Tag Archives: Frostbite

Frostbite, Lasers, Frostbite

25-26 PRSA LASER FROSTBITE #3

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Happy late Thanksgiving everyone!! It was wonderful to have our first foul weather frostbite of the year. Ten sailors braved ~40-degree weather, off-and-on rain, and 10-20 mph wind. Congrats to Kaitlyn, Tom, and Tyler for winning today’s six races.

Today’s courses tended to have long starboard tacks, which was unfortunate for me – I accidentally brought two left gloves out with me and had to spend several minutes fighting to keep my mainsail sheeted in with a backwards glove on my right hand. This also meant that most of the passes took place at the marks, so boathandling during roundings was at a premium. In medium-heavy air, it’s crucial to ease the vang on approach to the windward mark and use your body weight to turn the boat. These actions relieve weather helm and help turn the boat more efficiently. Tom and Tyler seemed to a particularly good job of cleanly rounding the weather mark and getting a good jump on the downwinds. At the leeward mark, it was important to preset your controls for the upwind and doing a wide and tight rounding. I passed more than a few people today by making sure I was on the correct (port) gybe approaching the mark and going wide-and-tight around the mark to make sure I got inside position. Every time I messed this up, I got passed.

After the races, I had a brief conversation with Tyler about heavy wind downwinds. The first thing I told him is that I prefer to reach, rather than sail by the lee in breeze over 12 mph. It helps keep the boat upright, makes pumping and planing easier, and allows for more maneuverability on short notice. We also discussed body position in the cockpit. As a rule of thumb, you want to be at the front of the cockpit in a Laser any time the hull is not planing. On lighter downwinds, I try to have by center of mass even with the daggerboard. Having weight further forward in the boat lifts the largest surface on your hull (the stern) out of the water to reduce drag. In heavier breeze, I try to move back to the widest part of the hull to use my weight to more effectively prevent death rolls.

Thanks to Brian Joseph and his daughter for setting excellent courses and taking care of us on the water. They did an excellent job of setting up pin-favored lines, which made for more tactically interesting starts and fewer clumps at the boat end of the line. See y’all next week.

-Connor

25-26 PRSA FROSTBITE #2 REWORKED

Frostbite, Lasers, Frostbite, Lasers

25-26 ILCA Frostbite #2

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Welcome back to everyone who made it out Sunday!  There was some mix up on who got 3rd place today so I have the writeup from 2nd place and Laura will owe me a writeup later!  We had a good turnout with 19 boats coming out and moderate breeze and temps around 60.  Thank you to Jacob and Tyler for doing RC and getting 5 races off despite a late start and wind shift!  Kudos to Brian for getting 3 bullets, who said he learned some things at the clinic 2 weeks ago!  Also congrats to Kaitlyn on getting a bullet in race #4.
I have not sailed since the last frostbite series and was quite worried about the rust and being out of shape but I guess I was proven wrong.  Some thoughts on today.
In the first 3 races we had a nice southerly breeze that had some velocity changes but did require some hiking.  With the conditions of the day and sailing on that part of the river I have found that during a southerly with an outgoing tide you almost always are faster going downwind closer to the DC side of the river.  This is counter intuitive as you give up being the inside boat but something about the geography of the river makes this work.  I did that in all 3 races and it paid off (my starts were not great).  For starts, the wind and current were about even so it was fairly early to set up and wait at the line.  I did not do this well but did notice it.
Near the end of race 3 our westerly finally came so we reset the course.  The last two races were much tougher.  We had a short start line with a current running down it so there was often a pile up at the pin.  I tried to avoid that and started near the boat mostly.  With a westerly breeze it is always a bit squirrely at the windward mark and today did not disappoint.  Mostly just be ready for anything and lots of place changes.  For our races today mostly the pressure shots were coming from the left so it paid off to be further left.  The port tack tended to be lifted so you wanted to ride that as long as possible.  Also in the shifty conditions, make sure you are looking at boats ahead of you to know what is coming!
Great day out on the water and hope to see everyone out again soon!
Frostbite, Lasers, Lasers, News

2024-2025 ILCA Frostbite #3

Frostbite, Lasers, Frostbite, Results, 2018

2018-2019 Laser Frostbite Series #3

Frostbite Series #2 and #3 have been great conditions, good turnout, and fun racing. I regret missing the first weekend. As always, a thank you to our underpaid Race Committee. I was initially skeptical of the leeward gate setup, but variety is the spice of life (it was fun)! Conditions were mostly steady from the south, but became light in race 14 (I think). The last couple races we started to see some significant starboard tack lifts with boats stacking up near the committee boat and puffs from the western shore. A flooding current wasn’t as aggressive as last week’s ebb current, but still worth accounting for during mark roundings.

Tactically, I don’t think I had a favorite side; sometimes I went left, sometimes right. I generally tried to be on the line, have clear air, and not mess with other boats. At least two starts, I severely mistimed and was deep off the line. I immediately tacked out from the fleet to get clear air and play catch up. I find that I perform my best when I sail my own race and concentrate on speed, shifts, and sailing where I want to sail. Sometimes that meant an aggressive duck rather than leebowing a starboard tack boat (to avoid boxing myself in or wasting concentration on fighting the one boat next to me versus the fleet at large). My best race, was when the wind lightened up (again, I think race 14). I eased the mainsheet, probably about 10-inches block-block and focused on weight/boat flatness, keeping the boat powered up, and tacking on shifts. Due to the leeward gate, the fleet seemed to split pretty early just after the windward mark so I found the runs a little less stressful than normal. For finishes, it seemed like boats that rounded the easternmost leeward gate and finished near the pin tended to net better and I lost several places even when I was ahead going into the gate by finishing near the boat.
Lastly, I’d like to thank my corporate sponsors, Intensity sails for their MKII practice sail (just kidding, but I will thank them nonetheless). I have only used the MKII sail these past two weekends, but I have really enjoyed it. I am not going to outright say it is a faster sail design, but I think I can make the boat sail faster because it seems to look/perform more like other sailboats I’ve sailed. Again, I’m not saying you can buy your way to speed, but I am giddy when looking up at a pretty sail while racing (maybe its all about the right emotional attitude). Anheuser-Busch, what can I say, other than Len wants everyone to drink the free Bud light he’s been offering.
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 →

News

Frostbite Day #1, Nov 22nd

Wow, we had a spectacular first frostbite day with excellent turnout!!  Twenty six people participated with twenty one boats!  It was a sunny day and the winds were fairly steady at 10mph all day coming out of the north east and temps were in the mid 50F’s.  We set up an Olympic course in the cove that was approximately 1 mile long and proceeded to have seven races.  Erich won the day and Kevin Cowley won the inaugural handicap scoring. Click here for the scores. We had a good group of new faces and a couple faces we haven’t seen in awhile.  Don’t miss the fun, come on out and sail with us this Sunday and burn off some of that thanksgiving turkey!  See you on the water…

Announcements

PRSA Fall Finale Regatta, Today, Saturday November 7!!

Today (Nov 7th) is the PRSA Fall Finale Regatta. This is the last regatta of the year  for our fair weather sailing friends, and the first of our winter Laser frostbite season.   Right now the weather looks perfect, A high of 59 degrees is predicted, with sunny skies  and winds from the S at 8 – 9 MPH all day.  We should have a big turn out for this regatta.  Last year we had 3 Albacores, 2 Buccs, 3 Hobies, 3 Lasers, and 5 Lightings show on a day with  questionable weather.  This year we should do better than that!  The Skippers Meeting is at noon and the first warning at 12:40.  Frank is PRO, with Mladen, Brenna, Barney, and Jill as helpers.  We’ll be sailing in the cove or down by the power plant depending on the weather  and how many boats show up. Bring hot Chili and cold beer for the party after.   Hope to see you on the water!