Our last Sunday Series race day of the year proved to be just what one could have hoped for. Sunny, breezy, and fun. The Hobie fleet handled the RC work for what at first looked might be a blow out, but turned into one of the nicest days of the Fall series. 3 Albacores and 7 Lightnings braved the forecast and reaped the rewards. Scores after the break:
Tag Archives: Lightning Class
Fall Series #7 10/31/2010 Results
Halloween proved to be a treat this year. Temps in the 60’s and NW winds 10-20. 6 Lightnings, 2, Albacores, 2 Buccaneers, and 1 Hobie were all we could muster for this beautiful fall Sunday. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?????? Sigh… Anyway, RC was ably manned by Erich Hesse and the Albacores, who got 4 races in for the lucky people who came out to sail. Scores after the break:
Fall Series #6 10/24/2010 Results
What a beautiful day to be on the water. Temps were in the 70’s, winds from the south @ 8-12. They just don’t get any better than that. Rick Welch was the PRO for the day and he and his able crew of Lightning and Buccaneer RC did an outstanding job. they set up a really nice windward/leeward course off of Haines Point, and snapped out 4 nice races with little to no down time in between them. Well done guys (and gals). The most notable thing on the day was the awesome turnout of Albacores. 9! count ’em 9 Albs came out to play. The Stim-you-later certainly did his job. Also in attendance were 2 Cats and 5 Lightnings for this great day of sailing. Scores after the break:
Fall Series #5 10/17/2010 Results
2 Albacores, 3 Buccaneers, 3 Cats, and 6 Lightnings went out to play on Sunday 10/17/2010. I was not out there, so i can’t give a complete description of the day, but it must have been fast and furious as the Lightnings got in 6 races, and everyone else got in 5 before calling it a day. Scores after the break:
Falls Series #4 10/10/2010 Results
The water was looking pretty glassy when we got to the marina on Sunday. “Oh say it isn’t so” I thought to myself, the weather was beautiful, but there was not a breath of air to be found. Ever the optimists we all got our boats ready and splashed in anticipation of a little breeze. Yates, our intrepid PRO, decided to postpone on land and see what developed. 8 Lightnings and 1 Albacore sat bobbing around tied up to the dock while we waited. Around 11:15 or so we noticed a little southerly coming up. The RC (Ably manned by the Hobie fleet) went out to the river to investigate. Yes, a southerly was indeed making its way up the river, so in high hopes we set off for the race course. Most of the boats took the tow that the RC was offering. Team Ariel and a couple other boats, however, decided to sail up. Interestingly we all got to the race course at about the same time. RC wasted no time setting up a nice WL course and got us going. The breeze steadily built, and by the time we were finished for the day got up to 13kts or so. Wow, what a great day. We ended up getting 4 races in, with some of the best conditions of the year. Just proves the old adage: Good things come to those that wait. Special kudos go to Yates and the Hobie fleet for a job well done. Scores after the break:
Fall Series #3 – 10/03/2010 Results
We had a great day on the water October 3. Winds were from the ENE and ranged from 8-13 or so. Albacores, Bucc’s, Hobies, and Lightnings all came out to play on this beautiful, if cloudy, Fall day. PRO Robert Bennet set up a great course in the mouth of the Anacostia and got 4 nice races in before calling it quits. Scores after the break:
Fall Series #2 – 09/26/2010 Results
OK, I know these have been a long time coming, so I thought I should explain how the scoring works and why it is taking a long time to post them this Fall. The PRO is supposed to pass them off to me each week. that is fine except when I am not there, as I was not on September 26. I emailed the PRO looking for scores, but did not get them until the following weekend. I then had to track down several instances of people sailing who are not registered. The PRO’s have been getting sloppy about signing competitors in and getting skipper names for me. This week for the Albacores, it was Bob Wilbur sailing Saaskia Mooneys boat, and the Bucs who have been swapping sail #’s and having guest skippers who caused the problems, and the Cats who have about 4 different people who will sometimes sail with the same sail #. I also have the issue of needing to know when a Lightning is sailing short crew, something that happens regularly and affects their scoring. All in all, it is very confusing for your humble scorer. So, long story short, it took far too long to sort out who was who, and to get the scores to come out correctly. I have finally got something I feel confident in and can post, so without further ado, here are week 2’s scores:
Fall Series #1, 09/19/2010 Results
It just goes to show you, never believe the weather man! Sunday morning the forecast was dismal: Sunny, Hot, winds from nowhere @ 0-2. Sheesh! Its no wonder a lot of people voted with their feet and stayed home. What a mistake that turned out to be. The reality? Sunny, Warm, winds South @ 8-11!! It just doesn’t get much better than that. 5 Lightnings, 3 Albacores, and 3 Cats came out to play and got the best racing of the fall so far. Jeff Storck (PRO), aided by Bruce Heida, Becky Mach, Maryann Gallagher, Will Philippe, Chris McGraw and Judy Schramm set up a nice Windward Leeward course off the airport that they slowly lengthened as the breeze strengthened. While the Albs, and Cats went home after 3 races, the Lightnings stayed out for a fourth. That fourth race proved to be a challenge in the strong current and fading breeze. Jeff shortened it to 3 legs, and sent them home from the windward mark. A great day! Scores after the break:
Presidents / Leukemia Cup Results
There is an old Arab curse that goes something like: “May you live in interesting times”. That said, we certainly had an “interesting” weekend for this years Presidents Cup. Saturday, was sunny and beautiful. Perfect in every way except the most important: There was no wind. Rolf Zeisler, our able PRO, managed to get 2 races off in drifty conditions with little more than thermals coming from various directions. The Lightnings were almost time limited out in the first race when the Rc quickly set up a finish line at the Reach? Windward? Leeward? Mark, and finished us with no time to spare. Race #2 was even worse. Oh well. There is always tomorrow, and with rain in the forecast there was bound to be some breeze. Sunday morning brought the rain, but not much in the way of breeze. We got 3 races in before calling it a day. The first 2 races were much like Saturdays efforts. The 3rd race, however, was a fun one. A nice north westerly finally came in and made all of us who had suffered through 2 days of mostly painful drifting glad we had stuck it out. This was the best sailing of the weekend and a good time was finally had by all. Lets all pray that we don’t get any more “interesting” days like the bulk of this past weekend. Scores after the break:
Video of The Week: Russ Roberts racing his Lightning single handed
Any sailor will tell you, that sailing single handed is a particular skill, sailing single handed while flying the Spinnaker is really something, but RACING single handed is the thing that separates the men from the boys. On May 2, 2010 a Russ Roberts did just that. In a fleet of 25 Lightnings, he took them all on by himself. You go dude!