Announcements, News

Spring Is Almost Here!

Hello PRSA Members, the 2012 Spring sailing season is almost upon us. Our first day sailing is Sunday April 1st, I hope to see you all out on the water. We are planning on having a kick off party after sailing in the picnic area of the marina starting probably around 3-3:30. Please stop by after you put your boat away and join us for some food and drinks, PRSA will be supplying both. If your a new member this is a great opportunity to meet and mingle with all the sailors.

Also upcoming are a number of training events, click on the Calendar link to see the complete listing

1) Rear Commodore and United States Albacore Association Vice President Mike Heinsdorf will be leading a session on “How To Be A PRO”.
2) Albacore Fleet Captain Nathan Marsh will be giving a talk on “Racing Rules of Sailing”.
3) Laser Fleet Captain Erich Hesse will be presenting a “Starting Tactics” discussion.
4) Vice Commodore Nabeel Alsalam and Ben Ackerman will be putting on a 2-part (on and off the water) series on “Power Boat Handling”.

These events are free and open to non-members also, so invite your friends and co-workers.

You might have noticed, we recently revamped our web site, and are working on a new Facebook presence and new crew connection feature on the web site. We formed a committee at the beginning of the year to figure out how to improve our presence on the web and also to expand our social activities. Michelle Greenhalgh and Lee Sayasithsena are co-chairing the committee and have been doing a great job of bring in new ideas. Michelle is going to send out an email next week to give you some more details about the crew connection part of the web site and the new Facebook presence. Lee is helping organize the kick off party, next time you see them give them a big thanks for all the effort that have put forth.

Again, looking forward to seeing you all on the water in a few weeks.

Scott Snyder
Commodore

News

APS to Sponsor 7th Edition of Cap City Regatta March 24-25th

PRSA is proud to announce that Annapolis Performance Sailing has agreed to sponsor the 7th edition of the Cap City Regatta. Jacob Donkersloot was able to work with APS to obtain their sponsorship, Thanks Jacob! The sponsorship includes some gift certificates, banners, stickers and a discount on some marks. So we will be picking up two marks which should be more visible than the marks we are using currently. For all of your sailing needs visit:

Lasers, Videos

Frostbite sailors scream downwind

March 4th, 2012 was a big wind day*.  The Laser frostbite fleet went out onto the river to avoid the puffs and shifts in the cove.   Here is some video the RC boat — Steve Yelland and Kevin Crowley — took of us flying downwind.

Lasers fly downwind

* Observations at the airport: 12:52 – N at 15 mph with gusts to 22, 13:52 NW at 22 with gusts to 31, 14:52 NW at 21 with gusts to 31.

News

DC Sail Rules Seminar w/ US Sailing Race Administration Director Chris Petracco

In the interest of building bridges with our fellow sailors across the river, I’m sharing this great opportunity from DC Sail – a rules seminar with Chris Petracco, the Race Administration Director at US Sailing.  Tickets are $30 and proceeds will benefit youth sailing.  The rules seminar should be good, the scotch tasting is a nice touch, and attending the event will give you a chance to chat with other sailors (and potential members!) about PRSA and our great fleets as well!

US Sailing Presents: Racing Rules Seminar & Scotch Tasting
Friday, March 16, 2012
5:30 – 8:00 pm
Capital Yacht Club, 1000 Water Street SW
http://www.dcsail.org/

Enjoy!

Aaron Boesenecker
Lightning Fleet 50
Fleet Captain

 

Frostbite, Lasers

Laser Frostbite Day #5, 12/18/2011

It was a beautiful day on the Potomac River with the wind from the northwest 7-15, which was more than the forecast that I saw. The sun was behind the clouds making it feel like a frostbite race but the wind was enough to keep you working. It was another great turnout with 23 boats making it on the last sailing day in 2011. Will Summers and Istvan Pely set up a windward leeward out in the river. The current was coming in/slack at the beginning of the day and was going out pretty aggressively by the last race keeping the fleet off the line.
Getting a good start was essential and the mark roundings were crowded which put an emphasis on making the right decision in a short amount of time. The firsts were well spread out in six races with six different people winning a race (Erich, Frank, , Len & Robert). The wind was very shifty which caused many lead changes. Results are posted here.
I have been excited by all the new faces this year and the turnouts thus far. I hope that we can keep it up in 2012.
The next Sunday is the Hangover Regatta January 1. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year and hope to see you on the water on the 1st.

-Erich

Fall Series

Fall Series #8 Results

Wow, what a way to end the season. 8 Lightnings, 5 Albacores, and 2 Bucc’s came out to play on our last day of the Fall Series, and what a day it turned out to be. Winds were SW 14-21 with a few gusts over 30.  Most of the afternoon the wind stayed up in the 20 range so it was exciting out there.  We got 4 races in before crying uncle and the Race Committee, headed up by yours truly, was kept busy with multiple capsizes and a couple of broken boats. Pat McGee broke his rudder in the third race, and one of the Albacores (Can’t remember who) broke his Jib Halyard(?). We anchored the 2 of them while we got 1 more race in for the die hards. We then towed the wounded sailors back to the docks and put the boats away for the last time this season. Here are the scores:

Albacore Fall #8

Buccaneer Fall #8

Lightning Fall #8

And here are some pictures taken by James Vavricek while on RC at the windward mark:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111908965227869597659/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCM6GxIb3tN7migE#5674913539383060162

News

Fall Series #7: Another spectacular day of racing!

Fall Series #7 was another great day on the river, with 4 races and a good turnout all around.  It was predominantly a Lightning affair, with 10 boats showing up to race.  A couple of Bucs and Albacors also came out to play, and with all fleets starting together we had a lively starting line and good racing all day long.  I’ve included my observations from the Lightning perspective below.  Keep reading for all of the details and, as always, be sure to contribute your own comments and recollections!

Continue reading Fall Series #7: Another spectacular day of racing! →