2012-2015
The trip to Columbia South Carolina for the Laser District 12 Grand Prix Regatta & South Carolina State Championship at Columbia Sailing Club was a smooth one. I hit only a little rush hour traffic on the way in to town, set up my tent at the club and went out to a nearby Italian restaurant for a nice dinner. This will be my 3rd weekend in a row of Laser racing and I’m just hoping we have some wind. Here’s my recap from last year at this regatta.
This evening I arrived at Lake Norman Yacht Club for the 2013 Board Bash Regatta. This is a regatta for ‘board’ boats such as Lasers, Sunfish and Optis and it looks as if 80 total boats are signed up with the biggest fleet being the Sunfish with 19 and 16 Lasers in the fleet I’ll be sailing in.
I’ve never been to LNYC, but heard a lot about it from FBYC Flying Scot sailors and wanted to give it a try. I’ve also wanted to do more events on the Laser District 12 Series and this will be the first of 2 events I’ll be at this year.
After setting up the tent in a primo spot on the point, I got the boat off the car and finished up my daggerboard project. The club has a lot of property and I smartly brought my bike to get myself from one end of the property to the other. All we need for tomorrow is for the rain to hold off and the wind to give us something to sail with.
There is no better way to spend a rainy day outside than sailing a Laser. We might have had drizzle most of the day, but the racing in the Board Bash Regatta at Lake Norman Yacht Club was great. I got a good sleep in my tent and put the boat together using the new board that I had recently rebuilt and gave a paint job. I also ran into an old friend -Jaime Espinosa who I used to play club soccer with at ECU.
We got racing with 14 Lasers and 11 Radials starting on one line shortly after 11 with wind 9-13 out of the south west. In the first race I had a good start in the middle of the line. Just a short way up the first beat I miss-judged a cross as a port tack boat and ended up crash tacking, missing the hiking strap and going for a swim. I recovered quickly and was able to pick my way back through the fleet to round 6th. Downwind I picked off a boat and another in the upwind to finish 4th.
I had a good start in the second race, but just off the line my daggerboard stopper came apart and I stopped briefly to secure the parts. The fleet sailed by once again and I had to pick my way upwind through the shifts. One again I found myself in the top 5 and continued to pick off more boats to a 3rd place finish.
By the 3rd race I was determined not to make any mistakes or have anything fall apart. While I was successful in there I didn’t have a good start and came to the line late getting pinned under a couple Radials. At the top mark I was deep and tried to take the right side of the course downwind. It didn’t work – I got passed by a bunch of boats and ended up 9th.
For the 4th race I had another poor start and had a bit of a time picking my way upwind. Downwind I was around 4th, but deathrolled 2/3 down the leg and found myself just behind a pack of 10+ boats at the leeward mark. I went left and picked a couple shifts and passed a bunch of boats to almost get back to where I was before the death roll finishing 6th.
The final race of the day was a Modified Olympic, two laps – a triangle followed by a windward leeward. By now the wind had shifted left a bit so I started at the pin. I went left only for a minute and was able to tack and cross the fleet on the layline and rounded the top mark 1st. I held ahead of Stanley Hassinger and John Mellnik on the reaches and we rounded the leeward mark bow to stern. The upwind was a long beat on port and John just had a little more speed upwind and was able to stay ahead of me. On the final beat Stanley got to the left and passed me, but John overstood the finish line allowing Stanley to finish 1 and me 2.
The final race was probably the best one of the day despite the skewed course. I had a lot more fun racing John and Stanley closely than I did picking my way through the fleet after bad starts. After racing we got to catch up with the other sailors and had a good dinner with a band for entertainment after racing. Tomorrow should see a little better weather for the 2nd day.
We got an early start on Sunday of the Board Bash Regatta at Lake Norman Yacht Club with our first warning at 9:25. My tent was only slightly wet through the overnight rain showers.
We started the race with winds in the mid-teens and out of a completely different direction than yesterday. It was a bit cooler too. I had a great start and made my way upwind just ahead of the pack of boats. In these conditions I was fully de-powered and holding the boat down… but John Mellnik and Stanley Hassinger just kept the boat a little flatter and a little faster all the way around the course and I was never really able to catch them ending up in 3rd.
In the 2nd race I was OCS at the start and had to come back and restart behind the fleet. This race was a 5 leg race with a finish to windward. Stanley and John got away again and I was just behind the next pack – Mark, Stephen, Finn and Conner. Downwind we mostly stayed the same. Upwind I had just a little more speed despite some of them picking better shifts. On the final upwind I was able to get ahead and finish 3rd giving me 3rd overall for the regatta. I also won the social media award for posting to facebook and twitter during the regatta and racing.
Having never been to Lake Norman Yacht Club I was incredibly impressed with the place and all of the people there. I had a great time and will definitely be back again. Thanks again to Bill and Angie Wiggins for all their work to put together the regatta. I’m looking forward to sailing with some of the D12 Laser sailors again in Columbia in a couple weeks.
I’ve arrived in Toronto ready to sail the Laser Canadian Nationals tomorrow. Here’s a shot of the car/boat in front of the CN Tower downtown as I arrived at Etobicoke Yacht Club.
It was a light air day in Toronto for the first day at the Laser Canadian Championship. We sailed 4 races with the last one finishing just as the wind died. There’s a lot of good sailors here so the racing is very close and nobody will give an inch all the way around the course. I had some ups and downs and am sitting some where in the middle of the fleet.
Being late paid off a little bit this morning, I was going to be one of the last to launch when we saw that the RC was sending boats back in due to no wind, so I left the boat parked and hung around for the 40 minute postponement on shore. When the wind filled we had a nice 8-10 knots out of the south. On the way to the course my watch died, which would make starts today interesting. Needless to say it didn’t help. In the end it was another nice day on the water.
The prospect for wind today wasn’t very great. The RC initially postponed us for about an hour and a half before bringing AP down with the intent on towing everyone out in hopes of getting in a race or two before some showers moved in. Some of the locals weren’t too optimistic about it and with a 13-hour drive ahead of me I decided to get on the road. I packed and left just after 11am and found out later that racing was abandoned without actually sailing a race.
So I spent the day driving to Lake Carlyle in Illinois where I will be crewing on Len Guenther’s Flying Scot Wind Dancer (5055) in the Flying Scot North American Championship this week.
After driving all afternoon and sitting in evening NYC traffic I arrived at Sayville Yacht Club on Long Island for the 2012 District 8 Championship. They hosted this same regatta last year which I attended and finished 3rd. Sayville’s got a great club with a nice beach by the water and a great sailing area and they do a great job with their regattas.
After I got to the club this evening, Ted Cremer and I went out on the water to snap a few photos of the sunset and then we hung around a fire on the beach. Racing starts tomorrow with 20 boats expected and 5-10 knots of breeze out of the west with a slight chance of rain.
Day 1 of the District 8 Championship at Sayville Yacht Club and we had 13 Standard Rig Lasers for 5 races in 5-8 and sometimes fluky conditions. I went 3-2-3-4-7 and am currently in 2nd overall.
In the first race I had the best start of the bunch at the favored boat end. I rounded the top mark in 2nd and lost a boat on the downwind which turned to a reach as the wind shifted around. Held on to finish 3rd.
In the second race I tried again for a boat end favored start, but I was 5 seconds early and got pushed over so I had to go back behind everyone else and restart. As the fleet went out to the left I banged the right corner and rounded the top mark in 2nd and hung onto that for the finish.
In the 3rd race we had a port end favored line. Ryan Schmitz wanted to port tack the fleet, but I won the pin on starboard and made him duck me and get tangled up with a bunch of boats further up the line. Once again we traded tacks upwind and I rounded the top mark in 2nd. Both Brian Raney and Ted Cremer had great downwind legs and passed me as the wind began to die. I kept close to Ted at the mark rounding and managed to get more left of him on the upwind so when the wind went left I was able to get in ahead of him and behind Brian.
The 4th race started in good wind and was only 1/2 the distance as the previous 3 races. With the shorter upwind 1st leg I wasn’t able to use my speed to get ahead of the pack and rounded in 3rd with a lot of boats right behind me. I went right downwind while the boats that went left made out and I was 6 or 7th at the bottom mark. Heading up to the finish I closed it up and made a couple nice tacks right at the end to beat out 2 boats by mere feet to take 4th.
The 5th race started in some wind, but a few minutes later the wind had died. I had a terrible start, went to the wrong side of the course and spent a lot of time trying to make up ground – which was hard to do in ~3 knots of breeze. The RC shortened course at the bottom mark and i settled for a 7th
Day 1 results are here. I’m 14 points behind Ryan Schmitz who has put up straight bullets. I’m 3 points ahead of Brian Raney in 3rd and 9 points ahead of Matt Doherty in 4th. All in all it was a fun day and I’m looking forward to racing tomorrow.
We started with a 1 hour postponement on shore before the wind finally filled in for us to sail. From there we sailed 3 more races in 7-11 knots in very choppy conditions. I had some crummy starts and great speed upwind, but wasn’t always picking the shifts right. In all 3 races I was back in the lead pack usually with a few boats ahead of me. The racing was close and so were the points. There were about 5 of us going at it with any of us having a shot at 2nd place. In the end I lost the tiebreaker on the last race to Lindsay Hewett who sailed some great races today.
I had hoped for a little more boring of a ride home, but unfortunately just ahead of me on the Goethals bridge a car caught fire. I was trapped in traffic on the bridge for an hour and thus hit even more night construction on the ride back.
All in all it was another fun trip to Sayville. I enjoyed the racing and want to thank Ted Cremer and everyone else at Sayville Yacht Club for putting on a great regatta.
This afternoon I made the trip to Surf City New Jersey to sail the 41st Orange Coffee Pot Regatta. This is the oldest Laser regatta and has been on my list to do for some time. This year the event is also the US Sailing Singlehanded Championship Area C Elimination. Looks like we’ve got a great forecast for wind tomorrow and up to 7 races planned. The competition ranges from reigning North American Champion to first-time Laser regatta with a ~35 boat fleet expected. Should be fun racing tomorrow and thanks to Newt Wattis and his wife for putting me up for the night.
Surf City Yacht Club’s 41st Orange Coffee Pot Regatta turned out to be a great day of sailing. We had wind that built from about 10 to the mid- to high teens by the last race. We had a very competitive fleet of 31 boats ranging from pretty elite sailors to those sailing their first Laser regatta. And we got off 7 races. Clay Johnson ultimately won the event taking bullets in all but one race. Granted, he didn’t exactly run away with it, Kyle Rogachenko and Peter Shope definitely gave him a run for it.
My own racing was a little ho-hum and I found myself getting bad starts and on the wrong side of the course more times than I care to remember. I had the speed to stay with the lead pack and in one race I had a stellar start and sailed my way to an 8th. All in all it was fun to make the trip and to sail in the oldest Laser regatta. Thanks to Newt Wattis and Surf City Yacht Club for hosting the event and everything they did to put it together.
With all the driving I do for sailing and ECU football I’ve really wanted a new car with a little more space and better mileage than the focus was getting. I knew a 2012 Diesel VW Jetta SportWagen with a manual transmission and a sunroof was the perfect car. After a big of digging I found one in Charlottesville. I’m really looking forward to being able to cartop the Laser to some distant regattas in Massachusetts and Long Island this spring and avoid the tolls.