I am always envious when I know friends are going to have a good time windsurfing without me.
Therefore, I was a little sad at the prospect of missing
Dave Kashy’s windsurfing regatta and party, held right at his waterfront home in Virginia, although I was going to the French Olympic Week.
However, due to the volcano-related chaos that cancelled my flight to France, I could squeeze a fun weekend in between moving out of my apartment in Miami, driving home, arranging logistics to ship my van to Europe, and doing all the logistics (and sorting out the associated financial conundrum) for a training camp in France and the Delta Lloyd regatta in Medemblik, Netherlands.
I arrived home from Florida to some warm and breezy bright green mid-spring weather, and after unpacking my entire life from the van and re-packing the Formula gear, drove down to Yorktown in tidewater Virginia to a truly epic long weekend of sailing at Dave’s house. Everything that could possibly happen at a windsurfing event did: great competition and training, fun free sailing, camaraderie, and even a few mishaps.
The expanse of water in Dave's front yard
Baltimore Area Boardsailing Association race director “Commodore” Tom Sargent summed up the regatta weekend perfectly:
"Dave Kashy is living right. How else could you explain the raging
success of his recent windsurfing festival? It's one thing to plan an event, pick the days, arrange all the logistics which included charter
boards for those who wanted to experience formula windsurfing without
investing thousands of dollars in gear, accommodations for all the out-of-town competitors from all over the country and world, personalized
meals delivered to the event site, evening forays to interesting restaurants who kindly overlooked some rowdy exuberance from amped up
sailors, imported talent for the race committee (editor’s note: Darren Rogers from the Gorge!) and a killer site (his
home) on a point surrounded on three sides with water. That's the
easy part. The fact that we had sunny skies and perfect wind FOUR
DAYS IN A ROW is something one can't arrange. But it happened for Dave. It was such a great time that we'll forgive Dave a few oversights, one which caused the committee boat to be boarded by the Coast Guard brandishing automatic weapons, demanding who was
responsible for this sudden influx of reckless sailing craft zipping
around, markers and buoys where none had ever been before, apparently testing the rules knowledge and boat handling skills of the local rednecks who dropped the dime on us. Fortunately, Captain George was prepared and in compliance, passing the intense stem to stern
inspection by the authorities. Dave, instead of being taken prisoner
under the terrorist act, was given a cursory slap on the wrist and we
were tentatively allowed to continue, but this time with the "escort"
of several coast guard vessels working hard to herd the afternoon
motorboat traffic around our course. It all proved to be too much for them as our sailing angles took up much more than a square mile
testing even the ability of the Coast Guard to keep track of what was
going on. Formal racing was curtailed for the day but there was a
longboard race with a Lemans start and finish from the beach. No foul
there. Dave'll get a permit next time for an on the water event. My
hat is off to you Dave. You've raised the bar for what a windsurfing
event should be. I had a most excellent time, thanks."
Darren Rogers poses with his orange friends
Alan tries for a muscle
The “Coast Guard incident” caused a little confusion and annoyance among all the sailors (it seemed the CG rules are prejudiced toward Virginia redneck powerboaters), but we got enough racing in to be more than happy. I had a fantastic time racing in the classic Chesapeake gusty, shifty conditions, against my favorite competitors like Ron Kern from Ft. Lauderdale, Steve Sylvester from San Francisco, training partner Eric Rahnenfuehrer from Ohio, and all the local characters like Tom Sargent, Alan Bernau, a bunch of BABA guys, and Dave himself. It was fun watching the out-of-town guys experience racing on the Chesapeake, and equally great feeling confident in my home waters and in my ability to race well in the classic Bay conditions. I finished fourth out of 12 guys, behind Steve, Ron, and Dave. Thanks Dave for an incredible regatta, and long live the Tidewater!
Results
Photos from Ron and Sue Kern!
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