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1996 Laser 159785

It was a bit of a drifter for most of the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Fall One Design Invitational.  We had 6 Lasers out for the 3rd of our 4-race series.

After a bit of a delay we finally started a race in about 4 knots out of the west.  The course was just on the outer edge of Fishing Bay and still inside of Stove Point.  The wind proceeded to die to a knot or less. Suddenly what is usually a very light current became a big deal.  In fact – I’ve never even thought to play the current that much in that location so far away from the Piankatank channel.

Luckily I was far enough behind the leaders – Brad Squires and Luke Hayes on the downwind that I could see how they were getting swept out of Fishing Bay and out into the bay.  I played it conservatively by heading up into the bay and letting the current pull me down to the mark.  When Luke was swept past the mark and couldn’t go upwind against the current to get back to it, I slipped in ahead of him and finished the last upwind just behind Brad.

The .6 mi race took us over an hour.  We sat for at least another hour and by 2pm we started to see signs of a sea breeze.  We moved the course out into the river a bit more so the windward mark was just outside of Stove Point.  It was still shifty, but at least we were able to sit out and almost hike at times.  I didn’t have a great upwind and had to settle for a 4.

Since we were past the time limit for more racing and we still had some wind, Mike Toms and Ron Jenkins and I sailed out towards Gwynn’s Island to get a little upwind speed testing it.

It probably wasn’t the best day for racing, but since I haven’t sailed the boat in a month and I’m about to do 3 weekends in a row of racing, it was just what I needed to get back into the boat.

RESULTS (pdf)

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With no prospect of wind for the second day of the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Annual One Design Regatta, racing was called off early and yesterday‘s results stand.  Being tied for first, it would have been fun to have another race to break the tiebreaker, but we wouldn’t get it and I wound up second after the tie was broken.  Congrats to Brad Squires for winning the race that counted and getting it done.  Results.

On Saturday I ran the GoPro cameras to do some time lapse around the club.  Here’s the video of it all put together:

After awards and sailing we took out a few of the junior opti sailors and their coaches in Lasers and 420s for some fun sailing in the very light winds.  I took a friend’s 9-year-old son, who is an experienced opti sailor, out on my Laser and after a few pointers he sailed the boat alone for the first time.  He then proceeded in the first race to crush his college-aged coaches.  He didn’t do quite as well in the subsequent races, but it was a thrill for him to sail anything other an Opti, even if it was only 4 knots of wind.

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We had 8 Lasers out for the first day of the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Annual One Design Regatta in light air for two races before a storm came to the area and sent us in.

In the first race I had a good start at the boat, hit the shifts and just led the around the whole course to get a bullet.  The second race was set a bit longer and I messed up the start and wound up behind most of the boats going out to the left.  Halfway up the course I made my way to the right while all of the leaders went left, and I caught some good wind and shifts to the right to round just inside Brad Squires.  Brad had a gear I didn’t have downwind and got ahead and led the rest of the way to the finish.

We were sent in as a storm approached and were in by 2pm.

I did two video experiments today.  One was taking a bunch of time lapse pictures around the club of everyone launching and heading out to the course.  The other experiment was mounting a video camera to the stern of the laser with an extension.  It was a cool view, but was a little shaky.  I’ll have to figure out how to stabilize it a little more.

2013 FBYC AOD

Day 1 Results

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The wind started out light for the 8 Lasers at the Fishing Bay Yacht Club Summer Laser Regatta.  We sailed 2 races in light air and then waited a short time for the sea breeze to kick in and gave us a little more solid pressure for another 4 races.

2/28 FBYC Laser Summer RegattaPhoto by Lisa Radtke

I got a great jump on the first race and lead wire-to-wire.  Other highlights include several 2nds including a couple races where I had to claw my way up there from 4-5 at the first windward mark.  I ended up 2nd overall.  Len Guenther was fast and consistent and put up 3 bullets to win the day comfortably.  Blake Kimbrough was a fast starter all day – too fast – he was OCS in 5 of 6 races and in the only race he wasn’t OCS he won.   Despite the restarts he still sailed fast enough to take 3rd overall.

2/28 FBYC Laser Summer RegattaPhoto by Lisa Radtke

The rest of the fleet – Brad, Mike, Rob, Frank, Alain all sailed good races and kept it close and competitive all the way around the course.  Thanks to Tom, Paul and the rest of the race committee for running races for us.  And thanks Lisa Radtke for a few photos.

2/28 FBYC Laser Summer RegattaBlake, Jon, Len

RESULTS

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The 2nd day of the Laser Atlantic Coast Championship started out early and started with no wind.  We had a 0930 first warning and they sent us out – towed most of us out to where we sat for 2 hours.  By 11 the wind started coming in from the south and built from there.  The Standard rigs got 3 more races in, 2 for the other fleets.  By the 3rd race we had solid hiking conditions.

I had a tough day.  I didn’t start well and the short first beat meant everyone went around the first 3 legs in a clump.  The 2nd beat was always where I made my gains picking out the shifts upwind and picking off 10+ boats to get me back closer to the middle of the fleet.  Thanks again to Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club for putting on  a good regatta and I had a great time meeting new people and seeing friends.

RESULTS | My Photos | Regatta Photos

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Quite a day for the first day of the 2013 Laser Atlantic Coast Championship at Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club on Long Beach Island NJ.  Looking at the scores – everyone was up and down  and very inconsistent.  We had 4 races with 4 very different conditions for each.

In the first race I had a poor start, but picked my way into mid fleet.  Right at the end I tapped someone at a mark rounding and had to do turns.  Finished 41.

2013 Laser ACC Race 2 start

By the second race we had 6-8 knots of breeze.  I picked out the pin end to start and nobody was down there.  I won the pin and just punched out and kept going out to the left and stayed out front.  By the top mark only Eric Reitinger was just ahead of me.  On the downwind a couple boats caught me and on the 2nd upwind I found a hole and lost 10 boats.  I held there and finished 15.

2013 Laser ACC Race 3 -a

In the 3rd race we started under black flag and had what I thought was a great spot, but suddenly I found myself bow out, chickened out and backwinded so I didn’t get black flagged.  As we went upwind the wind continued to die and it started to rain.  That continued throughout the race and by the last leg we were barely going along and I finished deep.

In the last race the wind came up to 9-11 with clear skies and I had another terrible start.  I immediately tacked out and got bounced further to the right and found myself on the layline at the mark about 25th.  Both downwinds I went way right mostly just to stay away from the other sailors and picked up a spot or two on each.  On the 2nd upwind we had a course change with the wind shifting.  I picked the phase perfectly and picked up at least 10 spots upwind.  Finished 13th.

All in all it was a tough day but still a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to day 2 tomorrow.  Keep an eye on Twitter on @LaserACC for my updates.

RESULTS | VIDEO

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Day 2 of the Orange Coffee Pot Regatta and Laser District 11 Championship was forecast to start a lot like Saturday finished: windy.  Already a number of sailors weren’t going out.  I rigged hoping to hang in there for as many races as I could.  As I was about to head to the launching ramp, I noticed that my traveler fairlead was starting to pull out of the deck.  Luckily Don Hahl had a spare hull sitting on a trailer (thanks Don!!!).  In a 10-minute mad dash we pulled everything off my boat and re-rigged it on the spare hull.

6/2 traveler fair lead pulled out of the deck. Also note the damage through the gelcoat from the traveller block.

I hung in there through 2 races in winds in the 20+ range.  There were some shifts to be found, but mostly it was just hanging on, keeping the boat moving and keeping it upright.  By the end of the 2nd race I started getting the tipsies.  I started the 3rd race, sailed to the windward mark and just sailed in for the dock.  At that point I was worn out and wasn’t really doing much racing anyway.  Back at the dock I packed up, made arrangements to get the boat fixed and got on the road (without the boat).

6/2

Pictures | Results

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We had a windy first day of racing at Surf City Yacht Club for the Orange Coffee Pot and Laser District 10 Championship regatta.  I sailed consistently with finishes averaging just out of the top 10 to be sitting 10th overall after the first 7 races.

Throughout the day the wind built from about 12 in the first race to over 20 by the 7th race.  The sailing location was slightly behind a shore that kept us the waves down.  In fact it was disorienting to have 18 knots of wind later in the day and only 1′ waves.  On the shorter courses that we had I found it was important to get good lanes, keep clear air and pick lanes to cross so I didn’t have to duck boats.

We’re looking at another windy day on Sunday.

Results

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I have arrived in Surf City NJ on Long Beach Island for the Orange Coffee Pot Regatta and Laser District 10 Regatta. I got here late in the afternoon and joined a few other sailors for about an hour of practice. The wind was in the middle to upper teens which is what we are going to see a lot more of this weekend.

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