heart of glass

Those are some members of the Portsmouth Boat Club out for their friday evening regatta on the Elizabeth River yesterday.  I've had the pleasure of sailing with some of their members in the past and always had a great time. 

I did something a little different from my usual weekend day sails on friday and saturday. I'm normally an early morning sailor, but this time I launched Spartina at the ramp friday afternoon, sailed a couple of hours, picked up my daughters on the waterfront and sailed with them for a while, dropped them off and then sailed until dusk.  

I sailed with the regatta for a while and was eventually left behind.  But after the race was over some of the fleet came back to tack back and forth across the river while enjoying a great summer evening and listening to a blues band playing in the waterfront park.  Great evening.
That's a Cape Dory Typhoon Senior, one of the boats in the race.  I've got a wooden boat and certainly do appreciate wooden boats.  But I'm also a fan of any nice boat and the Typhoon Senior is, to me, a classic.  As far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter what a boat is made from - wood, fiberglass, ferrocement, steel - a nice boat is a nice boat.  And there are a lot of classic fiberglass boats out there.  One of the books I've had on my reading list for years is Heart of Glass:  Fiberglass Boats and the Men Who Built Them.  It's about the post WWII designers who struggled to incorporate new technologies in to boatbuilding.  I've heard it is a great read.
Above is a nice Folkboat that was part of the regatta.  Early Folkboats were made of wood, but in the 70's fiberglass was being used in their construction.  Wood or fiberglass, a great looking boat either way.  
As the sun went down I tied up at the Waterside marina and left Spartina with her boom tent in place for the night.  I was back again this morning for a great day of sailing.  Excellent wind and a lot of fun. 

I did receive an email from the OBX130 guys.  They did their test sail in late July and uploaded some videos to youtube.  Check them out here, here and here.  I'm hoping to hear more about it soon.  I had hoped to make that trip in 2010 but my work schedule is not looking very good.  I may have to follow it on the web.  We'll see.

Steve