Laser District 12

Thats right, August 1st and 2nd.

Early registration ends July 21st, please register ASAP.   After July 21st add an additional $25 to your tab!  So get your boat ready, drop us a line if you need housing and we’ll see you next weekend in Charleston !

CYC-NC NOR is here :   CYC-NOR

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July 25th and 26th! 

OK folks, time to hit the bearings on the trailer with some grease. Charleston is in 2 weeks! This is great open one design regatta, laser entry is only $35!

Don’t forget to throw the Radial rig in the car as this is our Radial Grand Prix.

Notice of Race is posted here:  CYC-SC NOR

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A fun regatta sailed on the Pamlico Sound at Oriental with 20 boats. The race committee runs a lot of races and good sailors come down from the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia. This year we got in 8 races (less than normal) with one abandoned. The regatta was won easily by John Macausland who came from New Jersey with Mike Schmidt second.

The best things about the regatta to me are that it’s on open water, current is a non factor and, versus the ocean, you have to read the wind well to do well.  All the races were sailed in an offshore wind (west I believe) at about 4-6 knots. Looking upwind, the left side of the course was bordered by a creek/little river running west/east while the middle and right side had the tree lined shore upwind of the mark. You could play the shifts up the middle and do better than the guys to your right but the left seemed favored pretty much all the time (and the right downwind) particularly closer to the windward mark. After the race Gray and I hypothesized the wind funneled down the creek, but don’t hold us to that because we’re just guessing.

As a mid fleeter trying to get better, I’ll focus on my mistakes using Glenn’s self coach technique.

Hitting the windward mark and having to do 2 720’s at the windward mark when you’re in pretty good position is not fast. According to Eric, when you’re in a good position, you should sail conservatively and according to a book Glenn recommended to me (Sail, Race, and Win) sailing is a sport where too much adrenaline is not a good thing. Getting too hyped up at the start or the windward mark causes a lot of lost places.

 I rounded the leeward mark one time 5^th or 6^th just in front of John Macausland.  He ended up pinching me off on starboard.  I tacked off and went right even though I wanted to go left. He finished 1^st and I was 8^th. Even though my pointing can stink sometimes I should have done two quick tacks. I spent most of my time at the start trying to decide the favored end and got okay starts. I’m starting to think the starts are way more about concentrating on accelerating off the line the last 15 seconds than they are about picking the favored end.