Well today was our first true frostbite day of the season. The temperature was ok while the sun was out but during the second race, the sunshine went away and everything started freezing. All my knots were frozen when we got on shore and all my control lines needed some extra help to release while racing. The main sheet got icy and continually shed small ice chips from the block with every trim.
All posts by Farley Will
2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #6
This was my first windy day of this season! I tend to do better when it’s windy and today followed that trend. I usually attribute my better races in the heavy stuff to my height and weight, this helps but I’m sure there is also some technique in there. I had my outhaul pretty tight and was working my cunningham pretty hard, very tight up wind to depower and looser downwind for what I hoped gives some better shape. I also loosen my vang before the windward mark as I find the looser vang really helps with bearing away. Mostly I know the laser likes to be sailed flat which is a ton of work in heavy breeze. I’m not in as good shape as I have been in past seasons, so I definitely had some “fade” over the races. I was flat and fast in the first race to two, then I had to depower more and was not as sharp as the races progressed.
I like the triangular and olympic courses as the triangle legs require different strategy than the straight downwind legs. The first leg is more about staying in line and not getting rolled. The second leg is more aggressive, seeing if you can go above those in front to get an overlap and steal some wind. Nabeel managed to cruise past me to leeward once, the opposite of how it should work, which was very impressive. I find I’m not as fast downwind as others, but I can make up for it upwind (see flat and fast).
Lastly on windy days I try to minimize my tacks, for me this is a good way to get caught in irons or otherwise lose ground with a bad tack. James Jacob snuck past me with a much better tack near the end of the 5th race.
Thank you Kaitlyn and Lars for running RC and taking care of us out there!
Tom Hutton
2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #5
2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #4
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.
2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #3
Sunday was our coldest and most prolific day of the young season. Race committee managed five races (with one shortened finish) in up-and-down wind and temperatures sitting in the low-40s. Overall, it was a pretty good day of racing. Here are a few things I noticed or focused on today.
ILCA Frostbite Series Starts November 16!
The PRSA ILCA Frostbite Series starts November 16 and goes through March 23! We will not be sailing December 23rd. We hope to see people out!
2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #2
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.
2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #1
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!
2023 ILCA Frostbite Series #18
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.
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/
Laura
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