Category Archives: News

Announcements, News

PRSA AGM & Awards Ceremony Wrap-Up

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We had over 50 people attend the 2015 PRSA Annual General Meeting and Awards Ceremony, making it one of the best attended in recent years!  I want to extend a very special thank you to Melissa Morgan and Heather Howard for all of their work in planning the AGM, organizing the food and drink, decorating the room, and generally ensuring good cheer such that a great time was had by all.

The PRSA Executive Committee was pleased to highlight  our growth over the year, including a 4th consecutive year of membership growth, the best attendance at the PRSA President’s Cup Regatta and Spring Regatta in the last 5 years, and more.  We were also pleased to recognize Lee Sayasithsensa, Rolf & Sue Zeisler, Lisa-Marie Lane, Stew Harris, and Lindsay Bach with PRSA awards.  You can keep reading for additional details and links to the relevant documents, including the AGM Agenda, the list of PRSA Spring and Fall Series winners, details on the perpetual award winners, and your 2016 PRSA Executive Committee.

Continue reading PRSA AGM & Awards Ceremony Wrap-Up →

Fall Series, News, Results, 2015

2015 Fall Series #8

Today was a gorgeous day for the last day of the season.  We had a nice southerly ranging from 8-12.  The breeze was relatively steady.  We were able to get off 4 races each around 40 min log.

2015 Fall Series 8 – Albacores

2015 Fall Series 8 – Buccaneers

2015 Fall Series 8 – I20s

2015 Fall Series 8 – Lightnings

2015 Fall Series 8 – Multihulls

Fall Series, News, Results, 2015

2015 Fall Series #7

Sunday was a tough day sailing.  The sail out to the course was nice with the exception of the super low tide.  Just prior to the first race starting, the wind shut off and gave a drifting race where we sailed the various wind lines that would come through the course.  After the first race, we drifted for a bit and it looked like the wind was going to fill in.  The wind only held for the first leg of the race.  Then it was a battle of finding the micro puffs that could not be seen on the water and fighting the incoming tide.  It was probably the most tidal current going up the river I have seen.  Thanks to Jeff for managing to get off 2 races.

2015 Fall Series 7 – Albacores

2015 Fall Series 7 – Lightnings

2015 Fall Series 7 – Multihulls

News, Results

2015 PRSA Fall Series #6

What a fantastic day for some fall sailing!  It was a bit blustery when we headed out, but weird westerly that dominated the first race faded and the breeze then settled in for another couple of races in a 8-10 kt southerly.  In addition to the usual Lightnings, Buccaneers, and Albacores it was great to see 6 Lasers come out to race as well as 4 I-20 scows!  We even had a number of people dressed to celebrate Halloween!  Congrats to Will Summers for winning our impromptu costume contest.

PRO Jim Antonivich and his crew did a good job in getting us some nice long races on the south course near the power plant (something new!) and we were back on shore in time to enjoy a nice BBQ after the racing as the sunlight faded.  Since I was double-handing with John I didn’t have a ton of time to look around.  The first race was a bit funky, with all sorts of shifts and swirls as the W/SW breeze that was there in the morning tried to figure out what it was going to do.  The RC sent us on an O3 (!) and we managed to lead two of those three laps, only to be passed by Nabeel on the last full upwind leg.  Once we got ourselves sorted out, though, we were able to hold with the rest of the pack, even downwind (John did a great job flying the spinnaker and working us through some perfect jibes as I drove).  The 2nd and 3rd races – both O2 courses – saw some ups and downs in pressure but not too many shifts.  The line was a bit boat favored in both of those races, and I managed to put us over early in each one of them so we were playing catch up quite a bit.  The left (east) side of the course seemed to have more pressure as it was away from the shadow of the Alexandria shoreline, and that generally paid even as the current and tidal outflow became more of a factor later in the day.  In the Lightning class Nabeel won two races, Frank won the last one, and on 14592 we were consistently in 2nd all day long.  I’d welcome any additional thoughts and observations from other boats!

2015 Fall Series 6 – Albacores

2015 Fall Series 6 – Buccaneers

2015 Fall Series 6 – I20s

2015 Fall Series 6 – Lasers

2015 Fall Series 6 – Lightnings

Announcements, News

PRSA Photo Contest

PRSA is once again partnering with CalendarLink (http://www.calendarlink.org/prsa/home.html) to produce a 2016 tide calendar.  These calendars show the actual tides predicted for the Potomac River at Washington National Airport on the Potomac River!  

This year we are having a photo contest to select photos to include in the calendar.  All PRSA members are encouraged to enter their very best photo.  Each PRSA member may submit one photo for consideration.  The winning photo will become the cover photo for the calendar and the winner will receive a FREE 2016 PRSA Calendar. 

 Here are the requirements for calendar photo submissions:

  • Photos must be horizontal images from digital cameras. 
  • Photos must be a minimum of 300 DPI width of 10.3 inches, height 8 inches or 3100 x 2400 pixels or a 1.3 to 1 ratio.
  • Photos may be submitted in JPEG, GIF, or PNG format.
  • Photos need not be from the current calendar year.

So get out there and start taking pictures!  Then, figure out which one is your best picture and enter it into the contest.  Email your photo to Jeff Neurauter (jmnsailor@yahoo.com) no later than November 1, 2015. 

News, Results, 2015

President’s Cup Results

We had a fantastic turnout for the 2015 PRSA President’s Cup Regatta: 58 boats, over 130 sailors, and nearly 30 people on the Sunday spectator cruise aboard the American Spirit!  Final results are posted here and a more detailed writeup of the action along with links to photos will be coming soon.

A huge thank-you to all of the volunteers that made the event possible, including Lee for all of her hard work with providing food for so many sailors, Jim for beverage duty, Lisa-Marie for registration and merchandise management, Nabeel for managing equipment and scoring, and not least our fantastic Race Committee volunteers (Farley as PRO on the lower course, and Rolf Zeisler and his crew on the upper course).  Thank you all around–we couldn’t have hosted such a fantastic regatta without you!

SI's & NOR's, News

Fall Sailing Starts Sunday!

The PRSA Fall Series starts this Sunday!  Now is the time to make sure that you have your crew organized, that you have paid your PRSA dues, and that you have signed up for (or already fulfilled) your PRSA race committee obligations.  Remember to review the Sunday Series NOR and Sailing Instructions as well.  I look forward to seeing you on the water on Sunday!

Announcements, News

Important Fall Schedule Information

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I’m writing with a couple of important announcements about our fall racing schedule:

  1. We need to staff our Race Committee for the fall!  Please Sign up now if you have not already done so.
  2. We have decided to move the President’s Cup to Sept. 19-20 (a weekend different than the LLS Fundraiser).   More details are provided below.
  3. The PRSA Dinghy Open is back by popular demand, and will be held on October 4.

I’ve posted more details on these important changes below.  Please don’t hesitate to contact your Executive Board if you have any questions.

Continue reading Important Fall Schedule Information →