ILCA sailboats and sailing. (Prior to 2021 known as Laser)
Went out this morning for an early-morning practice on the Laser. The air temperature was 44 when I launched at 7am with 48 degree water temperature and 14-16 knots out of the North.
Later in the morning I sailed on Double Eagle and along with 5 other boats, we took out the crew trainees for an on-the-water training sessions.
After lunch we took Double Eagle back out to have a couple of new sails fitted.
Occasionally I get asked by newer Laser sailors what I typically wear while Laser sailing. So here are the elements of my wardrobe followed by the conditions I’d wear them in. I’m pictured above in my Summer Laser sailing attire.
Hat I always wear a hat with a brim to keep the sun off my face. It does make it harder to look up at tell-tales, but it focuses my vision and makes it a more deliberate action. And because I don’t have that much hair on my head, I need it for the sun protection there as well. It also helps keep some heat in on the cooler days and absorbs sweat to keep it out of my eyes on the hot days. I have a 3mm line to tie the hat to my life jacket to keep me from loosing it.
Polarized Sunglasses For many years I sailed without sunglasses and only a hat. I never realized how strained my eyes were on sunny days, particularly from the glare bouncing off the bright white deck in front of me. Once I started wearing polarized sunglasses I’ve never gone back. The first thing I did when I bought a nice pair of sunglasses was drill a hole in the side of them so I could securely tie them to my hat, that is tied to my life jacket, to ensure I didn’t loose them.
Pinny I wear a white pinny over my life jacket. In the hot summer weather, the white color keeps the sun from heating up the dark life jacket and keeps me cooler. It can also be kept wet for a little bit of evaporative cooling.
Life Jacket A sailing or paddling life jacket is a must for Laser sailing. These life jackets are cut high on the waist so that sitting and crouching are comfortable without the life jacket riding up. A couple extra pockets are nice for stashing extra gear (blog post on that coming soon).
Dinghy Boots I’m currently using the Ronstan Zip Up Boot which are good all-around boots – warm in the cooler days and warm on the hotter days… and that’s led me to start looking for some lighter boots that are lighter in color, with lighter materials that dry a little quicker. I have at times gone barefoot while summer sailing and carried sandals on the boat for when I arrived ashore, but there’s too great of risk of stubbing a toe while racing and having it take my mind off sailing, so I wear the same footwear year-round.
Sailing Gloves I prefer 3-finger gloves because of the way I hold the line, but any glove will do. Even though I have cleats on my boat, most of the time I’m holding the mainsheet, so good gloves of any kind are a must.
Sailing Shorts Not a must-have for Laser sailing with hiking pants, but I like to wear them mostly because the light grey color reflects the sun to keep it from heating up the darker colored hiking shorts I wear under it. Having two layers helps keeps cool and they to keep abrasion from wearing down the more expensive hiking pants on the non-skid deck. These are also versatile for sailing other kinds of boats. My favorite are the Camet Hobart Extreme.
Light Rash Guard This white rash guard keeps the sun off my arms. In the summer heat, keeping it wet keeps me cool as it evaporates off. (example)
Thermal Rash Guard Like the light rash guard to keep the sun off, the thermal rash guard is great for the cool early spring and late fall days where a little extra warmth is needed. This rash guard is 2-3mm neoprene in the chest. I have the SEA Thermospan top and while used underneath spray top it generally keeps me warm, the thermal part is only in the chest and my arms are the first thing to get cold, particularly sitting around between races. There is a trade-off between warmth and freedom of movement and this one strikes a pretty good balance.
Short Hiking Pants The Airprene Hiking Pants by SEA have perforated neoprene allowing air/water to easily reach the skin to keep cool without over heating on a warm day. I prefer the waist shorts because I don’t like wearing any more clothing across my chest than absolutely necessary. Since I only spend very short periods of time on my knees, I don’t feel the need for the kneepads as they can get uncomfortable behind the knees when crouched down – which I do a lot more of on a Laser.
Tall Hiking Pants I have a set of 3/4 hikers that are a bit heavier and warmer than the short hiking pants that I have now. These use to by my full-time hiking pants, but I’ve found I prefer the short pants in the summer and thus mostly only wear these in the cool conditions in the early spring and late fall. (example)
Spray Top/Dinghy Smock A must-have for Laser sailing in anything but the nicest conditions. I like to stick with a light color so that I have protection when it’s cool and wet, but doesn’t get too hot when the sun comes out.
Thermal Pants Most sailors who spend a lot of time in cooler conditions wear thermal pants. Like the thermal top, these pants provide warmth when wet. Hiking pants can be worn over them or in the case of the Zhik products integrated into them. Since I only sail in those conditions a few times a year in the early spring and late fall, I use bib pants instead. While they are a little bulkier, they at least keep the wind off to keep me warmer. For me they are also a better bang for the buck as I can use them while crewing on offshore boats as well. (Skin-tight thermal pants would not go over well on an offshore boat as a fashion statement).
All Conditions:
Early Spring/Late Fall when the air & water temperature are both in the high 50’s to low 60’s
Spring/Fall when the air temperature is in the 70-80 or in warmer conditions when it’s windy or raining
Summer when the air temperature is 80+
This morning I got out on the Laser for some practice in a sunny 5-8 knot breeze out of the North in Fishing Bay.
In the afternoon I went out for a sail on the J70 Nostalgia for its Chesapeake Bay debut with Lud, Miles, Den and Durwood.
I got to get out on the Laser for the first time in 5 months spending 2 hours doing windward-leeward laps around an imaginary course. It was good opportunity to remember how everything went together and to get comfortable in the boat in the ~10kt breeze under overcast skies.
This video describes how to remove sail numbers from a Laser Sail. Note that this technique only works with Goo Off Professional*
Tips:
Use a soft cloth like an old tshirt for rubbing the goo on the sail.
The reason we first apply goo remover to the backside of the sail is to separate the goo from the sail so that the goo comes off on the number. If you start by applying goo remover over the number, it separates the vinyl number from the goo, then you’ve got to scrub the sail a lot harder to rub the left over stick goo on the sail.
*I’ve used Goo Off Professional for years for this and it worked fine. Only after I ran out of it and bought Goo Off Heavy Duty did I realize it didn’t work with all solvents. It works with Acetone, but that stuff evaporates so quickly you can only do small sections at a time.
Our yacht club has been working on a new long range plan and we’ve done a bit of age analysis to see how our membership has changed over the past 10+ years. For the past 8 years I’ve run the Chesapeake Laser Masters Championship and I usually skimp on awards for the Great Grand Masters (65+) because historically there have only been a handful of competitors in that bracket compared to the more numerous competitors in the younger age brackets. This was the first year that several competitors pointed out how many more GGM sailors there were and thus deserved trophies that went a little deeper. And that has gotten me thinking about the age demographics of our Laser Masters regattas.
Here are the demographics of the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship for all of the years I have available. Laser Masters sailing starts at 35 years old and the brackets are Apprentice: 35-44, Master 45-54, Grand Master 55-64 & Great Grand Master 65+. I’ve broken down each year by % of the fleet in each of the age groups to show how that has changed over the years.
Here is the same type of data for the US Masters Championship:
Both regattas differ a little bit in what they show and which age groups are growing, but both clearly show over the past 3-4 years a smaller Apprentice category and slightly larger M, G and GGM categories. What’s causing this? It could be the aging Baby Boomer population who were in their teens-20-30s when the Laser became popular in the 1970’s and learned to sail on them. There’s always been a bit of a boomerang in sailing where people go away during and after college and while they are starting families, and then they tend to come back and involve their family in sailing. Could it be that the following generation (X) that was raised in Optis and spent less time in the Laser, is not returning to the Laser in the same numbers as the generation before them? Or are more boomers just boomeranging back into the class later in life and skewing the pot? Time will tell, but there’s clearly a change underway.
What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments.
Raw Data:
Chesapeake Laser Masters
| US Laser Masters
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Why Chesapeake Laser Masters and US Masters? 1) Because Masters events are the only events where we know the age bands of sailors. While there are regattas that know the age of the competitors, it’s not typically published. 2) These are the events that I had the most and oldest data on.
I finished my sailing season off on Sunday with the FBYC Laser Frostbite Regatta. We had 9 boats out in some light North and Westerly winds for 5 races. It was fun close racing on a short course. I won the last 3 races to win the day by just 2 points.
That makes for 55 days of sailing this year, one more than last year. I’m looking forward to some time off and I’ll be planning next year soon!
Last weekend was the 31st Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club. We had a great fleet of 45 boats come to sail. I was the event chairman and I also got to be out on the water during racing to take some pictures. Here are a few of the best:
All in all it was a great regatta. I couldn’t have done it without the help of our race committee and all of the Laser Fleet members who helped out. And it was nice to have all of the masters sailors I see so often on the regatta circuit come sail with us in Deltaville.
Arrived at the Columbia Sailing Club this evening and ready to sail the District 12 Championship tomorrow!
We had a great first day of the District 12 Championship at Columbia Sailing Club in Columbia South Carolina. We sailed 5 races that at some point in each of the races we had 4 knots and 10 knots. In the lighter winds I did well on the first upwind leg most races and worked hard to hold onto my spot on the downwinds. I put up a 3-2-8-1-2 and am currently 2 points out of first behind John Potter from Beaufort SC. Tomorrow will be another light air day and hopefully I can keep up the top 3 finishes to have a shot at the title.
Provisional Results (the winner in race 3 will be RET and everyone moves up one)
The forecast for the last day of the Laser District 12 Championship was for light air and as we were sailing out to the race course we had great wind – 10-12 knots. By our 10am start it had dropped at bit and it continued to go down from there. Today was a basically a two-boat race. Unless I put up two DFLs it would have been hard not to get 2nd place. Once a drop would be factored in, I was effectively 1 point behind John Potter, so it would come down to today’s races as to who won the regatta.
In our first race today I had a crummy start – I just about won the boat, but had no boat speed at the start. John was to leeward of me and was a boat length and a half ahead when I crossed the line. I took a big duck and headed out right while he sailed to the left. Wanting to consolidate I came back to the middle having made up some ground, but John tacked on me and forced me back to the right. On the middle right of the course I had better pressure and got in front of John, but the boats who went left did much better than us putting me around 6th and John several boats behind me by the time we rounded.
Downwind John caught up a few boats and on the 2nd upwind I stuck to the middle of the course while John went to the left. When we got to the top 3rd of the course a 50-degree righty came in and I laid the mark while John out to the left still had to tack to fetch it. At the mark there was one boat between us and downwind I worked to pass one boat on the way to the finish. With two boats between us that put me 1 point ahead of John.
After the race we sat on the course for half an hour with no prospect of wind and the race committee abandoned racing for the rest of the day and I won the District 12 Championship Regatta. Not only was John great competition this weekend, but so were sailors such as Rob Bowden who would have beat both John and I had he not been OCS twice. All in all it was a fun regatta and I got to visit a an awesome club who put on a great and I got meet a lot of new District 12 sailors.
All but the last photo courtesy of Joe Reyes
Here’s the back t-shirt design for the 2012 Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship. It’s based on this picture. The front will feature the plate logo.
