The 2011 Albacore Class promotional video is up! Darren Monster, the wood boat in the video, from Canada did a phenomenal job putting it all together. Check out the video here (YouTube link): 2012 Albacore Promo Video and the Albacore Class website here: www.albacore.org.
Category Archives: News
Fall Series #7: Another spectacular day of racing!
Fall Series #7 was another great day on the river, with 4 races and a good turnout all around. It was predominantly a Lightning affair, with 10 boats showing up to race. A couple of Bucs and Albacors also came out to play, and with all fleets starting together we had a lively starting line and good racing all day long. I’ve included my observations from the Lightning perspective below. Keep reading for all of the details and, as always, be sure to contribute your own comments and recollections!
Continue reading Fall Series #7: Another spectacular day of racing!
Fall Series #6: A bit chilly, but some great racing!
I think that the last thing that folks thought as they watched the snow swirl down last Saturday was that we’d get in 5 races under a sunny blue sky and in temps that were much milder than the frostbiting conditions we all expected! As it turns out, Fall Series #6 ended up being another fantastic day of sailing as PRO Ron Buchanan and his RC got us 5 races and then had us back on shore in time to enjoy some cold beers and hot dogs around the grill. Read all about the racing below – hopefully the writeup will spark your appetite for some great racing in Fall Series #7! Also, be sure to post your own comments and recollections, especially if you were one of the Albacores or Buccaneers that came out on Sunday!
Continue reading Fall Series #6: A bit chilly, but some great racing!
Fall Series #5: If you went home early, you missed some great sailing!
I’ll admit, I was the first to think that we’d never sail on Sunday. Having seen the forecast, the glassy calm river on my drive along the GW Parkway, and the somber faces at the marina, it seemed clear that we’d postpone a bit, then end up grilling and going home. Well, let me just say that if you went home early, you missed some of the best racing that we had all season. The wind filled in around noon, we headed out to the river, and Mike Heinsdorf and his RC did a great job of getting us 3 excellent races!
I’ve included here a wrap up of the days racing (which proved to be quite challenging and exciting) from Jeff Storck in the Lightning fleet. Jeff, Becky, and Bruce on Team Ariel won the day with two seconds and a spectacular bullet in the second race, and Jeff has sent along an excellent writeup of his “view from the front” – a view that he enjoyed far more than most of us on Sunday! I highly recommend that you click the “continue reading” link below to read Jeff’s reflections on Sunday’s racing; as always, I’ve learned something from Jeff’s account of the racing, and I’m sure that you will as well. It’d be great to hear from anybody else that was out on the river, as we did have a couple of Albacores, a Buc, and a handful of Hobies out racing as well.
Continue reading Fall Series #5: If you went home early, you missed some great sailing!
Fall Series #4 Wrap-Up
The PRSA Fall Series #4 was primarily a Lightning class affair, with 5 boats coming out to race and 2 taking care of RC duties (and another 7 representing Fleet 50 up in Annapolis at the Frigid Digit regatta). For the second weekend in a row we had great conditions for racing, with a 12-15 knot SW breeze that allowed PRO Frank Gallagher and his RC to get us four races. Jeff Neurater came out to represent the Buccaneer fleet, Mike Heinsdorf was out in his Albacore, and a trio of Hobie Cats also came out to play.
Keep reading for some more details from Sunday’s Fall Series #4 (from my vantage point in the Lightning fleet), and be sure to post your own comments and observations from the day (just click the little “speech bubble” next to the title of this post, above). You can also scroll down a bit to see a separate post with details from the action up in Annapolis at the Frigid Digit.
Fall Series #3 Wrap-Up: We Had Breeze!
For the first time since the President’s/Leukemia cup we had very good breeze for our racing! The steady NW breeze (which had a lot of left shift in it at times) gave us great conditions, and PRO Jim Graham and his RC did a fantastic job in getting us three races. Eight Lightnings, six Albacores, two Buccaneers, a Laser, and a Hobie came out to play and after a solid day of racing we all enjoyed a great BBQ (thanks to Red and Susan for bringing burgers!) in the picnic area afterwards. Carrie Quinn took some amazing photos from the day, and I’ve posted some of my observations below from the Lightning fleet below. Keep reading for more details from the day’s racing, and make sure to post a comment with your own thoughts, recollections, and tall tales from the day — especially if you were in one of the other fleets!
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.
President’s/Leukemia Cup Photos!
Follow this link for some excellent photos of the racing taken by Carl Schaefer during the 77th Annual President’s/Leukemia Cup. Many thanks to Carl for volunteering his time, as well as to Whit Overstreet from Potomac Riverkeeper for the use of their boat as a photograph platform during the regatta.
If you wish to use these pix for marketing, for posting online, or for any other commercial purpose other than for private viewing, please contact Carl (cgschaefer@gmail.com). At a minimum, picture credit should be attributed to Carl G. Schaefer, Jr, Copyright 2011.
Fall Series #2 Wrap-Up
Greetings PRSA Sailors! As many of you know, I’ve been writing reports from our spring/fall series racing for the Lightning fleet over the past year. We’re going to start posting these write-ups here as well, in the hopes of starting a conversation among all the fleets and sailors out for our regular races. I’ll do my best to capture what I see on the racecourse each Sunday, but here is where we need your help: if you are sailing in one of the other fleets, go ahead and post a comment with your own experiences from the racing (just click the little “no comment” link above the post to add a comment). We definitely want to hear from you, and we hope to start a pattern of weekly postings and emails (via our listservs) that recount the day’s racing and generate some enthusiasm for the next event. So read on to hear about Fall Series #2, but more importantly, feel free to chime in with your own voice!
The PRSA Fall Series #2 was another day of tricky river sailing. Light and variable NE winds combined with a strong current and stiff tidal flow made for challenging strategic and tactical decisions. If you went south to get a patch of breeze, you then had to fight your way back north against the current to get to a mark. If you sailed to far into the NE corner under Hains Point you found yourself being pushed down the river with no breeze to power you across the way to the leeward mark. As with any given Sunday, there was an element of chance involved…but in talking to folks afterwards, it became clear that the boats that did well also made good decisions–most notably, in “connecting the dots” between patches of breeze. Overall, we were thrilled to see Chris Kozel and his team (Palmer Phillips and Chris Lewton) win their first race in Lightning Fleet 50 on Sunday–congratulations Chris! It was also great to see a few new faces out on various boats, and to welcome back some folks that we hadn’t seen in a bit. Keep reading for a detailed wrap-up of the day’s racing and post-race fun, and be sure to post your own comments and stories from the weekend here!
Fall Series #2
As we conducted the Skipper’s Meeting there was no noticable wind on the river, so we discussed the merits of delaying on shore or towing boats out to the race course. Ultimately, the Lightnings decided to take a tow and the Hobies and Albacores otped to wait for the wind to fill in. As we arrived at the upper race course, the wind filled in right on schedule. The race committee quickly set a course and sent the Lightnings around the course as the wind fluctuated between 2 and 5 knots. As the Lightnings sailed around the race course, the Hobies and Albacores worked their way out the race course. As soon as they arrived, the RC started them. The light winds hung around long enough to get two races off and then everyone went back to shore for some well deserved beverages and grilling.