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.
Category Archives: Lasers
Older category without parent
2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #2
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.
2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #1
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 3rd 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!
2024 Fall Series #8 (Nov 3) & Provisional Series Scores
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)
2024 Fall Series #7 – Oct 27
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.
2024 Fall Series #2 Sept 15
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.
2024 Fall Series #1 – Sept 8
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 4th 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.
DISC Three Bridges Fiasco on Saturday, July 13!
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
PRSA Spring Regatta May 25-26
Registration is open for the PRSA Spring Regatta! Sign up now and help us spread the word about our signature spring event: https://www.nextsailor.com/app/page/regatta/672.
If you are interested in volunteering to help out with some regatta organization, please let Regatta Chair Kaitlyn Lucey know. This is a great chance to get involved with one of our events, learn more about regatta organization and operation, and help out PRSA!
2023 ILCA Frostbite Series #18
Greetings from 3rd place — belatedly, thanks for your patience! — on the last day of the frostbite season (can hardly believe it). Many thanks to Tom and Jim for taking one for our collective team and doing race committee and helping us get in 6 races – glad it was a nice afternoon for you guys! Kudos also to Steen and Farley for taking the top two spots.
But back to Sunday, briefly. It was forecasted to be a dying wind after gale/near-gale conditions and sometimes it was quite light – but the wind generally held up. The current was going out all afternoon and sometimes it felt like it was the main propellant downwind. The wind was fluky – sometimes the left was better, sometimes the right. Mostly, I tried to look for puffs and keep the boat going fast regardless of where my wind indicator was pointing. I also tried to keep tabs on who was where and how they seemed to be doing (but could have done this more, it would likely have helped!).
Finally – don’t forget to sign up for the Capital City Regatta next weekend!!! —> https://nextsailor.com/app/
Laura