What a beautiful day it turned out to be last Sunday, although as my crew will tell you “I hate Westy’s!” 🙂 The RC set up a long (or maybe I should say wide) Triangle course that made it a real tactical choice for the Lightnings on whether to try and carry the kite on the very tight reach legs. It also made for some interesting reach-to-reach jibes at the jibe mark. As usual when we get a westy (Did I mention I hate Westy’s!) crew work was at a premium. Frank Gallagher was very consistant in winning the day for the Lightnings, while Steve Parsons took the honors for the Albacores. On a side note, it was great to see Khin & Thant on their beautiful new Albacore fresh in from England. Click the “Read More” to see the scores:
Tag Archives: Potomac River Sailing Association
PRSA Fall Series # 3, Sunday October 4!
(This post is superseded by one added on October 1) Yates Dowell is PRO, with RC provided by the Cats. The brisk, refreshing days of October are around the corner, promising dry sunny days and good winds. Today’s AccuWeather long-range forecast (always subject to change) for Sunday calls for partly sunny skies, winds from the northwest at 10 MPH, and a high temperature of 73 degrees. The river flow is near normal for this time of year, at 1,850 CFS (gage height 2.8 ft). High tide will be at 8:59 AM and low tide at 3:23 PM. Round up crew, and come on down!
PRSA Fall Series # 2, Sunday September 27!
(Posted 9/28/09) David Thompson was PRO, with RC provided by Lightnings. The AccuWeather forecast (always subject to change) called for cloudy skies in the morning, clearing in the afternoon, with a possible morning shower, and a high temperature of 76 degrees. Winds were forecasted to be from the west at 8 – 12 MPH, with higher gusts. Low tide was at 10:21 AM and high tide at 4:06 PM. The river flow was currently near normal for this time of year, at 2,120 CFS (gage height 2.9 ft) and the water temperature had cooled to 69 degrees. 10 Lightnings came out, along with 5 Albacores, on a mostly sunny day with westerly winds 6 – 10 MPH. RC set a triangular course with the windward mark near the airport’s radar tower (the one on stilts) and the leeward mark to the east, at the edge of the navigable channel, and started the first race promptly at 11:30. Winds did change direction and intensity over the course of the afternoon, fading to almost nothing at the end of the third race, before David decided to call it a day and head home. We had most boats put away by 4 PM when an intense, but short rain squall hit, soaking all those who were still securing their craft. Scores to be posted soon.
TEAM SPOT (BARNEY HARRIS AND DAVID BYRON) WINS 2009 CANADIAN NATIONALS COMPETING IN A FORTY FIVE ALBACORE FLEET!
Canadians report day 3
Sailed out in drifting conditions with a light to no wind forecast – but at 1100 or so the breeze filled in from the east – the best wind so far this week end. probably 10-12 kts. after initially botching the line and first leg length the RC fortunately called a general recall, lenghtened the wwd leg (to greater than the start line length) and set a line that one could at least cross on both tacks. we nailed the pin end, with us at 20 sec 3 BL off the pin and right on the cut off. boats below could not lay the pin and those above were held stopped until we pulled the trigger at about 12 seconds. our bow was at the pin right as the horn blew, fully hiked and at full speed. we sailed for 100 feet, tacked and crossed the fleet, laying the first mark. break away bullet. boom shakalaka!
PRSA Fall Series # 2, Sunday September 27!
THIS POST HAS BEEN SUPERCEDED BY ONE ON 9/27 ! David Thompson is PRO, with RC provided by Lightnings and others. Today’s AccuWeather long-range forecast (always subject to change) for Sunday calls for partly cloudy and breezy conditions with a possible morning shower, and a high temperature of 78 degrees. Winds are forecasted to be from the WSW at 15 MPH, with higher gusts. Low tide will be at 10:21 AM and high tide at 4:06 PM. The river flow is currently well below normal for this time of year, at 1,230 CFS (gage height 2.6 ft) and the water temperature has warmed back up to 77 degrees. Round up crew, and come on down!
How Not To Launch The PRSA Committee Boats!
A picture is worth a thousand words…
Photo courtesy of Keith Strasser.
Fall Series #1 09/20/2009 Scores
What a great day on the water Sunday. 9 Lightnings, 8 Albacores, 1 Hobie, and 1 Laser came out to play on a beautiful sunny afternoon. We decided to sail the lower course because the breeze was looking pretty iffy at the Skippers meeting. As it turned out, we could easily have gone up to the upper course as we had nice 5-7 kt breezes that started out of the SE and slowly shifted around to SSW. The RC headed up by Jeff Storck got 4 races in before it got too shallow to continue and calling it a day. Congratulations to the days’ winners – Albacore Skipper Daphne Byron, and Lightning Skipper Rick Welch. Follow the “Read More” link to see the scores:
Jeff Neurauter Takes First PLace in the Buccaneer Class at the SMSA Small Boat Invitational!
We had two great days on the water at Solomons last weekend, with sunny skies, temperatures in the mid-70s, and northerly breezes at 8 – 12 MPH on Saturday and southeasterly breezes at 6 – 7 MPH on Sunday. Only four Lightnings competed, so they were lumped with 3 Albacores, 2 Interlakes, a Flying Scot, two Force-5s, a Capri 14 and a JY 15 into a Portsmouth Class for scoring. On the race course also were 14 Buccs (Aarrghhh); 6 Lasers; and 5 Windmills. Congratulations to PRSA’s Jeff Neurauter who took first place in the Buccaneer class!
Leukemia Cup Fundraising results!
by Loree Lipstein
September 16, 2009
September 16, 2009
Hello fabulous Leukemia Cup supporters!
First and foremost, a Big, HUGE, heartfelt THANK YOU to each and everyone of you for your contributions to this year’s Leukemia Cup Regatta. Whether you sailed, volunteered, fundraised, registered, race committee your participation and time played a part in a very successful and enjoyable weekend for all!
How about that wind?!! I am very happy to be able to continue providing that service for you all 🙂 Just keep up that great participation from year to year and it would be my pleasure to continue providing you conditions for great racing 😉 And what about our wonderful band the Cahoots?! Many asked me to pass on compliments to the band. Anyone who would like more details or to be in touch with them, their website is: www.cahootsrockandroll.com
Thoughts from Lightning Class Presidents Cup Winner – Frank Gallagher
Want to know how Frank and his team did it? Read on:
We went out the two previous wed night sailings and got in some good practice…especially mark rounding’s with spin up/down..(windward and leeward)…lots of spin jibing…we found ourselves not doing well jibing on deck…so after lots of failed attempts with inside the boat jibes, we finally developed a process that worked well for us… Crew rotation practice…..both Brenna and Mladen do foredeck or middle, so when something goes wrong during the race, both are aware of what’s wrong and how to fix it…(Brenna made a great save when our spin sheet went under the boat during one take down….could have been a catastrophic foul-up…..!!!) We cleaned the boat real well sat morning…got out a little early and got a little practice in…. As for the race itself…nothing too special…we were lucky…but prepared and ready to take advantage of all opportunities on the course We checked the line before the starts…decided where we wanted to start and got mostly good starts and just work our way upwind. There were lots of shifts to play and that helped us catch up several times…..Mladen is foredeck and always looking forward for windshifts, pressure and what other boats are doing…Brenna is middle and looking around beside and behind us for other boats, there angles and speed…
We live by 3 rules in this order……
1…always drive the fastest path to the next mark…(be on the favored tack..)find pressure
2….always trim all sails for max speed….lots of gear changing..ease in light stuff…trim as pressure builds..centerline boom…constantly adjust the spin…always on the edge of a luff….
3….boat balance…fair amount of heal in real light stuff…dead flat in the heavy stuff….anticipate…don’t react…lots of heal to round the leeward mark in light to medium…
And oh yeah….avoid conflict..no boat banging..or killer mistakes like OCS or protests…
And above all we have fun as a team.
Frank