Navigation, Routing & Weather Are Topics of Final A2N Seminar

From Annapolis Yacht Club: There are few sailors anywhere in the United States who have logged as many ocean miles as Tarry Lomax and Tom Schubert. Those two offshore veterans have each competed on multiple occasions in every major distance race on the East Coast and beyond.

Adding serious credibility to their vast experience, Lomax and Schubert have usually been responsible for ensuring the sailboats they board reach the destination as quickly and safely as possible.

Participants in the 2017 Annapolis to Newport Race have an opportunity to learn some of the immense knowledge those two respected navigators have accumulated over the years. Lomax and Schubert will be featured speakers at the final edition of the “What to Expect” seminar series hosted by Annapolis Yacht Club.

Navigation, Routing and Weather, being held May 20 at the AYC Clubhouse, wraps up the popular and informative seminar series. Joseph Sienkiewicz, distinguished marine forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, completes the distinguished panel for this seminar.

Sienkiewicz, Chief of the Ocean Applications Branch of the National Weather Service, is a lifelong sailboat racer and cruiser on the Chesapeake Bay. The Calvert County resident will discuss weather warnings and forecasts along with wind climatology and current data for the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean for the timeframe of the race.

“I plan to focus on the NOAA sources of weather information that are available while the fleet is underway and are useful during the preparation phase for the race,” said Sienkiewicz, who has crewed for Galesville skipper Irv Buck aboard the Beneteau 36.7 Cheap Sunglasses for 15 years. “While the main message is that there are plenty of resources out there, I will emphasize that you are still sailing the boat out on the water. You’re not sailing on a computer. Therefore, you need to maintain awareness and prepare for a gamut of things.”

Sienkiewicz has been a marine forecaster for NOAA since 1988 and has pretty much seen it all. He was the lead forecaster for the 1991 Halloween event that was immortalized in the book Perfect Storm. He assisted the National Hurricane Center with storm surge predictions for Hurricane Sandy.

During the 2015 A2N, a handful of boats were hit by a sudden microburst that changed conditions almost instantly and caused significant damage. Sienkiewicz will discuss such anomalies, which can occur during an early June distance race that lasts three to five days.

“We will go over tropical information because that can make an impact at this time of the year,” he said. “We’ll talk about thunderstorms and a little bit about ocean temperature because you are going from warm to cold in this race.”

Lomax has competed in A2N five times, serving as navigator for overall winner Y2K (Swan 68, Dr. Charles Engh) in 2003. The Annapolis resident also handled navigation duties aboard Raider (S&S 48, David Ross) when it was first to finish the Annapolis to Bermuda Race with a course record time of 85 hours.

Lomax has been involved in ocean racing and delivery since the early 1980s and has more than 10,000 nautical miles under his belt. He has completed the Annapolis to Bermuda Race eight times and also has Newport-Bermuda, Marblehead-Halifax, and Fort Lauderdale to Montego Bay (Pineapple Cup) on the resume.

Lomax served as a surface warfare officer aboard destroyers while in the Navy. He fell in love with ocean racing after helping a neighbor bring a Pearson 33 from Bermuda to Annapolis with nothing but a sextant and a radio direction finder. He will review all the basics of routing and navigation while highlighting the various software applications that exist, such as Expedition, Nobeltec Solutions, and Garmin.

“I always emphasize that every navigator better take some paper charts as well as a pair of dividers and parallels because sometimes your electronics let you down,” he said. Schubert also learned the fundamentals of navigation while in the service, spending nearly a decade at sea after graduating from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1969. He was introduced to ocean racing while a member of the offshore sailing program at Kings Point, competing in the 1967 Annapolis to Newport Race.

Schubert has now completed A2N 11 times, Newport-Bermuda 10 times, Annapolis-Bermuda five times, and Marion-Bermuda three times. The wily 71-year-old sailor won the Navigator’s Prize for helping Dear Friend (CSY 50, Bill Kardash) secure overall victory in the 1999 Annapolis to Newport Race.

“Tarry and I have geared our presentation to first-time participants or those that haven’t done Annapolis to Newport that often,” said Schubert. “We race the race from start to finish using a slide show that is divided into three segments. We then walk the audience through the unique elements of each.”

The 36th biennial Annapolis-to-Newport Race starts June 2 and 3 on the Chesapeake Bay.
Notice of Race and entry forms can be found by clicking on the following link:
http://www.yachtscoring.com/em...

Image courtesy of Annapolis Yacht Club