanding to be ready for launch.
Gardner & Scott Wet Sanding
My duties were to change out the paper and spray the hose since I didn’t have the strength to do any sanding. It was a beautiful sunny day and with the well coordinated team was able to complete sanding with 320, 400 and 600 grit in three hours.
I also want to acknowledge Trevor DiMarco and Pat Tormey (with Scott & Gardner) for their help prepping the boat with me before I ended up in the hospital. Vento Solare is very ready for the season with just a few topside cosmetic tasks to be done. Plans are to find a nice day this coming week to bring Vento Solare to her slip at the Navy marina. Our first crew practice is Tuesday, April 25th. Looking forward to seeing you all and being on the water again.
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A few pictures from our family sail on Grandpa's birthday weekend. Unfortunately hurricane Ophelia changed our plans for a weekend on Block Island. We did a Friday evening sail in Newport, grabbed a mooring for cocktails and dinner, then went back to our slip at the Navy marina. We stayed on the boat Friday night and went to the YMCA for Isla's soccer which was moved to the indoor gym.
Underway on Vento Solare with Grandpa, Kai, Daddy & Isla
Enjoying appetizers in Newport Harbor before sunset.
Family dinner on Vento Solare while on the mooring.
Kai's note to Grandpa for his birthday weekend.
A great weekend of racing with everybody with Vento Solare finishing 2nd place overall. Crew work was fantastic all three days. Starting from the bow with Roland, mast with Will, pit with Andrew, trimming with Sarah & Mary, and main / tactics with Trevor (Jeff Roy for Around the Island on Friday). We saw the full spectrum of wind from 5 to 22 kts over 3 days.
Congrats to Divided Sky who put up all first place finishes. The rest of the class including J/109 URSA, J/99 Upbeat, Sunfast 3300 Avalon and Express 37 COUCOU all provided the challenge as fierce competitors.
A quick note about the finish recorded as 20:45:56 on the JYC website for the Tuesday race on 8 August. Roland noticed that the recorded time did not correspond to the finish order where we were behind Samba and in front of Grimace. I corresponded with the race committee and the finish time recorded on their scoring sheet is 20:24:56. The finish time will be updated on the JYC website and the results updated. I will send the results when the update is made.
A great Ida Lewis Distance Race with the winning "Youth" entry. Joe Cooper captured this post race interview of crew members while heading back to the dock.
Jennifer Vance took the team picture below: Rachel Tagen, Sarah Wilme, Joe Cooper, Austin Vance, Zach Amelotte, and Bill Kneller (Missing is Andrew Urban)
A little spinnaker carnage on the way back from Block Island. RIP 2016 Class Spinnaker