Well, it’s officially on in South Hampton Roads. The winter frostbite got off to a great start with 11 sailors rigging up and nine boats taking the line for a 5-race series on the Elizabeth River near Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.
Fall favority Neil Ford had his way again, with four firsts out of five. And he has your narrator to thank, too, for surrendering the lead on at least three occasions due to poor leeward mark roundings. YOU’RE WELCOME. Neil really worked the 13-knot breeze that packed a lot of shifts and puffs coming down the course – and fought his way back from a tough start to take second in the fourth race.
And for once, it really felt like winter, with temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s. Fortunately, the chop was light with the shipping terminal providing a bit of protection from the northerly breeze.
A notable performance was turned in by junior sailor Conrad Roos, who really got in a groove. Keeping his boat very flat, getting good starts and defending his position smartly, Conrade had consistent, high finishes all day to end in third.
Race veteran Mike Moore also had a stellar day, and sacrificed the first race to help another sailor get in the water. If he had started, he likely would have had a top three finish. Thanks for the support Mike.
I would like to extend the group’s thanks to ODU for use of the Lasers and facilities. This series would not happen without you.
One last thanks to my son Ian and Monica and David Tunnicliffe, who kept score and kept the line square.
For those keeping score, here are Sunday’s results: DNS was scored as 10 (nine plus one). Any errors are mine, and I will be happy to correct them. Here’s Ian in his official Race PRO Moose Hat.
It was nice day of sailing with a north-northeast wind 5-10 mph. The current was a big factor as the trapezoid course was set on the DC shore. Robert Bennett and Jim Greenly ran trapezoids and trapezoids windward-leewards. Thanks to Robert for taking my spot and allowing me to sail.
It was a day of many firsts. All five races had a different winner but the first race was the most special. Since I wanted to try out the trapezoid I had to get together a fourth mark and I was planning on going out on RC so I missed the first race. But as I was sailing out I saw the finish. I saw two boats very close crossing the finish line. I recognized the orange hull (its hard not to) as Ian’s but I could not recognize the other boat. He was wear green shorts and a sail number I did not recognize and I know almost everyone’s sail number since I was the scorer at one time. What I was watching was the first bullet for a person who has sailed with us for five years. So the big congratulations go to Kevin Cowley his first first. Eric Petersen finally finished out of third with a solid second on the day and Ian Connors took the day. The last race was won by another person who got there first first this season Jim Klein.
3rd Place Writeup:
Yesterday was a cold day with a nice breeze. The wind was from a north-northeast direction and we were sailing on the DC shore almost in the channel. The current was definitely a factor in the first half of the day. The right side of the course was nearly in the channel which made for more current. The wind would shift but they were small shifts. The starting line was set shorter than most days which put a premium on just getting off the line. We sailed trapezoids.
There were two things that stuck out most for me during the day. The first was the short reaches and the downwind leg of the trapezoid. In the second race I rounded the top mark in fourth. Nabeel, Eric P and Will S were in front of me. On the first reach there was not an opportunity to make a move so I did not move up. Everyone pretty much sailed the rhumbline from the windward mark to the first offset. As the leaders rounded the first offset they all jibed. I instead rounded the mark and just bore off to a downwind course pointing at the third mark in the trapezoid. By the leaders jibing and me just staying on the opposite jibe I created the opportunity to make up some ground. As the downwind progressed the leaders sailed a little too high and then had to sail lower at the end to get to the third mark. With this I was able to move up to third. The next leg was a relatively short one to the leeward mark of the trapezoid.
Nabeel and Eric P started to sail high again on the little reach. I believe Nabeel was trying to protect the inside. I was sailing the rhumbline and the leaders sailed high enough that I was able to get underneath them. This is one of the situations where rounding on the outside is ok. I was trying to convert a third to a first. I had gotten underneath and just far enough ahead of Nabeel that as the three boats rounded I was on the outside but ahead. I had converted to first at the first leeward mark. However, on the last windward Eric P picked me off to win the race. The point here is even on the short reach legs moves can be made to move up.
The second thing was the last start of the day. I had started near the boat end all day and the last start was no exception. I had positioned myself to be right at the boat but one person had positioned himself even better due to the current going slack. That person was Keith Barron. At thirty seconds we were both luffing slowly approaching the starboard end of the line. At this point I knew if Keith did not fall off I was not going to be able to start. As twenty seconds came and went Keith was hold his position like a champ. At ten seconds I was nearly bailing out as I was going to hit the committee boat. At less than ten seconds Keith finally started to bear off. At that point I was just about to tack and go around but since I was not head to wind luffing I pulled my boom to windward and the boat sailed sideways putting me right at the boat. I was a second or two late but was right at the boat. I salvaged a decent start. The point
here though is, I always sail better and make decisions better when I am not being controlled. If at thirty seconds instead of waiting for Keith to fall off I should have realized that Keith had the boat and I had to re-position myself. Either by falling behind him and moving down the line or tacking away and circling around. On the line it is always better to be proactive versus passive. So Keith I will not even try to barge on you anymore.
Congrats to Ian on the win for the day and congrats to Kevin on his first bullet. And thanks to Robert for letting me sail. We go at again this Sunday.
PRSA
Frostbite 2011-2012
01/22/2012
Series #8
Series Summary
The first half of the season was great! I am anticipating the second half of the year is going to be even better. We have a regatta t-shirt in the works for the Cap City Regatta (thanks Jim Klein and Robert Bennett for helping out) so don’t miss it, March 24-25. More details to follow on the Cap City Regatta.
Out of seven days of scheduled racing we raced all seven with only one being a real drifter! We also enjoyed warm temperatures which did not hurt participation. We averaged 18.857 boats (don’t ask me how you get 0.857 boats but we did) per day. We again have had new blood come into the fleet and the mid-season recap seems pretty similar to the midseason of last year. See below for a comparison.
2011-2012 Frostbite Mid-Season
7 out of 7 Days Sailed
45 Different Skippers
30 Entries in the Hangover Regatta
4 New Boat Owners
3 Skippers that sailed with us for the first time
1 Laser transplant from another fleet
6 Different Winner’s of the Day
26 – The largest fleet for any of the 7 days
3 Woman Skippers – Welcome back Jen
2 The number of people who volunteered for RC who have never sailed with us
0 The number of times the fleet captain has had to do RC because we could not find RC
2010-2011 Frostbite Mid-Season
7 Days Sailed
35 Different Skippers
33 Entries in the Hangover Regatta (Our biggest yet)
6 Skippers that sailed with us for the first time (All six are boat owners)
1 Laser Transplant from another fleet
6 Different Winner’s of the Day
18 – The largest fleet for any of the 7 days
1 Woman Skipper – New Boat Owner
2 The number of people who volunteered for RC who have never sailed with us
0 The number of times the fleet captain has had to do RC because we could not find RC
The second half of the season is on tap starting this Sunday with a lot of racing still to come. Len Guenther holds the top spot in the season scoring with Nabeel and Steve not far behind. Sunday looks like another good day for racing. Come on out!
15 January felt like the first real day of winter. I was very concerned as my hand grew numb on the first beat of the first race. I took off the gardening gloves and luckily the wind slowed, and I had my feeling back.
This day was very shifty and puffy – 5-12 knots from the West to Northwest. Some of the things I thought I did right were keeping an eye upwind to look for shifts and were the breeze was going to come from. This was key. Also, before the starts the wind would shift in the last minute & thirty and give rise to work down the line and start near the pin.
If I had better leeward legs than most, it felt like I was in tune with the breeze. I played my vang a lot and drove low when I felt I had pressure, I trimmed in when the wind shifted significantly, and I tried to keep constant heel… without flipping – I was successful.
It was a really enjoyable and competitive day. Thanks to all for the camaraderie and great race committee keeping things moving… and certainly Steve for opening his house for the fleet party night before.
It looked like a great day to be on the water and I am sorry I missed it. Jim Graham and Bill Kruse provided the RC and set up a course in the cove. It looks as thought the winner of the day came down to the last race with Tim Zimmerman taking the bullet and the day. Dave Teale was a close second and new comer (not a new comer for too much longer) Eric Petersen finished third again. When I envisioned the Third Place write-up I had figured that would give more of distribution of writers however Eric Petersen has finished third three times now. Plan backfire. So instead of asking Eric to provide another writeup (we don’t want him to stop sailing) I asked the second place finisher this week to give his thoughts. Find Dave Teale’s write-up below. For the full results see below Dave’ Write-Up.
I almost didn’t come out, because I imagined winds picking up to 18. But, I was glad I sailed because it was a great day with a bunch of boats and not overpowering wind. Puffs seemed to come more from the west, which made the left pay off more often than not. I had a couple of pin starts and noticed that the current took some boats below the pin. Overall, with the variability in wind, I tried to make adjustments with trim going upwind and kept looking for new wind coming down the course. Start with clear air, sail flat (since no waves), and make adjustments. Thanks to RC for getting off 6 expedient races. Dave Teale
PRSA
Frostbite 2011-2012
01/15/2012
Series #7
Series Summary
15 January felt like the first real day of winter. I was very concerned as my hand grew numb on the first beat of the first race. I took off the gardening gloves and luckily the wind slowed, and I had my feeling back.
This day was very shifty and puffy – 5-12 knots from the West to Northwest. Some of the things I thought I did right were keeping an eye upwind to look for shifts and were the breeze was going to come from. This was key. Also, before the starts the wind would shift in the last minute & thirty and give rise to work down the line and start near the pin.
If I had better leeward legs than most, it felt like I was in tune with the breeze. I played my vang a lot and drove low when I felt I had pressure, I trimmed in when the wind shifted significantly, and I tried to keep constant heel… without flipping – I was successful.
It was a really enjoyable and competitive day. Thanks to all for the camaraderie and great race committee keeping things moving… and certainly Steve for opening his house for the fleet party night before.
The notice of Race for the 2011 US Laser Masters to be held at Brant Beach Yacht Club on September 14-16 has been posted. Check it out at http://www.bbyc.net/LaserMasters/
It was a case of a little too much wind, a little too cold, a little short on sailors and a little bit of caution. In short, the diehards that showed up for the spring opener opted to give the racing a pass (we did get around to TALKING a lot about sailing, though): The wind was blowing pretty hard (13 or so) and right out of hampton roads and up the elizabeth river. There were plenty of whitecaps and the river was very bumpy. Temperature never got much above 30 and it just looked a little too much.
Sunday’s racing was challenging to say the least with wind shifts and pressure that was not consistent across the race coarse. In conditions like these you really have to keep your head out of the boat and monitor the other boats across the course. You need to be aware if you are on the favorable tack and on the proper side of the coarse. It seemed that the first few minutes after the start could make or break your place at the windward mark. I really was conscious of keeping myself positioned with boats that were in better wind(direction and strength) than others. Down wind huge gains or losses we’re made if you managed to be in the breeze the difficulty was the side it came from was inconsistent which meant to me constantly looking back.
Bob Tan
Radial Rig
I made a few big mistakes like being over early two times and capsizing to windward when the wind disappeared momentarily in race 4 but made back several places with boat speed. It seemed important to get clear air and work on finding the flat water groove. I was two-blocked whenever the wind was over 5 knots although this isn’t supposed to be fast with a Radial, and listening to the helm when the boat asked to inch up to windward a bit. Upwind I mostly followed shifts up the middle since you could be left out to dry on either side. Downwind, the north side of the course was almost always faster. Dorian went by me twice over there so later in the day I tried to be farthest left, sailing ridiculously far away from the rhumb line, duking it out for that position and it paid for me as it did for her. There were better puffs on the north side and maybe some swells from the Severn to ride downwind. For several races the finish line mark was way favored so the race was to that mark, definitely not to the boat end. The huge left shift in the middle of the day occurred before one of our starts and was very entertaining. Most of us got disoriented and were over early. Kudos to the RC for calling out numbers and allowing us to restart. May we be so lucky as to have a few more nice sailing days this frostbiting season!
