- keep the boat moving – at the start and by not pinching upwind
- actively look around to figure out where the wind is
- keep my weight forward – upwind and downwind
- roll tack
Tag Archives: Laser Class
Laser Frostbite Series #9
Awesome day on the water! Great job to the RC for fitting in several quality races.
Laser Frostbite Series #6
2014-2015 Laser Frostbite Series 6
2014-2015 Laser Frostbite Series – Cumulative (Through 1/4/15)
2015 Hangover Regatta
On January 1, 1974, about the time of one of the first Hangover Regattas, the Potomac River Laser Fleet was comprised very similarly to today’s fleet, with the British Naval Attaché as our fleet captain, Turkish diplomates, Lightning sailors, 470 sailors, Jet 14 sailors and numerous high school sailors. Mark Bear and I were two of those high school sailors. With the guidance of Peter Syverson the Potomac boasted one of the first Laser fleets. There was one important difference, however. In 1974 Northern Virginia had yet to experience its huge building boom. The Sailing Marina was uniformly 14 feet in depth across the cove to the airport rip rap. We regularly held huge events in the cove including such deep water boats as Stars.Today, much of Arlington and Falls Church have washed down Four Mile Run into our cove and center of the river. Nabeel, our RC chair, citing the extreme low tide, wisely elected to head north to avoid the shallow conditions downstream from the marina. As we headed for the race course both old timers such as Mark and Michael, and even fleet regulars such as Dan and myself( I am almost a regular), found themselves glued to the bottom just inside the last day mark. Fortunately, I was able to spring free just in time to make the two minute horn. I was able to convince Nabeel to postpone to accommodate our less fortunate fleet members.
Laser Frostbite Series #4
Laser Frostbite Fleet,
Laser Frostbite Series #3
First, as newcomer to the fleet – hello to everybody! I moved to DC late last year and – after seeing the fleet out one day having too much fun while I was driving by in slow traffic — I decided to get back into Lasers. Turns out, one of the best decisions I’ve made recently. Actually that’s not a high bar in my case, but still….
2014 AGM Wrap-Up
It was great to see so many fleet members at the 2014 PRSA Annual General Meeting and Awards Banquet! A very special thanks to Lee for all of the work that she did in preparing our amazing feast, and to Dave for allowing us to use the Potomac Room at Marina Towers for the event.
The Executive Board report indicated that the state of the Association is good, with membership higher in all categories than in 2013. At the same time, we need to do more work in getting our members out on the water (sailing participation in the fall series was down a bit, in particular) and we need to start thinking about the powerboats and engines as we approach 10 years of usage on our skiffs and outboards. The PRSA Executive Board will consider these questions as part of their regular meetings in 2015 and report back to the Association at the 2015 AGM and Awards Banquet.
Please join me in congratulating the recipients of our PRSA Perpetual Awards as well as the volunteers who will serve on the PRSA Executive Board in 2015. I’ve listed these individuals below, and included links farther down to the AGM agenda and the summary of race highlights for each fleet in our major sailing events.
2015 PRSA Perpetual Award Winners
- Founder’s Trophy: Jeff Neurauter
- Fleet Captain’s Award: Michael Heinsdorf
- Yates Dowell III Award: Nabeel Alsalam
- Nabeel Alsalam Award: Lee Sayasithsena
2015 PRSA Executive Board
- Commodore: Aaron Boesenecker
- Vice Commodore: Nabeel Alsalam
- Rear Commodore: Farley Will
- Treasurer: Yates Dowell
- Secretary: Nich Allen
- Social Activities & Outreach (co-chair): Lee Sayasithsena
- Social Activities & Outreach (co-chair): Lisa-Marie Lane
- Member at Large: Stew Harris
2014 Annual General Meeting & Awards Banquet
The 2014 PRSA Annual General Meeting and Awards Banquet will be held on Saturday, November 15, 7-9 pm, in the party room at Marina Towers. Dinner will cost $20 per person (pay at the door) and will feature beef roast, chicken, vegetable dishes, sides, and assorted beverages. This is always a great chance to see everybody and reminisce about another year of great sailing, so I hope to see you there! Please sign up here to let us know whether you will be attending.
2014 PRSA AGM & Awards Banquet Agenda
Directions: From the Washington Sailing Marina, go south on GW parkway towards Alexandria. Stay to the right and take the Slaters Lane exit. (It is the first exit you come to). Turn left onto Slaters Lane from the ramp. This will take you across the parkway. Go through the intersection and past the first buildings and look for the high rise on the left. That is the building. It is only five minutes from the marina. When you arrive, please go to the front desk, sign in and ask where the PRSA Party is. They will direct you to the party room.
2014 PRSA Dinghy Open
On September 14 PRSA will host the first annual PRSA Dinghy Open Regatta. This is your chance to compete against all dinghy classes in a series of “boat-on-boat” races, so don’t miss out!
Sailboats of any class 20’ and under are invited to participate. Sailboats may be organized and compete in three divisions – Spinnaker Division, Non-spinnaker Division and Multi-hull Division. Based on the number of boats present at the Skipper’s Meeting, Divisions may be combined. All races will be scored according to the Portsmouth Yardstick system.
The NOR and Sailing Instructions are posted below. Questions should be directed to the Regatta Chair, Jeff Neurauter (703-350-9666, jmnsailor@yahoo.com).
2014 President’s Cup – Results
We had two great sailing days. Saturday was the best with rock steady 10-15 mph winds from the south. We just had to take advantage of it and so we decided to do 5 races. A front came through on Saturday evening and left us with cooler weather and N to NE winds in the 5 to 12 mph range. We did another 2 to 4 races.
44 boats in 8 classes competed on two courses. People came from as far as Hampton, Lynchburg, and the Solomons. They sailed a lot — as many as 9 reasonably long races. They partied — the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society treated us on Saturday evening and PRSA on Sunday. They had fun.
This year the Norman C. Schallor award goes to Eric Peterson who was the winner in the Laser fleet which mustered 10 boats, the largest fleet this year.
If you see inaccuracies with the results below, email me at nabeel.alsalam@gmail.com.
Upper Course
Lower Course
Steve Spratt sailing a JY-15 sailed with the Lasers but was not scored against them.</>