All posts by Farley Will

News

2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #5

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Due to that fateful combination of blissful triumph and outright shame on the race course today, it’s City Swan here with the time-honored third place write-up.

 
First, a big thanks to Laura, Steen, and Romeo for running four races in another light wind day. The first two races were W1s, and the last two races were W2s.  Winds were relatively steady from the NE, and ranged from 4-8mph over the day.  Tide was outgoing for about half the afternoon, and started coming back in before the end of racing.  These conditions were not inconsistent with what the season has delivered us so far, so sailors were prepared for battling the light breeze and current.
 
Each race today I staked out the boat end of the starting line, and especially in the first race when it was heavily favored.  Going up wind I noticed breeze would come back from the northeast, therefore spent most of the time on the right side of the course.  An exception was race three when there were glassy patches closest to the channel, and I made sure not to sail in the direction of those.  In the last two races when the breeze was fuller, I was constantly deliberating whether it was advantageous to cover boats or to follow some mini-lifts and slight pressure differentials – the latter two indicators were the way to go.
 
Downwind – as Farley tipped me off to post-racing – was all about finding your lane, even if that wasn’t the inside.  In the third race I did this successfully by gybing over to starboard despite being the most windward boat to the mark.  In contrast, I did this very unsuccessfully in the last downwind leg of the final race, by gybing to port too late – and then gybing back (any gybe over one midway through a downwind leg is telltale you’re trying to get out of a predicament).  A whopping six boats past me on this leg, so lesson learned!  Something that may have helped during downwind legs in today’s relatively light conditions and when the tide was coming in, was raising my centerboard nearly all the way out of the water to reduce drag from the current.
The first race was hands down our most challenging, and a shout out to Connor for conquering it, Jim G. for holding his ground in second place throughout, and to Dan for capturing the coveted third spot – a lot of us were vying for that one.
A reminder that next week we skip a Sunday, but hope to see you all at the Marina’s holiday party Saturday evening.  Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and Happy Holidays to all!
Kaitlyn
News

2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #4

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Sunday was another lovely day of sailing on the Potomac. The temperatures got up into the high fifties with wind into the high teens – overall a wonderful day for a sail. I didn’t feel great about my racing today, but here are a few tips from your returning champion third-place finisher regardless.

First, I will once again advocate for standing up and scanning the course before the race. I will beat this drum until I see everyone do it before every race. In the first race, I stood up at the two-minute gun and saw the breeze was stronger on the left. Lo and behold, I started at the pin, stayed further left longer than everyone else, and was first to the top mark. I managed to hold on to my lead almost the whole way and won the race. The first leg is a) the most important leg and b) the leg you can prepare for most. Use all the tools available to you before the start.
As an addendum, check the forecasted wind and tide before you hit the course as well. The tide was coming in during that first race and we as sailors know that current is stronger in deeper water. I made good ground on downwinds in that first race by sticking left and letting the stronger current in the middle of the river push me to the mark. Farley also saw that the wind was supposed to shift left as the day went. As the day progressed, he started to take more and more advantage of those lefties. Consequently, Farley scored very well today. Preparation isn’t a guarantee of results, but it sure does help.
As I was pulling my boat out of the water, Len (who lost the honor of penning this column by beating me on tiebreaker) told me that in the lighter wind races, he was able to make ground on me because I moved my body and my boat too much going downwind. Disturbing your rudder can induce drag, which is lethal to your boatspeed. I’ll note that my two best downwinds of the day were the ones where I committed to a line early and only really made serious course adjustments when gybing to a puff. Keeping my boat more static on off-wind legs is going to be a focus for me next week.
Finally, winds on the Potomac are variable as hell in my (limited) experience. That means that no race is over, ever. I made crazy ground on boats in front of me by trying to sail to the puffs and keep my speed up on some of the screwy final legs today. There may have been a lucky shift or two as well. Never give up, folks, especially not in these races.
Thank you to race committee Jim Klein and Kevin Cowley for being good sports and resetting the course five (!!) times in four (!!!!) races this afternoon. Congrats to Farley on his victory for the day. I hope to see everyone out next Sunday.
-Connor
Frostbite, Lasers, Lasers, News

2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #3

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Frostbite, Lasers, Lasers, News, Results

2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #2

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Well today was a tough day.  We had a mostly westerly that seemed to have oscillating directions of about +/-45 degrees at times and velocity chances from 2 to 10.  Generally speaking the breeze was out of the west at about 5 knots I would guess though.  The shifty conditions made racing tough with lots of position changes throughout the race and no one really owning the day.

Eva and Dan did a nice job running races and were able to get 4 races off in the tough conditions.  They adjusted the windward mark and line after the first race which made things a bit more even for the shifts.
I do not really have any great tips for the day but would like to highlight a decision that Tom Hutton made in the last race.  There were several of us stacked up at the leeward mark rounding and Tom and I rounded in 4th and 5th with 3 boats ahead of us.  I had a nice tight rounding and managed to not be getting bad air from the 3 boats stacked in front of us and Tom was outside of me on the rounding.  He chose to foot off some and get to clear air for the “upwind” beat which was mostly just point at the mark and get there.  Several lifts occurred on the leg and I eventually found myself in bad air from the 3 boats ahead of me.  Tom on the other hand had clear air all the way to the mark and won the leg and race due to his choice at the leeward mark.  Just a reminder that pointing high and being inside at the mark is not always the best choice!
I hope that everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving and look forward to seeing who shows up on Sunday for Series #3!
Farley
Frostbite, Series, Lasers, Frostbite, Fleets, Lasers, Results

2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #1

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On a puff and a shift: First 3rd place write-up of the season

To those who are new to frostbiting, it is our tradition that whoever gets 3rd place circulates a short write-up about the day, and I volunteered to do this first one. It was great to see 18 boats on a day when the forecast wasn’t exactly promising. Also great to see both familiar and new faces. The first gamble of the day was whether to race at all, and we gave it a go. After bobbing around with no wind from changing directions, we ended up with a slowly building southernly light breeze and had three good light-air races. Good on Farley and Tyler for calling when the wind direction stabilized, resetting the course, and getting us going. A few lessons from the sailing today:

Starting well and not early with light breeze and the current pushing us to windward is tricky.  My plan was to stay a bit behind the line and make sure I have space to build up speed before the start. I didn’t execute any of the starts particularly well including being the sole boat across the line in race three – thanks to Farley or Tyler who called out a crisp “405”.

Being fast upwind required staying alert while the boat imitated the motions of a crib lulling you to sleep. I had the vang slightly looser than 2-blocked, a deep curve from the outhaul, and absolutely nowhere near using the cunningham. Finding clear air, doing your best to roll tack, not having to duck others unless really necessary helps. But the big gains were on calling the puffs and the shift.  In my read, the puffs were particularly important, and they’re easier to spot than the shifts.  It’s always a gamble whether you get it right, but you can improve the odds by looking at the water down river and at the boats ahead of you.

Downwind legs felt long with the current against us, but they seemed more predictable to me than the upwind legs. Speed came from keeping the wind flowing across the sail either by the lee or on a broad reach, i.e. avoiding going dead downwind, and keeping that slight windward heel that avoids weather helm. Also, with 18 boats, being on the left side is tactically helpful when you approach the mark.

Racing on the Potomac in light air has a crapshoot element, so take the knocks in your stride – sometimes it really works out.  At the last leeward mark of the last race, I was well behind Jim and Laura.  A strong puff and a nice shift helped me catch up so much that Jim had to yield to me on starboard just before the finish line, and I barely crossed the line ahead of him.  I surely didn’t deserve that one, but it will help me feel better next time the puffs and shifts don’t go my way.

Altogether a nice and easy kick off to the frostbite season, and thanks to Farley and Tyler for running the races today.

Steen

PS: don’t forget to sign up for RC duty!

24-25 Laser Frostbite Series #1

Frostbite, Lasers, Lasers, Results

2023 ILCA Frostbite Series #18

Hi everybody,

Greetings from 3rd place — belatedly, thanks for your patience! —  on the last day of the frostbite season (can hardly believe it). Many thanks to Tom and Jim for taking one for our collective team and doing race committee and helping us get in 6 races – glad it was a nice afternoon for you guys! Kudos also to Steen and Farley for taking the top two spots.

This is otherwise going to be a short writeup b/c Farley kindly accepted the trade for — what I hope will also become a tradition, at least occasionally — a travel regatta write-up. So see an email shortly about my experience sailing in the Uganda Laser Open earlier this month.

But back to Sunday, briefly. It was forecasted to be a dying wind after gale/near-gale conditions and sometimes it was quite light – but the wind generally held up. The current was going out all afternoon and sometimes it felt like it was the main propellant downwind. The wind was fluky – sometimes the left was better, sometimes the right. Mostly, I tried to look for puffs and keep the boat going fast regardless of where my wind indicator was pointing. I also tried to keep tabs on who was where and how they seemed to be doing (but could have done this more, it would likely have helped!).

Finally – don’t forget to sign up for the Capital City Regatta next weekend!!! —>  https://nextsailor.com/app/page/reg_start/644

See you there!!
Laura
Frostbite, Lasers, Lasers, Results

2023 ILCA Frostbite Series #17

I think this is the second time I have raced a Laser since Y2K. Here are some thoughts.

CURRENT: High tide was at 1518, however recent rains to the west must have filled the river as we had an out going current all day.  I am not intimately familiar with this part of the Potomac. Reviewing my RaceQs record (see attached file), the extent of the course for races 2-5 was roughly mid way between the east and west shores. The bathymetry would have gradually increasing depth from right to left looking upwind. I would expect the current to be slower on the west side of the course due to it being shallower water and in the “lee” of the mud flats surrounding the airport landing lights.

WIND: While rigging I had forgotten to install the battens in the sail. Everyone had departed, so I slid the boat from its dolly onto the grass and rolled it over. In the process I saw the dirt and grime covering the hull – figuring that no one would be racing in such light air – and gave it a quick cleaning. By the time I got to the course area I saw the fleet in the final throes of race #1 that was started in an easterly that morphed into a nearly non-existent southerly for the final two legs. The breeze gradually, sporadically filled in from the south for races 2-5. This was nothing like our regular, thermal-driven southerly. More often than not, we saw gusts from the east. The combination of favorable current and SE gusts drew me to the left more often than not. Now, the day’s forecast was for a southerly breeze shifting to west and increasing at around 1400. I was half expecting people to come from the far right, planing into the mark – but this never occurred. The westerly finally showed up, nearly two hours late and right after the final race. Bottom line is that if one were going to pick a side, in the absence of any other indications, the left (east) appeared to be favored. What will it be next time? No freaking clue.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS: I kept overstanding the windward mark. I don’t recall the Laser being that close winded. Maybe it was me mis judging the current. We had a few fleeting moments where we had to hike and almost enough wind to blow the leech open. I put tell tales in the middle of the sail. None on the leech – its always stalled anyway. My new dry suit worked really well: the relief zipper served its purpose – a heretofore untested and critical piece of technology!

IN SUM: The PRSA frostbite program continues to function well. I recall my first sail on the Potomac during the winter of 1982-83 in penguins and then lasers. Just about all the names have changed but the sailing is still tricky, challenging, and fun. The informal post race social was fun and enhanced by the bright sunshine and 74 deg F temperatures. GF Lee drove down and brought some snacks. Celeste brought Elmarie. Special thanks to Tyler and Eva for serving as RC.

Barney

23-24 PRSA ILCA Frostbite Series #17

Frostbite, Lasers, Lasers, 2024, Results

2023-2023 ILCA FROSTBITE #14

Sunday was one of the best days of racing I have had this season. While light winds had been forecasted, the wind quickly increased to around ten knots with gusts well above that. It came from the south-southeast but would periodically shift farther southeast and less commonly would shift farther south. The puffs almost always came from the left side of the course. This combined with the prevailing shifts meant that the far left seemed the place to be for most of the day. While the pin was not significantly up for many of the starts, I felt that starting at the pin and taking off left was the way to go. The tide was outgoing the whole day, and so there was very significant up-course current. It took me seven seconds to travel upwind one boat length upwind at the first start while luffing.

The first start, we were in a left shift and most of the fleet was set up for the pin. I was OCS and decided to gybe and head upwind on port. I was lifted for a long time but eventually found a more average angle to tack on and head left. I rounded the weather mark in the back, but caught up to the fleet. The downwinds all day were very interesting. Because the pressure came from the left, a balance had to be struck between staying in the puffs and working to get the inside around the leeward mark. Personally, I found that by staying on the left side I could usually cleanly pass people I might have gotten tangled up with around the mark. I passed a few boats downwind, rounded the mark, and tacked immediately. I was headed for a while, but I got clear air and a very nice shift on the left side that put me in the upper half of the fleet around the top mark. The next downwind was fairly standard, I don’t remember passing anyone. The finishing leg was played very differently to the rest of the racing and overall I thought it was something I could have done better all day. It seemed like it was preferable to stay on port until on layline for the boat and then tack. I ended up finishing around fifth.

The second race went very similar. This time I accounted for the current more and was not over, but did not have a very good start. I decided to stay on starboard longer than anyone else to get clear air, and as a result overstood the layline. All day, I was right on the edge of being able to keep the boat flat in the puffs ( I am very light for the full rig). Being overstood definitely hurt more than normal because it was harder to keep the boat flat in low mode. I rounded the top mark in fifth but had a bad rounding and lost a boat right after. The downwind was very standard and I caught the boat that had passed me. All day, I thought staying more to the course left than your opponents was the only sure way to prevent them getting an excellent shift and making a comeback both upwind and downwind. By the end of the leg, I was overlapped with many boats and attempted to go wide and fall in behind the pinwheel. This did not quite go as intended and I ended up on the outside of a group. I tacked underneath and managed to gain a boat or two back on the upwind just by staying left. By now, the fleet was spread out and again I finished fifth.

The third race, I got an amazing start by winning the pin. Pretty quickly, I got headed but decided to just keep going because of good pressure up ahead. This turned out to be pretty costly and I dropped back to around third. I stayed there for the downwind but closed some distance. Rounding the top mark, I tacked on the first right shift and headed left. Shortly after, the wind began to die all over the course. It stayed a little longer on the right and it looked like some people made good gains over there. However, I could see whitecaps just before the bridge on the left and so headed that way, trusting that the wind would fill in. I have found that in general if the wind is dying and then coming back, betting on the new system rather than the old is favorable. I caught the shift perfectly as the pressure came back and ended up rounding the weather mark in first. I held this to the end of the race and took the win.

Race four, I had another great start at the pin. I found that setting up low was crucial because of the current and that there was enough wind a long runup was not essential. This was another advantage to going left upwind. Deeper water means more current so heading near the channel allowed for better speed upwind. I tacked in a much better place than race three and rounded the weather mark in first. I held on for the downwind, but going back up the wind had increased and I was struggling to keep the boat flat. I was passed by sail 603 as a result. I got close to catching him on the downwind but was unable to and followed him for the rest of the race.

Race five was very similar, I rounded the top mark in second by banging the left corner on the upwind. I was unable to catch the boat in first but managed to hold on until the last leg. Going upwind on port tack, the whole fleet was very lifted. I found a decent shift back and decided to tack sooner, mostly to cover the boats behind me. This turned out to be a mistake as I lost one boat and finished in third. I noticed someone behind me getting to the inside of a pinwheel by going very by the lee in a puff and planing for a few seconds, this seemed to work very well.

Race six, I had a good start but lost my lane quickly and was sucked back into the pack. I stayed left longer than any of the boats near me to get clear air, but two boats went further and both beat me to the weather mark along with a few others. I caught two boats downwind, but lost one back upwind because I went too far left and overstood. On the second downwind, I was sailing by the lee trying to get to a covering position when I was hit with a surprise puff and spun out into a capsize. I got to the board quickly but the sail was on the windward side so when I brought the boat up it flipped over again. I probably should have california rolled, but I had touched the bottom while righting the boat and was unsure if it was deep enough (as well as if my drysuit neck seal was good). I finished last in that race.

All told, it was a fun day on the water with near-ideal conditions that made the racing very interesting and enjoyable. If you could find a good angle on starboard tack, there were almost always opportunities to gain. While the downwind was fairly straightforward with no gybe until the end necessary, this led to great opportunities by playing for the inside and covering your opponents.

Credit to Kaitlyn for getting a good photo!

23-24 PRSA Frostbite Series #14

Frostbite, Lasers, Lasers, 2024, Results

2023-2023 ILCA FROSTBITE #13

Big thank you to the Race Committee for running 5 great races. The weather was near ideal with the air temp in the 40s and wind between 12 and 19 kts for most of the day. I did consider briefly rigging up my radial sail as I worried that the realized conditions would beat the forecast. However, I gambled that the forecast would be accurate and wouldn’t exceed my cut off point (20 kts+) for wanting an easier rig to manage. Despite not being overpowered, I did manage to capsize upwind during the 3rd and 4th races. After chatting with Farley and Laura onshore, I think it was because I was overcompensating for some recent bad habits (oversteering while tacking and coming out low) and understeering and then crossing the boat too slowly. Laura did have a general comment that outhauls were too tight and people needed to keep some shape in their sails and not over flatten them.

My focus of the day was on having good starts and avoiding people. The line was set for the 15ish boats that signed-in so there was plenty of room to work with only 10 boats starting. With the wind out of the South and a flooding tide weakening the current, I was not worried about being over early. My strategy was to start in the middle and capitalize on the expected midline sag. Each race, I’d find a safety transit (a line from the back of the motor through the pin to something on shore) and aim to start accelerating from a couple boat lengths back at 10 seconds. The strategy worked 4 out of 5 starts with having clear air and on the line at the gun, only time it didn’t work is when I lost sight of Tom and he rolled me. After the start I worked my way up to the windward mark trying to minimize the number of tacks coming in close to the port ley line. Downwind, I worked to the inside to not give up the inside overlap. I was often able to pick up boats at the final leeward mark by rounding well and then sailing to the starboard ley line and finishing at the boat.

Tyler

23-24 PRSA Frostbite Series #13