Category Archives: Fleets

PRSA Fleets

Frostbite, Lasers, Lasers, Results

2022-2023 Laser Frostbite #4

After 3  weeks of no sailing for various weather states, we finally got a nice Sunday to sail.  It was sunny with temps in the mid 40s.  And the weather brought a great showing of sailors with 21 boats coming to sail.

Sadly the wind did not get the memo for the day.  It was very challenging for both Race Committee and the racers.  Nabeel and Kevin did an excellent job trying to keep up with the wind.  We were able to get 5 races in.  We had 2 races with shortened courses and 3 course adjustments.  The wind was quite shifty with a lot of velocity changes.  We had a few points where there was full hiking conditions and several where we were drifting.  But all in all it was nice to be out on the water.

As far as sailing, I think we all need to ask Laura for the tips as she was the post consistent sailor out there.  But I found that moving forward of the cockpit in the light wind and then moving back as it came back up I moved back to a normal position.  With all the velocity shifts, I found that I was playing the cunningham more than usual to try and keep the sail looking full and not overly tight at the luff.  Other than that it was mostly just the usual things, get a good start, find clear air on the downwinds, and stay patient in the lulls.

It was great to see the turnout and I look forward to seeing everyone out next weekend!

2022 Frostbite Series #4 Results

Frostbite, Lasers, Fleets, Lasers

2022 Laser Frostbite First Weeks Update

Well Sailors, after 3 weekends in a row of cancelling, we hope to finally get out and race this coming weekend.

Frostbite Series 1 (Nov 13) was too windy.  Two souls made it to the race course with several capsizing on the way and others waiting on shore.

Frostbite Series 2 (Nov 20) was also windy.  And the high of 38 gave us January Frostbiting weather in November.  And with a lot of wind for the weekend and low tide, there was not much water in the river. Three brave souls showed up to try and race but ultimately pulled the plug.

Frostbite Series 3 (Nov 27) was rainy and a strange forecast of 9 gusting to 33 with a small craft advisory.  6 sailors showed up but only two were gung ho to go out and ultimately we decided that it was not worth punishing the race committee for two of us to go sailing.

Next weekend is a new day and hopefully we will get out and finally do a few races!

Lightnings

Leesylvania Volunteers

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Eleven Fleet 50 sailors and friends met at Leesylvania State Park last Saturday and spent an easy couple of hours working  and chatting while we worked.

It was really good to see Bob Gotthardt back and looking strong after his health event last year.

Jim and Bob used the small amount of available paint to freshen up the kitchen in the pavilion.  The rest of us traded off the four available rakes to clean the camping area next to the pavilion of gum balls.

In return, the park gives us the pavilion to use free of charge for our regatta (normally $700).

Lightnings

Spring Series So Far

This spring started off with two very heavy wind days, followed by a near zero wind day, and finally a moderate wind day.   Below are the cumulative results so far.

Next weekend is the Potomac Cup and then four more Spring Series  Sundays and the PRSA Spring Regatta on the river.   Nearby on the bay we have the Dixie Districts/No Gas.   Lots of sailing opportunities before the hot summer settles in on us.  Plan to get out as much as you can.  You won’t regret it.

2022 Lightning Cumulative

Albacores

2022 AGM and Awards Update

On April 9th the fleet had an AGM and BBQ at the Washington Sailing Marina,  Despite cooler temperatures it was a nice day and picnic.  Eva Hogan was voted in as the new Fleet Captain and awards were presented!

2021 Awards:
Fleet Booster Award – Bob Bear
Freshman Booster Award – Tyler Phillips
Most Improved B Skipper Award – Eva Hogan
Jib Tender Award (Best Crew) – Kaitlyn Lucey, for getting Dan Miller’s boat out on the water all year and to some away regattas!
Most Abused Crew Award – Barney Harris
Six Deep (Capsize) Award – Nich Allen

 

Lasers

2021-2022 Laser Frostbite Final Cumulative Results

The middle part of the season was cold and on several Sundays there were no races due to ice.   The end of the season was breezy!

59 races in all, so it took 30 races to qualify (half of 59 rounded up) and your best 30 were averaged to calculate your score.

The top three were very tightly packed.  Laura Windecker passed Tom on the last day of racing to win the series.   And Farley tied Tom but won the tie breaker.   Poor Tom doing RC fell from 1st to 3rd.    The top five were rounded out with Brian Joseph in 4th and Jim Klein in 5th.   Congratulations all.

LaserFrostbite2122_thru16

Race 1-59, best 30 averaged

(I say “final” but if you see what might be a mistake let me know.)

Lasers

2021-2022 Laser Frostbite 16 (March 20)

Tom Hutton and Michael Liss ran RC.  It was the last day of the frostbite season.

We had strong winds and six intrepid sailors willing to come out in the small craft warning. The air temp was in the upper 50s as was the water temp making for a warmer day than normal. 4 Radial and 2 full rigs launched and even then we had plenty of capsizes. There were 4 races total, one olympic then the more heavy wind friendly T-1. Short which helps sailors from getting tired during a long race.

— Tom

LaserFrostbite2122_16

(Races 56-59, March 20)

Lasers

2021-2022 Laser Frostbite 15

Steen Byskov and Laura Windecker ran five races!   Olympic courses that took about 30 minutes.

The winds direction was fairly stable from the SW and the strength in the 10 to 20 range.

From the marina, the water appeared to be very very low because  for the previous 24 hours gale force winds were blowing from the northwest AND it was low tide around noon.  Georgetown was hosting a regatta and decided to stay in the cove and run it there. However, once the sailors left the marina it did not appear to be an issue.

Air temps were between 30 and 40 and the water temp had risen to near 50.

Eight sailors went out and had a challenging time.

Yeah, fair bit of capsizing. The attrition we had during the day was typically after capsizes.  Jim (Graham) had two before he quit.  It was already hard work sailing in those conditions, and capsizes really wear you out – we didn’t count how many there were. Tom went to Jim during his second capsize – good to see sailors looking out for each other.
We also had a couple of equipment failures – Tom’s tiller extension broke, and Brian’s mainsheet broke.
— Steen

Steen took pictures! See them here.

LaserFrostbite2122_15

(Races 51-55, March 13)