We are just over a week away from the start of our Spring Sailing Season. Take a moment now to make sure you are ready for the season by doing the following:
If you take care of these things now, you’re all set to enjoy the season. See you on the water soon!
Looking for for the perfect holiday gift for all of your sailing friends? Look no farther than our PRSA Merchandise Page! Just click the “PRSA Merchandise” link above to view the offerings. We have PRSA hats, tech-tops (men’s and women’s), mugs, and tide calendars available. We should be adding long-sleeve polo shirts soon as well. Place your orders now!
It was great to see so many fleet members at the 2014 PRSA Annual General Meeting and Awards Banquet! A very special thanks to Lee for all of the work that she did in preparing our amazing feast, and to Dave for allowing us to use the Potomac Room at Marina Towers for the event.
The Executive Board report indicated that the state of the Association is good, with membership higher in all categories than in 2013. At the same time, we need to do more work in getting our members out on the water (sailing participation in the fall series was down a bit, in particular) and we need to start thinking about the powerboats and engines as we approach 10 years of usage on our skiffs and outboards. The PRSA Executive Board will consider these questions as part of their regular meetings in 2015 and report back to the Association at the 2015 AGM and Awards Banquet.
Please join me in congratulating the recipients of our PRSA Perpetual Awards as well as the volunteers who will serve on the PRSA Executive Board in 2015. I’ve listed these individuals below, and included links farther down to the AGM agenda and the summary of race highlights for each fleet in our major sailing events.
2015 PRSA Perpetual Award Winners
2015 PRSA Executive Board
It was already blowing in the 10-15 range when we arrived at the marina on Sunday, and the forecast was for the wind to build towards 20 mph steady with gusts predicted up to 30. That forecast may have kept some teams away, but 4 Lightnings, a Buc, and a Laser did splash their boats and the Hobie Cat RC crew led by Yates agreed to set up shorter courses (they had little choice with a WNW wind) and keep a close eye on everybody. The wind did continue to build as we sailed up to the race course, and we definitely saw some gusts in the 20s in the first race according to the handheld wind readings taken aboard the signal boat. One Lightning retired before the racing started, another (sailing doublehanded) retired after the first race, and the remaining two called it a day after the second race, choosing to sail home rather than keep match racing and possibly breaking something. We saw some even bigger gusts and some fantastic rides on a plane on the sail back to the marina and everybody enjoyed some hot dogs and drinks after we dried out our boats (and selves).
We are moving our email list from Yahoo! over to Google Groups. This is our new group:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/potomacriversailing
If you’d like stay on the email list, please click on the link above to send us a join request (assuming you have not already been sent an invitation or subscribed). To send an email the new list, simply send a message to potomacriversailing@googlegroups.com.
We hope to see you on the new list!
The 2014 PRSA Annual General Meeting and Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 15, 7-9 pm, in the party room at Marina Towers. Dinner will cost $20 per person (pay at the door) and will feature beef roast, chicken, vegetable dishes, sides, and assorted beverages. This is always a great chance to see everybody and reminisce about another year of great sailing, so I hope to see you there! Please sign up here to let us know whether you will be attending.
2014 PRSA AGM & Awards Banquet Agenda
Directions: From the Washington Sailing Marina, go south on GW parkway towards Alexandria. Stay to the right and take the Slaters Lane exit. (It is the first exit you come to). Turn left onto Slaters Lane from the ramp. This will take you across the parkway. Go through the intersection and past the first buildings and look for the high rise on the left. That is the building. It is only five minutes from the marina. When you arrive, please go to the front desk, sign in and ask where the PRSA Party is. They will direct you to the party room.
There sure wasn’t much wind when we showed up at the marina on Sunday…and there was far less wind (read: none!) as we towed boats up to the racing area. Thankfully for the eight Albacores, four Lightnings, and the lone Buc came out to play the breeze did fill in as forecast such that we were able to get 3 races after a bit of a delay. I was PRO for the day, assisted by Lee, Lisa-Marie, and Jim (great job crew!). You can keep reading for some of the details that I observed on the signal boat. Jim and Lisa-Marie Lane took some great photos of the racing (thanks!!!).
We held our first annual PRSA One Design Open Regatta on Sunday, September 14, to kick off the fall season. This was a chance to see how we all performed boat-on-boat against sailors in all of the other classes. Fifteen boats came out, and we had a collection of Flying Scots, Buccanneers, Albacores, Multihulls, Lightnings, and even a Sunfish on the starting line! We were scored using the Portsmouth Yardstick system, and PRO Jeff Neurauter did a great job taking times, scoring, and getting us some great races in fluky winds.
Congratulations to Barney & Lee for taking first place overall, and to Rick, Lisbet, and Aaron for 2nd place overall. Click here to view some great photos from Lindsay Bach (thanks Lindsday!).
On September 14 PRSA will host the first annual PRSA Dinghy Open Regatta. This is your chance to compete against all dinghy classes in a series of “boat-on-boat” races, so don’t miss out!
Sailboats of any class 20’ and under are invited to participate. Sailboats may be organized and compete in three divisions – Spinnaker Division, Non-spinnaker Division and Multi-hull Division. Based on the number of boats present at the Skipper’s Meeting, Divisions may be combined. All races will be scored according to the Portsmouth Yardstick system.
The NOR and Sailing Instructions are posted below. Questions should be directed to the Regatta Chair, Jeff Neurauter (703-350-9666, jmnsailor@yahoo.com).
The 2014 President’s Cup Regatta will be held September 6-7 at Washington Sailing Marina. The NOR, Sailing Instructions, and other details have been posted to the regatta webpage. Please take a minute to read through these details and sign up on the “Who’s Coming?” list so that we know who will be attending and so that we can generate some momentum for the regatta.
Please note that there are a couple of important changes for the 2014 regatta: