I have the honor to be writing as your third place finisher, a result of nothing but fortitude. Seriously. So, here’s my take on the race. First, a thank you to Laura and Jim for setting a perfect course. It had a windward mark, a reaching mark and a downwind mark. Right distance and geometry. It started windy, out of the West, and continued to build, which favored those who stayed upright and made fewer mistakes. For example, I dropped multiple places by capsizing, hitting a starboard boat, undershooting the windward mark, and almost rear-ending Farley going close to 30 knots. I sailed the last race with Farley, netting both a second place and a DFL. Overall, great wind and weather and nice to be on the water, although we missed one of the great World Cup Finals of all time.
Category Archives: Lasers
2022-2023 Laser Frostbite #4
After 3 weeks of no sailing for various weather states, we finally got a nice Sunday to sail. It was sunny with temps in the mid 40s. And the weather brought a great showing of sailors with 21 boats coming to sail.
Sadly the wind did not get the memo for the day. It was very challenging for both Race Committee and the racers. Nabeel and Kevin did an excellent job trying to keep up with the wind. We were able to get 5 races in. We had 2 races with shortened courses and 3 course adjustments. The wind was quite shifty with a lot of velocity changes. We had a few points where there was full hiking conditions and several where we were drifting. But all in all it was nice to be out on the water.
As far as sailing, I think we all need to ask Laura for the tips as she was the post consistent sailor out there. But I found that moving forward of the cockpit in the light wind and then moving back as it came back up I moved back to a normal position. With all the velocity shifts, I found that I was playing the cunningham more than usual to try and keep the sail looking full and not overly tight at the luff. Other than that it was mostly just the usual things, get a good start, find clear air on the downwinds, and stay patient in the lulls.
It was great to see the turnout and I look forward to seeing everyone out next weekend!
2022 Laser Frostbite First Weeks Update
Well Sailors, after 3 weekends in a row of cancelling, we hope to finally get out and race this coming weekend.
Frostbite Series 1 (Nov 13) was too windy. Two souls made it to the race course with several capsizing on the way and others waiting on shore.
Frostbite Series 2 (Nov 20) was also windy. And the high of 38 gave us January Frostbiting weather in November. And with a lot of wind for the weekend and low tide, there was not much water in the river. Three brave souls showed up to try and race but ultimately pulled the plug.
Frostbite Series 3 (Nov 27) was rainy and a strange forecast of 9 gusting to 33 with a small craft advisory. 6 sailors showed up but only two were gung ho to go out and ultimately we decided that it was not worth punishing the race committee for two of us to go sailing.
Next weekend is a new day and hopefully we will get out and finally do a few races!
2021-2022 Laser Frostbite Final Cumulative Results
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.)
2021-2022 Laser Frostbite 16 (March 20)
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)
2021-2022 Laser Frostbite Cumulative Results
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
2021-2022 Laser Frostbite 15
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.
Yeah, fair bit of capsizing. The attrition we had during the day was typically after capsizes. Jim (Graham) had two before he quit. It was already hard work sailing in those conditions, and capsizes really wear you out – we didn’t count how many there were. Tom went to Jim during his second capsize – good to see sailors looking out for each other.
We also had a couple of equipment failures – Tom’s tiller extension broke, and Brian’s mainsheet broke.
— Steen
Steen took pictures! See them here.
(Races 51-55, March 13)
2021-2022 Laser Frostbite 14
The SW breeze was sporty and gusty — very high risk of capsize — the water temperature chilly (47F) but the air was warm (70F). The current was strong going out. Most sailors broke out their radial rigs.
LaserFrostbite2122_14 (races 47-50)
Nabeel Alsalam and Lloyd Leonard ran the races.
Some tips on how to avoid capsizing downwind:
When approach the windward mark, first release the cunningham to close the top of the sail and then release the vang most but not all the way so that the leech is closed a bit. Then raise your arm with the mainsheet high and above you to make sure it is at least not completely knotted at your feet.
At the windward mark, gain speed first and then smoothly bear off and then raise the daggerboard 8″ or so. Don’t let the sail out past 90 degrees. It is a good idea to have a knot in the mainsheet to prevent the sail going out too far. Letting the sail out beyond 90 degrees whether on purpose or not is a sure way to capsize when it is breezy.
NEVER sail dead downwind. Preferably sail by the lee and if that doesn’t work, reach. You want pressure against the daggerboard for stability.
Gybing seems scary but it doesn’t have to be. Trim in the sail some so it will gybe sooner, bear off to get the sail to gybe and as it is going over bear back off. Also, keep the tiller extension low during the gybe so it doesn’t hook the mainsheet during the gybe.
Have fun surfing the waves! Steer toward the low spots.
2021-2022 Laser Frostbite 13
Brian Joseph ran the SIX races. The results were quite mixed. What were the winds like?
2021-2022 Laser Frostbite 12
Nabeel Alsalam and Morgan Rathjen were your RC. They ran 5 races over a pretty long windward-leeward course. The winds were from the south and with the long fetch waves developed that were surf-able. The current was going out strongly and at time was stronger than the wind causing the RC boat to move up course and then down on its anchor.
14 sailors came out although there was attrition over the day. Oh and there were double-capsizes, you know when you capsize to windward, bring the boat up, and immediately capsize to leeward. Tiring! People are likely to be sore today.
Lars was 3rd. Maybe he (or anyone else) would like to add some comments about sailing the waves or anything else that made the day interesting.
In case you are interested, below are my notes for the risk assessment:
ASSESSMENT OF WEATHER/WATER HAZARDS ON 20FEB2022
(Compiled at 9:00 am)
WATCHES AND WARNINGS
…SM…SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 6 AM EST MONDAY…
* WHAT…South winds 10 to 15 kt with gusts up to 20 kt expected.
* WHERE…Chesapeake Bay from Pooles Island MD to North Beach MD, Chester River to Queenstown MD, Eastern Bay, and Choptank River to Cambridge MD and the Little Choptank River. NOT OUR AREA
* WHEN…From 3 PM this afternoon to 6 AM EST Monday.
WIND STRENGTH AND DIRECTION
SSE 10/15 at noon rising to SSE 10/16 at 3pm
WATER TEMP
Fell overnight from 43F to 41F.
AIR TEMP
35F at noon rising to 40F at 3pm
TIDE
High tide at 10:30 am