We had a nice day on the river to round out the spring season. 3 Albacores and 2 Lightnings came out to sail.
Tag Archives: Washington DC Sailing
PRSA Spring Series #7
Sunday was a gorgeous day for racing on the river! Although the winds were light as we rigged and sailed to the course, a nice southerly filled in for the first few races. 10 Lightnings, 2 Bucs, 3 Multihulls, 2 I-20s, and 2 Lasers came out to sail. PRO Stew Harris and his crew did a nice job organizing the racing, sending the boats off on a W2 and then an O2 in the 10-12 kt southerly. The wind shifted west and then oscillated all over the place after the first two races, making things challenging for the RC and sailors alike. The RC gamely reset the line and then adjusted to hold 2 more races in a very variable westerly. Four races making the best of conditions in sunny (but not too hot) conditions with some breeze is a pretty good way to spend a Sunday!
Results
PRSA Spring Series #6 Results
PRSA Spring Series #5
Here’s the recap of Spring Series #5 racing, written by PRO Jeff Neurauter:
Despite the rain, we saw wonderful breeze on the river today and 4 Albacores and 1 Buccaneer showed up to play. Based on the size of the fleet and types of boats involved, the group decided to race in the river straight out from Washington Sailing Marina. This worked perfectly as it allowed us to get to and back from the race course quickly. The RC set up a W-2 and waited for competitors to arrive.
The first race started with one of the Albacores trying to execute a dip start – unfortunately they remained a boat length above the line and were called over early. The lead Albacore managed to accumulate a sizable lead by the 3rd leg of the course and casually sailed through the finish line on their way to the windward mark. The rest of the Albacores and the Bucc must have noticed this and must not have checked the course flags, because they all sailed through the finish line and then stopped racing! They each peeled off and started pacing back and forth below the start line. Meanwhile the lead Albacore was rounding the windward mark. After a few minutes, some of the Albacores had realized their mistake but none of them continued racing. Instead, the RC and everyone else waited patiently for one Albacore to sail the rest of the racecourse. It took the lone Albacore just over 20 minutes to finish the race and everyone else who started the race was scored DNF.
The second race started with the Albacores aggressively pushing the starting line and once again an Albacore or two were called over early. As this race progressed the wind steadily clocked to the left and by the time boats were on the 3rd leg, it was almost a reach to the windward mark. So we moved the windward mark from the Maryland side of the river to the Virginia side, squared the starting line, and prepared for the 3rd race.
The third race started with the Albacores again fighting for space on the line and again the RC called boats over early. As this race progressed, the wind clocked back to the right so we had to move the windward mark back to toward the Maryland side of the river for the next race.
By the fourth start, the Albacores had figured things out and made it off the line cleanly. This race brought the most exciting competition as the there were several very close roundings and position changes throughout the race by the top 3 boats.
PRSA Spring Series #4 Results
Spring Series #4 was a drizzly day, but we did have enough wind to race. The RC set up a course just outside the airport pier and we were able to get 3 races in while the water levels were high enough and the rain light enough. Once boats started bumping bottom and the rain really came in we headed to shore, dried off, and then headed over to Rustico for a beverage and a bite in a spot a bit drier (and warmer) than the grove.
Spring Sailing & PRSA Spring Regatta
Our regular PRSA Spring Series is underway and the PRSA Spring Regatta will be held on May 25-26. Join us for great fun on and off the water!
Spring Series #3: Light and variable
It took a bit for the wind to fill in for Spring Series #3. The RC postponed ashore on the advice of the folks out on the river running the I-20 Cherry Blossom Regatta since there was no wind between 1000 and 1130 or so. A light southerly began to fill around 1130 and those boats who still wanted to sail — 4 Lightnings and 2 Bucs — made their way up to the course. We were able to get off one W2 race and then a shortened second race in the light breeze. With no wind on the river at all as the second, shortened, race concluded and with some storm clouds brewing to the west we contemplated towing boats back to the marina area. The breeze filled in again though to help folks get home in time, and just ahead of the really gusty bands that came through later in the afternoon. As they say, a day sailing on the water is still better than a day at work!
2019 Spring Series #2
We had another nice day with a solid southerly breeze for our second spring series day. Temps were in the upper 60s . All in all it was another great day of sailing!
2019-Spring-2-Albacore
2019-Spring-2-Buccaneer
2019-Spring-2-I-20
2019-Spring-2-Lightning
2019 Spring Series #1
We had a really nice first day for the spring series. We had a lot of boats out, nice weather (75 or so) and breeze around 10 knots nice and steady out of the south. We had a nice turnout for the potluck afterwards as well.
2019-Spring-1-Albacore
2019-Spring-1-Buccaneer
2019-Spring-1-I-20
2019-Spring-2-Multi-Hull
2019-Spring-1-Lightning
2018-2019 Laser Frostbite Series #17
Sunday was another great day on the water – sunny and warm with a nice southerly(ish) breeze and lots of boats on the line, which was awesome. Tom and his buddy were able to get in a bunch races and the course was Olympic which added some nice variety to our usual windward/leewards.
One hiccough was that the battery was dead on the automatic countdown timer and the committee boat horn was not particularly loud, so you really needed to be near the committee boat to catch the sequence start and timing updates. The first upwind leg was relatively short and it felt like a bit of a sprint to the windward mark. In hindsight, I probably could have under-stood the mark a bit (especially when I was on the starboard layline for 7-10+ boat lengths) and allowed the tide to push me up to the mark – ended up over-standing a bit more often than I would have liked. Reaches were fun and I enjoyed not always jibing at the jibe mark and instead going by the lee for most or all of many 2nd reach legs. It was a little challenging to not hit the leeward mark because of the ebbing tide.
During the 2nd upwind, I generally played the shifts and that worked pretty well – did not strongly favor one side over the other, although perhaps ended up more left than right, but still pretty centered. Upwind, I focused a lot on hiking hard and keeping my weigh forward and the boat as flat as possible. Vang was generally 2-blocked, with some play in the cunningham and outhaul. During the run, generally made sure that keep the vang loose enough for the leech to flab a bit, but still kept looking upwind regularly to make sure a giant puff wasn’t imminent. Tried to stay out of the wind shadows of others, pay attention to any shifts, and surf any waves that seemed appropriate.
Overall, it was a really fun afternoon. Thanks to everyone who showed up and to Tom and his friend for running races!
Laura