Category Archives: News

2010, News, Results

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!

News

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.

Spring Series, 2010, News, Results

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:

Continue reading PRSA Spring Series # 2, Sunday April 18! →

News

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.

News

Capital City Regatta, Day #2

We got off to a slow start on day two of the regatta, there was no wind
in the morning. We waited an hour or so, and the breeze filled in, so
we set sail hoping to get a few races in. RC set up a course in the
cove and we preceded to get off four races. The wind built through out
and we got a steadier breeze then yesterday.

Sam Dobbs took first place, with Ray Wulff taking second place and Calab Dorfman taking third. Thanks to everyone for coming out, we had another great regatta on the river. Links to results and pictures are below.

Results:
http://potomacriversailing.org/lasers/results/09-10/capital_city.php

Pictures:
http://potomacriversailing.org/lasers/gallery/09-10/capitalcity/index.php

Winners

News

Capital City Regatta, Day #1

We had a great day sailing on the Potomac River today on day one of the
Capital City Regatta. Twenty one boats came out, with a number of
people traveling from other clubs. Temps were a little chilly in the
morning, but the sun was out and it got up to 57F. Winds were up and
down, and coming from many directions. We sailed in the river down by
the power plan. RC got off six races, before we called it a day and
sailed back to the marina for BBQ and beer.

They are predicting to have more wind tomorrow, according to the
forecast 10-13MPH. Cloudy, but about the same temps. The rain is not
supposed to start until after 4pm. A few pics are posted on our web
site below:

http://potomacriversailing.org/lasers/gallery/09-10/capitalcity/index.php

Albacores, News

Albacore Mid-Winters!!

The Albacore Mid-winter Championship was held this past week, March 19-21, in Sarasota Florida. 19 boats came to compete, with 5 teams of our own to carry the banner for PRSA: Chris Gorton/Mathew Edwards, Khin Thein/Thant Thein, Mike Heinsdorf/Matt Rhodes, Peter Duncan/Stephen Duncan, Rolf Zeisler/Daphne Byron, and Barney Harris/Lee Mullins all made the trip. Barney was the overall winner of the event with 8 points in 8 races. There was one throwout. Chris Gorton was 4th, Khin Thein was 6th, Peter Duncan 8th, Mike Heinsdorf 11th, and Rolf came in 15th. Great job guys! And special congratulations to PRSA’s very own Champ – Barney Harris!! See all the scores after the break:

Continue reading Albacore Mid-Winters!! →

News, Videos

Dogzilla brings home the bacon!!

Well it was certainly a better race on Sunday than the first one. BMW/Oracle (AKA Dogzilla) won the start by 24 seconds, but then the two boats split tacks. Allinghi went right and B/O went left. The Swiss guessed right and a huge right shift helped them to an early lead. That lead extended to about 6oo meters, and they held on to that almost all the way to the Windward mark. B/O hung on though, and helped by a late left shift caught up at the port side layline. The two boats crossed at the layline with Allinghi in front by a couple of boat lengths. However they had to overstand the mark a bit, and then had a really slow sloppy tack which let Dogzilla squeak out in front. B/O rounded the mark 28 seconds in front of Allinghi and turned on the afterburners. They took off like a rocket and never looked back. B/O won the race by almost 6 minutes to bring the Auld Cup back to America where it belongs.

One interesting side bar: Prior to the race, Bertarelli (Allinghi’s owner) decided he did not like the conditions and ordered his RC crew to refuse to start the race. At his instruction they “went on strike”. The ISAF PRO was ready for this kind of Shenanigans and pressed one observer and a rent-a-cop into service to help him raise flags and get the race going. The PRO counted down the time manually as the Bertarelli paid RC team looked on. POOR SHOW on the Swiss! Find the full story here:

Scuttlebutt #59 Bennett Rises Above Tiff

Here is a video clip of the winners:

News

2010 Americas’ Cup Regatta is Over!

BMW Oracle Racing (BMO) won in two straight races — one on Wednesday, one yesterday (Sunday), in light-to-moderate winds, sailing far ahead of Alinghi in both races.   Race 2 was an equilateral triangle, 13 NM on a side, with marks rounded to starboard. Here is a link to more information, where you can see streaming video replays of the racing.   Race 2 reruns start every three hours today — at 0700; 1000; 1300; 1600; and 1900 ET.  Here is the link for the video feed.  Note the video rerun feeds are somewhat off the above schedule — at 0730 this morning for example we saw the A/P flag come down, which would be about 10 minutes before the start.   You can see BMO achieving 33 kts on the reach leg.  See boats round the gybe mark at 2:15 after the start.

News, Videos

Americas Cup Race #1 Aftermath

Team Allinghi is licking their wounds tonight after getting absolutely thrashed by BMW/Oracle in the first race. I was able to watch today and both boats were incredibly fast – sometimes topping out at over 26 knots of boat speed in just 8 knots of wind! It seemed to me, however, that B/O’s Wing mainsail is a technological game changer like we have not seen since the winged keel of 1983, and the race almost as lopsided as the catamaran vs. the 90′ keelboat Cup races of 1988. The B/O boat has speed and pointing ability to spare. The commentators kept saying that once the boats came around the windward mark and turned down wind that Allinghi would catch up by being able to sail deeper and faster due to its lighter weight, but it sure did not turn out that way. If anything B/O was even faster, leaving Allinghi far astern and beating them by about 2 miles and almost 15 minutes! Allinghi had better find some mojo if they hope to compete with the Americans in the next race. Here is a video short from team Allinghi talking about the days racing. Enjoy: