Announcements

2010 PRSA Hangover Regatta Friday Jan 1st

Join us on the first day of 2010 for PRSA’s Annual Hangover Regatta. There’s no better way to nurse a hangover, or recover from yet another challenging year, than by celebrating with the PRSA Laser fleet and racing with us on the Potomac River. Skippers meeting will be at 12:00, first races at 12:45. NOR, pre-registration and directions are located here:

Hangover Regatta Information and Pre-Registration

There is no registration fee. There is a $3 launching fee if your boat is not stored at Washington Sailing Marina. If you are planning on sailing, please use the online registration form to pre-register. This is always a fun event and we are expecting a great turn out. See you on the water.

News

Foiled By The Snow….

What a perfect day for a sail… Sun shining, not a cloud in the sky, winds 12-16MPH… Sure the air temp is 33F and water temp not much higher, and there is 2 feet of snow on the ground, but come on! Only Cary and myself made it to the marina this morning. When I got there Cary managed to get stuck in the snow, he quickly got himself out and a snow plow appeared behind us. He plowed the entrance to Dangerfield Island and the parking lot of the restaurant. The marina gate was down and padlocked, so we couldn’t get in. Oh well… We’re off next Sunday for the holidays. Be sure to come out Friday Jan 1st for the Hangover Regatta, that is always a fun one.

Pictures after the break:

Continue reading Foiled By The Snow…. →

News

Laser Frostbite #3 Report 12/06/09

Frostbiting it was, frozen toes and all!
By Jacob Donkersloot

The day turned out great, notwithstanding yesterday’s snow. Fortunately, there was little left of the white stuff at the Marina, and the sun did its very best to balance the high-thirties temperature.
The winds were light (5-8 mph) from the NW, perfect for a long (by frostbiting standards) W/L course in the cove. Not surprisingly, the winds oscillated a bit and the RC (Len + Barbara Guenther and Jacob Donkersloot) reset the windward mark a bit further away from the shore after the first race.
Six races were completed; all were twice around with an upwind finish (five legs total) and lasted about twenty minutes. As many as sixteen boats competed. It was good to see several winners; Sam Dobbs and David Teale (good to see you back!) placed first twice. Keith Barron and Mike Renda also won a race. David Teale won the day by a slight margin.
Keith Barron won the day for the handicap scores with a first and a third. Nice job

Scores to be posted soon.

News

Winners Write Up Day #2, 11/29

Tim Zimmermann won the day, below is his write up.

It was a perfect day for Laser racing on the Potomac: not frosty at all (temps in the 60s) and a light sailable breeze from the SSE at 4-6, shifting to SW and increasing a bit.

The first course was set up in the channel. There were plenty of boats racing and a shortish line, so getting a good start (not usually my strong point) was key. The line seemed to be slightly pin-favored and in the first race I set up a few BLs short of the line with about a minute to go because I expected boats to be up on the line fighting for a place in the front row. The tide was coming in, and held boats off the line, so it was easy to hang loose until 10 seconds, before accelerating for the gun. And perhaps because of the current many boats were off the line as the clock counted down, so there was room to put the bow down. I got a good start, and legged out toward the left looking for a header to hitch back to the middle on. The breeze looked okay on the left, and better in the middle. It also looked okay on the right, but up against the shore line it might be unreliable. Boats started to flip over behind me onto port to go back to the middle and I hung on for just a bit longer, lucked into a header and tacked back toward the middle. That was just enough to get a little cushion on the fleet and I was free to sail the shifts up to the windward mark and held that lead twice around, finishing downwind. It was a reminder of how easy tactics and sailing the shifts can be when you are not worrying about clear lanes.

Sometimes things just go your way, and the second race was almost the same as the first. I got another good start and sailed left with Robert Bennett on my windward hip. With the tide very low, I gave him a heads up that I would call for room to tack as the water got thin, and he courteously tacked away. I sailed a few more boat lengths, and tacked into a nice little lift (I wish I could say I planned it that way, but…). So again I had just enough lead to play the shifts and the fleet up to the windward mark, and established a nice cushion that held up twice around.

Continue reading Winners Write Up Day #2, 11/29 →