Category Archives: News

Thoughts from Lightning Class Presidents Cup Winner – Frank Gallagher

Want to know how Frank and his team did it? Read on:

We went out the two previous wed night sailings and got in some good practice…especially mark rounding’s with spin up/down..(windward and leeward)…lots of spin jibing…we found ourselves not doing well jibing on deck…so after lots of failed attempts with inside the boat jibes, we finally developed a process that worked well for us… Crew rotation practice…..both Brenna and Mladen do foredeck or middle, so when something goes wrong during the race, both are aware of what’s wrong and how to fix it…(Brenna made a great save when our spin sheet went under the boat during one take down….could have been a catastrophic foul-up…..!!!) We cleaned the boat real well sat morning…got out a little early and got a little practice in…. As for the race itself…nothing too special…we were lucky…but prepared and ready to take advantage of all opportunities on the course We checked the line before the starts…decided where we wanted to start and got mostly good starts and just work our way upwind. There were lots of shifts to play and that helped us catch up several times…..Mladen is foredeck and always looking forward for windshifts, pressure and what other boats are doing…Brenna is middle and looking around beside and behind us for other boats, there angles and speed…

We live by 3 rules in this order……

1…always drive the fastest path to the next mark…(be on the favored tack..)find pressure

2….always trim all sails for max speed….lots of gear changing..ease in light stuff…trim as pressure builds..centerline boom…constantly adjust the spin…always on the edge of a luff….

3….boat balance…fair amount of heal in real light stuff…dead flat in the heavy stuff….anticipate…don’t react…lots of heal to round the leeward mark in light to medium…
And oh yeah….avoid conflict..no boat banging..or killer mistakes like OCS or protests…

And above all we have fun as a team.

Frank

2009 Leukemia/President’s Cup Results are Posted!

We had two of the most excellent back-to-back sailing days in recent memory for the 2009 Leukemia/President’s cup regatta.  Thanks to PROs Mike Heinsdorf on the upper course and Jennifer Parrow on the lower course, and their Ace Race Committee members, we got off 6 races in good succession on the upper course and 4 to 6 races on the lower course and got everybody back to the docks in time for the Saturday party and Sunday after-race Picnic. 

 Photos by Cheryl Taylor are here.

Continue reading 2009 Leukemia/President’s Cup Results are Posted!

3rd Annual Santa Sail

This in from Keith Strasser:Santa Sail in Baltimore

For the past three years a PRSA member, found a way to promote our sport and help others. attached here are the two flyers from this year and below is a cut out from the write up in the Baltimore Sun. Every event each year all sailors are invited. It started as a Hobie Cat ride but that is not set in stone. If you search our PRSA Yahoo Group message you can find the PDF on the 1st year and 2nd year just for reference.

  Continue reading 3rd Annual Santa Sail

Barney Harris with crew David Byron come in second at the Albacore UK Nationals

Congratulations Barn to you and David for representing PRSA and placing second place in a tie breaker in a 50 boat fleet at the UK Albacore nationals in Scotland.All of us wish you victory in the Internationals that continue the rest of the week. Go get ’em Team Spot !!   THE NUDGE

Khin Thein sailing with his son Thant come in 23rd in 50 boat fleet.

Go here to see all the scores: http://scottishsailinginstitute.com/ssi_results.asp?eventID=80