1996 Laser 159785
All summer the best wind of the day has been early in the morning, so I was up early to take advantage of it Saturday morning in the Laser. After sailing for a couple hours I headed across the club to sail on Mayo’s Farr-Dickinson 37 Excitation.
Sailing went well and we had a good time against some good competition in the PHRF-A fleet. We wound up 4th in the 7 boat fleet with 4 races over 2 days.
FBYC was doing a Race Committee training day which made it a great opportunity for Jess and me to get out in Lasers with the rest of the fleet to do some starting practice and very short course racing.
We had what was probably the best day we could have asked for on a opening day of the one design season at FBYC. It was warm, partly sunny, good wind and the rain held off until we were done sailing. I was joined by 5 Lasers in what started out as light wind around 5-8 and through the course of 5 races built to about 15. I was talked out of wearing hiking pants thinking it wasn’t going to be hiking conditions and boy was I wrong. And I’m still sore as I write this 3 days later.
Finn, one of the junior radial sailors was out with us and I loaned him a Standard sail to sail with so we could all be in the same fleet. Despite being 40 pounds lighter than I am – he was quite competitive even for his first time sailing a Standard.
The first two races started with the boat heavily favored. In the first race I followed Finn around the first two legs, but was able to split upwind and find more wind and better shifts and got ahead and was able to hold that to the finish. In the second race, Finn and I both sailed out to the left side of the course and ended up past the layline and all I could do was follow him in to the mark. He was able to slip away down wind and I was never able to mount much of a challenge the rest of the race.
In the 3rd race Mike Toms joined us and made it more of a 3 way battle at the front. We stayed close most of the race and in the 2nd upwind I was able to get just enough ahead of them to finish 1st. By the 4th race the wind started to come up a bit and was definitely hiking conditions with some white caps. I followed Mike and Finn around the course, but was able to get inside of them on the final downwind mark rounding. Finn capsized on the 2nd downwind rounding allowing Mike to slip around him into 3rd.
In the final race the wind was up to at least 15 and the course was shortened to 2 laps. At the start both Mike and Finn started to leeward of me and I was able to cover them and push them out to the left side of the course past the layline. From there I just held my lead and didn’t make any mistakes to win the race and win the day. I was great to see how much tighter the racing got with each race – by the last race all of us finished within a minute of each other and any slip would have meant going to the back of the pack. Kudos to Trip, Dave and Britt who got much faster all day long.
All in all it was an awesome day of sailing and a great way to kick off the racing season at FBYC. Huge thanks to Glenn and Becca for heading up the RC for the day as well as to all of the folks who volunteer to help for the day.
My first time sailing the laser for the year was on the last weekend in April and I had a nice sail into stiff wind out of the south at 16-20. I did some exploring and sailed 1h 45m upwind through Hills Bay to Queens Creek. I got to check out Jess’ parents place from the water. The trip back broad reaching only took 40 minutes.
My last Laser regatta of the year was the Frostbite Regatta at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. It was a perfect fall day with wind and water temperatures in the low 60’s, plenty of sun and wind 8-13. We had a fleet of 14 boat sailing to winds out of the ENE in Fishing Bay. I had some mediocre starts making it tough to get a good lane early in the first beat often leaving me mid-fleet at the first rounding. Downwind there would sometimes be some puffs to be had on either side, but this was a pretty good fleet downwind and with the lighter air their weren’t many passing lanes. Upwind I could usually pick up a boat or two and get myself back into the top 5 most races.
Paul Almany had his drone up and got some good video of the last two races. My pictures are here as well as the results. Thanks to Jerry & Henry Latell and Bob Fleck for doing race committee and Frank Murphy for the after race chili.
Day 2 at the Laser District 10 Championship and we had more wind and cloudy skies for 3 more races. The first race was about a mile top to bottom and we did two grueling laps. I had a great start and had good boat speed at times upwind. I played it conservatively so as not to flip. This was especially challenging down by the bottom mark where the seawall was reflecting the waves back upwind making it feel like a washing machine and I buried the bow multiple times sailing upwind with a full cockpit of water. I finished 11th – my fourth 11th place finish in 6 races.
The second race was more of the same with another knot or two of breeze. I started and decided to call it a day as I wasn’t going to change my finish much missing the last two races and would only wear myself out before a long drive home and before rain moved in.
It was nice to see Shore Acres Yacht Club – I can’t wait to see it when the clubhouse is finished. Always great to sail with all the very competitive D10 sailors and I’ll be back in D10 for the Laser Masters Nationals in August.
Friday night after work I made the trip up 95 for the Laser District 10 Championship at Shore Acres Yacht Club in Brick New Jersey. I managed to miss most of the traffic around Washington DC and made good time arriving at the club at 11 to spend the night van camping.
In the morning we were greeted to beautiful sailing conditions and a tad more wind than had been forecasted. The winds started out of the north east and slowly shifted to the south east over the course of the afternoon at 8-12 knots under mostly sunny skies.
21 competitors in what would be a very competitive fleet.
On the water I inconsistently sailed consistently – meaning I’d have some bad legs and some good legs and I always managed to finish mid-fleet in either 11th or 13th place in all 5 races. I had moments where I was in the top 5 and the bottom 5 of the fleet. We sailed a modified windward leeward course that at one point was probably 1 1/4- 1 1/2 miles from top to bottom which made for a very long downwind leg. Despite the long legs and my terrible starting it was a great day of racing and it felt good to be back in the boat again.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjzuGNkjZw2/?taken-at=6479263
After racing I went for a run, enjoyed drinks and tacos on the beautiful deck facing the water and met some of the other Laser sailors and SAYC members. A band played at the club while the sun set.
Day 2 at the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship saw a little stronger wind that yesterday out of nearly the opposite wind direction. In 3 more long races I was able to move up one spot in the Apprentice Division while only falling one spot overall finishing 12th.
Ahead of the first race I did my prep, checked the wind current, favored side of the course, etc. I would learn pretty quickly in the first race that I was exactly wrong on all of it. I also managed to hit a mark, did my turn and then on the 2nd beat I flubbed a tack and capsized. So much for dropping the 23 from yesterday, I’d now have a 32 to drop.
As the wind picked up to light hiking conditions I did much better to get a good start and hold my lane up the first beat. I rounded 10-12 and held my own downwind. On the 2nd upwind I made some good moves and passed some boat holding onto 5th the rest of the way around the course.
In the 3rd race of the day the wind eased back to 8-10. I had a good first lap rounding in the top 6, but I picked some bad shifts on the 2nd beat and lost 10 spots.
All in all I was pretty happy finishing near the top 1/4 of the fleet. The regatta ran as smoothly as it could have and I have the members of FBYC’s Laser fleet as well as Rick Klein and our race committee to thank. I can’t wait to finish grad school and have some more time to do more masters events.
We had a busy morning checking in 44 competitors and making sure our RC and safety boats had all of their equipment – on top of rigging a boat. But it all came together for the first day of the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club and we were able to sail 4 races in light conditions out of the North. Approaching the club was a challenge – the tide was very high and most vehicles drove through 6-8 inches of water on Fishing Bay Road. Never had I seen a line at the hose stations to wash the salt water off the cars.
At the skippers meeting this morning I was made a marked man with a shirt to wear for sailing making it very clear it was my first time sailing the event.
Out on the water had high 60’s air temp, 72 degree water and cloudy skies with winds 5-7 out of the North. Occasionally we’d get some 8 or 9 and occasionally it also die out to 3. We were sailing in area B and given the super high tides we’re having, there was a lot of water flowing out of the river going left to right across the course at almost a 90-degree angle.
The first race was a slow H3 on a course that was just under a mile in length. I didn’t follow my plan to go left and despite a decent start – worked my way out to the right, was the wrong side and paid for it never really being able to climb through the fleet and finished 23rd.
The 2nd race was a two lap race and I did better playing shifts in the middle of the course to stay just behind the lead pack. Going left downwind was paying well and I picked up a few boats there on both runs and wound up 10th.
The 3rd race was a similar but just 1 lap. With the first beat being over 20 minutes long there are definitely passing lanes and the fleet spreads out a bit up wind. I was top 5 0r 6 around the top mark, but this time the left didn’t pay off as well. I lost some boats downwind, but picked a couple upwind and settled for 9th.
In the 4th race I started to worked the middle on the first upwind and found myself in the mid-teens around the top mark. Downwind I held my spot down the middle. I rounded the right gate – took a hitch to the right to clear my air and then banged the left corner going into the current, but doing it in the lee of a shore. When I came back on the port layline I crossed all but the top 3 boats. That position held for the rest of the race finishing 4th.
Given the forecast and the possibility that it was going to die – we were very happy to have gotten in 4 races and we weren’t in until 4pm making it a rather long day.
Jacque Kerrest, Luke Shingledecker, and Gavin O’Hare were all consistently at the top of each race and are on top of the leaderboard. Tomorrow’s forecast had been for more wind, but that might not be true anymore so we’ll see what happens in that one especially after the drop.
Alain prepared another fabulous meal of ribs, crab cakes, and mac and cheese. Everyone hung out for a couple hours and finally turned in. Over half of the fleet is camping at the club.
This has been the most anticipated regatta I have ever been a part of. Back in 2005 I was the event chairman of the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship for the first time. I got put in charge then because I was the most active fleet member at the time who couldn’t sail it yet. It would be 12 more years before I finally aged into being able to sail and something we’ve been discussing ever since. I got a taste of masters sailing earlier this year when I went to Florida Masters Week and I can’t wait to finally be able to participate in an event I have put so much effort into over the past nearly 20 years I’ve been a member at FBYC.
The last two days have been a whirlwind of pulling all the details together. Being the 13th edition of this event I’ve chaired – the script for it is pretty well established, but it is a bit of a 48 hour mad dash to get all of the food, trophies, souvenirs, and other gear plus my own sailing equipment loaded, transported and readied at the club for the weekend.
Throughout the day sailors began to arrive and some went for a sail in the mid-teens wind and light misty rain. Later we piled a bunch of folks into the van and all went into town for dinner.
I also got to check out Rob’s new setup. He now has a sprinter van loosely modeled after my setup – so now there’s two laser sprint vans on the circuit.
Each year one of the preparations is to make a breakfast casserole that can be easily heated up and served for breakfast. I make 4 of these a couple days before the regatta and keep them refrigerated. Here’s the recipe I’ve been using:
Ingredients: