The Laser Sailor Fall 2007 by Tracy Usher

6 continents, 122 countries - the biggest adult and youth racing class in the world

FALL 2007

Official publication of the International Laser Class Association, North American Region 2812 Canon Street San Diego, CA 92106 USA Phone: (619) 222-0252 Fax: (619) 222-0528 admin@Laser.org www.Laser.org

District Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Editors

From the Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Sherri Campbell & Jerelyn Biehl ILCA-NA

Laser Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14-15

Officers Tracy Usher Chairman PO Box 370701 Montara, CA 94037 Phone: (650) 340-1129 usher@slac.stanford.edu Eric Faust Vice Chairman 821 East 53rd Street Austin, TX 78751 Phone: (512) 791-8218 ehfaust@gmail.com Ben Richardson Treasurer Phone: (978) 283-6983 benjaminrichardson@postharvard.edu Lauralee Symes Secretary 3576 SW Mt. Adams Drive Portland, OR 97239 Phone: (503) 274-2818 llsymes@comcast.net

FA L L

2 0 0 7

President’s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Membership Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Technical Tips: How to Post Results Quickly . . . . . . . .16 2008 Event Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Technical Tips:Why Do You Get Excited Sailing Lasers? . . .18 Treasure Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Laser World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .center Fleet Profiles - Cedar Point & Newport . . . . . . . . . .20-23 Masters Sailing: Master’s PCC’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Pan Am & Pre-Olympic Gold Medals . . . . . . . . . . .26-27 Regatta Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-33 2007 Vanguard NA Grand Prix Results . . . . . . . . . 34-35 District Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-45 Membership Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Sailing Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Tommy Wharton At Large 705 King Street West, Unit 1514 Toronto, ON M5V 2W8 Canada Phone: 647-296-6544 twharton@sailing.ca

Sherri Campbell Executive Secretary 2812 Canon Street San Diego, CA 92106 Phone: (619) 222-0252 Fax: (619) 222-0528 admin@Laser.org

Cover: Keamia Rasa of Canada in good form in Cascais where she finished 18th in the Worlds. Photo: Mark Lammens

www.Laser.org

BRITISH COLUMBIA

ALBERTA

SASKATCHEWAN

QUEBEC

MANITOBA

NEW BRUNSWICK

ONTARIO

WASHINGTON NORTH DAKOTA

OREGON

VERMONT

MONTANA MICHIGAN WYOMING

19 IOWA

PENNSYLVANIA

NEBRASKA

HAWAII

NEW 9 YORK

WISCONSIN

OHIO

UTAH

ILLINOIS

WEST VIRGINIA

KANSAS

23 25

MASSACHUSETTS RHODE ISLAND CONNECTICUT

NEW JERSEY

MARYLAND

KENTUCKY NORTH CAROLINA

MISSOURI

16 OKLAHOMA

ARIZONA

NEW HAMPSHIRE

VIRGINIA

COLORADO

CALIFORNIA

7 7

DELAWARE

INDIANA

NEVADA

NOVA SCOTIA

MAINE

MINNESOTA

SOUTH DAKOTA IDAHO

TENNESSEE ARKANSAS

SOUTH CAROLINA

NEW MEXICO TEXAS

GEORGIA LOUISIANA

PUERTO RICO AND THE CARIBBEAN

14 ALABAMA MISSISSIPPI

29 13 FLORIDA

District 1

District 9

District 18

Brian Mills, 71 Bristol Street, Fredricton, NB E3B 4W2 506-451-1580, bnmills@sympatico.ca

Chas Williamson, 9 Lagrand Court Ithaca, NY 14850 607-272-0630. cw26@cornell.edu

John Shockey 614-256-2254 jshockna06@yahoo.com

District 2

District 10

District 19

Denys Deschambeault, 5120 Du Havre, Trois Rivieres, PQ G8Y 5Y9 819-372-0842 denys.deschambeault@tr.cgocable.ca

Eric Reitinger er4599@gmail.com New Jersey

Sean Fidler Michigan smfidler@gmail.com

District 3

District 11

Heinz Gebauer, 2205 Soth Millway- Unit 109 Mississauga, ON L5L 3T2 905-820-8446. heinzgebauer@rogers.com D3 website: www.d3laser.ca

Jon Deutsch 411 N. Blvd. Apt. 2, Richmond, VA 23220 804-305-1244, jon@laserdistrict11.org http://www.laserdistrict11.org

District 4

District 12

Kyle Ross, 106 River Pointe Dr. Winnipeg, MB 2RM 5N6 204-803-3834, wkpr1990@hotmail.com

Arland Whitesides, 14 W. Oxford St. Wrightsville Beach, NC, 28480 awhitesides@ec.rr.com www.d12.laserforum.org

District 5 Mark Lammens 510 Cynthia St. Saskatoon, SK S7K 7K7 306-975-0833. sasksail@smaw.ca www.jdecm.com/laser

District 6

District 13 Meka Taulbee, 953 Cedarwood Dr. Dunedin, FL 34968 727-631-7005, meka@sailfit.com www.laser.org/m/_general/d13.asp

Andy Hunt, 111-2260 W 8st Ave, Vancouver BC, V6K 2A7 604-733-9663. Hotline: 206-525-5788. athunt@vcn.bc.ca www.cycseattle.org/slf

District 14

District 7

Renee Ruais 512-266-7088 RMRuais@austin.rr.com www.cerebus.winsite.com/Laser/districts/d15/

Sally Sharp, 39 Caleb Dyer Lane Enfield, NH 03748 603-632-4192. sally.sharp@dartmouth.edu D7 Newsletter Chris Morin abcmorin@maine.rr.com 207.775.5485 www.d7laserforum.org

District 8 Ted Cremer, 7 Maple Street Blue Point, NY 11715. 631-363-8830, tcremer@optonline.net www.laserd8.tripod.com

Cal Herman, 7038 Catina St New Orleans, LA 70124, 504-282-1770 callender.herman@wachoviasec.com

District 15

District 16 Tim Fitzgerald, 2322 Bromfield Circle Wichita, KS, 67226, 316-650-3636 timfitz@ku.edu

District 17 John E. Coolidge, Jr., 1113 Hanover St, Chattanooga, TN 37405, 423-309-1926 JC@Chattprint.com

District 20 Dave Abbott, 2129 West Shore Dr. Delafield, WI 53018 262-303-4084. sailmc1983@yahoo.com www.cerebus.winsite.com/district/d20/

District 21 Mike Elson 2235 West 21st Street Minneapolis, MN 55405 621-377-8903 melson@visi.com www.cerebus.winsite.com/laser/district/d21

District 22 Mike Gilbert, 1620 Gerald Ave. Missoula, MT 59801 406-327-7855, mike@gilbertarch.com

District 23 Larry Arbuthnot PO Box 132, Nederland, CO 80466 www.sailtherockies.com

District 24 David Lapier 408-525-6396, dlapier@cisco.com www.technicalwizardry.com/d24laser/d24

District 25 Nils Andersson, 6929 Wyoming Avenue, La Mesa, CA 91942 619-561-1722. nilssail@cox.net groups.yahoo.com/group/nalaserdistrict25

District 26 Guy Fleming, 44-392 Olina St. #6 Kaneohe, HI 96744-2617 808-955-4405. guynsyd@hawaii.rr.com

FALL 2007

6th Caribbean Laser Midwinter Regatta January 11-13, 2008

Reserve your boat now!

www.Laser.org

Reports Vice-Chairman’s Notes ERIC FAUST

End of the Summer With the days growing shorter, yesterday saw the end of this year’s Wednesday night Laser racing on Lake Travis in Austin. The wind didn’t cooperate, and only a handful of hardy souls rigged up to race. The rest of us stayed on shore and did what sailors do when the wind is light; we told tall tales about our recent sailing experiences and made plans for upcoming regattas. It was a great reminder of one of the main reasons that many of us choose to sail Lasers – the camaraderie and the friends we make in this sport. Good times. Those of you who live in colder climates may have already closed down your sailing for the year, while the lucky ones in the south may be looking forward to the coming autumn winds. Regardless of where you live, as the seasons change I would like to make a suggestion for your fleet. Laser sailors everywhere should make a point to hold an end-of-season or holiday party this winter. It’s always a good way to keep people thinking about Laser sailing and helps keep the group together when sailing may not be available. Make it a point to invite all the new sailors who came out during the season, and you just might see them again in the spring too.

Florida Sailing And those holiday parties are also a great time to make your plans to get a group together for the trek to Florida for the early season circuit next year. Things are shaping up nicely for 2008 from the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta to the Midwinter Championship in Clearwater. Masters sailors have the opportunity to really overdose on regattas with the Florida Masters, the Masters Midweek Madness regatta and Masters Midwinters all held over a 10-day period. If you’ve never made it to Florida for these regattas, you really owe it to yourself to try it. You’re guaranteed to improve your sailing and probably make some new friends in the

process.

Olympic Sailing As I write this, the U.S. Olympic Team Trials are just a few weeks away. Over the past years, some of our younger sailors throughout North America have been working hard toward their quest to represent their country in the Olympics, while the rest of us are eager spectators to their endeavors. I have to applaud the efforts of these sailors who put school and careers on hold in pursuit of their dreams. But as all eyes turn to Newport to watch the competition, it’s worth taking a moment to remember where we’ve been. When the Laser was first announced as an Olympic Class in the early 1990s, many feared it would mean the demise of Laser sailing as we knew it. The Laser would become just another class where one couldn’t compete without spending large amounts of money or being gifted natural athletes. But after more than decade in the Olympics, it appears that prediction just doesn’t hold water. Laser sailing on the grassroots level is still going strong. New boats are being sold and new people are coming into the sport. The effect of our Olympic status for the Laser, (and now the Radial too) seems to be an overall rise in the level of competition at major regattas while not compromising our local sailing. Average competitors also benefit from the improved quality of judging at many events, with on the water judges keeping the playing field level for everyone. In my opinion, as a class we should continue to embrace the higher level of competition and the increased visibility that the Olympics bring to all levels of our sport.

ing to the choir, but maintaining our membership numbers is critical to sustaining the long-term health of the game we all love to play. More members means bigger and better regattas, bigger and better magazines, a bigger and better website etc. etc…. Without the funds to support our central organization, all the things we now enjoy about Laser sailing could fizzle away. Yes, this is a shameless plug for people to spend money, but no, as an officer of the Laser Class I don’t get a penny of your dues. I’m just dedicated to leaving the Laser Class in North America stronger than I found it. If you make it a point to get a new sailor into the Class, we will all benefit. Finally, go Laser sailing. If it’s too cold, call a friend and talk about Laser sailing. If you don’t have a friend, think about Laser sailing. Believe me, it’s fun! See you on the water.

Keeping our Class Strong And speaking of the grassroots of our sport, we should all make it a point to promote being a Laser Class member to all of our fellow sailors. I know that if you’re reading this I’m preach-

FALL 2007

ILCA-NA Membership As of August 31, 2007

Age Categories: • 402 Juniors (not 18 in 2007) • 1097 Masters (35+)

Gender Categories: • 1997 Male • 320 Female • 17 “undisclosed”

Regular Junior Family, 1 Family, 2 Family, 3 International Total

Complimentary Honorary New Renewals Yacht Club

209 5 579 2334 3

Total

1980

www.Laser.org

1526 476 238 87 4 1 2332

Boat Categories: • 562 Radial • 10 4.7 • 1353 Full Rig District

Members

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 29

35 33 197 10 43 129 359 113 44 130 173 95 169 25 76 20 18 76 77 102 48 2 31 102 160 7 24

From the Builder NED JONES I write this installment as I am in the UK on the Isle of Wight in Cowes. This is only significant because the conditions here are cold and grey. Cold and grey in North America means summer has ended and the fall and winter seasons are arriving. For many Laser sailors (and selfishly for me in the northeast) some of the best Laser sailing all year is upon us. This year in particular is significant. The Laser and Radial US Olympic trials will take place this October in Rhode Island. While this regatta is for the elite sailors in the Class in the US, it is an opportunity to reflect on the state of our beloved Laser Class. The Class thrives at all levels. From the growing 4.7 Class up through the Olympic Team members headed to China, our Class is strong. The strength is based in the Laser Class philosophy. The competition is based on sailing skill, and sailing skill alone. The Laser Class rules are tight, controlled, well managed and serve the membership well. As I have said in this column before, the latest modern technology may not be in the Class, but there is no stronger class in the world. That being said, the Laser Class is constantly looking at new technology based opportunities to improve the viability and sailing qualities of the boat. The composite upper mast for the Radial is the latest initiative. Testing is underway, and perhaps approval will come in the near future. As with any equipment change, different camps can have differing opinions. The Radial composite upper mast is no exception. Do we need it? Will it be more expensive? Why are we doing this? Legitimate concerns all. Do we need it? Certainly the Class and the builders believe that it is worth doing the dedicated and disciplined research to determine if it will benefit the Class as a whole. Therein lies the overriding principle of any rules or equipment change. Will it benefit the Class? In the case of the composite Radial upper, it certainly can. A greater weight range of sailors can be competitive in the Radial. This leads to more sailors, increased regatta attendance, higher international profile, and greater accessibility for more sailors. Will it be more expensive? Sure it will. Newer, better and more modern will almost always come with a higher price. Certainly one of the chief benefits can be that replacing your top section will occur less often. Since the composite top section can be more forgiv-

ing, the Radial bottom section could last longer as well. These are ancillary benefits to including a greater number competitive Radial sailors in our Class. That is why the Laser Class along with the builders is pursuing this project. It has to be a common goal of all of ours to keep our Class strong and develop opportunities for more sailors to enjoy the competition and camaraderie that we experience. I mentioned fall sailing earlier. This is worth discussing as I feel one of our Classâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest strengths is the sailing and racing that exists at the local fleet level. Frostbiting fleets embody all the reasons we sail Lasers; Competitive racing, camaraderie, practice, and a base from which increased growth can be fostered. It can far less intimidating, and more helpful for a new sailor to experience Laser sailing at the local level than at the Miami OCR. Local fleets are motivated to sustain and grow their numbers through information sharing,

cooperative scheduling, social activities and hosting regattas. It is contagious and whole lot of fun. There are numerous examples of successful fleets throughout North America. Cedar Point CT, Newport RI, Alamitos Bay CA, to name a few. Do not hesitate to contact someone involved in an established fleet to learn more about how to make it happen for you at your local fleet. As I mentioned earlier, it is our collective common goal to keep our Class strong and spread the word. In closing, I want to emphasize that we are involved here because we sail Lasers. If one chooses to rig their boat with gear that is other than Laser Class approved, they are not sailing a Laser. This might seem like a minor detail, especially at the local fleet level, but that is where it is most significant. Our success is founded in the one design principle of using identical boats and the let the sailing skill make the difference between boats. If you ever have a question as to what is legal, illegal, correct or not, you can always find the answer, and often you will find it within your local fleet. Dress warmly and hike hard.

FALL 2007

www.Laser.org

Laser Profiles Name: Caroline Muselet Occupation: engineer/researcher City/state/province: St. John’s/Newfoundland and Labrador/Canada Age: 36 I sail a Radial I’ve been sailing since I was ~10 and sailing a Laser for 3 years In the last year, I’ve sailed my Laser 40 days and raced in 5 regattas. The last regatta I sailed in was CORK and I achieved my goal of qualifying for the gold fleet My hero is Ellen McArthur because she’s a great sailor, she’s mentally strong, and she pursues her dreams My favorite part of racing a Laser is the surfs, and the experience of racing in large fleets At the end of a long day of sailing, I like to relax with friends What other Laser sailor has helped you the most with your Laser sailing? Many have helped some. To name just one: Robert Decker who encouraged me to buy my Laser and start in the class, and helped me in my training and racing. If I had an unlimited bank account, I’d create and fund programs that would allow kids from all backgrounds to discover and enjoy sailing. Oh, and if it’s truly unlimited so that, after giving all I can to fight hunger and poverty, there is still unlimited money left, then for fun I would mount a strong Canadian Challenge for the America’s Cup!

Name: Kurt Mill er City/state/provi nce: Boulder, CO Age: 47 years yo ung I sail a full rig La ser I’ve been sailing since I was 8 and saili ng a Laser since I w as 12 for 10 years, retir ing from sailing fo r 23 years. Returning to La ser racing in 20 05 the sailors from Long Beach convince d me to make a return. I was able to sa il 23 days in 2005 and com pete in Brazil at the World Masters, finishi ng 3rd behind NZ and AUS and the first Am erican. I have now sailed a total of 3 times in the last eyar which is not good. My ho pe was to sail in Australia but it looks like I will aim for so me big races next sum mer. My heros are Pa ul Evström and Bu ddy Melges My favorite part of racing a Lase r is that the boats are all even and you don’t ha ve to spend 100’s of hours m aking your boat co mpetitive. At the end of a long day of saili ng, I like to enjoy sharing stor ies from the race course over a cold beer. What other Lase r sailor has help ed you the most with your Laser sailing? Ea rly in my sailing days Paul Cayard, John Bertr and and Cam Lewis helped me on and off th e race course. My colle ge coach Jim Jorg en son gave me the most guid ance and set me up to be successful in racing and life. I’d like to see m ore of the Maste r sailors come back and do some dinghy ra cing including Paul Ca yard, John Bert ra nd and Cam Lewis.

I’d like to see more Laser sailors sail in Newfoundland.

FALL 2007

Laser Profiles Name: Indrek Aavisto Occupation: Retired Professional Engineer City/state/province: Sudbury, Ontario Age:

I sail a full rig, mostly I’ve been sailing since I was 15 and sailing a Laser for 27 years In the last year, I’ve sailed my Laser ~40 number of days and raced in 4 regattas. The last regatta I sailed in was Ottawa valley masters at Lac Deschenes. It was windy the first day, and I decided to try a radial rig. It was the first time I had sailed a radial for over three years and I got a few breaks and managed to come in as the first radial in the regatta. My hero is Heinz Gebauer because He is a real gentleman on the race course and shows that he is still extremely hard to beat almost ten years after becoming a GGM My favorite part of racing a Laser is The camaraderie At the end of a long day of sailing, I like to Relax with a beer What other Laser sailor has helped you the most with your Laser sailing? It’s hard to pick out a single individual, so many sailors have helped me with advice over the years. If I had an unlimited bank account, I’d Outfit our local sailing school with new equipment I’d like to see more Laser sailors Out on the race course

www.Laser.org

Technical Tips -- for regatta organizers How did we post results so quickly? Tips from the US Nationals in Mallets Bay, Vermont THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE NATIONALS WEBSITE We just wrapped up hosting the 2007 Laser Nationals and have received positive feedback regarding the live updates and how quickly we were able to post accurate results. Here is a little insight into how we were able to post provisional results on the Internet within a half hour after the last boat in an 80+ boat fleet finished. The key is having good people on the finish boats. All the technology in the world does not matter if you don’t have accurate finish orders to post. We had two finish boats, one at each end of the line. The primary boat was anchored at the starboard end of the finish line. The secondary finish boat anchored just beyond the pin end of the line so that they could sight the line back towards the primary finish boat. Each boat was set up with a person sighting the line, two people recording results, a person videotaping the finish, an extra person to track down sail numbers of boats that were obstructed as they crossed the line, and a driver. The primary finish boat also had a race communications person on it (more on this later). The person sighting the line called out the last four digits of each sail number as the boat finished. If a sail number was

blocked as it finished, she called ‘boat’ so that the people recording numbers knew to leave a space. One of the two number recorders would never look at the finish while numbers were being called. The second number recorder acted as a secondary backup for any missed boat numbers. As soon as the last boat finished, the two written lists on each boat were consolidated into a single list. It’s important to note that 1) the finish team “practiced” calling and recording numbers 2) there were no discussions that could distract the person calling numbers or the people recording the numbers, 3) the person sighting the line and calling the numbers removed herself from the final resolution of provisional list and 4) all agreed that we would do our own jobs and not “help” another unless asked specifically. If there were questions, the resolved list from the secondary finish boat was checked. Finishes that needed to be checked on the video were marked. The name of the communications person was written on the top of the list with the provisional finish order, which denoted that this was the list to be published to the web. The communications person’s responsibilities were to make sure the finish line was in the right place, handle radio traffic with the Race Committee, and post web updates and scores. Having the separate

Laser E-Mall Have you tried out the new Laser eMall? Now you can support the Laser Class of North America every time you shop online. Go to www.laser.org and click on the Laser eMall button. From there choose your online store. When you make your purchase, a percentage of your purchase total goes to the class association at no cost to you. Every time you make a purchase from a store through the eMall, the class gets a contribution from the retailer. You get the same products for the same price through the eMall, but eMall allows you to support the ILCA-NA, at no extra cost to you.

communications person allowed the finish team to concentrate solely on recording accurate finish orders. After each start, the Race committee would call with the list of OCS boats for that start. If they needed to verify the OCS boats on video, a note that no OCS boats were included was added to the provisional results. The communications person also watched and recorded the first fifteen finishers of each race so that a provisional top five could be posted immediately. The primary finish boat was set up with an IBM laptop (actually a pretty old ThinkPad) with Sailwave and FrontPage loaded on to it. All the competitors were entered into the software during registration. FrontPage was used to update the website. We used a wireless card that provided high-speed access to the Internet. All live updates were done to the main page of the event web site. That page was always open in FrontPage so that all the communications person had to do was type in the update and hit save to publish it. Doing all the updates to the main page simplified updating and also gave our sponsors maximum exposure. Once there was a provisional finish list for the race, the communications person would enter the results into Sailwave, publish the results to HTML files, and then copy them to the website. We also had two designated press people who wrote the press releases, created the videos, and posted pictures. The releases were sent to the communications person, who then published them to the web site and sent them to the media. There was also a great deal of work done behind the scenes to ensure that the web site remained available during the event. We made a complete backup of the web site the day before the event. We removed all edit access from the website except for a single User Id and password. We alerted the company that hosts our web site that we would be seeing at least 100 times more traffic at our site during the event. The web site remained available for the entire event and was not hacked. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

FALL 2007

2008 Schedule Regatta

Laser

Radial

Laser 4.7

Masters

World Championship

Terrigal, Australia

Trogir, Croatia

Terrigal, Australia

ISAF Grade 1

February 4-13

Auckland, New Zealand Women’s March 15-20 Men & Youth March 24-29

August 22-29

February 17-23

NA Championship

San Francisco, CA St. Francis Yacht Club July 24-27

Ft. Lauderdale, FL www.lyc.org

St. Margaret’s Bay Nova Scotia July 18-20

30 GP Pts, ISAF Grade 2

Long Beach, CA Alamitos Bay YC August 8-10

CORK

Kingston, ON

www.cork.org

30 GP Pts. ISAF Grade 1

August

Midwinters East

Clearwater, FL

www.clwyc.org

30 GP Pts. ISAF Grade 1

Feb 21-24

Feb 15-17

Midwinters West

San Diego, CA Mission Bay YC March 28-30

40 GP pts. ISAF Grade 1

North American Women’s Radial Champs

ISAF Grade 1

Canadian Championships 30 GP Pts. ISAF Grade 2

US Championships

30 GP Pts., ISAF Grade 2

Miami, FL

www.ussailing.org/olympics

ISAF Grade 1

Jan 27-Feb 2

Atlantic Coast Championships 25 GP Pts. ISAF Grade 2

Brant Beach, NJ Brant Beach YC July 12-13

Pacific Coast Championships

Monterey, CA

Monterey Peninsula YC

25 GP Pts., ISAF Grade 2

August 1-3

Gulf Coast Championships

D13

25 GP Pts, ISAF Grade 3

Atlanta, CA Lake Lanier YC October 11-12

Great Lakes Championships

D20

Rolex Miami OCR

New Bedford, MA

June 20-22

Brant Beach, NJ Brant Beach YC July 12-13

25 GP Pts, ISAF Grade 3

No Coast Championships

25 GP Pts., ISAF Grade 3

www.Laser.org

Technical Tips BY LAURALEE SYMES The word arousal occurs in various contexts of conversation. I’m going to focus on the kind of arousal that affects performance in sailing (sorry). According to Webster, arousal means to rouse or stimulate to physiological readiness for activity. The intent of this article is to help you identify how your arousal level can influence your ability to win sailboat races. In 1908 two psychologists conducted experiments and discovered that too much or too little arousal leads to a decrease in both physical and mental ability. Their work is commonly known as the YerkesDodson Law. The idea has been further researched and popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihaly (pronounced chick-sentme-high), who has become well-known for his work on “flow.” We know from this research that the best performance comes when challenge is slightly higher than skill level. Optimum performance occurs when the individual is in a state of “flow.” Complete immersion and concentration on a task, with midrange levels of arousal, often leads to flow. The problem with high arousal High arousal decreases our ability to recognize subtle stimuli and cues in our environment. As a Laser sailor, this equates to errors like missing wind shifts or not noticing a course change. An overload of arousal will affect your brain chemistry so that you focus on the negative instead of the positive. Elevated arousal will cause you to suddenly doubt that you even have the skills or abilities to sail your boat well and win. High arousal (also called stress, overload, anxiety, hyperactivity, or mania) puts your body in the state of fear known as fight or flight. Rapid physiological changes occur to get your mind and body into survival mode. While sometimes it may feel like it, a Laser race is rarely a life-threatening endeavor. The problem with low arousal Low arousal is a state of boredom and exists when the skill level of an activity exceeds the challenge. Low arousal will impede concentration, increase irritability (more yelling at the marks) and, on the extreme end, can cause hallucinations. While all of your practice and training has led to strong boat handling skills, the repetitiveness of the task can frequently lead to boredom. You may have noticed this playing out as a feeling of clumsiness in the boat and an increase in “dumb” mistakes. Here are 10 methods to maintain optimum arousal and performance while racing:

Why Do You Get Excited Sailing Lasers? 1. Visualize being at your best Write a short description of a time when you were at your best. Create a strong visualization that utilizes all your senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and feel) to recall the strength you felt at the time. Once your story is recorded, write it on a 3x5 card and place it in your PFD pocket. Take it with you to the race course. When you find yourself doubting your skills or abilities, pull out the card in your pocket. 2. Use routine to improve focus In drivers ed they teach you to “check your mirrors.” Drivers are encouraged to do this in a routine or orderly fashion, such as scan the driver side mirror, then the rearview mirror, then the passenger side mirror, repeat. Try devising a scanning routine of your own.

3. Breath through your nose As arousal escalates, you may find yourself holding your breath or taking gulps of air in through your mouth. This will decrease the amount of oxygen to your organs and extremities, which will further increase arousal. Include “check my breathing” as one of your routine focus points. Conscious breaths through your nose and all the way down to your diaphragm and a slow exhale can be very calming. 4. Turn unexpected events into a positive Every race presents you with unexpected events. This is true for your competitors too. Your ability to seize the moment will keep your arousal level from elevating to the danger zone. 5. Find fresh opportunities forchallenge I have heard of (and know a few) Laser sailors who practice 15 or 20 hours a week. Finding an extension of your skills with this much repetition can be difficult. Consider identifying new challenges around the inner game of sailing. For example, using a 1 to 10 scale (10 being the best), what rating would you give yourself on ability to

stay focused during a race? If you are below an 8, you’ve just found a new goal. 6. Set as many mini-goals as you can You probably already break the race down into segments, such as windward leg, reach, and run. Try breaking each of these legs down even more and set mini-goals for things like level of heel, exactness of trim, concentration, catching waves, avoiding capsize or getting a lane. The key to success with this technique is to acknowledge the task as a goal. Do this by saying to yourself, “My goal for this segment is to…..” Continue this process with each segment. 7. Establish a feedback method for mini-goals Motivation and self-confidence increase dramatically when we know we are making progress towards a goal. Find a way to measure each of your mini-goals. Keep an eye on the progress. Go for the goal, check your progress, adjust your technique. Repeat. Most important, acknowledge progress! 8. Refrain from yelling at competitors Yelling at a competitor will always raise your arousal to the danger zone. Don’t do it! Ever. 9. Use positive self-talk only Always! 10. Engage all of your skills This will be the most difficult of all the suggestions thus far. But, not impossible! Competitive Laser sailing takes many skills, and a sailboat race presents a sailor with both planned and unplanned obstacles. Full engagement of all your skills in this complicated environment will occur naturally when you are in a state of flow. During a flow state, you will be fully immersed in what you are doing. You will be energized and completely focused on the activity of sailing. While it is difficult to get oneself into a flow state, it can be achieved with practice. These ten tips will help you get into the flow. Happy Sailing!

LauraLee is a Licensed Professional Counselor. She specializes in helping individuals improve performance and achieve their personal goals. She has served as the secretary of the North American Laser Class Association for the last two years. Contact LauraLee Symes at llsymes@5thavecc.com.

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Randy Reigns!!! Consistency paid off big time for Randy Rea, Treasure Coast Series Champion for 2007. The series consisted of five one day regattas sailed at various venues around an expanded Treasure Coast area of Florida, starting with Lake Eustis in May, Melbourne in June, Titusville in July, Jensen Beach in August, and Palm Beach in September. Competitors must sail four of the five legs to qualify for the overall series. Forty five different sailors competed in the series. Kevin Ratigan was the ironman as he was the only competitor to make all five events. The goal of the series is to have a great afternoon of sailing at a

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

low cost. Races start late enough to enable sailors to do some early morning chores, or sleep late, go sailing, have a little refreshment and get home that night. Always in the hunt, but without a victory in any of the legs he sailed, Randy worked his 200 lb plus frame around the courses in an impressive display of being close to, or in the lead in every race he sailed. Randy did this in mostly lighter air, as the sea breeze let us down, or storm activity sucked up the wind, at most of the events. So there is hope for the heavyweights! James Liebl, who was an instigator of this series, gave Randy a little breathing room when he showed up later than usual and missed the first start at Palm Beach. James also has sacrificed sailing to

2007 Treasure Coast Series-Cumulative Results: top 10 Name Rig Eustis Melb Tville Entrants 15 17 14 Races 4 4 3 Rea S 12 72 6 Liebl S 24 10 45 Hartman S 19 20 15 Sayler S 64 38 34 Miller, H S 64 50 24 Ratigan R 34 51 24 Clark S 64 50 34 Canfield S 64 6 45 Davis S 64 28 16 Jones S 64 21 45

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JB 16 4 11 5 68 27 28 41 26 18 68 13

PB 24 3 12 25 17 26 29 48 37 72 33 72

Total 86 18 113 109 139 189 195 198 211 205 209 215

do the RC work at the Titusville (Kelly Park) venue. We saw some new faces this year – several juniors and some “older” folks who have gotten the Laser bug. We also had many familiar faces sailing, although most did not schedule their life well enough to make at least four events. They know who they are and need to improve on that aspect for next year! On behalf of all the participants, thanks to the volunteers and organizations who took the time to promote and run the races for us. And thanks to all who came out and sailed! We’re doing it again next year. Those of you who missed the sailing this year, make sure you come join us in 2008.

Evnts Sailed

4 4 4 4 4 5 4 2 3 2

Drop

Net

72 45 68 64 64 51 64

41 64 71 125 131 147 147 205 209 215

ILCA-NA Fleet Review Cedar Point Yacht Club Fleet Bluff Point, Westport, CT District 7 www.cedarpointyc.org

Fleet Captain: Stephen Fisk 203-557-3618 or sefisk1@yahoo.com Sailing Venue The Laser Fleet has been racing out of the CPYC in Westport CT for over 25 years (or thereabout, I think). Sitting on a spit of land in a quiet residential area, the Fleet is fortunate to have a fantastic sailing venue with easy access to Long Island Sound via an in-basin boat ramp or the more preferable beach launch. Located less than an hour from of New York City right off I-95, the club is centrally located, making for one of the most active Laser programs on the east coast. The club has a limited winter membership option for the general public. Last season we had 83 winter members, several who have become full time members. While most of our winter sailors are from Connecticut, we do have all levels of sailors coming from New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. The CPYC Laser Fleet has three summer regattas but our program really shines in the winter when it morphs into a frostbiting program. As most fleets pack away their boats the Frostbiters are gearing up for an additional 21 day racing season. Our season is split into a fall and spring series of 10 consecutive Sundays each. Starting on the second Sunday of October at noon and running for 10 weeks. We take a mid winter break and starts up again on the second Sunday of March for the spring series. Between the two seasons we host one of the longest running active Laser regattas in the world, the infamous New Years Day Hangover Bowl Regatta. A lot of ice picking and various forms of hydration are needed to get out on the water.

Racing Program & Activities My introduction to the fleet occurred almost twenty years ago in the late 80’s after my brother went to college and his then new 1986 Laser was stored in our parents’ garage. Like so many boats in storage, it languished for a while, gone but not forgotten. I had been sailing in a summer junior program crewing on a 420 and never thought of single-handing as an option. Trapezing was too much fun and sailing on a boat with just one sail with a minimum number of lines did not seem interesting or challenging (was I in for a surprise). Plus, who do you talk to when the wind goes light, which it often does on Long Island Sound in the summer? Eventually fall rolled around and I got back into the routine they call high school and really began to miss the wind and water. By mid-October a friend noticed my distress and suggested I join the CPYC Laser Frostbite Fleet for some fun winter sailing. “Fun winter sailing” sounded like an oxymoron and I thought he was kidding. However, I thought of myself as a pretty rugged 120 lbs. teenager and considered it a decent opportunity to keep up my sailing skills. After buying a used drysuit for $80 I traveled down to Cedar Point Yacht Club where I met a small and hardy group of older sailors, they must have all been at least over 24! The sailing scene at the club was everything I could have hoped for. After a few weeks of heavy winds and fast planning spray-in-your-face sailing, a big departure from the light summer winds of Long Island Sound, I was hooked. Besides being in a fun overpowered dinghy, the group ran competitive short course racing in all kinds of winter conditions. No whining allowed when it was snowing, blowing snot and the salt water was freezing in your cockpit, the sailing attitude was just go out there sail and have fun. The Fleet was an energetic and dedicated group of sailors who really loved to sail and proved it every Sunday in the middle of winter.

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Back then it was a smaller group with participation that averaged in the low teens so RC was able to run college style short courses that were fast paced, close and exciting. It was not uncommon to have over twelve races crunched in a 3 and a half hour race day. With a full rig I had a lot to learn and mostly watched from the back of the fleet but enjoyed every minute of it. That learning curve is always steep in the beginning but the racing and enjoyment only gets better with time. After two seasons I went to college, dropped out of sailing for a few years, traveled a bit post college but never forgot about those winter races. Fate brought me back to Connecticut where I once again dusted off the boat and rejoined the Fleet, which had grown and become more organized over the years. The sailors were still just as dedicated to racing and having a good time as the first group I met years ago. We are now a more varied group combining juniors to great grandmasters, men, women, standard and radial rigs, all on the same line. To keep everyone engaged the Fleet has post racing activities including pizza parties, house parties and the all popular winner chalk talks. The talks are a favorite as novice sailors get key insights and suggestions from national level sailors.

The best thing about the CPYC Fleet…. Because there are so many activities our Fleet relies heavily on member participation. After working my way through various Fleet functions, such as the honorable positions of beverage buyer and club newsletter writer, I eventually became the Fleet captain a couple months ago. It is pretty exciting to be part of such of a vibrant program. Last season we averaged 43 boats a day and had a record high of 62 participants for our 2006 Fall Regatta. Even with a high yearly turn over of approximately 40%, we manage to increase participation year to year due to the Laser fun factor and the high quality racing the Fleet provides. The races and starting lines are a lot longer than the ones we had in the late 80’s and the Fleet has been averaging 6-7 races a day to keep the large number of competitors spread out on the course. Race committee participation is mandatory for everyone over 17 and is factored into season participation. The RC is supported by an additional two crash boats staffed by our volunteers who monitor fleet safety and keep the courses square – a tough job when the winds are northerly and our the course is positioned at the mouth of a tidally influenced river flowing into Long Island Sound.

Attracting new sailors to the fleet Our marketing relies heavily on our members’ word of mouth and after decades of killer Laser sailing the word has gotten out and participation is at an all time high. To supplement, we also send out mailers, inter-club communications, emails, and use a webpage. Our Fleet page has been refined over the years and can be found on the CPYC website at www.cedarpointyc.org. The website is well traveled and contains all the necessary information our members and potential members need. We post our daily results, season averages, and the most popular reading of all… the daily winner’s debrief. There is also an extensive photo gallery taken by various RC members. It contains some great shots of the good, the bad, and the ugly that is winter racing.

Last Words If you ever find yourself in western Connecticut from October to May and are in need of a Laser fix, come visit our Fleet. We have a club boat we lend out and a one day race option if you just want to check us out, I guarantee a good time. Give me a call, we would love to hear from you!

www.Laser.org

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ILCA-NA Fleet Review Newport Laser Fleet Newport, Rhode Island Laser Fleet 413 District 7 www.newportlaserfleet.org Fleet Captain,Will Donaldson Laserfleet413@gmail.com

Sailing Venue Fleet 413 is located in Newport, RI. We launch and store our boats at Sail Newport and race inside Newport harbor Sundays from November through April, first race 1pm. Radials and full rigs race on the same course, you are welcome to switch between rigs as long as you have the same sail number on both. Most people roll their sails on the mast and store indoors at Sail Newport the boats stay on the dolly outside.

Racing Program We run multiple races every Sunday with all the fleet members rotating through to handle RC and crash boats. RC gets scored first for the day. For the daily races there are no drops, but for the season you drop your worst score for every three days racing. After Race Activities The winner each week is required to divulge all of their secrets in a “words of wisdom” column that goes out with the scores. The fleet is so great because of the member’s willingness to help get everyone up to speed, and to volunteer their time to get things organized. We discourage protests, if you foul someone you are encouraged to do your circle and get on with the day. The Best thing About the Newport Fleet…. There is a variety of conditions we race in(it is New England after all) from gorgeous sunshine to snow and ice. Post race activities are held at IYAC. Last season we had 143 sailors sail 99 races with an average of 38 boats on the line each week. This year we are starting November 4th, if you are interested just show up! 2007-2008 Frostbite Schedule: Sundays 11/4/07 through 4/20/07

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Masters Sailing BY BUFF WENDT The Laser Master’s PCC’s was held on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe over the weekend of August 25th and 26th. Twenty four racers convened in the Lake Forest Boat Ramp parking lot Saturday morning and surveyed the mounting wind and waves as the registration staff held onto their papers. “Bay area conditions in Tahoe; fantastic!” said a beaming Tracy Usher as everyone launched from the ramp. Local fleet volunteers were also cheered to see such good breezes fill in as they prepared to set courses. “This breeze is unusually fierce. We’re prepared for a fun and exciting day.” said local fleet member Caroline McNally. The first race was held in solid breezes with Tracy Usher and Nick Pullen battling off the line until Pullen had an unexpected capsize a few minutes into the first weather leg, leaving Martin Hartmanis and David LaPier as Usher’s nearest contenders. Usher won the race with Hartmanis and Pullen finishing in second and third respectively. The next race saw the wind start to be less consistent and the beginning of really challenging sailing conditions which ranged between 25 knot gusts to periods of dead calm. “It was the start of the battle of the winds between going to the inside shore or staying far left on the course. If you tried to go up the middle you could find yourself on the edge of a huge hole. This was immensely painful, because you would watch people on either side sailing in 18 knots while you drifted.” said local sailor Stan Eriksson who managed to keep himself mostly out of this area. He later commiserated and got some laughs out of those stuck in the hole by claiming that “Whoever was operating the wind switch was really inconsistent!” Ultimately Hartmanis persisted to win the race followed by Pullen and LaPier. The final race of the third day was again held in the similar conditions with the sailors barely floating over the start line in almost non-existent winds only to be capsized as they crossed the middle hole to encounter a 20 knot blast with a 60 degree wind shift. Chris Boome and Les Bartlett were some of the many subjected to such auto tacks. “Those of us on the leading edge of these shifts often ended up swim-

Tight Racing, Great Camraderie on Lake Tahoe for Masters Pacific Coast Championships ming, as the gusts just seemed to hit the water with no warning. It was almost better to be behind at this point, as those competitors had enough lead time to tack and stay dry.” Usher found his way back into first place, with Eriksson finishing second and Buff Wendt slipping into third. As the boats hit the shore for the evening, Wendt could not contain her smile. “This is a once in a decade event where I actually get to best my husband Nick Pullen, especially since we had some breeze. He won’t live this down for awhile!” Back on shore, the sailors were greeted by another local fleet volunteer Luke Frederick, who took it upon himself to set up a rum and appetizer bar in the parking lot. This instantly became a social event that was ultimately attended by the entire regatta and the parking lot attendant. “I love Master’s regattas.” said Don Blythe “They are just so friendly and accommodating. First we have the Tahoe Yacht Club and the local fleet putting on great races and offering us water and clif bars between races. Then we come in to be greeted with smiles and drinks in the parking lot. I only get a chance to sail a few regattas a year, and I’m glad that I chose this one.” The fleet made their way to the Tahoe Yacht Club where they were fed dinner and beers. Much of the talk was about the wind, and from the apprentice masters about how it was plain wrong that they had to give points to the likes of Usher, Hartmanis, Eriksson, Hauserman, Boome, Blythe and LaPier. “Let’s face it, those Masters are fast and I’m thrilled to be beating them in head to head condition. The fact that I have to give them points just

makes me ill.” teased Pullen who was sitting between Usher and Hartmanis. The nearby masters looked smug as the apprentices continued to groan about their older competition. “Worse yet, look at some of their boats!” said local Matt Clark. “Boome is still sailing the same one that I swear he had ten years ago, Blythe too! He hasn’t even sailed this year and he’s giving me a run for my money.” Teasing aside there was definitely group consensus that the Great Grand Masters of which there were three, Les Bartlett, Tim Knowles and Leif Gibbsson were the heroes of the regatta. “Those guys are impressive.” said competitor and the Tahoe Yacht Club sail committee chair Dan Hauserman. “I’m sore from sailing out there and they are all spry and chipper bouncing around socializing tonight. I hope that I sail as well as they do when I’m a Great Grand Master.” On Sunday, two races were held in similar conditions to the first two races held on Saturday. “For once it appeared that we had our best winds going on the reaching legs of the trapezoid courses.” said Boome. “I had a lot of fun planing in the fresh water waves.” Boome definitely capitalized on his solid heavy air sailing technique as Mike Bishop and Matt Clark battling for the overlap at the jibe mark had a dramatic dual death roll into each other allowing Boome to slide in and take off on the next jibe. Once again, that race saw Usher in first, followed by Hartmanis and Pullen. With more great wind, the last race was won again by Usher, with Pullen and Eriksson in second and third.

Apprentice Master — age 35-44 1. Nick Pullen - 4 points 2. Matt Clark - 9 points 3. Buff Wendt - 11 points 4. Mike Bishop - 13 points 5. Todd Jackson - 17 points 6. Ralph Silverman - 25 points

Grand Master — age 55-64 1. Chris Boome - 5 points 2. Donald Blythe - 6 points 3. Tony Dahlman - 11 points 4. John Barere - 15 points 5. John Notman - 24 points

Master — age 45-54 1. Tracy Usher - 4 points 2. Martin Hartmanis - 8 points 3. Stan Eriksson - 11 points 4. Dan Hauserman - 17 points 5. David LaPier - 21 points 6. Justin Casey - 25 points

Great Grant Master — age 65-plus 1. Les Bartlett - 4 points 2. Tim Knowles - 8 points 3. Leif Gibhsson - 9 points

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The awards were held at the Yacht Club where the top three in each class were presented with beautiful etched glass trophies. Winning the entire regatta, and not needing those much desired Master’s points was Tracy Usher. Chris Boome gave an informative speech regarding the perpetual Don Trask trophy and how instrumental Trask was to bringing lasers to the West Coast. A gracious Usher accepted the solid steel and perhaps heaviest laser trophy ever, and thanked everyone for the fun time and the Tahoe Yacht Club for a great event. Special thanks was given to local fleet members Justin Casey, Dan Hauserman, Luke Frederick, Caroline McNally and David Adolphs for time and effort they put into making a really smoothly run event with lots of perks such as bags and t-shirts for each competitor. “Even though I tossed everything that I had at him, I’m happy to see Tracy win,” said Hartmanis. “He’s the epitome of what laser sailing should always be, a good and fair competitor, someone you never feel bad losing to. We’re extremely fortunate to have him as our North American Class President.” However, the biggest round of applause just might have been for the oldest competitor, Leif (pronounced ‘life”) Gibbsson age 79, as he received his award with a smile on his face. Someone from the crowd yelled “Leif is good!” summing up a wonderful weekend of master’s racing.

www.Laser.org

Pan Am Gold for 2 North American Sailors! Campbell & Railey Take Gold in Pan Am Games With the US team preparing for the Olympic Trials during the TLS preparation phase, rather than bother the gold medalists with details, we took excerpts from various sources to compile this story.

The “official story” US Sailing press release In the final, double-point Medal Races, Campbell stumbled his first beat, but scrambled to catch up to Brazil’s Robert Scheidt, a two-time Olympic champion and eight times world champion, who led the entire final race. Campbell rounded the last windward mark before the downwind finish in fourth place, but after a self-described risky split, he was able to get around the Argentinean and Chilean boats to finish overlapped with third and take second in the race behind Scheidt. “He made it pretty tough on me,” said Campbell, whose second place in the doublepoint Medal Race translated into a gold medal. Railey, US SAILING’s 2006 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year and ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year, enjoyed single digit scores, including three bullets, throughout the week. Her impressive performance caused her to secure a gold medal ahead of Mexico’s Tania Elias Calles Wolf, who shared 25 overall points.

The “inside story” www.CampbellSailing.com Blog After three hours of sitting around in drizzle and 60 degree temperatures, we sailed a 30 minute-long, double-points medal race this afternoon for all the marbles and the Pan Am Games title. Fifteen knots filled in from the southwest and a race went off without much hesitation before our four o’clock time limit. I had a dismal first beat followed by a lot of catching up. Robert Scheidt made it pretty tough on me, leading the entire way around the race course. I had to finish right behind him to secure the gold medal position. I rounded the last windward mark before the downwind finish in what seemed like a hopeless fourth place, but after a risky split I somehow got around the Argentinian and Chilean to finish overlapped with third and take second in the race. As for the belated Monday Morning Tactician, I had a classic last-race scenario this past week in Rio that probably deserves a bit more description and discussion. I’ll give you the overall theme right up front: Don’t Ever Give Up! If you think that’s a cheesy cliche, you had better read on… Scenario: The Medal Race in Rio consisted of the top five boats. The points from the race would count double (1st place=2pts, 2nd place=4pts, etc.) I entered the race three points ahead of Robert Scheidt, and five points ahead of Julio Alsogaray. So, I was guaranteed a medal, and in reality, so were the other two contenders. Matias Del Solar and Mike Leigh were 10 and 12 points behind, so to catch bronze a miracle would have had to happen. Strategy: Because there were three of us involved in potentially winning the regatta, it was not a classic match race scenario. However, the possibility for pre-start cat and mouse was considered. In retrospect, sitting in the armchair of the Monday Morning Tactician, when there were more than two boats involved in any of the many medal races of the Pan Am games, normal fleet-race-style tactics prevailed over cat-and-mouse. What Actually Happened: After two and a half hours of waiting around on the water, a 12-16 knot southerly filled through a big enough part of the bay that we could get a race in.

The Radial race started first and went away up the beat. After they had gone around the windward mark and were on their way back down, we went into sequence. I kept Robert close on the starting line, but at about 1 minute to go broke off and went down the line to make sure I was in clear air. He was pinned above Matias at the boat, so I figured I would let him do that. We had figured out that both sides could possibly win the beat, so I figured being one boat away, I could stay with him no matter where he went. As it turned out the Radial fleet was conveniently coming around the leeward marks as we went into our first hundred yards upwind. We were fully overlapped with the girls as we both raced towards the same windward mark. Robert tacked out almost immediately to prevent being pinched off, and Matias went with him. I tacked shortly thereafter only to meet the Mexican radial sailor Tania coming at me, bow-to-bow with starboard tack advantage. Instead of taking a big duck, I leebowed and headed off to the left with Mike Leigh. By the time Tania tacked off my hip, Mike and I were sufficiently behind the pace getting to the now favored-looking right side of the course. Upon arrival at the top mark, I was in fourth about five boat lengths out of the lead, but in silver-medal position nonetheless. The run did not treat me any better, as Mike Leigh, no slouch, managed to skate around my on the inside of the downwind. I rounded the leeward mark, with only two short legs to go in last and in bronze medal position. I desperately needed to grind back, but there was not much room from the four characters ahead of me to do much grinding. I got right on the next beat, shadowing Robert, who was sufficiently in control of the race. The other four of us were nicely bunched at the leeward mark, but well spread across the second beat. I caught Mike in the upwind split by the time we got to the top mark, and was in silver-medal position within two boats of Julio, and it looked unlikely he could catch Robert. I needed to pass Julio and Matias to win the regatta. After a couple of good looks upwind beyond the mark while I was still going upwind, I made a firm decision that I would stay on the right side, looking downwind, regardless of the fleet. The undersized fleet had gone left following Robert down the run, and I saw an opportunity to split right. A puff made it down my side, and the streaky nature of the wind more or less isolated me from the group. I did all I could to get myself back to the middle when possible as I began to sail bow-even with Matias and Julio. The last puff into the last third of the 3-5 minute run was from the middle of the course, and I sailed across dangerously into Julio’s bad air to make sure that Matias could not catch me from the left (looking downwind). I was

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just bow ahead and back in Gold medal position, and Robert had crossed the finish line in first. As I sailed the last hundred yards my arms started to tighten up, and tension ran through my feet. I realized that I could make it to the anchor line of the finish boat and still be bow ahead of Matias. He made one more carve away from me, and I went hard by-the-lee to go with him. I snuck my nose around the anchorline of the finish boat, and overlapped with Matias three feet away from my boom, I crossed the line in second totally out of Robert’s control, one point ahead of him in the series and in gold medal position. Monday Morning Tactician Says: We have the benefit of retrospect to help us, but I probably should have done a better job of getting right with Robert on the first beat. That said, the most important lesson that I learned in the process of that last race was that we should never give up on the battle to catch boats. You hear the cliche: catching one boat at a time, and it is absolutely the truth. In situations where it looks like there is no hope left, it still needs to be the first priority to stick to the fundamentals of boat racing and catch as many boats as possible. One of the college sailing lessons that I think is most important: every point counts. Of course this is doubly important in the medal race, but the mentality needed to constantly be looking to better my position in the fleet, even in the high-stress environment of the Pan Am Games is something that every sailor should have.

The “Real” Story San Diego Union “The win was a big one for me personally,” said Campbell. “Certainly, it was one of the highlights of my sailing career. Now I’m going to rest a bit before training for the Olympic Trials (in October). But winning the Pan-Am gold medal was a milestone. The Laser fleet was really deep. Plus, the conditions were very demanding, the wind coming off the high mountains and the swirling current. It was really fun to try to figure it out each day and made it much more enjoyable from the tactical side of things.”

Tunnacliffe Wins Pre-Olympic Event With one year to go to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games Anna Tunnacliffe of the US won the Gold Medal in the PreOlympic Regatta held in Qingdao in August. Team USA’s Anna Tunnicliffe is riding high today after winning a gold medal in the Laser Radial class at The Good Luck Beijing - 2007 Qingdao International Regatta in Qingdao, China, the second test event before the 2008 Olympic Games. With a new gold charm circling her neck and arms outstretched in victory, Tunnicliffe basked on the top step of the podium in front of an American flag. “The awards ceremony was an amazing experience,” said Tunnicliffe. “It really makes me want to come back and do it again next year at the Olympics.” The Radials enjoyed a southeasterly breeze of approximately 8-10 knots for today’s Medal Race, and raced close to the breakwater, where spectators watched the action. Heading into the Medal Race, Tunnicliffe held an 11-point cushion and the promise of a medal. Today proved to be a match race between her and her long-time competitor, New Zealand’s Jo Aleh, who she didn’t let out of her sight. Tunnicliffe said her primary goal was to slow Aleh down as much as possible, forcing her to stay far enough away from the rest of the fleet. Even though Aleh finished ahead of Tunnicliffe, who finished tenth, she wasn’t able to put enough boats between them to grab Tunnicliffe’s gold medal. Tunnicliffe felt the pressure early on in the regatta, but she quickly changed her tune in order to reach her goals. “I had a mind switch, which allowed me to sail fast, smart and have fun at the same time,” she said. Strong current and little wind contributed to “tricky” sailing, which Tunnicliffe said was mentally draining. “Keeping the fun around was key.” Final Standings: Anna Tunnicliffe - USA Gold Jo Aleh - NZL Silver Evi Van Acker - BEL Bronze Canadian Lisa Ross finished 16th overall in the fleet of 30. Many of the competitors at this year’s event will be sailing in Qingdao next year.

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Regatta Reports Cascais World Championships Radial 2007 BY MARK LAMMENS Welcome to Cascais, Portugal! Eleven Olympic Classes, 5 racing circles, 900 boats, 1,315 of the best sailors from around the World, 915 more sailors then the Olympics, 256 new lasers for the men and women, and the first event to qualify countries for the 2008 Olympics. This was large. After losing the selection for the 2007 America’s Cup venue, Cascais put their efforts towards the large ISAF 100th anniversary multi-class world championships. They did not disappoint. ISAF has scheduled multi-class world championships in the past, - ESP, AUS and GER - but this regatta had all of the classes sailing out of the same venue, an old historic Fort’s Harbour with plenty of water front cafes. This regatta requires a level of organization and event management that would be very restrictive for many countries. Nice job by POR and ISAF. Before the racing began, International Judge Bill O’Hara and ISAF officials ran a Rule 42 clinic to ensure all athletes and coaches knew the specifics of the rule and what the Jury is looking for. Many have concerns about Rule 42. The issue is consistency. Perhaps in the future, as with NFL Football, ISAF should consider shooting video of the violating situations, if not for a hearing then for teaching and educating sailors and coaches. It would be very beneficial to have video of international sailors, not club sailors, as the difference in technique is significant. Some classes such as Finn and 470 have internal rules such as unlimited pumping after a certain wind speed. One North American sailor was perplexed about a yellow flag call in 20 knots of breeze. Perhaps Rule 42 will continue to be a challenge, like judging for figure skating, diving or gymnastics. The Racing was staggered to allow fleets to access different racing circles. Each day of racing was in a different racing area. The Women’s Radial started racing on July 4th at 13:00 on course 2, day 2 on course 1, then day 3 on the around the point windy course 5. After these 3 days and 6 races the fleets were split into Gold and Silver. Racing resumed after a reserve day. It

was off to course 3 at for a 16:00 start time for one of the strangest days of racing ever at a World Championships. Wind was 2 knots to 18 knots, with puffs and shifts coming from above, straight down. The fleet had plenty of mixing. The scheduled 2nd day on course 5 never happened, as it was 40 knots, -racing was postponed until it was finally cancelled. The last day had the Gold and Silver fleets on course 4. The top 10 “medal race” was scheduled at 17:00 right off of the break wall, with helicopters and live TV. Racing was very different than the ISAF Grade 1 regattas held earlier in the spring. Cascais had more breeze than in ESP, FRA and NED. There were many times when leading the group back into the middle of the course would not work out. Ducking sterns and getting to the side of the course had higher angles and lifted out on the fleet, sometimes because of wind and sometimes because of current. In race #1, a boat that looked to be in the bottom 10 just 200 meters from the top mark, was soon winning the race. In some races the fleet was very tight with 1st and last all within minutes and meters. In other races, boats were very spread out, 50 or 100 meters between boats at the top mark. A lead was very seldom safe. A local concept called “Nortada” influenced the breeze, right was mostly good, but on day 4 there was some big left. On day 1, Sarah Lihan, USA had a very strong day but lost a protest for a DSQ. Tania Elias Calles Wolf, MEX had an amazing run with 4 top 3’s to go into the medal race in 2nd. Tania also had a 2nd overall at Princess Sophia regatta so is continuing her top results. Anna Tunicliff, USA also had strong consistent scores, with 7 top 10’s going into the finals, 8 points behind first. Defending champion Lijia Xu, CHN had 3 firsts in the first 4 races, but a DSQ, and a 21st and 22nd on day #4 day really dropped her. She was the last boat to qualify for the medal race, and was 18 points from first.

Ross CAN, 31st; Daniel Dube, CAN, 33rd; and Sarah Lihan, USA, 36th. The medal race was also full of dramavery windy and shifty. The top boats were GER 37, MEX 39, ISR 39, BLR 43, FIN 44, and USA 45. Tania and Anna were looking for left shift off of the start line, but at the top mark a right shift came in. China’s Xu was strong on the first beat, until she was stuck in irons at the windward mark. POL and FIN also benefited from the right shift at the top. Very fast sailing, the late passing on the downwind and the close finishes made the race very exciting. Drozdovskaya, BLR won the World Championships by finishing 2nd and ahead of Multala, FIN. FIN finished 2nd overall because Niemann, GER finished 7th and GER won the bronze. There was a 3-way tie for 4th with the tiebreaker going in favour of who scored better in the last race. POL finished 4th, Anna 5th and Tania finished 6th. As the competitors came into the dock, young sailors were there to sail the top 3 boats to the ramp. The medalists still in their racing clothing were quickly on the podium, to receive their medals and hear their National Anthems. The 2007 World Championship also reflects the strength of the Laser Radial class internationally. Obviously, all of the National Sport Organization’s work in preparation for the Olympics has created parity. Seventeen countries in the top 20. Thirty-one countries in the Gold Fleet. USA, MEX and CAN have all qualified for the 2008 Olympics. USA has trials in Rhode Island, CAN will race off at the 2008 World’s, and Tania has already qualified for MEX. For a little roof top boat modified for smaller sailors back in 1984, and with the recent inclusion of women in the Olympics, the Laser Radial has certainly come of age.

Evi Van Acker, BEL who won the ISAF Grade 1’s,- Princes Sophia, Hyeres and Holland- was unable to put her typical strong string of races together in Cascais and finished out of the top 10. Past World Champion Paige Railey, USA had 3 top 5’s and flashes of her past success. However, her good races could not negate her bad ones and she finished 17th. Keamia Rasa, CAN had a 3,4,and 6 to finish 18th, a breakthrough event for her. Other North American Gold fleet finishers included Lisa

FALL 2007

Wright, Railey, and Hall are the 2007 Laser National Champions 150 Sailors Compete on Lake Champlain for the 2007 Laser US National Championship August 10 - 12, 2007 Malletts Bay Boat Club, Colchester Vermont 50 of the World’s best sailors came to the Malletts Bay Boat Club to compete in the 2007 Laser National Championships. The three day event crowned new National champions for the Laser Full, Radial, and 4.7 rigs. Set on the scenic Outer Malletts Bay, competitors race against a backdrop of the Green Mountains to the east, and the Adirondacks to the west. “It’s nice being able to sail in fresh water,” said Paige Railey, 2006 Rolex Female Sailor of the Year and World Champion Radial sailor regarding sailing on Lake Champlain, “and I love the scenery, in Florida we don’t have trees with so much green, we just have palm trees.” Racing kicked off on Friday with strong breeze and high winds. After four races, David Wright of Toronto, Canada, led the full rig fleet with eight points, Cameron Hall sat atop the 4.7 fleet with five points, and Paige Railey dominated the radial fleet with four 1st places in four races. It is fitting that a National Championship test all the skills of the sailors, and Saturday brought the direct opposite of Friday’s conditions, with very light and shifty breeze. In between periods of sailable wind, competitors sat for several hours before getting a race off. An overanxious full rig fleet caused several restarts, but after several attempts, they managed to get over the line without mishap. Saturday’s racing created a bit of change in the Full rig fleet as a 3rd for Vermonter Trevor Moore moved him into 3rd place overall after Chris Dold of Ontario, Canada, was over the line early in the one and only race. Cameron Hall took another 1st to stay on top of the 4.7 fleet, and Paige Railey showed why she is a world class athlete, taking another 1st despite a becalming of the fleet right before the finish. Day 3 rounded out the weekend nicely, with a consistent 11-13 knot wind from the SW. This medium-heavy air was a good balance between the intense heavy air of Friday, and the drifter of Saturday, testing all the skills www.Laser.org

of each racer. It is unusual that in a three day event, all three different wind conditions are exhibited. With two races on the final day for the Full rigs, David Wright held onto his lead with a 7th (his discard), and 3th, to finish with 15 points over all, enough to win the regatta comfortably. Second place Kyle Rogachenko jumped into second with , 2nd and 4th place finishes. He was 5 points in front of third place, Vermonter Trevor Moore, who had two 1st and an 8th on the final day. Moore’s third place finish will qualify him to compete in the Laser Olympic Trials this October in Newport, RI. The Radial fleet sailed three races on the final day. Paige Railey survived a late charge by Mateo Vargas to win the Radial fleet with finishes of 1st, 2nd

rebounded after a DNF in the 8th race to win the final race. He finished second for the weekend with 16 points overall. Coming in 3rd was Teal Strammer with 21 points overall. Along with new National Champions, there are a couple of competitors that deserve special mention. Andrew Cremer competed in the 4.7 division and appeared to have a huge smile permanently attached to his face. He thanked the Race Committee very enthusiastically after every one of his finishes. One of the people on the finish boat commented that his parent’s should be very proud. The race held on Saturday saw very light conditions, which allowed the Laser Full rig sailors to catch the end of the Laser 4.7 fleet. While on his way to his best finish of the regatta (2nd), Fred Strammer caught up with

and 10th in the final three races. Vargas won the last two races, but was unable to surmount the early lead Railey had built, finishing second overall for the regatta. Rounding out the top 3 was John Wallace with finishes of five, three and two for the final day. The 4.7 fleet completed 9 races in the three days to crown their National champion. Cameron Hall continued to dominate with three 1st places and a 2nd (discard), taking the 4.7s with 9 points. OJ O’Connell

the final 4.7 competitor, who was struggling to finish within the time limit. Many words of encouragement from Fred helped the 4.7 sailor reach the finish line before the time limit expired.

DISTRICT 3 GOLD CUP RESULTS We have just completed the last race of the District 3 Gold Cup Series at Bay of Quinte Yacht Club in Belleville, and we have just finished calculating the results. In the Laser fleet this year we had one of the closest three-way battles throughout the series that we have ever seen. In the end Robert Davis (36 points) just came out ahead of Greg Douglas (45 points) to win the Gold Cup Series. In third place was Greg Clunies. Rob Davis takes home a new laser hull, while the 2nd and 3rd place finishers receive $100 gift certificates to Fogh Marine. Congratulations!

The top master sailor in the Laser fleet is Andy Roy, second is Joe Van Rossem and third is Richard Sewards, with $100 gift certificates for each. The top female sailor in the Radial fleet is Olga Koubrak ($100 gift certificate). On behalf of District 3 and Fogh Marine, congratulations to all the winners of the 2007 Gold Cup series. If you havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t already done so, please contact Morten at Fogh Marine to make arrangements to pick up your

prizes. The deadline for the hull exchange is Saturday December 1st. For the 2008 Gold Cup series, Fogh Marine has agreed to provide new laser (or radial) sails for the winners, with the exact number to be confirmed. In addition, gift certificates will be provided as prizes. We may return to the hull exchange program in future years. Sail Fast.

The Radial fleet was another closely fought battle, with Tom Ranshaw coming in first place, Matt Ryder in second place and Rob Koci in third. Tom Ramshaw takes home a new hull as the top Radial sailor and Matt Ryder takes home a new hull as the Top Junior sailor. Rob Koci receives a $100 gift certificate.

FALL 2007

District 22 Championship

August 18-19 2007 North Flathead Yacht Club, mers, MT

Som-

JIM CHRISTOPHER Saturday’s first three races got off in a 4-7 knot northerly, which by race 3 had started to clock south. Races 4, 5 and 6 were sailed in 8-14 knots out of the South. A final race was completed Sunday morning in 10-15 knots out of the north. Phil Healey was assisted on committe boat by Bob Healey and Cheri Aronsson. On mark boat were Kirk Kalbfleisch, assisted by Mandy, who also took pictures on Sunday . Thanks to Jeri Healey, who prepared Saturdays dinner, to Tony Devoe for the pictures from races 1-3, posted at www.j34whitestar.com/laser, to Taylor Sailmakers for the awards, and to Mike Gilbert, for his enthusiasm for Laser sailing on Flathead Lake

1. Hayley Siegenthaler...158725....Kingston, WAWA ...........4-2-1-1-2 -2-1........9 1. Hayley Siegenthaler...158725....Kingston, ...........4-2-1-1-2 -2-1........9 2. Jim Christopher.........174350....Eureka, CA................1-1-3-3-4-1-3........12 3. Alexander Mineev.....170685....Kenmore, WA............2-3-2-2-1-3-2........12 4. Galen Healey.............13739......Kalispell, MT.............3-5-6-4-4-4-4........23 5. Peter Aronsson..........175143...Whitefish, MT............5-4-8-6-5-5-6.........31 6. Scott Galbraith..........0..............Coeur d’Alene, ID......6-7-4-7-6-6-5.......34 7. Nelson Roosendahl...156842...Whitefish, MT......DNC-8-5-5-8-7-DN.....43 8. Mike Gilbert..............160965...Missoula, MT............8-6-7-8-7-8-DNF....44 9. Josh “Bones” Mohler..21350...Bigfork, MT...............7-9-9-9-9 -9-7........50

Myrdal Wins Hawaii Single Handed State Championships Laser States The Hawaii Single Handed State Championships were held Sep 8 and 9th in Kaneohe Bay. Winds were 8-12 knots on Saturday and 4-10 knots on Sunday. PRO Jesse Andrews ran an eight race series with 30 boats participating. There was a very large Masters turnout (over 35 years old) and a big group from the University of Hawaii. John Myrdal won the event with seven firsts, PJ Wenner was 2nd with 19 points and Charlie Buckingham was third with 32. Sailing for HYC were Morgan Merrill, Laura Hughes, and Jordan Kaneshige. Thanks to the race support staff of Ted Miller, Tom Pochereva, Katie Merrill, Don Brown, Connie Smales, Kim Ickler, Jesse Andrews, and Alicia Mooradian.

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SKIPPER’S NAME Laser A Myrdal, John Wenner, PJ Buckingham, Charlie Spector, Mark Fleming, Guy Higham, John Peterson, William Argall, Richard Meade, Andrew Denzer, Mark Melander, Scott Stephenson, Bob Cox, Sarah Romagnoli, Dave Argall, Emily Pochereva, Thomas Nottage, David

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Masters Masters Masters

Masters Masters

Laser B Miller, Lance Foster, Fizz Pochereva, Richard Towill, Ian Harrison, Richen Tuson-Turner, Hannah Woodridge, Brock Merrill, Morgan Fischer, Brett Marshall, Ian Dave, Sean Doyle, Justin Hughes, Laura Golovinov, Dima

Radial Radial Radial Radial Radial Radial Radial Radial Radial

Masters Masters

Glacier National Park Adventure

MIKE GILBERT After our District Championships, a few of us wanted to get back out sailing right away, maybe at another location for some adventure. Whitefish Lake was mentioned (near the famous Big Mountain ski resort). I said that I have always wanted to sail on Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, a reasonable day trip for most of us. Eyes lit up. “Me too!” was the reaction. Our initial five boats weeded out to three committed to the adventure. After much shuttling of boats and people, we all met at the rocky beach across the stream from historic Lake McDonald Lodge. Tourist milled around and waited for the next tour boat arrival at the dock. We had been watching the weather service religiously, with a forecast of early calm, building to 15-18 mph by afternoon ahead of a cold front. The first one there had rigged already, and as we ate a nice picnic on the beach his sail began to wail. We looked at each other thinking “hmm.” We quickly rigged and shot off on a reach across the waist of the lake. The wind was from the SW, blowing through a gap in the mountains at West Glacier and then up the length of the lake. Two hours of fantastic fire hose reaches, some good practice beating into a breeze, and some careful running. Exhilarating. The setting is magical. The water is turquoise. The sheer peaks tower all around.

In the middle of our fun, the cold front arrived many hours early and it got wild. Big, turquoise, closely spaced, cresting rollers with blowing spray. Not 18 mph. We were putting on a good show for the tourists, but getting knocked down a lot. One of us went turtle and broke his daggerboard shock cord, and was headed for the rocks. He managed to get upright, but was tired by then and got knocked down several more times. I tried to get upwind to him, but he was in a cove with weird winds and a wave-driven current. He decided to drift in to the beach, but the current dragged him right past it. Conditions got worse, and we had out hands full surviving, much less assisting. We managed to beach the other two boats, but not without some swimmers assisting me, and some hull scratches. I appreciated the help, as I was tired as well. People on the beach were leaning into the wind. The youngest of us, who is a sailing instructor and race steward, shot out into the surf in a kayak as the turtled boat headed up lake into the mountains. They managed to switch boats, and he sailed the Laser back to the beach after some capsizes. The kayak swamped and rolled, and the first sailor was in the water again. He disappeared from view below the waves, which were getting quite large. He is a very fit 65year old triathlete, but the waves were stirring up the 40-degree water ten feet down and he was getting fatigued. The tour boat company has no safety or rescue responsibility, so we decided to ask the Park for help. Eventually two very professional Rangers snapped into action and took a Zodiac out to scoop him up. He came back grateful and chilly, and we began the task of retrieving our boats from down the rocky coast. The evening was capped with a fine dinner and much

discussion of the events. In spite of our scare, we had a fantastic sailing day. Several lessons were re-learned and reinforced, and we would like to remind others to be careful when sailing in out of the way places or wild places. Experienced sailors know when to come in (oops). Plan for the conditions, and expect worse. Plan to be self-sufficient. Dress for the conditions (we did). Use a buddy system and keep track of each other. Check all equipment, line, shock cord, and centerboard brake condition. Don’t turn down help if you think you might need it. Don’t assume a powerboat is available or will come help because it’s there. A small speedboat or open outboard is not safe in these conditions. If it’s cold, you will tire very quickly. Perhaps two people should have sailed the Laser in and left the kayak. And finally, don’t mess with the Grizzly Bears! Photos by Cheri Aronsson

FALL 2007

Mid-Ontario Report The Sturgeon Lake Sailing Club hosted its Mid-Ontario Championship Regatta (Gold Cup No. 4) over the weekend of July 14/15, 2007. Over 100 boats in five classes participated, including 38 lasers and 28 radials. Two new champions were crowned in the Laser and Radial classes – Evan Lewis in the Lasers (after placing oh so close in prior years) and Dirk McLaughlin in the radial class. On Saturday, sailors braved intermittent torrential rains and steady cold temperatures in good winds to complete four races. The day started out cloudy with strong south winds. Then the rains came. By the end of the first race, the wind had shifted to the southeast and, while sailors ate lunch on the water, a new course was set. The mark setters were posted at each of the marks but the rain finally got to their radios and they went dead. So hand signals began in earnest to confirm the placement of marks. Except that the setters were so far apart, it wasn’t unusual to see them jumping up and down and flapping their arms in their boats. It made for quite a sight on the water. Eventually three more races were run, with everyone, other than a few diehards, happy to get off the water to thaw. A memorable quote from Saturday came from Sean Clynch, an SLSC junior

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sailing a Byte. When asked at the end of the day if he wanted someone to sail his boat in for him so that he could warm up, he replied “No, I think I will just sail it in”. On Sunday, the prevailing Sturgeon Lake west winds were blowing nicely and, by the start of the first race, the sun was shining and lots of clouds were generating good gusts. The strong winds oscillated pretty severely during the races. The Race Committee placed the course in the middle of the swings and three more races were run to complete the regatta. The first race on Sunday was notable for sailors falling out of their boats after missing hiking straps. Our laser winner, Evan Lewis, was not immune to the phenomenon. Among the leaders nearing the finish, he missed his strap on his last tack and went flying. With his vang on tight and his mainsheet stuck, he dumped his boat three more times while trying to right it, eventually crossing the line an un-Evanlike 19th (needless to say – his drop). Dirk McLaughlin was the model of consistency in the Radial class. With four first and three third place finishes, he outbattled Rob Koci and Tom Ramshaw for the new MidOntario Radial Fleet perpetual Trophy. Other winners were Jeff and Sarah Gib-

son in the Laser II, Murray McCullough and Sam Benson (of the home club) in the 420 and Dave Mori in the Byte. The Mid-Ontario Championship Regatta was first run in 1972, characterized always with the legendary hospitality of Sturgeon Pointers making the Regatta a not to miss weekend in the regatta schedule. Sailors were billeted at local cottages, where tents were pitched on lawns (some masters were provided beds) and hearty breakfasts were served at the “host” sites. Joe Van Rossem thanked his hosts with a virtuoso solo jazz trumpet concert on Sunday morning before heading out on the water. Volunteers produced lunches on both Saturday and Sunday and a huge communal dinner was served Saturday to fuel cold and tired racers. The Regatta ran like clockwork under Richard Roberts’ Race Committee team. Sailors were off the water by 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, de-rigged, presented their awards and on their way home by 4:00 p.m. Thanks to Evan Lewis who said “This is the best local regatta”. The Sturgeon Lake Sailing Club community has taken three deep breaths and will begin planning the next bi-annual Mid-Ontario Championship Regatta for the summer of 2008. We look forward to welcoming you all back. Results are posted on the Mid-Ontario website at www.jamas.net\mids2007.

2007 Vanguard NA Grand Prix Results Standings through September 21, 2007

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Pearce John Johnson Clay TorchinskyAbe Vranizan Derick Strammer Fred Lewis Evan RichardsonBen RogachenkoKyle Dold Chris Ramsay Luke BuckinghamCharlie Parkhill Lee Crane Rob Marks Zack Wager Emery Raney Brian Horowitz Zeke Grierson Kevin Goetting Matt Lamphere Gordon Luttmer Bernard Boueilh Anthony Campbell Andrew HernandezDavid Wright David Wilson Vann Moore Trevor Lawrence Luke Higgins Conner Kalin Michael Shockey Kevin Paine Caleb Fagen David Hecky Mike Sterrett Matt Brikis Paul Garber Josh Shockey John Swetka Ken Usher Tracy Davis Robert Toole Pat Renehan Jay Hood Philip Hancock Cleve SutherlandIan Tripp Chuck Fox Andrew Strilky Rick Drasnin Peter Peckover Doug Wilton Brendan Anderson Niklas Tullo Jerry Cullman Cam Schmidt Mike Symes Bill Curran Pat Funk Brad Lapier David Bear Mark Rodriquez Ernesto Smith Colin Steele Alex Breder Dave Loe John SeidenbergPeter Vessella Peter Bowers Erik

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124 108 104 13 100 96 61 90 87 86 84 82 73 73 72 68 65 62 59 59 59 57 55 54 53 54 53 52 50 49 47 42 41 41 40 39 39 39 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 33 33 32 31 30 29 29 28 28 27 27 27 26 26 26 25 25 25 25 24 24 24 24 23

Last First Events Kelly Sean 2 Raab Chris 1 Roy Andrew 1 Abel Geoff 2 Hiller Todd 2 Johnston Paige 2 Lockett Graeme 1 Shevitz Cody 2 Taulbee Kurt 1 DeWolf Henry 2 Hansen Lars 1 Harrison Vaughn 1 Moulthrop John 2 Phelan Peter 1 Plutenko Roman 2 Rudolph Gavin 1 Shattuck Alden 1 Walker Glenn 1 Wenner Peter 1 Bugiak Mark 1 DeermountAdam 1 Dyer John 1 Malouf Brian 1 Martinez Rob 2 Potter John 1 WilliamsonCharles 1 Young Scott 1 Amthor Henry 1 Clark Al 1 Cremer Ted 1 Dickson Glenn 1 Elliott Ian 1 Hodson Robert 2 Jones Tim 1 Martinson Bruce 1 Mellnik John 1 Van Tol John 2 CruickshankKeith 2 Fogh Morten 1 Hulings Mark 1 Moran Jamie 1 RothenbuhlerRick 1 Schmitt Simon 1 Von Der WenseNick 1 Willard Martin 1 Wong Andy 2 Aspland Joseph 1 BiskabourneBrad 1 BuckinghamJim 1 Ingram Theo 1 Savage Brady 1 Suarez Jorge 2 Andrews Tyler 1 Bentley John 1 Bernard Andreas 1 Bowers Michael 1 BrousseauScott 1 BuckinghamBill 1 Frechette Rob 1 Gagnon Maxime 1 Miller Kurt 1 Pegel Susie 1 Spevak Walt 2 Cromwell Nick 1 Forgione Phil 1 Howard Will 1 Jensen Karl 1 Morgan Ted 1 Schmitt David 1

# of Total 23 23 23 22 21 21 21 21 21 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 19 1 19 19 19 19 19 19 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 16 16 16 16 16 16 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 14

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SubramanianRavi Summers Cameron Aspland Emily Coberly Chad Duke Alistair Dusek Jeff Jones Ned Landeau Steve Lepis Joe Orosz Stephan Oteruelo Lewis Scanlon Alex Van Schoor Colin Wenner Chris Willsie Todd Wright Travis Zinn Jack Bell Simon Foscue Chris Hatton Cole HeinzemannAlex Jesberg Peter McRitchie Thomas Robbins Jeff Round Phillip Stow Derek Tan Bob Tillman Dick Ward Steven Wright David Adolphs David Aspland Mark Brooks Ward Davis Michelle Evans Austin Grogono David Hall Mitch Japikse Jason KavanaughPeter Magno Dave Suski Jacek Brochard Colin Darroch Oliver Drake Elliot Hern Ian Jacobi Marc Simon Mike Usher Charles Wood Alex Baker David Clunies Gregory Donahue Ian Hanson Bill Hartman David Herr Fred MurtomakiAndrew Turnball Kenneth Branning Chris Elson Mike Eno Billy Ewanchuk Robert Harmon Dick Jackson Chris Kingston George Larsen Greg Laube Tom Mercer Doug Moulthrop Michael Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Mara EJ

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14 14 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

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photo by John Payne

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Railey Paige Crain Philip Wallace John Maxim Katie Bertold Isabella Griffin Genoa Dugdale Nick Smith Colin Haeger Annie Alley Philip Lihan Sarah Doane Justin Blouin Sam Rasa Keamia Tunnicliffe Anna Dennis Claire Vargas Mateo MontemayorRicardo McClatchy Bo Billing Emily Ross Lisa Dube Danielle Nickerson Dan Leon Colin Schalka Michael Michas Jason Hoeven Ryan Merry Claire Koubrak Olga Taylor Chris Heasler Ian SeidenbergPeter Barnard Chris Bertrand Alex Bussin Isaac Zupon Matt Faria Brendan Soto Julian ChristopherJim Gowell Matt Abels Fred Moynahan Sean Vittery Alanna Howard Will Davis Michelle Smutny Tanja Spector Ben Hope Kristyn Crowder Victoria Deermount Adam Kana Austin Lozier Philip Toole Oliver Vaught Alex Koci Robert Swetka Kent Cameron Rex Herbst Roger Scanlon Alex Stubbs Emily Vranizen Erika Laube Kevin Liebl James Prokop Joanne Renehan John Tocke Kathleen Wong Andrew CruickshankTyler

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123 119 108 104 101 93 89 87 80 79 78 76 74 72 68 68 66 62 61 60 60 59 57 57 55 53 48 48 47 46 44 43 42 41 41 41 35 35 34 34 32 31 30 29 28 27 27 26 25 25 25 25 25 25 23 23 22 22 22 22 22 21 21 21 21 21 21 20

Feldman Christin Heinl Nicole Mace Sally McLaughlinEvert Whitesides Benton Cremer Chistian Givens Matt Green Ted Harrison Luke Heath Nigel Jesberg Peter Peterson William Quinlan Liam Shea Maggie Shevitz Cody Beck Geoff Huseby Bill Kaschak Nick Ross Kyle Filbert Anne Larsen Josh Scott Jon Sturman John Vallette Norman Graef Richard Mademan Emily Marshall Foster Paice Ian Robitaille Dominique Ruais Renee Shattuck Alden Stocke Chris Yioulos George Braly Bruce Corrin Paloma Knoles Lauren Lezin Ben Rohde Krysta Rupert Janet Schmitt Simon Strebel Jeff Weitzman Cindy Whitesides Chip Antunes Jacob Bailey Julia Codman Jane Hern Ian Johnston James Liebowitz Ben Lombard Jessica McLean Ward Murphy Ted Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Mara EJ Stubbs Robin Urbina Rebekka Brockman Erik Jensen Drake Nickbarg Max Poler Ariel Spalding Jennifer Vallo Nick Wefer Paul DudenhoeferRobert Holtzworth Ian Jackson Molly Japiske Chris Leverich Kent ReichenfeldStephen

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Roble Stephanie Smith Darby Ahearn Justin Duler J-Bernard Ramshaw Tom Rountree Liz Samson-DoMyriam Wilson Morgan Akers Nathan Croglia Adam Kiss Morgan Mace Mac Muhleman Jake Palmer Chloe Redwin Roger Whipp Peter Winberg Jay Witkowski Kim Wright Caroline Dallaire Vanessa Eichwald Mike Jaykus Matt Kelchner Zach Kiss Mitchell Robin Allison Alfonso David Dube Tiffany Hall Corey Houde-ShulmanCory Lewis Eastman Moulthrop Michael Palazzo Mary Reynolds Jake Adams Sky Haeger Will Leech Connor Wettergren Viktor Ahearn Cullen McNaboe Ryan Padnos Sam Rafuse Erin Searle Emily Spencer Mackie Tulip Chris Bernhard Jessica Beuchler Nicole Galdi Vincent Holtzer Ethan Whitesides Arland Gurney Matthew Vincent Hanna Wands Chris Allen Lindsay Couranz Kim Foscue Chris Bougie-BastienG. Douglas Robert Hall Ryann Kopitz Oliver Norris Phillip Rice Tyler Richartz Eliza Robinson AJ Wands Chris De Lisser Arielle Han Lloyd Martinelli Dennis

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District Reports District 1 Brian Mills Fredricton, NB Greeting Laser sailors in the Atlantic Provinces. My name is Brian Mills and I am your new District 1 Secretary. For those of you who raced in the 2006 North Americans in Nova Scotia or in the 2006 and 2007 regattas in New Brunswick, I am the “old” guy who was racing the lime green boat, number 11883. To give you a bit of background on myself, I started sailing in a Sabot pram at age 14. However sailing was put on a backburner till I was 30 years old at which time I bought a 20-foot keelboat. Four years later I bought my first Laser, which I raced for four years before moving onto a Wayfarer and eventually another keelboat. However three years ago, I left the Douglas 32 on land, acquired another Laser, and began racing once again. Over the years I have been President of the New Brunswick Sailing Association, Coach of the New Brunswick Canada Games sailing team, member of the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary, and an instructor for the Canadian Power and Sail Squadron. In 1996, I was part of a four-person crew that sailed a Swan 65 across the Atlantic Ocean. So why do you ask, would I volunteer to be your District 1 Secretary? Well I was bothered not to see any reports from District 1 in the Laser Sailor magazine; I had no idea where to go in the Atlantic Provinces to race my Laser; and I discovered I was the only Master Laser sailor attending NB regattas. So my personal objective for 2008 is to improve on all the above. PLEASE, if you have ideas and/or suggestions of how I might better serve the District 1 Laser sailing community, please let me know by emailing or telephoning me this winter. (bnmills@nb.sympatico.ca 506 457 1580 ) Looking forward to hearing from you this winter and better still meeting you in person some time during the coming year sailing season. Brian

Distrct 2 Deny Deschambeault & Martin Robitaille Trois Rivieres, Quebec Pour la première fois de ma vie, j’allai au Grand prix. Arrivé sur place, couvert d’une épaisse tuque contre le froid et la pluie, je partis voir les coureurs. Plus nombreux que j’aurais espéré, on se ramassa finalement pour la réunion des barreurs avec environ 25 régatiers alors qu’on m’avait dit qu’on allait être que cinq ou huit. La petite régate que j’avais imaginée se transforma alors en une vraie compétition digne de son nom, le District 2. La deuxième course fut la plus spéciale. Lors de notre deuxième montée de près, le bord de près se transforma soudain en un bord de travers avec des rafales près de vingt nœuds. Mes cent-quatre-vingt-trois lb sur la sangle de rappel, je réussis aisément à maintenir mon bateau plat et dépasser quatre ou cinq Lasers qui avaient chaviré ou perdu contrôle. Le vent et le froid ayant pris de l’ampleur, quelques bateaux se retirèrent. À la troisième course, j’avais si froid,

que mes dents se mirent à claquer, je mis donc tout mon cœur à faire du rappel pour me réchauffer. Au bout de mes six pieds et quatre pouces, je traversai la ligne en deuxième position, (devant Paul, ce qui est tout un honneur). Ayant compris que ma tactique était efficace, je fis de même pour la quatrième course. Antony Boueilh fit de même. Il arriva donc premier dans le classement final dans la catégorie Laser Full Rig. Quant à Paule, en radial, qui fut l’une des courageuses à rester quasiment jusqu’à la fin, eu elle aussi une médaille. L’arrivée sur terre était très sociale. Les bateaux dégréés, le monde commencèrent à parler de leur histoire de voile inédite, bière à la main. Je partis chez nous tuque à la tête, mouillé comme un canard et médaille au cou, laissant derrière moi une de mes plus belles journées de voile. Je remercie tous les bénévoles et les organisateurs pour cette journée mémorable.

District 3 Heinz Gebauer & Nigel Heath Mississauga, Ontario We had another great sailing season here in Ontario with a lot of participation, particularly at the Gold Cup events, which continues to be very popular. The number of Radial sailors attending Gold Cup events is now equal to the number of Laser sailors (after 5 events), so competitiveness of the Radial fleet is tougher than ever. If the trend continues, we will have more Radial sailors than Laser sailors in the future. At the time of writing, we are approaching the last race of the Gold Cup series at Bay of Quinte Yacht Club in Belleville. Congratulations to all the winners, particularly those who take home new laser hulls. The Gold Cup winners for each category are listed elsewhere in this newsletter. Also, the Gold Cup results and rules governing the series are available on the District 3 website at www.d3.laserforum.org. By the way, a special thanks goes out to Mark Arcieri who has done a great job setting up and running our new website. Mark, we ALL owe you a port/starboard on the race course for your work….just don’t redeem them all on the same day! To change the topic slightly, for the first time in over 30 years the Canadian dollar has hit par with the US dollar. Monopoly money no longer! For laser sailors and other sailors alike in Canada, this is GREAT NEWS for the following reasons: (1) Cheaper to travel to regattas in the U.S.; (2) Our Laser Class fees (paid in US$) are now at the same level as U.S. sailors, as they should be; (3) New boats and equipment will get cheaper. In recent discussions with Morten Fogh we were told to expect some very attractive pricing for new boats at the January boat show. So you might want to hold off buying a new laser until then. Again we would like to thank Fogh Marine for supporting District 3’s Gold Cup racing series with the great prizes they provide. As previously mentioned, the winners of the Laser fleet, Radial fleet and top junior sailors take home new hulls and 2nd and 3rd place finishers in the Laser and Radial fleets win $100 gift certificates to Fogh Marine. For the 2008 Gold Cup series we will have new sails for the winners of the series. The exact number will be made clear in the next newsletter, but winners will have their choice of either a Laser or Radial sail. Sail fast!

District 4 Report Kyle Ross Winnipeg, Manitoba Manitoba started the regatta season at the Falcon Open where we had no wind the first day so we went cliff jumping at the end of the lake, fortunately the wind picked up and Sunday we got in 4 great races. For the Canada Day long weekend we were at Royal Lake of the Woods Yacht Club which was a qualifying regatta for laser radial males for the Western Canada Summer Games (WCSG). The following weekend we were down the lake at Zig Zag Yacht Club where it was the qualifier for laser male and laser radial female. We had selected our team for the games, Scott Brousseau and Chris Bradley in laser, Julia Bailey, Jocelyn McClaren, Kyle Ross and Van Bailey in the laser radial. Kyle Ross won a silver medal and Scott Brousseau won a bronze medal at the games. We were back at the Falcon Yacht Club for Sail West, Western Intermediate Sailing Championship and the District 4 Grand Prix Championship; a lot for one regatta and thank goodness the wind gods were with us. Eleven races were sailed and the winds were gusting over 25 knots at times so it was a wonderful regatta. Tanya Smutny won in the Laser Radial, Geoff Abel won in the Laser and Austin Ross was the lone 4.7 at Sail West. The Richardson Regatta was the next weekend, prior to the regatta was a terrific racing camp with Kelly Hand and the wind was steady and a lot was learned by all. Team Toba was on the road for most of August, after the WCSG in Edmonton we went to Hamilton for the Open Nationals and Youth Nationals and then Kingston to CORK. Julia Bailey came 3rd at the Youth Nationals and we had 4 radials in the gold fleet at CORK, 1 radial and 3 lasers in the silver fleet and Austin Ross came 4th in the 4.7. The busy regatta circuit for 2007 is complete and now we are training at the Gimli Yacht Club on weekends for as long the weather holds. Manitoba has a short but intense sailing season.

District 5 Mark Lammens Saskatoon, SK Sail West was hosted at Falcon Lake Yacht Club in Manitoba. Cliff Loganberg, Dave McBride and Brian Baker’s on water team did an amazing job of hosting the event. This was the Western Canadian Championships for Laser and Radial as well as the age group championships. Racing was in a mix of conditions with gusts of 25 plus knots on the Friday, shifty hanging breeze on Saturday and light air flat water on the Sunday. In the Radial Tanja Smutny showed her winning form again. Tanja is training for the National Team qualifier in September. Youth Sailor Liam Quinlan was 2nd and top youth. Kyle Ross was 3rd. In Laser Geoff Abel from BC won top youth and overall, Mark Bugiak 2nd and Ian Elliot 3rd. The Western Canada Summer Games in Strathcona County, Alberta had Radial Youth and Laser contested for the Boys and Radial for the Girls. Wabamun SC was host and all of the volunteers did another stellar job; Keith Driver, Duncan Cook and Peter Van Muyden must be thanked personally for the efforts of making a sailing regatta work within the Games format. Sydney Byrns, SK won Gold in the Radial with Isabella Bertold, BC 2nd and Sarah Hornett, AB 3rd. In the Laser the top 2 were Kevin

FALL 2007

Grierson and Andy Wong of BC and Scott Brousseau, MB 3rd. Scott continues the family tradition of winning medals as Royden won in 2003. In the boys Radial, Ricardo Montemayor, BC gold, Kyle Ross MB silver and Liam Quinlan, AB bronze. At the District 5 championships Mark Bugiak won with Ian Elliot 2nd and Eric Tulk 3rd. Top Master was David Elliot and 2nd Doug Bell. Top Radial was Sydney Byrns. The senior Elliot has been training hard for the World Masters, as displayed by his boat handling and his “TSN Best Save” in race 4. Logan Campbell made an appearance and was in 3rd in the first race. He also won the Saskatoon Annual Regatta. Good to have him out again and race. District 5 sailor Keamia Rasa finished 18th at the World Championships in Cascais, POR and has qualified CAN for the 2008 Olympics. The Olympic trials to select the CAN rep will be at the 2008 World Championships. CAN did not send a sailor to the 2004 Olympics in Athens GRE, as no CAN boat made the standard for entry. Way to go Keamia. Mike Simms, new father and 2nd in the Olympic Trials in 2000 made an appearance at the AB provincials…and won. Great to have him back in the fleet to help us all improve. In the District 5 Series, scoring from Regina, Calgary, Wabamun, Battleford’s, Edmonton and Redberry, scoring was very tight, specifically the top 7. Erik Tulk 48, Mark Bugiak 42, David Baker 41, Zak Grove 40, Barry Tee 39, Ian Elliot 39 and Ian Hern 36. Congratulations Eric. Top Female is Dominiue Grell who has been on a hot streak since losing the Western Canada Games Trials. Western Canadian Masters championships were hosted at the Wabamun SC in June. Very good entry numbers with unfortunately 1 very notable DNC. Dick Degner from Calgary was unable to compete because of his battle with Cancer. During the Districts, Sailors made a motion to dedicate a trophy in his honour and to tell him while he was still alive. Dreadfully Dick passed away the next morning. Glenmore boats-Nautical Reach and the Glenmore Yacht Club have agreed to name the District 5 series trophy after Dick Degner. This trophy is very meaningful, in what you need to do to win and what the man stood for. The trophy will be permanently on display at Glenmore boats and a keeper trophy to the winners. Thank you for honouring him this way.

We all remember Dick as a very active and fit sailor who was always smiling after the day of racing, no matter what happened on the water. Whenever you saw him in the spring he would talk about how many days he spent on the ski hill. One image I will always remember is at the Master NA’s in the Gorge, after a windy 4-race day his sunburned, firehosed face at the BBQ, his comment “Wow, that was windy, what does a Radial rig cost”. A truly great man that was always fun to have in the fleet, Dick you will be missed.

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District 6 Andy Hunt Vancouver, BC First of all, I would like to apologize for this short report. There has been the usual slate of regattas in District 6 for the months of July and August and one special event in September. I indicated that I would compile a list of evening results from the various clubs that run evening racing. I do not have the time to compile such a list and I apologize to any sailor who was waiting for the results. If any sailor is interested in those results, please contact me and I will try and get the results to that sailor. There was one regatta missing on the District 6 schedule and that regatta was the KSA Invitational/BC Laser Masters. This event was held on the weekend of July 7 and 8, 2007. The event was held at Nicola Lake and attracted 8 Lasers. Jacek Suski, from the Jericho Sailing Centre, edged local Kamloops sailor Trevor Owen for the title of BC Laser Master Champion. Winds at Nicola were around the 15 to 20 knot range (typical for Nicola Lake). Some of the sailors camped at the sailing site and others stayed at the local hotel. The weekend before the BC Laser Masters was the annual WAVES regatta. This is one of the biggest regattas on English Bay but attracted a little less boats than usual. This might be because the regatta ran from Friday, June 30 to Sunday, July 2. Some of the sailors who showed up for the event could only sail on the Saturday and the Sunday (due to work commitments on the Friday). It would be better for the competitors to have the regatta run from Saturday to Monday as most working people in Canada have the Monday off work. That said, there were 35 Full Rig Lasers and 41 Radials. Winds were around the 8 to 12 range. There were some delays waiting for the wind to appear. There were 11 races over the three days for each fleet and two throwout races. Full results can be found on the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club’s website which is www.royalvan.com (go to regattas/races and click on WAVES week 2007). The big event in August was the District 6 Grand Prix. This event was held at Cascade Locks and sponsored by the local Laser dealer, West Coast Sailing. George Yioulos, the owner of West Coast Sailing, provided the t-shirts and the dinner on Saturday night. According to Scott Weiss, the winds were slightly less (17 knots on Saturday and 15 or less on Sunday) than what is normal for The Gorge (usually 20-25 knots). There were 16 competitors in each fleet. The Lasers had 11 races and two throwout races while the Radials had 10 races and one throw-out race. Results can be found by going to www.cgra.org (go to District 6 Laser Championships). The last big event of the summer of 2007 was the Canadian Laser Master Championships. This event was held at the Jericho Sailing Centre on the Labor Day weekend (September 1, 2 and 3). 37 Master sailors showed up for the event. As event chair, I would like to thank Julian Clark (from New Jersey), David Lapier (from California), Mike Gilbert (from Montana) and Rob Hodson (from Oregon) for taking the time to come to Vancouver for the event. The Race Committee got of five races on Saturday and three races on Sunday. The last race on Sunday had to be shortened to one leg when the wind died. There were no racing on Monday due to uncooperative winds. The master category had the most sailors with a total of 13 competitors. I would also like to

thank the following companies for providing food or prizes for the regatta: Cuppa Joe Coffee, Rooster Sailing (www.jdemarine.com), Specialties West and West Marine. There were almost as many draw prizes as there were competitors. The top five overall competitors (with age handicap added) were: Al Clark, RVYC, 22.00; Jacek Suski, JSCA, 41.00; Rick Hewitt, JSCA, 55.00; Peter Wall, LSC, 55.00; David Lapier (don’t have the registration form in front of me so don’t know his home club), 62.00. Some of the sailors did not pay the ILCA membership fees and so were not eligible for prizes. One sailor had an illegal sail and retired from the regatta after being warned that he would be disqualified if he continued to use the illegal sail. All in all it was a good event. Full results can be found at: www.jerichorace.com.

District 7 Sally Sharp Enfiled, NH I’m just back from the New England Masters in Newport, RI, which was a large and very competitive event with 65 masters from all over the northeast, plus Canada and Bermuda! Sailors were treated to 20+ knots and big seas on Saturday, and quite a bit less on Sunday so everyone had something to like. Congratulations to Scott Ferguson who prevailed in all conditions to repeat as champion, and to Peter and Fran Seidenberg for organizing such a great regatta. It was the summer for BIG regattas here in New England, with Hyannis hosting the NAs in June, then the US Nationals up in Malletts Bay VT in mid-August. Along with all the midsummer regattas which were also really well attended. Radial fleets topped the standard rigs at both Hyannis (51 vs 32 boats) & Buzzards Bay regattas (67 vs 64); with Newport Regatta forming the third part of the District 7 Radial Series, a total of 24 sailors qualified for seasons awards by sailing in 2 of the 3 events. New D7 Radial champ this year is Ted Green, with a total of only 4 points. One point back was Dan Nickerson, followed closely by Brendon Faria, last year’s winner. Chloe Palmer was first woman, in ninth place overall. And winner of the D7 Radial Grand Prix (at BBR) was Peter Seidenberg – he must have been training for the Master Worlds coming up in Spain this fall! Congratulations to all – full results are posted on the D7 website (http://d7.laserforum.org). On the full rig side, the D7 series regattas were smaller again this year, with only the Saltmarsh Trophy/Champ. of Buzzards Bay attracting more than 20 boats. Our D7 Grand Prix winner there was Ben Richardson, who scored 4 bullets in 5 races! Then one of the highlights of the summer was definitely the Lobster Bowl Classic in Portland ME, where

Jack Zinn went all out and arranged for a fabulous ‘down east’ lobster feast after sailing on Saturday! Sure hope we get invited back next year ;-) Seven sailors qualified for the D7 series trophies, and our new District Champion is Jim Porter (who was also the only sailor to race in all 3 regattas!). Runner-up was Nick Cromwell, just 3 points ahead of John Bentley who took third place; first woman was Joan Porter, only one point behind John. It hasn’t been decided yet whether to stick with a 3-regatta series for 2008 or return to a ‘best 3 of 6’ format. Please send me your thoughts. Still lots more sailing happening in New England this fall: Newport is hosting the Olympic Trials of course, plus there are a few one-day events in October before the frostbiting gets started - then grab your wetsuits and come on out and join those hardy sailors in Newport , Westport CT (Cedar Point YC), Stonington CT etc.. Check the fleet list on the D7 website for the club nearest you - newcomers are always welcome!

District 8 Ted Cremer Sayville, NY Welcome D-8 sailors! This spring and summer saw a lot of great laser racing in all rigs spread out throughout the region. Clearly the shining stars in my mind are Lynn and Mike who over the course of three years transformed the summer “Hampton’s” sailing scene from a once a year stop at Devon YC to a full on five week series with tight competition. All participants received a cool laser hat with the burgees of the five hosting yacht clubs displayed across the back. Racing in three of the five regattas qualified a sailor for series standings. East End Report - Mike Duran and Lynn Sexton A total of 40 Laser sailors raced in 24 races this summer on the east end of Long Island . The 2007 East End Laser Series consisted of 5 races in 5 regattas at 5 yacht clubs on 5 Saturdays. Thank you to the clubs Old Cove YC, Shelter Island YC, Devon YC, Breakwater YC, and Southampton YC. Many thanks to the series sponsors -Amagansett Beach & Bicycle Company www.amagansettbeachco.com - Sailaction, www.sailaction.com - The Dinghy Shop, www.dinghyshop.com Results, photos, video and much more are available at www.laserd8.tripod.com. Reports from the Great South Bay - Summer Regattas - Ted Cremer - Sayville Yacht Club July 27-29 - Great South Bay Yacht Racing Association Race Week Bay Shore Yacht Club graciously hosted the Great South Bay Race week during the last weekend in July. The three day regatta was blessed with a variety of sailing conditions with Friday and Saturday getting the good southwest breezes and Sunday being a lot lighter. In all 10 lasers and one radial competed in a 14 race series. What made the regatta particularly unique was that at least 50% of the fleet consisted of sailing instructors from various clubs from the GSBYRA. They all agreed to race one another in borrowed boats and had an awesome time! District 8 sailors Ted Cremer, Dan Desmond and Ward Brooks took the fist three places in the Full Rigs and the top radial sailor was Sayville Yacht Club’s Spencer Olsson. Full results: http://www.gsbyra.org/archives/2007/racing/2007raceweek-div-2-results.pdf

July 7 -8 D8 Grand Prix at Sayville Yacht Club... DISTRICT 8 LASER GRAND PRIX — LASER FULL RIG Cedar Point frostbite sailors Phillip Hood and Brian Raney excelled in the two day regatta that was blessed with strong sea breezes, great waves for surfing, and huge patches of seaweed to take the top two positions for the full rigs. Brian came from behind in the points win the last race which put him ahead of Ted Cremer who finished 3rd. Seawanhaka Corinthian YC winter frostbite sailors Colin Leon and Fred Abels took first and third in the radial division with Sayville’s Christian Cremer finishing second.Full results: http://laserd8.tripod.com/news.htm July 1, Babylon Yacht Club. This year’s 4th of July regatta presented a variety of conditions ranging from a shifty southerly which developed into a good sea breeze in the afternoon to a gusty northerly on Sunday. Ted Cremer and Bob Blanco traded off and found themselves tied after day one with Ted ahead on the tiebreak. Bob sailed a brilliant race two nailing two big shifts to put himself well in the lead at the top mark. Dan Desmond continued to improve over the weekend sailing faster and faster upwind. Spencer Olsson, a Sayville YC junior sailor sailed well in a radial consistently trading places with the full rig sailors. Special thanks to Joe Mule and Pete Capitain from Babylon YC for running a great regatta and for getting 10 races off for the sailors. Spring Regattas For the spring regattas, all results can be found on: http://laserd8.tripod.com/news.htm Thanks to Bob Terry for manning the helm at the website for as long as I can remember Spring Reports June 23, Cold Spring Harbor Beach Club. Six Radials and a full rig saw winds that varied from 10-18 knots. Ted Cremer showed up a bit late, but swept the field of full rigs. Likewise, Anne Kochendorfer took first in the ladies’ division. June 16, Cold Spring Harbor Beach Club. Eleven sailors found themselves testing the light air, which varied from puffs strong enough to put them into the hiking straps to dead calms. Shifty conditions put a premium on picking the correct sides of the course and staying in phase. June 9, Dinghy Shop Regatta in Amityville. Lindsay reports very tricky conditions with winds swinging between northeast and north, varying 8-15 knots with strong current. A good turnout of Junior sailors, which is always nice to see. Seven races were run. June 2, Southampton YC, wind at about 12-18 knots with a one foot chop, enough to make surfing possible on the downwind legs. Eleven sailors competed, then chowed down on a great barbecue afterward. Seawanhaka Spring Fling Laser Regatta Report by Eric Johnson - Seawanhaka Winter Sailing chair Memorial Day weekend got started with annual Laser District 8 Regatta. The forecast was not great with a predicted light northerly. 10 boats came to see how it would work out and it worked out fine. Principal Race Officer Paul Nardone found a spot just south of the club where the wind was funneling in and set up his course. The first race became a reaching event when the wind back to the Northwest, but the Race Committee got the shifts down and the rest of the races ran truer. There was a lot of tide running through and that rewarded the sailors

who paid attention to it. The overall winner was Commodore Al Constants followed by Lindsay Hewitt and the top Junior, Jake Evans The top Radial was Bobby Boger. Special thanks Eric for running an awesome winter laser series at Seawanhaka Corinthian YC. Some Final Thoughts I need to thanks two individuals that have served the class very well over the years and have really mentored my kids and me along during the way. The sailing in D-8 is great largely because of their efforts and vision. Good sportsmanship, having fun and free exchange of knowledge is the underlying emphasis at the regattas. I never leave a day on the water without having really learned something relevant. Don Woodworth who has been missed as of late, served as the District Secretary when I got back into the class as my oldest son was starting to grow out of his Opti. Don made a point of getting to know all of the new sailors as they entered into the class and I believe still hikes harder than many of the 20 year olds I see racing at the majors. Lindsay Hewitt has faithfully served as the district secretary for the last couple of years. All of the sailors in District 8 have a tremendous appreciation for his efforts and for further fostering the districts underlying philosophy of good sportsmanship and free exchange of knowledge. Lindsay is a real advocate for junior sailing and has been tremendously influential in the sailing lives of all the Cremer Laser sailors. It is really out my genuine appreciation for his efforts that I have taken on the position as secretary as I want to see his vision grow and expand throughout the region. I can be contacted via e-mail at tcremer@optonline.net. Look forward to seeing more sailors on the water this fall . . . Frostbiting starts soon!!!

District 9 Chas Williamson Ithaca, NY We have had a good second half of our season in upstate New York in 207. This report is a brief version of a more detailed description of the regattas for the next Laser Sailor. At Newport YC, back in June, Mike Wilde returned to the sailing scene locally, and won the regatta. Chas Williamson returned from the duty of going to a conference in Corfu Island in the Med, to win the Sodus regatta, and Marcus Costich won the Laser District 9 Junior Championships at the same event. Well done Marcus, and thanks to your great sister for running such a phenomenal junior program with the Sodus team ! At the District Championships at Rochester YC, we had a lot of lovely wind over 14-15 July, and Gordon Lamphere rolled in from Wisconsin, with Susie Pegel, and they spiced up our fleet. Gordon won from Chas Williamson, and Susie went fast to become easily the first woman and 6th overall. The Chautauqua Lake YC regatta on 30 June was won by Chas Williamson, followed by Nate Bargar and Eric Nickerson, in some wonderful breezes. The Empire State Games were held this year over the period 25-27 July at Shatemmuc YC, with many thanks to Jasper Fox for staging this at his old club. The racing was not of the most immense exciting kind owing to the light and very shifty winds, but Mark May sailed beautifully to first place, followed by Andrew Zuber, then equal third were Chas Williamson and Richie Wait. Finally, the Deathroll regatta was won by Ray Cudney. Nice work, Ray !

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He is irresistibly fast at this annual well-attended regatta. Many more details and the full winner lists will be presented in the next Laser Sailor magazine. Good luck to all the East Coast Masters sailors who have set sail for Spain for the Masters Worlds, especially Peter Seidenberg - - Go Mein Herr ! I will be at the Worlds in Sydney in February 2008 to join these guys again.

District 10 Eric Reitinger New Jersey The summer was busy here in District 10. LBIYRA did their junior interclubs every Wednesday in July and August with every club on Long Beach Island hosting a regatta. Full results can be found at http://www.lbiyra.org. MAYRA did their weekend racing for juniors and adults with every club hosting a regatta a weekend. Full results can be found at http://www.mayra.org. Laser Nationals were held up at Mallets Bay Boat Club in Vermont. There was three days of great racing and the conditions couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get any better. It was breeze on two out of the three days, beautiful weather, and fresh water. The club did a great job welcoming everyone ran things very well. A few district full rig sailors made their way up there. Kyle Rogachenko was the top district finisher and finished second overall in a fleet of 83. Matt Geotting (Lavalette Yacht Club) was 27th, Eric Reitinger (Brant Beach Yacht Club) was 32nd, Billy Martin (Riverton Yacht Club) 41st, and Mike Hecky (Riverton Yacht Club) 48th. Surf City held their 52nd Annual Regatta on September 8-9. Matt Geotting won the full rig fleet of 8 with Eric Reitinger 2nd and Clint Neuman (Riverton Yacht Club) 3rd. There were 8 Radials and Alex Bertrand (Severn Sailing Association) winning, Kelly McGlynn (Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club) 2nd and Ian Donohue (Brigentine Yacht Club) 3rd. Conditions were challenging with Saturday bringing winds of 15-20mph and 5-10mph on Sunday. CORK had a few district members racing. Clay Johnson (Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club) was the highest placing district member finishing 2nd, Pat Curran (Riverton Yacht Club) 12th, Matt Geotting 22nd, Kyle Rogochenko 26th, Ian Sutherland (Island Heights Yacht Club) 35th, and Joe Lepis (Lavalette Yacht Club) 55th. Olympic Trials will have at least 3 District members sailing. Good luck to Kyle Rogochencko, Clay Johnson, and Matt Geotting. The Last Chance regatta may also bring another district member or two to the regatta. I created a yahoo group to try to get an email distribution list going. You have to create a username with yahoo and then sign up for the group. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to get scheduling to posted, results, and anything else pertaining to the district up on there ASAP. You can sign up at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LaserDistrict10/. Next summer will be packed. June has 3 regattas with the Orange Coffee Pot, the BBYC Annual Regatta and the Laser Districts at Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club. BBYC will be hosing the Laser ACCs on July 12-13. Schedule for the rest of the year: Cooper River Fall Regatta: October 20th NJYRA Laser Championships: October 28th Cooper River Frostbite series: November 4, 11, 18, 22, 25 Monmouth Boat Club Frostbite series: October 28th- New Years, Every Sunday See ya out on the water

District 11 Jon Deutsch Richmond, VA District 11 has had a busy season with over 20 events since the beginning of June. Our District Series events have seen great turnouts and our series champions will be crowned after our final event in September. Throughout the summer our sailors have traveled far and wide competing in Nationals, Youth Worlds, Canadian Champs, CORK, Buzzards Bay and several other regattas around the country. Two new fleets have emerged this summer. The first is at Southern Maryland Sailing Association located in Solomons Island, Maryland. The fleet sails on the Patuxent River Thursday nights May-September and has a regatta planned for the end of September. Another Burgeoning fleet is located in Willoughby Bay in Norfolk and in conjunction with Broad Bay Sailing and Norfolk Naval Sailing center is brining regular organized laser racing back to the Virginia Beach area. The fleet races Sundays September-October. Deep Creek Yacht Club at Turkey Neck hosted their annual laser invita-

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tional regatta at the end of August. It was attended by 9 ‘off-the-lake’ sailors from around the district who made the trek into the mountains of Western Maryland. All of the sailors were treated to great, well-run regatta won by Joni Palmer. Deep Creek will be hosting the 2008 District Championship August 16-17. Our 2007 season is starting to wind down, but planning for our 2008 season is already underway. Check out our new fleets as wells as news and results from this past season and our upcoming 2008 schedule at http://www.laserdistrict11.org

The annual meeting will take place at the last regatta in Beaufort, which is Oct. 20-21, under the live oaks and moss. D12 would like to thank all of the sailing/yacht clubs and their race committees and volunteers for giving us such a great summer of racing. D12 also thanks the D12 sailors who act as event chairs for these championship series races. We are looking forward to these last regattas this fall and to awarding all of the trophies to some great sailors in our district. All of the NOR’s are online on the D12 site. See you on the water.

District 12 Arland Whitesides Wrightsville Beach, NC

District 13 Meka Taulbee & James Liebl Dunedin, FL

We’re 2 regattas away from the D12 championship series awards and we have 2 masters (John Potter and Charlie Usher) duking it out with a junior (John Melnik) for first overall. This is going to be good especially since the junior is a lake sailor (our next regatta is on a lake) and the two masters are coastal sailors (our last regatta is on the coast). Stay tuned. We had a very successful first time having a separate Grand Prix for radials. This was held at the Carolina Yacht Club-SC Charleston, SC Open in July. 18 Radials and 1 4.7 were given separate starts from the 16 Fulls. Benton Whitesides took 1st radial. Jerry Callahan took 1st full. The RC kept all of the spinnaker boats on another course so we were in heaven with just Sunfish sharing our course. Thank you Carolina Yacht Club-SC for all of your great RC work. Charleston is busy revving up their Laser fleet. We have contacts for the Charleston area on the D12 site if you are new to Lasers and or new to Charleston. Carolina Yacht Club-NC Wrightsville Beach, NC was the next venue for our 3rd in the full and 4.7 series and 4th in the radial series event in our championship series. We had 35 Lasers in the ocean in a very light air on Sat…make that almost a drifter. Sunday was much better. Martin Willard took 1st overall and Foster Marshall took 1st Radial. In the sound there were 2 juniors sailing radials. There are plenty of races left in our South Atlantic Yacht Racing Association where you can race your Laser. Many of these are opens where you will meet locals who do not travel to our series. These races are great opportunities to sail out of your local waters and we are very lucky to have ocean, harbors, lakes and rivers as venues. Go to www.sayresailing.com for a calendar of all of these fall races. For the next D12 event, let’s all meet in Columbia at the Columbia Sailing Club, Sept. 29-30th. This is the D12 Central regatta as it is in the very center of our district and not a bad drive no matter from where you are driving. It is at the center of 2 Interstates. How’s that for planning an event that all can get to easily? Our last event will also be the annual meeting at Beaufort Yacht and Sailing Club. Last year 56 Lasers attended. How’s that for participation? We will be awarding all of the D12 series trophies, which are: 1st overall, 1st junior, 1st female, 1st radial, 1st 4.7, 1st overall master, 1st apprentice master, 1st master, 1st grand master, and 1st great grand master. The D12 Fun Police will also be awarding a series of awards for all sorts of situations, participation and general nonsense. No one is safe from the Fun Police.

With 4 of the 5 Treasure Coast series events completed, there is plenty of news to report. Words just won’t do justice to the most important piece of news-how much fun I’ve had doing the events this year. If you’re looking for racing to hone, or prove, your skill in a format that allows you to combine sailing and real life, this Series is for you. Other pieces of news started with the gigantic garfish on the starting line at the first event, Lake Eustis. I don’t know if garfish eat people, but I hope I never find out as this was one vicious, prehistoric looking monster, maybe 5’ long. Get me back to salt water-sharks don’t look nearly as scary! Lake Eustis Sailing Club, led by Sam Chapin did a wonderful job of kicking off the Series with top quality race committee work. Providing two mark boats and an RC boat, plus a ton of volunteers, for a single afternoon of racing says how committed this club is to being one of the top clubs in Florida (or is that the Nation?). Sam’s son, Dave Chapin, sort of a name from the past (didn’t he win a couple of World Championships somewhere along the way?), showed he remembered a thing or two about single handed sailing by winning more of the races than anyone else to capture the day’s top podium spot in the 1 to 15 knot breeze. Having the event in their backyard enticed some new speedy guys, like Rob Krentel, to join the Series. Next on the schedule was Melbourne, where Skip Canfield just put the hammer down on the fleet upwind in the 10-12 knot breeze. If Skip didn’t grind you on the first weather leg, he would get you on the second one. At one point I’m going downwind hoping to get enough of a lead on Skip to hold him off upwind when I catch up to Tom McNally. With Tom on my leeward bow, I can’t bottom turn the waves so I’m stuck. Just about when I finish my “lecture” to him about the importance of surfing, he deathrolls. My problem is solved! I should feel really guilty, but I don’t! Flip the calendar and we’re going to the third leg of the Series, Titusville/Kelly Park. Sea breeze starts off early, about 12:00 p.m, but that brings in the thunderstorms early. That means only 3 races, starting in 14 knots and diminishing to about 2 knots just before the “Harbor” flag flies. Before that head home flag, Freddy Sambolin, aka Ghandi, uses those coaching smarts to squeak a win from Randy Rea. Chris Lowrie, the multi-boat Savant, in a beater boat, beater sail, beater blades, beater everything, ends up third. I’ve got this great view from the committee boat of Dave Hartman getting totally hosed on a 180 degree windshift within about 20 yards of the finish

of the last race. At least three boats go right over the top of Dave, and there is nothing he can do because Mother Nature gave a gift puff to those three boats and snuffed Dave. This time I feel bad, because we’ve all been in Dave’s shoes! Also from the committee boat I can see the diversity in the fleet. Check it out, Jackie Herbert, a female and grand master sailed this event. That reminds me that each event has at least two females, and fast ones at that, think Michelle Davis or Cindy Taylor. The following month is August, so we’re rolling to the US Sailing Center at Martin County. I see Don Lasky will be the RC, so no worries about the course. I also see Skip Canfield, so worries about how we’re going to beat him. It turns out he beat himself by hitting the starting pin at least twice, heading to the wrong mark, etc. When Skip sailed to the wrong mark, he forced Scott Jones to go way high with him. Bad news for Scott as a bunch of us got to sail by him well to leeward. Hasty Miller demonstrated what this series can do for you with a dramatic improvement at Martin County. He ended up with at least 2 seconds, and multiple times he crossed the entire fleet. Uh-oh, this means we’ve got to start keeping track of where Hasty is. With the final stop yet to come at Palm Beach in the ocean, the only final result close to guaranteed is Kevin Ratigan winning the Iron Man award for sailing all 5 events. That is if Kevin comes and sails! Well, I guess there is one other guaranteed result, and that’s more fun. Keep your calendars open for next year and come join us.

District 17 John Coolidge Chattanooga, TN The fall sailing season in District 17 is some of the most wonderful sailing the year has to offer, with crisp breeze and warm water. There are several events remaining in 2007. Bring your Laser and join us! The 33rd annual Lotsa-Lasers Regatta in Nashville TN, will be September 22-23. This Year’s event at Harbor Island Yacht Club is our D-17 Grand Prix. Contact Bruce Richards, rich4302@comcast.net After the Grand Prix, come to the Georgia State Laser Championship, hosted by Lake Lanier Sailing Club. Held October 13 and 14. This promises to be a big event. In 2008, it will be held in conjunction with the No Coast Championship. Have no worries, there is plenty of water, friends and hospitality. Email Robert Burke for additional info. Laser01@123mail.org If you are in the traveling groove, head over to D-12 the following weekend for the remaining D-12 event of the year. Beaufort Yacht & Sailing Club will host the South Carolina Laser Championships October 20-21. Last year was a lot of fun. Wow, those D-12er’s can throw a party. I’ve never seen a Laser sail look so good… Email Rob Bowden, rbowden@fbjohnston.com <mailto:rbowden@fbjohnston.com> for info. November this year will have some new surprises. Atlanta Yacht Club will host the No More Turkey the 3-4. But don’t pack your boat up on Sunday! The Frost Nip will be sailed on the remaining Sundays in November. AYC has graciously offered to allow non-members to store the boats during the

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new series. So mark your calendar, November 11,18, and 25. Email Michael Carlson, michael.carlson@comcast.net <mailto:michael.carlson@comcast.net> for info. After all that wonderful sailing, rest for December, and on the first day of January 2008, let your resolution be to sail in every race of the 2008 FROSTBITE SERIES! Be it in Nashville, at Harbor Island Yacht Club, or be it in Atlanta, at Lake Lanier Sailing Club. Racing Begins on Sunday, January 6. Starts are at 1pm. Nashville, contact William Hofmeister hofs@comcast.net <mailto:hofs@comcast.net> Atlanta, contact Robert Burke for additional info. Laser01@123mail.org Every one will want to head to Atlanta the first weekend in March for the 2008 D-17 Grand Prix. Lake Lanier Sailing Club will host the Laser Southerns, March 1-2. This will be a great time to sail, as the Frostbite will have everyone’s edge sharpened. This will also be a good time to visit the venue of the No Coast Championship, to be hosted in the fall of 2008.

District 20 David Abbott Wisconsin The spring laser season started with the Nagawicka Icebreaker – a new annual event on our schedule at my home lake. Friends of sailors loaned boats so over half the fleet were juniors – and many new to Lasering! Mark Kastel won the event as he did in the fall Octoberfest event on the same lake. Needless to say, Mark has this lake sailing down! The V-15’s came up from Chicago to make for robust partying and camping. Camping is a short walk from the yacht club for convenience and safe partying. Come back to Nagawicka for Octoberfest ’07! The next event was the Mother’s Day event at LGYC. This is a one day event for the Bob Pegel Trophy and is always well attended. Roman Plutenko, “the Ukranian flash”, won with local ace Susie Pegel 2nd followed by Mark Kastel. The next event was the Vlad Kobal Memorial hosted by Chicago YC – Belmont. This is the 1st regatta in the Southern Great Lakes Champs. Roman also won this annual event but was followed closely by fellow Ukranian Nikita Mazin. Both Nikita and Rick Strilky have become forces to be reckoned with for the chase for the Southern Great Lakes Champs that Roman has won the last 2 years (Adrian Irving Trophy). Nikita won the Hobelman at Chicago Corinthian in June and was 2nd at Winnetka’s SuperSail in July to put him in the SGL Champs lead prior to the Jimmy Talbot on September 29 and 30 at CYC – Belmont. Other events filling out our fall action: Sept. 23 Border Challenge – LaCrosse, Wi Sept 29-30 Jimmy Talbot - CYC-Belmont Oct. 6 Wandering Moose – Milwaukee YC Oct 7 Start of Sunday am frostbiting, CYC Belmont Oct. 13-14 Octoberfest Regatta – Nagawicka Lake YC These are all annual events with new ones being added every year! The Talbot this year is the biggy – serving as our Grand Prix event, District 20 Champs, and the Great Lakes Masters. On the fleet side Chicago has had great growth in frostbiting and fleet racing based at Belmont and Corinthian. In Wisconsin the big growth occurred in Milwaukee Bay where 20 – 30 racers from several clubs have raced together on Tuesday evenings again this summer. Growing fleets race in Madison, Green Bay, Pewaukee, and other locales. The high school action has also been great with many of the top teams coming to the Talbot where there are enough radial sailors for a separate start. This has made the Talbot the best attended regatta with over 40 boats racing. So in summary, come out and join the fun. Fall is the best – warm water and good wind.

the lasers in the day and a half event. Mark Kastel from District 20 climbed the fence at the border and won narrowly over Mike Bowers. Jeff McIntosh came out of a self-imposed exile to take 3rd and Kurt Holtze was just a point behind in 4th. The winds were back for the Northstar Games. The Northsar Games are a one day event that was started to salvage some sailing during the Uptown Art Fair. The Fair draws so many people that the CYC corner of Lake Calhoun is inaccessible. So the lasers launch from a beach on the South end of the lake early, before the crowd builds too much. Again, this year the winds were great. Quoting David Gardiner, “The winds were everything but steady.” The PROs were able to get in 9 races. Bruce Martinson was ready for every type of wind and finished first. John Dyer was second and Lars Hansen was third. The winds were really with us for the D 21 No Coasts at Duluth. With NW winds there is several hundred miles of fetch and we had waves! They were the biggest I have sailed on/in. Probably the biggest challenge was just getting on the lake. It is a fairly long haul over the Park point sand dunes and then the waves, They were breaking about 30 yards out from the beach. I waded out pointing the into the waves. The first breaker filled my cockpit. So, I thought I would just pull the boat over to dump out the water. Not a good idea. The next breaker caught my boat broadside, picked it up and threw it about 5 boat lengths toward the beach. I managed to get to it before it was beached and then waded out again trying to miss the breakers. After a little dancing about I got out deep enough to get the board and rudder down and sailed on out. Getting to the start line was interesting because the pin and J boat would disappear, appear and disappear again. On a beat, I almost had to plot a course to miss the biggest waves. Once, when healing too much, I literally slid down the wave face. I need a lot more time to figure out the down wind runs. Sticking the bow into the back of a wave is really slow. In spite of myself, I had several stretches of going from wave to wave. That is amazing! I just wish I could make it happen by design, not just by chance. Sunday was a real blowout. So the venue was moved to the harbor. The winds were very puffy and shifty after coming over the Park Point dunes. Racing was difficult and after 2 races the participants decided that they had had enough. (I had decided that before the start.) Bruce Martinson made it look easy and finished with 6 bullets. His throw out was a 2nd. Eric Hegstrom made his first appearance of the year and finished 2nd. Charlie Igo was 3rd. Many thanks to Jim Sharrow, DSSA prez, Justin Aulie, DSSA director, Doug Wendlund, laser fleet captain and

District 21 Mike Elson Minneapolis, MN It certainly has been a season of good winds in the Minneapolis area. The Aquatennial regatta is the Calhoun Yacht Club’s big event, Aquatennial is a 10 day celebration for Minneapolis to counter St. Paul’s Winter Carnival. The traditional dates were selected to have the lowest historical probability of rain. Consequently, the Aquatennial Regatta has a well deserved reputation for light winds. Not so, this year. Great winds! The PRO is laser friendly and was able to give the lasers 2 races for each C scow race. He was able to get 9 races for

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Tom Maloney, PRO, for a great No Coast regatta. Yes, the winds were back for the Low Key (a.k.a. Calhoun Classic), strong enough to keep the C scows on their lifts. The laser friendly PRO was able to got in 7 races in very shifty winds. Kurt Holtze figured out most of the shifts and was 1st, Bruce Martinson was 2nd. Kurt Schroder who also had to climb that border fence from D 20, and finished 3rd. Wednesday evening racing continues on Calhoun through the end of September, The D 21 N.U.M.B. one day event comes up in October and the season final event is the Thanksgiving Day regatta on Lake Calhoun. See you there?

District 24 David Lapier NorCal It was an exceptional summer for Laser sailing in Northern California. The growing San Francisco Bay Fleet at Treasure Island Sailing Center (TISC) set the standard for activity and enthusiasm hosting the open PCCs, Summer Sailstice, and a Thursday Night series. TISC has an outreach program to teach sailing to under privileged and handicapped communities. They host a fundraiser regatta, Summer Sailstice, with a big party and lots of racing for all ages. Chris Humphries put together a great series on day 1, but then broke his mast on Sunday when the breeze came up. Results: 4.7: 1) Chloe Lepert, 2) Domenic Bove, 3) Mariana Sosa-Cordero (7 Boats). Full Rigs: 1) David LaPier, 2) Walt Spevak, 3) Peter Vessela, 4) Ryan Nelson. (27 Boats). Radials: 1) Cindy Weitsman, 2) Jessie Bernhard, 3) Megan Hayes. (8 Boats). The Pacific Coast Championship at TISC was a big success. Steve Orosz writes, The PCCs hosted 81 boats in 3 classes (full rigs, radials and even 4.7s!). Friday’s winds combined with bigger seas for some amazing carnage on the water on Saturday that lead to calling off the racing after only one race! Sunday the course moved to the more protected Emeryville flats but the wind didn’t quite fill in as expected letting some of the lighter sailors have a chance, especially in the Radials. Results: Full Rig: 1) Derick Vranizan, 2) Peter Vessela, 3) David Fagen. Radials: 1) Adam Deermount, 2) Max Nickbarg, 3) Colin Leon, 4) Roger Herbst. 4.7: 1) Domenic Bove, 2) Natalia Montemayor, 3) Mariana Sosa-Cordero. The range of successful activity at Treasure Island reinforces for me the fact that our sport depends on its volunteers. My friend Ralph Pombo did not get to sail at the PCC’s, he gave his weekend over to cooking food and entertaining 200 people! After the event, he wrote the following letter to the district sailors. I think it expresses what is important in the sailing community – to appreciate volunteers, and to volunteer yourself! “Well the 2007 Laser Pacific Coast Championships are complete. This is just a personal note to everyone that volunteered or attended the event. I am so happy to have met many new faces. Some of you have only been a name that I have read on past scores sheets or maybe just a familiar sail number that I had sailed against on occasion…Did you have fun at the PCCs? Did you leave a better sailor with tons of big wind experience? Did you get enough to eat? I was exhausted by the time the awards ceremony came around and I forgot some of the biggest

things that I wanted to say. First of all, I cannot give enough credit to Steve Orosz and John Super. John was the acting PRO and was responsible for on-thewater activities and race management. I think that he did a fantastic job. Steve was the brains behind the entire event. His years of experience in Southern California and all of his time racing on the water has made him a priceless commodity when we needed to run this event. He added dock space, added hot showers, found more committee boats, tables and chairs, scored the races online, posted advertising everywhere, and on and on and on.... He is always the first one there and the last one to leave. Then in his spare time....he raced in the event himself. The man is tireless! A thank you could never be enough, but it’s all that I have to offer. Also to be thanked are the sponsors (see the PCC website for links to the company sites). Please shop with our sponsors. They sent or brought dozens of items and gift certificates. Did you like the give away items? Fantastic weren’t they? These people really show how much they appreciate the Laser class. Honorable mention would have to go to George at West Coast Sailing for all of his contributions and Sean at Svendsen’s Boat Works (our local Laser dealer). These sponsors not only sponsored the evening festivities each evening but donated to the give away prizes and/or supplied spare parts to competitors. Make sure to visit them online the next time you need something. They deserve our business. A huge thank you goes out to the volunteers. Did you know that this was an all volunteer event? We had no paid staff. I had so many people helping that I didn’t even get all of their names. Parents, wives, husbands, coaches, friends and fellow sailors all came out to help feed you and give you a nice weekend sailing. I wish that I could name them all here but I can’t. We actually had the entire event cleaned up and put away before dark last night. That included taking down the tents, taking out the garbage, and loading all of the cars. Awesome! Some of the standouts would have to be the Vranizan family, the Goldberg family, the Hendricks family, Catherine King, the Shum family, James Smith and many others. Walt Spevak was the muscle behinds the give away items, Ariel Poler and Cindy Weitzman handled the tee shirts, and Rebecca Beard along with her sister Christina designed the tee shirt graphics. I am not going to name any more due to the fear of forgetting too many. Just Thanks! That’s all...thank you... The biggest thank you goes to my wife, Shelly. Okay so the main point that I would like to make is “Pay it forward”. That’s right. If you had a good time, or at least appreciate the effort. Do the same for the next sailor. Volunteer for an event soon. It may only be a couple of hours that you can spare, but it means so much to the event committee and the sailors. Also support the sponsors. This is a great sport and without supporting each other, it will never survive and prosper. Please pass this to others that have not been included in the addresses.” Later in August, Tahoe Yacht Club hosted the Masters PCC’s. Justin Casey organized a great event and the race committee was excellent. Everyone should experience the incredible blue skies and even brighter blue water of Tahoe. There were 23 entries, including Leif Gihbsson from San Diego and 6 boats from the bay area. It was breezy with big puffs (and unfortunately, big lulls), but all-in-all a really fine event. The trophy for the regatta is

dedicated in honor of Don Trask, certainly one of the most beloved individuals in bay-area sailing. Chris Boome wrote, in Scuttlebutt, “Nice to see Tracy Usher earn a convincing win at the Laser Masters PCC’s – held recently on Lake Tahoe, CA – to win the Don Trask Perpetual Trophy. Don is a West Coast sailing legend (now living in North Carolina) who introduced the Laser to the San Francisco Bay in the early 1970’s and is the major reason the class became so successful so quickly in California. Although Masters Laser racing (age 35 and above) did not become official until much later, Don was a superb Laser sailor who never set foot in the boat until he was a “Master”. The Don Trask Trophy was established to recognize Don’s tremendous sailing skill as well as his dedication to making the Laser class a success. I cannot imagine a better recipient than Tracy on both accounts. Tracy has been in the top tier of the Laser Masters World competition for several years, is the North American Laser Class President and the prime mover of all things Laser related in Northern California. It was a great event, thanks largely to the great people at the Tahoe Yacht Club, a beautiful place to sail, challenging conditions, and the absolute best Rum Truck ever.” Tahoe Yacht Club also has a very active fleet, that races every Monday night in two fleets. I understand that Mark Oshiro will soon be racing in the “A” Fleet after all his great wins this summer. Results A-Fleet: 1) Stan Eriksson, 2) Matt Clark, 3) Nick Pullen. B-Fleet: 1) Mark Oshiro, 2) Zack Thomas. 3) RB Clark. The Lake Washington Sailing Center on the Sacramento River is building up a great new all down wind event, following in the footsteps of a famous Delta keelboat classic, the new event is the “Dinghy Delta Ditch”. Ralph Pombo reports, “ “Well, you missed a good one. First a little background about the race might be helpful. This is the third annual DDD that runs from Rio Vista to the Port of Sacramento up the Sacramento River. The race committee carefully plans the event to take full advantage of currents and winds to make the most enjoyable racing possible. The single day race of over 30 miles takes 3-6 hours to complete on average. With the beautiful river delta as scenery, a narrow channel as a race course, and fantastic summer conditions, you just can’t go wrong. In my opinion, this year was by far the best to date. Having enough wind was definitely not an issue. Picture yourself sailing a 30 mile course on a reach/run for over 4 hours. I am no expert, but my guess would be an average wind of 10-20 knots all day with gusts in the high 20s, 30s, and maybe more. It was the gusts that kept things exciting. Most of the race, the river level is 10-20 feet below the top of the river bank. With variations in direction of the river, river bank vegetation, direction of the wind, current speed, height of the river bank, motor boat traffic (minimal), and other variables cause the sailor to experience huge shifts in direction (90+ degrees) and velocity. If you were macho enough to physically handle the breeze, then your vessel must also endure the shifts and frequent capsizes. Many tried, many failed, and few survived. The word “carnage” was repeated continuously all day long. The masts, centerboards, rudders, sails, hopes, dreams, and pride were all broken, torn, or took a tremendous beating. Several boats were towed to the finish as ‘survival’ took on new meaning.

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By comparison to the standard racing, a sailor finds himself struggling to maintain concentration over the entire journey. Just as your mind starts to wander, a gust of wind reminds you of the water temperature and how hard a metal boom feels as it slaps across your temple. This was truly a test of how few capsizes it would take before you crossed the finish line. The fewest number wins. Josh Lindsay won this battle leaving me a distant second.” Results: 1) Josh Lindsay, 2) Ralph Pombo, 3) Drake Jensen. Youth Sailing in San Francisco Bay is building with the a new organization, “Bay Area Youth Sailing” and an increasing number of 4.7’s and Radials to bridge the gap up from El Toros and Optis. The 2007 BAYS summer race series came to an exciting conclusion as Tiburon Yacht Club played host to BAYS #5 over Labor Day weekend - the final stop of the five regatta season championships. The regatta was a real treat for sailors and spectators alike, as great weather, a beautiful venue and an outstanding job by all the TYC volunteers combined to put a perfect punctuation on a highly successful BAYS season. Sailors got an additional thrill as local sports hero and Olympic Skiing Gold medalist Johnny Mosley was on hand to pass out awards and sign autographs. But the real stars were the 113 junior sailors who competed hard, demonstrated good sportsmanship, and simply had a blast throughout the weekend! For the BAYS summer series, overall participation grew for the 4th year in a row, with 171 sailors competing in one or more BAYS regattas, an increase of 52% from 2006. Fleets include Optis, 420s, and Lasers. Results: Full Rigs: 1) Chris Humphreys, 2) Connor Leech, 3) Thomas Maher. 4) Mike Scott. Radials: 1) Jessica Bernhard, 2) Cody Young, 3) Megan Hayes, 4) Drake Jensen. 4.7: 1) Dominic Bove, 2) Tom Parker, 3) Max Brodie. In the Junior Olympic Regatta, results were: Full Rig: 1) Michael Radziejowski, 2) Michael Scott. Radial: 1) Drake Jensen, 2) Jessica Bernard, 3) Daniel Thompson. 4.7: 1) Max Brodie, 2) Tom Parker, 3) Lauren Cefali. Another fleet that is growing stronger sails on tiny Shoreline Lake in Mountainview. Steve Hartman, Stefan Jaquet, and Dave Braginsky used to own a J24, but they gave that up because it wasn’t enough fun, and now they sail every week at Shoreline. Marin Yacht Club’s 2007 Laser Challenge was held in beautiful sunny conditions with excellent 811 knot breeze. The sounds of Caribbean Steel Drum music wafted in the breeze as exciting match racing took place in the San Rafael Canal in front of the Clubhouse. Ron Witzel, a spirited grand master, was in the fray with Phil Stolp and Zia Ahari. Special congratulations to Nick Dudgale, who placed 2nd in the radial fleet a CORK. Along with our other adventurers — John Pearce, Katie Maxim, Claire Dennis, Tracy Usher, David LaPier, Peter Vessela, Jim Christopher, J.B. Duhler, Walt Spevak, Mike Eichwald, Matt Clark – and more – who make the effort to get out and compete around the USA, Canada, and the world. It’s hard to put into words what makes sailing such a worthwhile lifelong endeavor. I would like to end with a note I received from Stephanie and John Jensen, in regard to getting their son into sailing. “What we found so far in this Laser racing is it’s challenging and highly educational for kids to have to think for yourself and make the decisions instantly. Plus it’s fun as hell and the laser racers are

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a society of all ages looking for a good time wherever you go. The high lakes, reservoirs, rivers, bays and oceans all around the world whether it be high end competition or recreational racing, people are enjoying themselves family style. Win or lose you still win.”

District 25 Nils Andersson SoCal The heat is on. I’m talking about the heat wave with hot tropical moisture we have had here in So Cal lately. The moisture over land has put a damper on the normal sea breeze we use to enjoy at this time of the year. That even affected our District championship at Long Beach. It was a great event and one of the best venues on the west coast, but we did not get the wind velocity we are used to there. There have been some talks about the practice sail in the class lately. There was one participant in the D25 Championship using such a sail. I told him that we could not accept that, and as he said, he did not have any other sail we would allow him to sail, but not score (finish outside the line). However, he scored every race and I had to do something I never thought I had to do; protest on a class rule like that. We are trying to spread out some of the Laser events throughout the district. Pat Toole has offered to make the Cinco de Mayo Regatta in Santa Barbara a major Laser event. He’ll even give up sailing his J 24 for his Laser on that weekend. So mark your 2008 calendar for that regatta. I’ll go for that as the 5th of May is my birthday (why do you think Mexico is celebrating that day), and the one on 2008 will be my 70th.

2007 Laser District 25 Championships STEVEN SMITH, ABYC FLEET CAPTAIN ong Beach CA offered Southern California sailors a cool respite from an oppressive heat wave blistering the Los Angeles area Labor Day Weekend. Fifty Laser Radial and twenty-three Laser Full-Rig racers came to the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club (ABYC) to contest for the 2007 Laser District 25 Championship held in conjunction with the annual ABYC Labor Day Holiday Regatta. The ABYC Labor Day Holiday Regatta is an open, multi-class event this year attracting 168 boats divided between; Thistles, Cal 20’s, Finn’s, C-15’s, Snipes, I-14’s, Etchells, Sabots and Lasers. Lasers raced a windward-leeward course shared with Cal 20’s and Thistles on ABYC’s traditional race area, set inside the breakwater of Long Beach harbor. Lasers began their racing with a General Recall but restarted in a moderate 10 knot sea breeze and confused seas with enough wind chop and boat wakes to make one pay attention. Abe Torchinsky of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, British Columbia quickly took control in the Full-Rig fleet with three straight bullets and a second to end the day. Pat Toole of the Santa Barbara Sailing Club, Santa Barbara and Vann Wilson of host ABYC followed in order with Pat taking the last race of the day. In the Radial fleet, Nick Dugdale, representing the, can you believe, San Francisco, St. Francis and Richmond Yacht Clubs finished day one in first place with Chris Barnard of Newport Harbor YC, Newport Beach and Greg Dair of the California YC, Marina del Rey. Waiting in the wings; however, was Ryan Hoeven from King Harbor YC, Redondo Beach. Ryan was OCS failing to restart, in the first place, giving him a whopping 51 points to begin the series. Well, that did not deter Ryan, as he scored bullets in the last three races of the day. Dropping those 51 points would make a huge difference when the throwouts kicked-in day two. Abe Torchinsky continued his winning ways in Full-Rigs day two, with two more first place finishes and a fourth for his throw out. Pat Toole scored another first place finish on day two, but fell four points behind the consistent Vann Wilson who finished second overall and first Master. Day two featured variable and lighter breeze with holes that caught the leader of race five, Caleb Paine at the penultimate mark moving him back to an understandably frustrating 18th place finish. Caleb did recover nicely for a second and first to take fourth overall and was first Junior in Full-Rigs. Cody Shevitz finished in fifth place overall. Jim Kirk from ABYC was first Grand Master, Steve Landeau from ABYC was first Apprentice Master and Nils Andersson was our first Great Grand Master. In the Radial Fleet, Ryan Hoeven did not dominate as in day one, scoring a fourth, fifth, second, but by virtue of dropping an OCS, won the regatta by a mere two points over Nick Dugdale. Ryan collected quite a variety of awards; receiving the ABYC Labor Day Regatta award, District 25 First Junior Radial & First Radial Overall and the imposing Art Hall Fiesta de la Playa Perpetual Trophy awarded by ABYC to the winner of the largest class of boats competing at the Labor Day Regatta. Rounding out the top five were; Nick Kaschack from San Diego YC moving up to third, Katie Maxim from the San Francisco YC moved up nicely, from 9th on Saturday, to finish fourth and Greg Dair fifth.

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Sailing Fit Nutrition On The Road MEKA TAULBEE ACE CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER As many of you may know Kurt and I have spent a lot of time on the road traveling to and from regattas. Along with that, it’s pretty well known that we pay pretty close attention to what we eat. At some point during the year most of you will travel to a regatta that is not close to home. Contrary to popular belief traveling be it by plane, train or automobile is not a license to eat fast food. Good nutrition needs to start way before you leave for the regatta and continue right up until the end. If you are going to put effort into a nutrition program to get ready for a regatta you will only defeat all of the work you have already put in by eating poorly on your way there. If you have never thought about what you eat before, during or after a regatta there’s no time like the present to start. First of all you may want to know why this is so important. It may not seem like a couple of quick meals could do that much damage, but whenever you travel you are usually sitting down for a long period of time. Your metabolism slows down and cannot digest food as well or as quickly as when you are able to get up and move around. When you eat fast food or food that is mass produced, like airplane meals, it is made with ingredients that will help preserve its shelf life and in most cases with a lot of salt. All of these added ingredients can tend to make you feel stiff and slow. They have most likely made you retain water and all of the sitting has made your blood pool in different areas instead of flowing freely. This is why they tell you to get up and stretch on long plane rides or to make sure you stop and get out and stretch and walk around if you are driving. This will get things moving and help your body rid itself of the unwanted additives and preservatives. It may seem that when you are traveling your choices are limited. Most times you just want to get something quickly so you can keep going. With a little creativity and planning you can still eat well without having to stop for a long period of time. Not to mention you will probably save a few bucks too. The best strategy is to plan ahead. If you are flying you may want to pack some snacks to hold you over until you get to your destination. Some suggestions would be fruit, trail mix, granola bars, protein bars or energy bars. It’s always good to bring along an extra bottle of water

and to stay away from the soda that is always available on a flight. When you fly it is best to drink extra water and be sure to stay hydrated. For one thing it will make you use the restroom more often forcing you to get up and stretch. It will also keep your system flushed so your blood keeps circulating and you won’t feel so slow and thick. If you are driving you have many more options than when you are flying. The same as with flying I would pack some snacks. Driving tends to get a little monotonous and this is when we tend to graze more. Healthy snacks will fill you up so you don’t eat so much and will be much kinder on your body than a bag of chips or a candy bar. The next suggestion is to pack a cooler. You can pack food to make sandwiches (or make sandwiches ahead of time), water and other snacks. You can pack cut up fruit and vegetables. Such items like melon and celery have a high water content and will help keep you hydrated and keep your blood flowing much like drinking water would. If you are not a big fan of planning ahead with a cooler there are still more options for you to chose from. Most signs on the highway will advertise supermarkets at the upcoming exits as well as restaurants. Find a supermarket and put together your own meal. This doesn’t mean get the fried chicken that you can smell cooking all the way at the back of the parking lot. Get just enough to make a sub, get some trail mix or nuts, or pick out a salad. Many stores now have salad bars in them. If you are up to it you can also find health food supermarkets that will offer more in the line of salads and healthy meals to go. You can pick up some fruit that is already cut up and stock up on water and other drinks as well. Stopping this way often provides more of a variety of choices. Many times I find that what I packed already is definitely not what I am craving at that moment. Murphy’s Law I suppose! This way you can get something different each

time you stop and you are also giving yourself a great way to get out of your seat and stretch out. If you are more of the restaurant goer you can do that also. A rule of thumb is if it is a restaurant with a drive through you should not be going! Restaurants are obviously the least desirable choice, but a definite option. You can stop and eat at a restaurant as long as you are making wise meal choices. Salads and plain vegetables along with a source of protein are the best choices. You just need to be aware that most restaurants use ingredients with lots of preservatives as well. You want to steer clear of anything that is marinated, fried or sautéed. Choose instead things that are broiled or steamed. In all of these scenaros you want to be sure to include a protein source. Protein will make you feel full and digest more slowly. This will keep you from incessantly snacking or making choices that are full of empty calories. As always water is a must and staying hydrated will only benefit you. Even if it means you have to stop more often! I know this is only a brief summary of some of your options, but hopefully it will help get you headed in the right direction. There are lots of different alternatives so you just need to pick the one that works best for you. For more information you can also go to www.sailfit.com and find more articles to read on nutrition. As always I am here if you have any questions or would like to have a certain topic covered. Feel free to contact by going to www.sailfit.com or email me at meka@sailfit.com. below: Brad Funk hydrating between races in Hyeres, France. MLammens photo

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