Tag Archives: Laser Sailboat

Laser Frostbite Day #2, 11/25

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Seventeen boats came out for Day #2.  The wind started out lighter than forecast and then picked up to forecast about 10-12 mph.  It started out west-southwest and shifted south-southwest half way through the day.  Len and Barb Guenther set a windward-leeward course out in the river.  The current was the opposite of last week (coming in all day) and I believe played a big factor in the racing today more on that later.  There was some big debris/speed bumps (tree trunks) out in the river causing some to fall out of their boats and other to stop for a minute.  If you have not made it out yet this season it has been near perfect sailing conditions and just in luck for you we sail again next Sunday same time same place.  Keith Barron and William Kruse will be providing the RC.
Full scores are posted on the website here:

Click here for week #2 Scores

Erich

Laser Frostbite Day #1, 11/18

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It was a beautiful day to be on the water.  If you could order up breeze like this every day that would be great.  The wind turned out to be more than forecast from the low teens with some gust in the high teens from the north-northeast and east.  The current was going out all day.  It was a shifty day but Justin Pollack and Jim Klein set a windward-leeward course which they did not have to adjust much during the day.  Twenty-two boats came out with three boats being the first day sailing with us.  Bob Gotthardt took the day for the newbies to the fleet with an eleventh overall.  Making it to the top ten was an accomplishment as a lot of the top guns came out to sail today.
Results posted on the website (Thanks Farley and Scott).
We sail again next Sunday with the Guenthers providing the RC.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Erich

Laser Frostbite Day #5, 12/18/2011

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It was a beautiful day on the Potomac River with the wind from the northwest 7-15, which was more than the forecast that I saw. The sun was behind the clouds making it feel like a frostbite race but the wind was enough to keep you working. It was another great turnout with 23 boats making it on the last sailing day in 2011. Will Summers and Istvan Pely set up a windward leeward out in the river. The current was coming in/slack at the beginning of the day and was going out pretty aggressively by the last race keeping the fleet off the line.
Getting a good start was essential and the mark roundings were crowded which put an emphasis on making the right decision in a short amount of time. The firsts were well spread out in six races with six different people winning a race (Erich, Frank, , Len & Robert). The wind was very shifty which caused many lead changes. Results are posted here.
I have been excited by all the new faces this year and the turnouts thus far. I hope that we can keep it up in 2012.
The next Sunday is the Hangover Regatta January 1. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year and hope to see you on the water on the 1st.

-Erich

2011 PRSA Spring Regatta

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It’s May already!  Flowers are blooming, birds are singing, and PRSA one design sailboats are racing.  Check your calendars, call your crew, get your yard work affairs all in order, and make plans to sail in the 2011 PRSA Spring Regatta on Saturday May 28 and Sunday May 29.  Check out the recently posted NOR for details.

Laser Frostbite 1/30/2011

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Fourteen people showed up to take part in a 40 degree day on the last Sunday of January. The wind was from the east-northeast starting out light to variable in the last race. Erich Hesse and Ridley Nelson set up a windward-leeward course in the cove with the starting line within a stone’s throw of the Mount Vernon bike path. The winner of the day was Nabeel Alsalam and his winner’s write-up below. We had one new boat owner join us for the first time, Justin Pollack, who bought a boat that has been sitting at the marina. Justin had a good day after a long hiatus from Laser sailing and finished 2nd overall. We also had a friend of Alex Jacob, Shawn Golden, join us and they both showed the older/heavier people how to do it in the light air.

Here is a cool shot by Erich of Nabeel ghosting toward the finish. (Click to enlarge)

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PRSA Hangover Regatta – January 1, 2011

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What a day! We had our biggest Laser regatta ever today, 33 boats. Thanks to all that traveled to join us to help us push over the 30 boats mark. The weather could not have been better with temps in the 50′s and a south breeze 7-12 mph. We sailed in the river with the current coming in throughout the racing. There were 5 races.

Tim Zimmerman was untouchable with four firsts in five races and won the regatta handily.

Special thanks to our RC for the day Nabeel Alsalam, Rob Young, Collette Bolton, Mike Heinsdorf & Tom Berlin. Thanks also to Adam Dolezal who provided hot dogs for those who stuck around after racing.

– Erich (Laser Fleet Captain)

Some of the 2011 Hangover Regatta Sailors

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Presidents / Leukemia Cup Results

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There is an old Arab curse that goes something like: “May you live in interesting times”. That said, we certainly had an “interesting” weekend for this years Presidents Cup. Saturday, was sunny and beautiful. Perfect in every way except the most important: There was no wind. Rolf Zeisler, our able PRO, managed to get 2 races off in drifty conditions with little more than thermals coming from various directions. The Lightnings were almost time limited out in the first race when the Rc quickly set up a finish line at the Reach? Windward? Leeward? Mark, and finished us with no time to spare. Race #2 was even worse. Oh well. There is always tomorrow, and with rain in the forecast there was bound to be some breeze. Sunday morning brought the rain, but not much in the way of breeze. We got 3 races in before calling it a day. The first 2 races were much like Saturdays efforts. The 3rd race, however, was a fun one. A nice north westerly finally came in and made all of us who had suffered through 2 days of mostly painful drifting glad we had stuck it out. This was the best sailing of the weekend and a good time was finally had by all. Lets all pray that we don’t get any more “interesting” days like the bulk of this past weekend. Scores after the break:

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