Category Archives: Fleets

PRSA Fleets

2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #3

2024-12-02 Farley Will Leave a comment

Sunday was our coldest and most prolific day of the young season. Race committee managed five races (with one shortened finish) in up-and-down wind and temperatures sitting in the low-40s. Overall, it was a pretty good day of racing. Here are a few things I noticed or focused on today.

I am relatively new to sailing on the Potomac, but it has lots of similarities to my native Deep Creek Lake. The wind was often light and the direction could change in an instant. I feel like a lot of my (modest) success today was based on skills I picked up to counter Deep Creek winds: constantly looking around, trying to find the next puff, and keeping the boat moving in the lulls. I was doing my best to stand up and survey the upwind leg during the start sequence so I had a good idea of where and when the first few puffs of the race would be. You can see the course more clearly from six feet above the water than from three. For instance, I saw the wind filling from the left at the start of race four and changed my start plan to get to that wind faster. It worked out and I was first to the weather mark.

Another thing I’ve been trying to work on is teamwork on downwinds. Sometimes it’s helpful to work with the boats in your pack to make ground on the clusters ahead of or behind you, ESPECIALLY in light air. I worked with both Lars and Kaitlyn at different points today to make sure we were communicating and staying out of each other’s air. You can always fight your battles at the mark and on upwinds and have more margin for error.

Last week, Farley highlighted Tom Hutton for footing slightly on a long upwind tack to get clear air and better boatspeed. I’d like to shoutout Kaitlyn Lucey for doing the same thing today and ultimately beating me (going from mid-pack to second in one leg) by doing the same thing. Laser sailors often try too hard to keep the boat on the knife’s edge of the wind. That’s not always the most VMG-friendly path to the mark, especially in low, shifty winds.

Final tip: wear warm clothing. I lost mobility in my toes sometime around the fourth start. Learn from my mistakes and dress for the weather.

Thank you David Metcalf and Mike Scardaville for running the races in tough conditions. Congrats to Steen for winning the day! Everyone have a good week, and I hope to see y’all next Sunday!

-Connor

24-25 Laser Frostbite Series #3

Frostbite, Lasers, Lasers, News, Results

2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #2

2024-11-24 Farley Will Leave a comment

Well today was a tough day. We had a mostly westerly that seemed to have oscillating directions of about +/-45 degrees at times and velocity chances from 2 to 10. Generally speaking the breeze was out of the west at about 5 knots I would guess though. The shifty conditions made racing tough with lots of position changes throughout the race and no one really owning the day.

Eva and Dan did a nice job running races and were able to get 4 races off in the tough conditions. They adjusted the windward mark and line after the first race which made things a bit more even for the shifts.

I do not really have any great tips for the day but would like to highlight a decision that Tom Hutton made in the last race. There were several of us stacked up at the leeward mark rounding and Tom and I rounded in 4th and 5th with 3 boats ahead of us. I had a nice tight rounding and managed to not be getting bad air from the 3 boats stacked in front of us and Tom was outside of me on the rounding. He chose to foot off some and get to clear air for the “upwind” beat which was mostly just point at the mark and get there. Several lifts occurred on the leg and I eventually found myself in bad air from the 3 boats ahead of me. Tom on the other hand had clear air all the way to the mark and won the leg and race due to his choice at the leeward mark. Just a reminder that pointing high and being inside at the mark is not always the best choice!

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving and look forward to seeing who shows up on Sunday for Series #3!

Farley

24-25 Laser Frostbite Series #2

Frostbite, Series, Lasers, Fleets, Frostbite, Lasers, Results

2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #1

2024-11-17 Farley Will Leave a comment

On a puff and a shift: First 3rd place write-up of the season

To those who are new to frostbiting, it is our tradition that whoever gets 3^rd place circulates a short write-up about the day, and I volunteered to do this first one. It was great to see 18 boats on a day when the forecast wasn’t exactly promising. Also great to see both familiar and new faces. The first gamble of the day was whether to race at all, and we gave it a go. After bobbing around with no wind from changing directions, we ended up with a slowly building southernly light breeze and had three good light-air races. Good on Farley and Tyler for calling when the wind direction stabilized, resetting the course, and getting us going. A few lessons from the sailing today:

Starting well and not early with light breeze and the current pushing us to windward is tricky. My plan was to stay a bit behind the line and make sure I have space to build up speed before the start. I didn’t execute any of the starts particularly well including being the sole boat across the line in race three – thanks to Farley or Tyler who called out a crisp “405”.

Being fast upwind required staying alert while the boat imitated the motions of a crib lulling you to sleep. I had the vang slightly looser than 2-blocked, a deep curve from the outhaul, and absolutely nowhere near using the cunningham. Finding clear air, doing your best to roll tack, not having to duck others unless really necessary helps. But the big gains were on calling the puffs and the shift. In my read, the puffs were particularly important, and they’re easier to spot than the shifts. It’s always a gamble whether you get it right, but you can improve the odds by looking at the water down river and at the boats ahead of you.

Downwind legs felt long with the current against us, but they seemed more predictable to me than the upwind legs. Speed came from keeping the wind flowing across the sail either by the lee or on a broad reach, i.e. avoiding going dead downwind, and keeping that slight windward heel that avoids weather helm. Also, with 18 boats, being on the left side is tactically helpful when you approach the mark.

Racing on the Potomac in light air has a crapshoot element, so take the knocks in your stride – sometimes it really works out. At the last leeward mark of the last race, I was well behind Jim and Laura. A strong puff and a nice shift helped me catch up so much that Jim had to yield to me on starboard just before the finish line, and I barely crossed the line ahead of him. I surely didn’t deserve that one, but it will help me feel better next time the puffs and shifts don’t go my way.

Altogether a nice and easy kick off to the frostbite season, and thanks to Farley and Tyler for running the races today.

Steen

PS: don’t forget to sign up for RC duty!

24-25 Laser Frostbite Series #1

Albacores, Lasers, Buccaneers, Fall Series, Inland-20s, Lightnings, Lasers, News, Results

2024 Fall Series #8 (Nov 3) & Provisional Series Scores

2024-11-06 Nabeel Leave a comment

Stew Harris Dave Huber, and team ran the races I wasn’t there but I think it was another light air day.

The Day’s Results:

The Provisional Fall Series Results (RC duty requirement and RDG for that duty have not been applied): (Notice of Race)

Albacores, Lasers, Fall Series, Buccaneers, Inland-20s, Lasers, Results

2024 Fall Series #7 – Oct 27

2024-10-30 Nabeel Leave a comment

Aaron Boesenecker, Lisbet Kugler, Lars and Janet Rathjen, and team ran the races. Knowing the wind was going to die, they got the first race off on time and that was it for the day.

Although the morning started off chilly, it turned into a beautiful sunny afternoon. Dogs and burgers were thrown on the grill and home made pickles and other goodies put out on the tables. We whiled away the afternoon chatting, snacking, and eating.

Even a low wind day can be great day.

Fleets

2024 Fall Series #6, Oct 20

2024-10-20 Nabeel

Lloyd Leonard, Dan Miller, and team were ready to run races. But the wind was not cooperating. After some waiting for the wind to change it mind, the decision was to wait no longer, and racing was cancelled for the day.

Looks like the wind came up briefly from the NE in the late afternoon . Look at the directions before and after.

Inland-20s, Lightnings

2024 Fall Series #5 Oct13

2024-10-20 Nabeel

Dane Pedersen and team ran the races. The Albacores were at Rock Hall for their nationals. I was in western Maryland where it was warm and the wind was blowing away tents at the Farmer’s market. On the river, I’m guessing it was a warm day with good wind.

I20-FS5

Lightning-FS5

Albacores, Lasers, Fall Series, Lightnings, Results

2024 Fall Series #2 Sept 15

2024-09-15 Nabeel

Nabeel Alsalam, Mark Rickling, Natalie Rehberger, and Jon ran the races. (Lindsay Bach got a pass when RC decided to take only one boat out due to lack of motor peeing.) The wind was east-northeast which is a challenge on the river. So they set up the windward mark at the mouth of the Anacostia and a gybe mark half the distance to Roaches run. The wind took big shifts left and right.

Nevertheless, it was a great day to be on the water and the sailors got five O-2 races (triangle, windward-leeward). The Lightnings had a hard carrying their spinnaker on the reaching legs depending on the phase of the wind but the Albacores got in some reaching fun.

Albacore-FS2

Laser-FS2

Lightning-FS2

Albacores, Lasers, Fall Series, Buccaneers, Inland-20s, Lightnings, News, Results

2024 Fall Series #1 – Sept 8

2024-09-10 Nabeel

Mike Heinsdorf, Dave Huber, Tim Dickson, and John Van Voorhis ran the races.

11 Albacores, 1 Buccaneer, 3 I-20s, 2 Lasers, and 4 Lightnings competed. All 5 fleets were able to compete in the first 3 races, after we started the 4^th race for the Albacores the wind died so we opted to send the rest of the fleets home. The early high winds were a bit too much for the I-20s.

The first 2 races were W2, the last 2 races were W1.

Albacores, Lasers, Buccaneers, Inland-20s, Flying Scots, Lightnings, Lasers, Announcements, News

DISC Three Bridges Fiasco on Saturday, July 13!

2024-07-10 Aaron

Greetings all,

We’ve got 5 dinghies registered for the DISC 3 Bridges Fiasco race this Saturday. Who else is interested? If you need crew, or are looking to crew, don’t forget about the “Crew Connection” (link on our PRSA Homepage). Fleet Captains: please forward this reminder to your Fleet listservs. This is a really fun race and the weather forecast for Saturday looks promising.

The NOR and the registration link are both posted at https://discsailing.org/ (scroll down a bit to the “Upcoming Events/Registration” area. The SIs will be posted soon.

I’m also including here some informaton from DISC Commodore PEte Fanta, who will also run the RC on Saturday. From Pete:

“I will be the RC for the Three Bridges this weekend. The RC boat will be the Georgetown Sailing Team Boat. My intention is to follow in the powerboat, as best as possible, the majority of boats around the course to render assistance as needed.
The start times will be set using Portsmouth Handicaps on a Pursuit Race. This means the slowest boat will start first and can sail the course designated in either direction, as long as they round the correct marks. The fastest boat will start last. When we do this with only the PHRF boats, there can be as much as a 15 minute gap between first starter and last starter. The boat finishing first across the line after sailing the course…wins. The appropriate ratings are taken into account by the start times. This method allows us to sail a Laser against an Albacore, against a Flying Scot, against an S2 7.9. I understand that in some conditions certain boats are hard to beat, but that is the nature of handicap racing.
SIs will be posted soon.”

I hope to see you out on the water on Saturday!

Cheers,

Aaron

Potomac River Sailing Association