Albacores

2022 AGM and Awards Update

On April 9th the fleet had an AGM and BBQ at the Washington Sailing Marina,  Despite cooler temperatures it was a nice day and picnic.  Eva Hogan was voted in as the new Fleet Captain and awards were presented!

2021 Awards:
Fleet Booster Award – Bob Bear
Freshman Booster Award – Tyler Phillips
Most Improved B Skipper Award – Eva Hogan
Jib Tender Award (Best Crew) – Kaitlyn Lucey, for getting Dan Miller’s boat out on the water all year and to some away regattas!
Most Abused Crew Award – Barney Harris
Six Deep (Capsize) Award – Nich Allen

 

Results

2022 Spring Series #1

The day started off with no wind, but at 1100 it started to build and built quickly.  By the time of the first start at 1130, it was in the upper teens and gusting into the upper 20s.

Jim and Susan Graham were on the signal boat and Dan Miller and Kailyn Lucey were on the mark boat.   They gave us one T-2 race and we all decided that was enough and sailed home.

Only four boat made it to the start area.  I was on a Lightning and we had the vang, cunningham, and backstay on very hard to flatten the sails and the traveller down (like easing he main without letting the boom rise).  The jib lead was back to open up the top of the sail and keep the bottom flat.   And we still had to ease both sails to keep the boat flat.

On the reaches when a puff hit, we’d plane and the bow sprayed water like we were on a Laser and Farley on an Albacore did the same but more often.   Our GPS’s recorded a top speed of 12.6 mph.   Exciting.

Afterwards, we had a nice cookout.  Aaron Boesenecker had the grill fired up and Melissa Morgan/Phillippe brought down delicious marinated chicken, homemade humus, and leftover goodies from her birthday party.

(Photo by Kaitlyn Lucey)

Results:

2022_Spring_1_Albacore

2022_Spring_1_Lightning

Changes for the Spring Series:

We are using RRS Appendix U  or the 3-minute sound-based starting system.   Flags are optional, but I’m guessing RC will put up class flags so people know which fleets are starting and maybe postponement, OCS ,and General Recall flags if necessary.

So you don’t need to set your watch but don’t stray too far from the starting area.

 

 

Announcements, News

Safety Review Committee Report Completed

Earlier this month the Safety Review Committee complete their review and report on Safety and Standard Operating Procedures at PRSA.  They took a deep dive into what we do for safety, and what we need to look at to increase safety and reduce risk going forward. There are new safety rules that will be going into effect in the Spring Series.

  • All members of the RC are required to wear PFDs or buoyancy aids at all times.
  • All competitors are required to wear PFDs or buoyancy aids while racing.
  • If water temperatures are below 50 degrees Fahrenheit full wetsuits or drysuits are required for all competitors and for all RC volunteers.
  • Competitors leaving the racing area must notify the RC (verbally or via VHF).

There are also a number of recommendations that we’ll be looking to implement going forward.

The report itself is a very good read and a compact 12 pages so I’d suggest

Safety Review and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Committee Report

Thank you to Aaron and the rest of the committee for your many hours of work and dedication to the safety of your fellow sailors.

-Tom Hutton

Lasers

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.

LaserFrostbite2122_thru16

Race 1-59, best 30 averaged

(I say “final” but if you see what might be a mistake let me know.)

Lasers

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

LaserFrostbite2122_16

(Races 56-59, March 20)

Lasers

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.

LaserFrostbite2122_15

(Races 51-55, March 13)

Lasers

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.

More pictures

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.

Lasers

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.

LaserFrostbite2122_12

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