For the first time since the President’s/Leukemia cup we had very good breeze for our racing! The steady NW breeze (which had a lot of left shift in it at times) gave us great conditions, and PRO Jim Graham and his RC did a fantastic job in getting us three races. Eight Lightnings, six Albacores, two Buccaneers, a Laser, and a Hobie came out to play and after a solid day of racing we all enjoyed a great BBQ (thanks to Red and Susan for bringing burgers!) in the picnic area afterwards. Carrie Quinn took some amazing photos from the day, and I’ve posted some of my observations below from the Lightning fleet below. Keep reading for more details from the day’s racing, and make sure to post a comment with your own thoughts, recollections, and tall tales from the day — especially if you were in one of the other fleets!
All posts by Aaron
President’s/Leukemia Cup Photos!
Follow this link for some excellent photos of the racing taken by Carl Schaefer during the 77th Annual President’s/Leukemia Cup. Many thanks to Carl for volunteering his time, as well as to Whit Overstreet from Potomac Riverkeeper for the use of their boat as a photograph platform during the regatta.
If you wish to use these pix for marketing, for posting online, or for any other commercial purpose other than for private viewing, please contact Carl (cgschaefer@gmail.com). At a minimum, picture credit should be attributed to Carl G. Schaefer, Jr, Copyright 2011.
Fall Series #2 Wrap-Up
Greetings PRSA Sailors! As many of you know, I’ve been writing reports from our spring/fall series racing for the Lightning fleet over the past year. We’re going to start posting these write-ups here as well, in the hopes of starting a conversation among all the fleets and sailors out for our regular races. I’ll do my best to capture what I see on the racecourse each Sunday, but here is where we need your help: if you are sailing in one of the other fleets, go ahead and post a comment with your own experiences from the racing (just click the little “no comment” link above the post to add a comment). We definitely want to hear from you, and we hope to start a pattern of weekly postings and emails (via our listservs) that recount the day’s racing and generate some enthusiasm for the next event. So read on to hear about Fall Series #2, but more importantly, feel free to chime in with your own voice!
The PRSA Fall Series #2 was another day of tricky river sailing. Light and variable NE winds combined with a strong current and stiff tidal flow made for challenging strategic and tactical decisions. If you went south to get a patch of breeze, you then had to fight your way back north against the current to get to a mark. If you sailed to far into the NE corner under Hains Point you found yourself being pushed down the river with no breeze to power you across the way to the leeward mark. As with any given Sunday, there was an element of chance involved…but in talking to folks afterwards, it became clear that the boats that did well also made good decisions–most notably, in “connecting the dots” between patches of breeze. Overall, we were thrilled to see Chris Kozel and his team (Palmer Phillips and Chris Lewton) win their first race in Lightning Fleet 50 on Sunday–congratulations Chris! It was also great to see a few new faces out on various boats, and to welcome back some folks that we hadn’t seen in a bit. Keep reading for a detailed wrap-up of the day’s racing and post-race fun, and be sure to post your own comments and stories from the weekend here!