Скачать или смотреть Frostbite 2023 redacted

Some pics and video of Konocti Bay Sailing Club's Frost Bite 2023 first race of the season. Our crew raced Always Saturday. The white-hulled boat with blue stripe is Showtime. The red-hulled boat is In The Red.

We took first place after slugging it out with stiff competition in fairly rough conditions of 5 to 15 mph winds gusting to 30 mph with waves not yet as rough as what we've been training in the last few months.

I made the mistake of seeing such a lovely, sunny, and warm day....so stored my arctic insulation liner, gloves, and outer shell jacket below deck figuring I'd get them as needed later...like on normal days. Then, bam! A gust overpowered our large foresail that we struggled to change in the video before start time. Got a bit wet there and then more so as we slugged it out in chop over the lake. Was a perpetual fight for every second of lead over In The Red gaining on us, passing us, retaking the lead, losing the lead, and finally retaking the lead near the end.

In The Red had a highly experienced crew and better setup making them a bit faster and able to sail closer into the wind than us, but had the disadvantage of a fresh crew assembled that morning plus a failing winch; All exploited well by our skipper and helmswoman. The competition let me no time to get my gear below for fear of disrupting our crew weight & balance to cost us some key seconds, so I mostly clenched my teeth for 3 hours wet, cold, and somewhat miserable -- a touch of hypothermia when done which was nicely offset by the one heated glove I managed to grab to circulate warmer blood in me; Took me two hot showers just to pull the cold out of stiff joints after an even more chilly motorcycle ride home.

As the fleet practices and races more together as crew, the competition will be even more fierce for us in future races. Likewise, we also didn't pull out our big sail (spinnaker) thinking that might be unfair or risky to the others in such winds, and we've been practicing with it in similar winds and worse waves. We also have more room to improve, so it should be some good slugging it out on the water this year!

The 3 hour race was pretty grueling for many. Easier on me since younger... if just staying dry and warm next time. But, that was only half the distance & time of the upcoming Konocti Cup! We could have very easily lost. Only takes one key mistake costing time to do so. Had the race gone on much longer, I'd have needed to fetch my dry clothing below and maybe cost us a few seconds from reduced speed and the distraction. So, next time...no layers peeled off early. Awaiting waterproof boots.

First pics are of the other boats and crews.

Video was captured on my damaged 360 camera dangling from my vest (now a 180 camera for awhile more.) I flew that camera into a concrete wall at about 50 MPH coming out of a loop a foot over the ground but disoriented at the Ukiah Speedway while practicing aggressive drone maneuvers in the playlist here.    • Ukiah Speedway  -- practice flying  
Would have been some cool footage but we could not find the SD card after it popped out!

Then some trailing pics.