Category Archives: Announcements

Racing Rules of Sailing, This Wed 28th 7pm @ Indigo Landing

Hello sailors, this Wednesday is our first in a series of on land training events. Nathan Marsh Albacore Fleet Captain will be leading a discussion on the Racing Rules of Sailing (specifically ISAF 2009-2012 rules for fleet racing). This will be held at Indigo Landing restaurant at the Washington Sailing Marina from 7-8pm in the Charleston Room. When you walk into the restaurant make an immediate right turn and walk into the big room. This is a free event open to both members and non-members so let you friends, family and co-workers know. Thanks see you there.

Scott

Spring Is Almost Here!

Hello PRSA Members, the 2012 Spring sailing season is almost upon us. Our first day sailing is Sunday April 1st, I hope to see you all out on the water. We are planning on having a kick off party after sailing in the picnic area of the marina starting probably around 3-3:30. Please stop by after you put your boat away and join us for some food and drinks, PRSA will be supplying both. If your a new member this is a great opportunity to meet and mingle with all the sailors.

Also upcoming are a number of training events, click on the Calendar link to see the complete listing

1) Rear Commodore and United States Albacore Association Vice President Mike Heinsdorf will be leading a session on “How To Be A PRO”.
2) Albacore Fleet Captain Nathan Marsh will be giving a talk on “Racing Rules of Sailing”.
3) Laser Fleet Captain Erich Hesse will be presenting a “Starting Tactics” discussion.
4) Vice Commodore Nabeel Alsalam and Ben Ackerman will be putting on a 2-part (on and off the water) series on “Power Boat Handling”.

These events are free and open to non-members also, so invite your friends and co-workers.

You might have noticed, we recently revamped our web site, and are working on a new Facebook presence and new crew connection feature on the web site. We formed a committee at the beginning of the year to figure out how to improve our presence on the web and also to expand our social activities. Michelle Greenhalgh and Lee Sayasithsena are co-chairing the committee and have been doing a great job of bring in new ideas. Michelle is going to send out an email next week to give you some more details about the crew connection part of the web site and the new Facebook presence. Lee is helping organize the kick off party, next time you see them give them a big thanks for all the effort that have put forth.

Again, looking forward to seeing you all on the water in a few weeks.

Scott Snyder
Commodore

PRSA Annual Banquet

PRSA Members, we’re getting to about the half way point of our Fall Sunday Series and coming up in about a month is our Annual Banquet and General Meeting. It will be held Saturday November 19th at Marina Towers. Details are below. Hope you and you crew can make it, please mark your calendars. If you planning on coming please add your name to the “Who’s Coming” list so we can arrange enough food. Click here to see who’s coming.

Also, we have a couple openings on the Executive Board. We are looking for a few good people who are interested in helping lead PRSA into the future. If you are interested or would like to nominate someone, please let me know. Thanks.

PRSA Awards Banquet and Annual General Meeting 2011
Saturday November 19
Party Room of the Marina Towers Apartments
$25 per person(same as usual), pay at the door

6:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Directions: From the Washington Sailing Marina, go south on GW parkway towards Alexandria. Stay to the right and take the Slaters Lane exit. (It is the first exit you come to). Turn left onto Slaters Lane from the ramp. This will take you across the parkway. Go through the intersection and past the first buildings and look for the high rise on the left. That is the building. It is only five minutes from the marina.

Go to the Front desk, sign in and ask where the PRSA Party is. They will direct you to the party room.

2011 Albacore Internationals

The 2011 Albacore Internationals were held from 16-23 September in Toronto, Canada.  Over sixty boats from three different countries participated, with wind conditions ranging from extremely light to a steady 20 knots with puffs up to 30 knots.  PRSA and Potomac River Albacore Fleet member Barney Harris, with crew David Byron, won the event, with a net score of 22 after 12 races (with two drops).  See video coverage of the event here: http://www.youtube.com/user/albacoreusa.  You’ve got to see what happens when we find a boat somewhere it shouldn’t be here, in a short video we call “An Albacore on Castaway Bay”, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1JuVx2vlxM.

77th Annual President’s/Leukemia Cup Regatta

Hello PRSA members, just around the corner is our annual 77th
President’s/Leukemia Cup regatta Sept 10th and 11th. Information
including the schedule of events, NOR and pre-registration are on our
Web site located here:

http://www.potomacriversailing.org/PresidentsLeukemiaCups/

If you planning on racing, please take a moment to pre-register. If you
are interested in raising money for the L&LS indicate that on the
pre-registration form and they will contact you with additional details.

We have been working closely with L&LS to make this a more enjoyable
event for our members this year. For instance for the Saturday party
they are not going to start serving food until 4:15 and will be holding
back additional food for those that arrive late. There will also be
awards (half hull trophies) for 1st and 2nd place for Saturday.

If you have any questions Aaron Boesenecker is our liaison to L&LS,
Nabeel Alsalam is our upper course PRO and Jim Graham is our lower
course PRO. Or you can always ask me…

Also we are still looking for a Regatta Chairman (or woman) for this
event. The primary responsibility is to organize the party Sunday after
racing. Deciding what food to have, purchasing it, cooking it if
necessary. You can certainly plan to sail Sunday and do this job, I
have done it before, just requires some planning. If your interested
please let me know. Thanks

Scott

Sat. May 21 – Leukemia/Lymphoma Society Kickoff Party!

The fall might seem a long way off, but it is never to soon to start thinking about the President’s/Leukemia Cup Regatta! I’m writing as your PRSA liaison to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) to send along a bit of information–most importantly, the fact that the LLS Kickoff Party will be held this coming Saturday, May 21, 4:00 p.m., at Capitol Yacht Club (1000 Water Street SW). The weather is supposed to be great, and the party is FREE, so join us for free food (a burger & hot dog bar along with treats from Phillips Seafood), drinks (1 free drink + cash bar), live music, and lots of fun.

If you were active in raising funds for LLS in the past, you should have received an Evite invitation for the event that you can use to RSVP. Otherwise, you can RSVP directly to me or to Kaitlin McTighe at LLS (Kaitlin.McTighe@…). This is a great party, and all are welcome no matter whether or not you’ve participated in fundraising in the past!

In addition to a great party with lots of other sailors from the region, you’ll have the chance to register to raise funds for the LLS (with just $100 in fundraising your boat name will appear on the regatta t-shirt!). Registering will also put you in the running for some great raffle prizes, including some Mount Gay paraphernalia! Last year, PRSA won the LLS award for the Club with the most boats/teams raising $100 or more at the President’s/Leukemia Cup, and we’d love to repeat that performance. To read more about this year’s LLS events, visit http://www.leukemiacup.org/nca .

Finally, the PRSA President’s/Leukemia Cup website (http://www.potomacriversailing.org/PresidentsLeukemiaCups/) is now active and will be updated with additional information, the President’s/Leukemia Cup Regatta Entry Form, and other details as the regatta approaches. As in past years, the regatta weekend will begin with the LLS Friday night party on September 9. One design boats will then race on both Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 10-11 (or just on Saturday in the case of the lower course fleets), in keeping with the PRSA President’s Cup Tradition. If you have any questions about the event in general, about fundraising for LLS, or anything else, please do not hesitate to contact me (apb99@…) or your PRSA Board Members.

Cheers,
Aaron Boesenecker
apb99@…
202.302.7013

P.S. – please be aware that parking around the CYC is difficult. There is a garage located under Phillips Seafood if you are driving or it’s a short walk from the metro. If you would like to come via boat please indicate that in your response so CYC can coordinate in advance.

Several of you have inquired about sailing up to Saturday’s LLS Kickoff Party. Red Fehrle was kind enough to contact CYC on this (thanks Red!), and they’re more than happy to have folks sail up and tie up for the party. Here are their instructions:

Please tie up at our dinghy dock, which is all the way on the inside of the fairway between C and D docks. If you have a handheld, please hail CYC on 16 as you approach. You can also call Tom from CYC on his cellphone 571-276-7426. The dinghy dock CYC is after ganplank, and before the fishmarket going up the channel.

First Wed Night Sailing, Tomorrow!!

Hello sailors, we are starting our summer Wed night series early this
year. The first night will be tomorrow April 27th. Traditionally the
Albacore fleet organizes the races, but every body is invited. There
are usually a couple Lightnings, Buccs and Lasers every week. This is a
great time for new people to jump on a boat and do some sailing. We
usually start around 6pm and sail until dusk right off the docks and/or
in the cove. Afterward people usually head to one of the restaurants in
Crystal City for dinner and drinks.

Also this Sunday our Spring Sunday series continues. Weather is looking
good so far. Skippers meeting at 10am and afterward drinks and BBQ in
the grill area. If your interested in crewing contact your fleet
captain, or just show up. See you on the water.

Scott

First Spring Series

We had a great day sailing for our first Spring Series race. Ben Ackerman and the Catamarans did a great job on RC getting us off on 4 races with the wind shifting from the north to the west throughout the day. Six or so Lightnings, 4 Buccs, 4 Lasers and 2 Albacores came out to play. According to the wind report from DCA it started out near 20mph at 10am and by 3pm was around 5mph. It felt more like 12-15 all day with gusts here and there. After racing we grilled some dogs and drank some beer, was a good time. Hope to see you next week, there was some left over beer we’ll bring next week.

Don’t forget our next on land training event is this Wednesday at Indigo Landing. Barney Harris will be leading a discussion on local sailing knowledge. Don’t miss this one, 7pm!

Scott

First Sunday Series, Next Training Event Wed

We had a good turn out last night and a good 2 hours of interesting discussion of the racing rules of sailing. Big thanks to Erich for leading the discussion.

This Sunday is our first Spring Series event, the weather is looking to be good so far. As of today its supposed to be warm (high 50F’s) and fairly windy (14mph). Skippers meeting is at 10am. We’ll be grilling dogs and drinking some beers after racing so plan on sticking around afterwards.

This coming Wed will be our next training event. Barney Harris, local sailor, curmudgeon, boat builder and cocker spaniel lover will be leading a discussion Wed the 6th on local knowledge of the Potomac River. Barney has been sailing on the river since at least the mid 1980’s and has numorus International and National championships under his belt. This is an excellent opportunity for you and your crew to learn some of the nuances and local knowledge of the river from a long time (and some what eccentric) local sailor. Same location, Indigo Landing restaurant, same time 7pm. Hope to see you there and on the water Sunday.

Scott