This spring started off with two very heavy wind days, followed by a near zero wind day, and finally a moderate wind day. Below are the cumulative results so far.
Next weekend is the Potomac Cup and then four more Spring Series Sundays and the PRSA Spring Regatta on the river. Nearby on the bay we have the Dixie Districts/No Gas. Lots of sailing opportunities before the hot summer settles in on us. Plan to get out as much as you can. You won’t regret it.
John Van Voorhis ran the races with Jim Greenly on the signal boat and Tim O’Brien and Pam Maple on the mark boat.
John reports “Nice south breeze as we set up switched to SSE. Edited first start and then to ESE for second start. ”
John sent us home at the end of the third race as the western sky was looking ominous. That front sucked up all the wind as the sailors made for home. Paddles came out on some boats. Then a gentle rain helped the sailors clean their boats before putting them away. 🙂
Congrats to the I-20 fleet for fielding five boats, their largest start to date.
It was a very very light wind day. Nevertheless, the cranes were working and the water temp was up to 60 degrees so 16 boats launched and with the help of the flooding tide slowly made their way up the river.
The winds were forecast to be light and from the NW and eventually clocking to the east and picking up. But they were not. Any puff of wind that was came from the WNW.
The RC decided to spare the sailors trying to get all the way to Haines Point where the winds were no better, and set up a course on the other side of the airport landing pier. That despite only four feet of depth but with the hope that as the tide continued to flood the depth would get better.
The first race was declared a W-2 but the RC decided to shorten at the leeward mark with the hope the wind was going to clock to the north. The RC reset for a more northerly wind but, alas, it came back to the WNW. So race 2 was a port tack start and a reach-reach course. Oh well. The RC was still hoping for that north wind to fill in for a third race, but it was not to be and the sailors were sent home around 2:30.
RC was Nabeel Alsalam, John Hart, and Henry Rood on the 19 and Michael Bors and Peter Pietra on the 17.
It was a cloudy chilly day with air temps in the 50s. That, cranes that don’t work, a small craft advisory (winds in the teens with gusts up into the 20s), and a scary email about the dangers of falling into cold water (about 52F) kept sailors away.
Nevertheless, Stew Harris, Barney Harris and a team of I-20 sailors took the two skiff out and set up Olympic courses for the two Lightnings, one Albacore, and one Laser. We all started together. The Lightnings did not fly their spinnakers.
The wind was a combination of a westly off of the airport and a northerly. In race 2, Frank Gallagher in Lightning “Resistance Is Futile” couldn’t make the pin and so was very late starting but nonetheless got to the windward mark first because he worked those two winds well.
Barney followed us around and took video with commentary about our sail trim. That will be posted soon for your education and amusement.
Tyler Philips and Laura Windecker in Albacore “Free Ride” had a classic capsize to windward at the gybe mark in race 3 as they were bearing off for the gybe and were hit by a puff. I think they should have delayed their gybe until the boat was up to speed in the puff. But, hey, Monday morning quarterbacking is easy (and fun).
We are using the 3-minute sequences and with higher winds and flapping sails it is easy to miss the sound signals, So I used my watch as backup.
The results aren’t very interesting with only 1 Albacore and 1 Laser so I won’t post just yet.
Lightning Fleet 50 invites you to the 36th Annual Doc Gilbert Potomac Cup Regatta, May 7-8, 2021 on the famous Potomac River at Leesylvania State Park, just outside of Washington DC, where the Potomac is 3 miles wide!
Both Lightnings and I-20s are invited.
NOR, current registrants, and registration at: https://www.regattanetwork.com/event/24462
Questions? Contact the regatta chair, Nabeel Alsalam, at nabeel.alsalam@gmail.com.
The day started off with no wind, but at 1100 it started to build and built quickly. By the time of the first start at 1130, it was in the upper teens and gusting into the upper 20s.
Jim and Susan Graham were on the signal boat and Dan Miller and Kailyn Lucey were on the mark boat. They gave us one T-2 race and we all decided that was enough and sailed home.
Only four boat made it to the start area. I was on a Lightning and we had the vang, cunningham, and backstay on very hard to flatten the sails and the traveller down (like easing he main without letting the boom rise). The jib lead was back to open up the top of the sail and keep the bottom flat. And we still had to ease both sails to keep the boat flat.
On the reaches when a puff hit, we’d plane and the bow sprayed water like we were on a Laser and Farley on an Albacore did the same but more often. Our GPS’s recorded a top speed of 12.6 mph. Exciting.
Afterwards, we had a nice cookout. Aaron Boesenecker had the grill fired up and Melissa Morgan/Phillippe brought down delicious marinated chicken, homemade humus, and leftover goodies from her birthday party.
Results:
Changes for the Spring Series:
We are using RRS Appendix U or the 3-minute sound-based starting system. Flags are optional, but I’m guessing RC will put up class flags so people know which fleets are starting and maybe postponement, OCS ,and General Recall flags if necessary.
So you don’t need to set your watch but don’t stray too far from the starting area.
The middle part of the season was cold and on several Sundays there were no races due to ice. The end of the season was breezy!
59 races in all, so it took 30 races to qualify (half of 59 rounded up) and your best 30 were averaged to calculate your score.
The top three were very tightly packed. Laura Windecker passed Tom on the last day of racing to win the series. And Farley tied Tom but won the tie breaker. Poor Tom doing RC fell from 1st to 3rd. The top five were rounded out with Brian Joseph in 4th and Jim Klein in 5th. Congratulations all.
Race 1-59, best 30 averaged
(I say “final” but if you see what might be a mistake let me know.)
Tom Hutton and Michael Liss ran RC. It was the last day of the frostbite season.
We had strong winds and six intrepid sailors willing to come out in the small craft warning. The air temp was in the upper 50s as was the water temp making for a warmer day than normal. 4 Radial and 2 full rigs launched and even then we had plenty of capsizes. There were 4 races total, one olympic then the more heavy wind friendly T-1. Short which helps sailors from getting tired during a long race.
— Tom
(Races 56-59, March 20)
Here they are through March 13th. Tom moved ahead of Laura (who was doing RC) and I fell out off the qualifiers (because I am a wimp and did not sail). One more Sundays to go.
Cumulative Results – 50% to qualify and score is based on best 50%
LaserFrostbite2122_thru15 (Races 1-55, March 13)
LaserFrostbite2122_thru14 (Races 1-50, March 6
Steen Byskov and Laura Windecker ran five races! Olympic courses that took about 30 minutes.
The winds direction was fairly stable from the SW and the strength in the 10 to 20 range.
From the marina, the water appeared to be very very low because for the previous 24 hours gale force winds were blowing from the northwest AND it was low tide around noon. Georgetown was hosting a regatta and decided to stay in the cove and run it there. However, once the sailors left the marina it did not appear to be an issue.
Air temps were between 30 and 40 and the water temp had risen to near 50.
Eight sailors went out and had a challenging time.
Steen took pictures! See them here.
(Races 51-55, March 13)
(Photo by Kaitlyn Lucey)