Category Archives: News
Albacore 2010 Video Mashup
Check out the Some great shots of Albacores in anything from 10-30 knots of breeze from Sarasota, the Chesapeake and Canada. Some great shots and commentary of Barney Harris, local Albacore sailor and current World Champion. But will he be able to defend the Championship in the 2011 Internationals in Toronto, Canada? Watch for the encore presentation after the credits.
Fall Series #1, 09/19/2010 Results
It just goes to show you, never believe the weather man! Sunday morning the forecast was dismal: Sunny, Hot, winds from nowhere @ 0-2. Sheesh! Its no wonder a lot of people voted with their feet and stayed home. What a mistake that turned out to be. The reality? Sunny, Warm, winds South @ 8-11!! It just doesn’t get much better than that. 5 Lightnings, 3 Albacores, and 3 Cats came out to play and got the best racing of the fall so far. Jeff Storck (PRO), aided by Bruce Heida, Becky Mach, Maryann Gallagher, Will Philippe, Chris McGraw and Judy Schramm set up a nice Windward Leeward course off the airport that they slowly lengthened as the breeze strengthened. While the Albs, and Cats went home after 3 races, the Lightnings stayed out for a fourth. That fourth race proved to be a challenge in the strong current and fading breeze. Jeff shortened it to 3 legs, and sent them home from the windward mark. A great day! Scores after the break:
Presidents / Leukemia Cup Results
There is an old Arab curse that goes something like: “May you live in interesting times”. That said, we certainly had an “interesting” weekend for this years Presidents Cup. Saturday, was sunny and beautiful. Perfect in every way except the most important: There was no wind. Rolf Zeisler, our able PRO, managed to get 2 races off in drifty conditions with little more than thermals coming from various directions. The Lightnings were almost time limited out in the first race when the Rc quickly set up a finish line at the Reach? Windward? Leeward? Mark, and finished us with no time to spare. Race #2 was even worse. Oh well. There is always tomorrow, and with rain in the forecast there was bound to be some breeze. Sunday morning brought the rain, but not much in the way of breeze. We got 3 races in before calling it a day. The first 2 races were much like Saturdays efforts. The 3rd race, however, was a fun one. A nice north westerly finally came in and made all of us who had suffered through 2 days of mostly painful drifting glad we had stuck it out. This was the best sailing of the weekend and a good time was finally had by all. Lets all pray that we don’t get any more “interesting” days like the bulk of this past weekend. Scores after the break:
Spring Series #8, 06/06/10 Results
Sorry all for the delay in getting these scores up. Thats what happens when you get married and go away on a honeymoon. 🙂 Well, the wedding is behind me and the honeymoon was great, so now its time to buckle down and get busy. Today I have those last scores for you, but stay tuned over the next couple of weeks. I have some video of the Doc Gilbert I am working on that will be ready soon. In the meantime I hope everyone is getting out on the water for some sailing. I plan to get Ariel out this week for my first time in weeks.
Cheers,
Jeff
Scores after the break:
PRSA Spring Series # 8 Sunday, June 6 – Last One for Spring Series!
Updated June 7 —
Albacores did RC. The AccuWeather forecast called for mostly cloudy skies, a high of 91 degrees, and westerly winds at 19 – 22 MPH. A few thunderstorms were possible, some severe. The river flow was below normal for this time of year, at 6.310 CFS (gage height 3.5 ft) and the water had warmed to 82 degrees. Low tide was at 10:34 AM and high tide at 4:21 PM. Actual winds were from the SSW at 13 MPH up until 2:30 PM when a front came through, kicking up 29 MPH winds with gusts to 45. PRO Nathan Marsh and his crack Albacore RC set up an Olympic course with the leeward mark close to (but outside) the channel near the green channel mark off East Potomac Park, and got off four races in quick succession, for the 7 Lightings, 2 Buccs, one Albacore and one Hobie that sailed. All but 4 Lightnings had retired by the end of race 3 and were back at the docks before the front came through. For the four (Nabeel; Rick; Pat; and Peter Lallas) there was a wild ride home after race 4, but they all made it back without capsizing. Results to be posted soon.
PRSA Spring Regatta 2010 Saturday and Sunday, May 29 – 30
Updated 5/31/10 — The PRSA Spring regatta, our Memorial Day Weekend major event, has come and gone! Saturday brought us an overcast morning that slowly cleared, temperatures in the mid 70s, and calm winds until Noon. PRO Nabeel Alsalam wisely postponed, from the docks, the departure until 11:45, and by the time we got to the race course we had a very nice southerly, blowing 7 – 10 MPH. Nabeel got off 3 great Olympic course races for the 7 Lightings, 4 Buccs, 17 Albacores, 4 Hobies and a Thistle who came out. On the Lower Course we had 3 Optis and 2 Penguins. Sunday brought us a promising start with sunny skies, northerly winds at 5 – 10 MPH that unfortunately went light and variable as the day went on, and we gave up on the day at 3 PM at the end of the second race (which not everybody finished, due to a time limit expiration). Upper Course Results here. Lower Course Results here.
Our sincere thanks to the regatta organizing committee and to the PRSA members who worked this regatta. They include: PROs Nabeel Alsalam (upper course) and Jennifer Parrow (lower course); Race Committee drivers and helpers Ryan Vear, Stefano de Leo, Red Fehrle, Craig Huzway, Anna Lindel, Elaine Duffe, Inga Barkane, Linda Pacelli, John Hart, Annie Cross, Bill Swanson, Kate Dixon, Steve Parsons, and Thomas Jagodits; Registration workers Will Phillippe, Jeff Neurauter, Happy Olmstead, Wilda Heiss, Steve Parsons, and Barb Thompson; Planning the post-race barbeque and bringing food and beer: Pat McGee and Scott Snyder; producing the NOR and SIs, and acquiring trophies, scorekeeping, recruiting RC, and Boat Duty, Nabeel Alsalam. Well done!
Per PRSA Commodore Pat McGee: Starting Saturday morning many members just kicked in. I was really pleased by the amount of general pitching in. I could not move more than a few steps without someone offering to help. It made me very pleased with our membership. Maybe this is explained by our having shrunk into a core group (family). I owe all of you all a big thank you. I can’t thank you guys enough for just picking things up and making it all happen. Get’er done mentality. Nabeel – RC — great decisions – sitting on the docks for 90 minutes Sat., I know you were getting some pressured commentary – Great work!
2010 Leukemia Cup Kickoff Party Saturday, May 15!
The 2010 Leukemia Cup kick-off party was Saturday, May 15 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at The Capital Yacht Club to kick off the 2010 Leukemia Cup Series, benefitting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. This luau-themed party was FREE to all Leukemia Cup supporters and was the best opportunity to learn about the exciting events on the Potomac this summer organized to be enjoyable while helping fight leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
You wouldn’t want to have missed this party! There was live music by Deja Blue , Mt. Gay Rum drinks, a Pig Roast and the best company around! You had the chance to meet boaters and sailors from up and down the Potomac River (more than 10 local clubs involved!) as well as some of the 2010 Honored Skippers for the Leukemia Cup. There were opportunities to win Mt. Gay and Leukemia Cup door prizes, find out all you want to know about this year’s events, register early to participate, trade fundraising secrets and get a head start on making 2010 the best year yet!
SAVE THE DATES: 2010 Leukemia Cup Series
3rd Annual Jr. Regatta
August, date TBD. Washington Sailing Marina
4th Annual Power Boat Poker Run
Sunday, August 29th. Old Dominion Boat Club
17th Annual Leukemia Cup Regatta
Friday, September 10th & Saturday, September 11th. Washington Sailing Marina.
PRSA Spring Series # 2, Sunday April 18!
UPDATED 4/19/10 — The AccuWeather Forecast called for sunny skies, a high of 60 degrees, and winds from the NW at 14 – 18 MPH, and that’s about what we got, except that it was cloudier and chillier than predicted. The river flow, at 9,150 CFS (gage height 3.9 ft) was below normal for this time of year, and the water temperature was down to 62 degrees. High tide was at 11:26 AM. 10 Lightnings and 3 Albacores came out. Yates Dowell and the Hobie fleet set up a triangular course and got off three races in quick succession, and we were all back at the docks by 3 PM. During docking on the return, Erich Hesse in his Albacore came screaming straight in to the slot between two of the crane docks, made an incredibly tight U-turn, and stopped the boat along side the north dock with bow pointed out — stunning! Crew Lars Rathjen, standing on Eric’s forward deck, then stepped neatly off the deck — and right into the water! It was a site worthy of a bloopers video. Fortunately, no injuries, other than to Lars’ psyche. Results after the break:
Committee Boats Powerwashed and are Nice and Clean!
Thanks to the good work of Bill Swanson, Jeff Neurauter, Laurie Duncan, Paul Maher, Frank Gallagher, Nabeel Alsalam, Bobby Astrove, and Rick Welch on Saturday afternoon, April 10, the Bayliner, the 19 Skiff and the 16 Skiff are nice and clean, after their powerwashing and polishing. Thanks, Nabeel, for bringing the equipment! Thanks Bill, for powerwashing all the barnacles off the bottom of the Bayliner, and the cleaning the topsides. Thanks, Jeff and Laurie for cleaning the cabin of the Bayliner — it was really grungy. Thanks, Nabeel, Frank, Paul, Bobby, and Rick for emptying out the skiffs and powerwashing them and putting equipment back. Thanks also to Jeff Storck, who used his 4-Runner to launch the Bayliner, and to Laurie, Paul, and Jeff who drove her part way to her slip, and to Frank and Nabeel for performing a rescue and towing her the rest of the way over. Without the great work of this team, we would not be racing today.