Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club was host for the 2016 Laser District 10 Championship in mid-June. Winds were light for the first 5 races on Saturday and I finished 13-11-5-11-9 to be 10th after the first day. That evening had dinner with a few of the District 10 sailors and caught a beautiful sunset at Brant Beach Yacht Club.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BG0P2TyK-6R/
On Sunday it took 2 hours of postponement for the wind to fill and then we sailed 2 more races in 10-14 knots. I finished 9-10 and stayed in 10th overall.
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.
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.
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.
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.
