The Laser Sailor Summer 2007 by Tracy Usher

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SUMMER 2007 6 continents, 122 countries - the biggest adult and youth racing class in the world

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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

Editors Sherri Campbell & Jerelyn Biehl ILCA-NA

Officers Tracy Usher Chairman 22 Creekside Lane San Mateo, CA 94401 Phone: (650) 340-1129 tracy.usher@stanford.edu Eric Faust Vice Chairman 821 East 53rd Street Austin, TX 78751 Phone: (512) 467-1317 ehfaust@gmail.com Ben Richardson Treasurer 5 Beachmont Avenue Gloucester, MA 01930 Phone: (978) 283-6983 benjaminrichardson@postharvard.edu

SU M M E R

2 0 0 7

District Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Membership Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 From the Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 ILCA-NA AGM summarized minutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 US Elite Youth Development Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Laser Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14-15 Technical Tips: Heating Up Your Downwind Sailing . .16 Downwind Sail Trim 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 District Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20-25 2007 Event Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Laser World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .center Fleet Profile - Treasure Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Masters Sailing: NAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Masters Sailing: US Nationals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Lauralee Symes Secretary 3576 SW Mt. Adams Drive Portland, OR 97239 Phone: (503) 274-2818 llsymes@comcast.net

2007 Vanguard NA Grand Prix Results . . . . . . . . . 34-35

Tommy Wharton At Large 118 Glouchester Ave. Oakville, ON L6J 3W4 Canada Phone: 647-296-6544 twharton@sailing.ca

Sailing Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

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

Regatta Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Membership Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Cover: Aerial photo of the US Master Nationals, Wrightsville Beach, SC. Photo: Logan Mock-Bunting www.scott-free.com

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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

Andrew Childs, 5369 South Street #3, Halifax, NS B3J 1A3 902-423-5919. andrewchilds@yahoo.com

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

Tim Felbel, 10 Oakhurst Crest Winnipeg, MD R2P 2L6 204-334-1953, timfelbel@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 Lindsay Hewitt, 17 Ridge Road Cold Spring, NY 11724. 631-692-4798 lymanthorne@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 Orrin Webber, 460 Orchard Ridge Rd Kalispell, MT 59901 406-257-7757. compassgroup@centurytel.net

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, 13460 Hwy 8 SPC #92 Lakeside, CA 92040-5228 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

SUMMER 2007

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

Reserve your boat now!

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Reports President’s Notes TRACY USHER

It has already been a fantastic year for sailing in North America as you will be able to tell from reading the reports from those major events that are already complete. Still, while it does seem like the major events have really been front loaded this year (mostly because of the early dates for the ISAF Sailing World Championships), there is plenty of sailing yet to come with several more major events (PCC’s, the Great Lakes, CORK and the US Championships) all still to come. And if you are a Master then there are yet even more events on the schedule all leading up to the big one: the Master Worlds in Spain (which has already broken the record for the most entries!) at the end of September. Check out all the upcoming events, and much more, at www.laser.org! For almost all of us Summer means getting out and racing in our local fleet races, whether than means weekend series races or weekday evening beercan races. For a good many of us, this kind of racing may be all we do during a typical year unless a major event happens by in our neighborhood. To help recognize the role that fleets play in our everyday Laser lives, TLS has started a new series which aims to profile fleets from around the North American Region in each issue. The idea is to not only let you know about some fleet activity in your area but also to help other fleets by seeing what things work in helping to build fleets, get people out racing and, more than anything else, make sure everyone has fun. This series starts off showcasing smaller fleets on the assumption that the larger fleets are so well known as to not need advertising (e.g. the Cedar Point Yacht Club Laser Fleet, the biggest and most successful fleet in North America). Want to find a fleet in your area? You can find a listing of fleets known to the Laser Class office at www.laser.org (go to the District pages, select your district and there should be a list of fleet). Don’t see your fleet listed? Let us know! Send the information to the Laser Class office and they will be happy to get your fleet’s information posted to the website. Want to see your fleet profiled in TLS? Again, drop the Laser Class office a line and they will be happy to help, especially if it gets more people out sailing! See you on the water! Tracy

SUMMER 2007

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ILCA-NA Membership As of April 26, 2007 Age Categories: • 402 Juniors (not 18 in 2007) • 1097 Masters (35+)

Gender Categories: • 1673 Male • 290 Female • 17 “undisclosed”

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

Complimentary Honorary New Renewals Yacht Club

140 5 379 1453 3

Total

1980

1328 334 236 72 8 2 1980

Boat Categories: • 457 Radial • 12 4.7 • 1455 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

23 27 121 7 36 113 255 95 36 120 157 87 156 22 70 18 17 72 73 96 44 1 30 101 150 7

4.7 Sailors! Are you going to the 2007 4.7 Worlds in South Africa next December/January? If you are and would like to be considered for a US SAILING grant through ILCA-NA, please forward your resume to the ILCA-NA office by September 1, 2007.

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From the Builder New Owner. Bright Future. NED JONES

As you have most likely heard, Peformance Sailcraft Europe (PSE), Laser builder for Europe and most of Asia, purchased Vanguard Sailboats in April. The merging of the two companies creates a global enterprise capable of supplying small boats and accessories world wide. This is a positive move for the sport of sailing and dinghy sailing in particular. Chip Johns and Steve Clark owned and operated Vanguard Sailboats for over twenty years, growing the business every year. The Laser and Sunfish brands were added to the Vanguard line in 1997. With the addition of the PSE line of boats, Vanguard becomes a global brand with enormous potential to bring greater value to sail-

ing and its customers. Sail Number No longer in Hull Number Starting later this summer with 2008 model year boats, the ISAF issued sail number will no longer be molded into the transom of Lasers. The ISAF issued sail number plaque will still be affixed to the interior of the cockpit. This change will allow Vanguard to better control inventory and ship the latest sail numbers more easily from the factory. A listing of the HIN and the corresponding sail number will be listed on www.teamvanguard.com so that you can identify your sail number should the ISAF plaque in the cockpit become unreadable. Composite Radial Upper Mast Composite Radial upper mast testing will continue through the summer and the World Council will take up the sub-

ject at its meeting this fall. As I have mentioned before, the testing is showing some promising results. This is a tedious process and all precautions are being taken to make sure if and when this spar is approved for use, it will perform to the criteria that was set when the project began. Summer is Here Most importantly, more than any of the printed words in this issue of The Laser Sailor, go sailing. Rig your Laser, or borrow a friendâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boat. Go for a day sail across the pond, or compete in a major regatta. Sailing Lasers is why we are brought together here. There is something special about shoving off the dock or beach, and getting underway. The Laser way.

SUMMER 2007

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ILCA-NA Annual General Meeting June 15, 2007 International Laser Class Association, North American Region Hyannis Yacht Club, Hyannis, Massachusetts Summarized Minutes The meeting was called to order at 4:35pm by Treasurer Ben Richardson. Sherri Campbell presented the class financial statements as of May 31, 2007. Campbell reported that we are in good financial standing. Our membership numbers are consistent with the same time last year. She reported that the new online database is up and running. There is continued effort to improve The Laser Sailor and the website. She asked for materials, photos and ideas to be sent to the class office at any time. Future regattas were discussed and everyone was reminded to check the calendar entries on the class website. Ned Jones from Vanguard/PSE gave a report summarizing the recent acquisition of Vanguard by Gavel Securities Limited. He sees this as a positive step for Vanguard and expects that the impact to ILCANA will be good. Derek Stowe asked for comment on the status of the financial support by Vanguard to ILCANA. Jones commented that Vanguardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intention was to decrease that support in the future and that he expected that PSE would favor the same move. Richardson and Campbell both spoke to the high level of impact of the ILCA-NA on the marketing of the Vanguard product and remarked that strong negotiation

on behalf of the class would take place. Jones summarized the Radial composite mast section project. They are currently testing the third version of the part on a worldwide basis. The intention of the new technology would be to broaden the weight range of the competitive Radial sailor, particularly to the lighter weight sailor. The initial price range is for the part to be three times the cost of the current section with the idea that with proper care, only one section would need to be purchase and replacement needs would be minimal compared to the current non-composite product. Several coaches and team leaders in North American had been sent test sections for use with their groups. He outlined that a formal testing procedure was in place with multiple users in varying conditions and forms provided by Vanguard to be completed by the testing group. All feedback worldwide is expected to be collected and analyzed for a report to the ILCA World Council at their next meeting to be held in Spain in early October. At that time it is expected that a decision will be made with respect to forwarding the idea to ISAF for possible approval as Olympic class equipment for use beginning after the 2008 Olympics. The meeting was adjourned at 5:45pm.

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.

SUMMER 2007

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US SAILING Chooses Sailors to New US Elite Youth Development US SAILING, national governing body for the sport, has chosen six talented sailors to the US Elite Youth Development Sailing Team, which was created this year. In May, Claire Dennis was added to the team. These young athletes – all under 21 years old - have been identified as future Olympian prospects in the Laser and Laser Radial classes. This year, three Laser Full Rig sailors and three Laser Radial sailors have been selected from a pool of over 60 candidates. The members of the 2007 US Elite Youth Development Sailing Team are: Emily Billing (Clearwater, Fla.), Anne Haeger (Lake Forest, Ill.), Sarah Lihan (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), Luke Lawrence (Palm City, Fla.), Kyle Rogachenko (Collegeville, Pa.) and Fred Strammer (Nokomis, Fla.) and Claire Dennis (CA). For pictures and bios of the US Elite Youth Development Sailing Team members, please visit the Team web site: http://www.ussailing.org/olympics/EYDT/2007/team.asp US SAILING created the US Elite Youth Development Sailing Team this year to provide a national coaching, educational, administrative and financial support structure for the country’s top youth sailors and future Olympic prospects in the Laser and Laser Radial. These athletes will travel to major international regattas with the guidance of elite-level coaches in order to gain more competitive sailing experience against the best in the world. In order to qualify for the Team, sailors must be younger than 21 years old. “The Elite Youth Development Team identifies the best, young sailors in the USA and provides an opportunity for them to gain further experience in international-level sailing,” said High Performance Director and Head Coach Gary Bodie (Hampton, Va.). “We plan to share our hard-won lessons on competing abroad.” The US Elite Youth Development Sailing Team is managed by US SAILING, national governing body of the sport. Headquartered in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, US SAILING’s mission is to encourage participation and promote excellence in sailing in the U.S. US SAILING offers training and education programs, supports a wide range of sailing organizations and communities, and provides administration and oversight of competitive sailing across the country, including the US Sailing Teams and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Teams. For more information, please visit www.ussailing.org.

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Laser Profiles Name: Mike Gilb ert

Name: Sydney Jones

Occupation: Arch itect

Occupation: Student/sailor

City/state/provi nce: Missoula, Monta na and the Great Northw est.

City/state/province: St. Croix, USVI

Mike & son Austin Age: 40...somethi ng (noobie Maste r) I sail a full (somet imes empty) Lase r I’ve been sailing since I was maybe 8, with a huge gap in the m iddle, and sailing a Laser for 1.5 years.

Age: 17 I sail a radial Laser I’ve been sailing since I was 13 and sailing a Laser for 2 years.

In the last year, I’ve sailed my La ser 10 days and raced in one regatta.

In the last year, I’ve sailed my Laser an uncountable number of days and raced in 10-15 regattas.

The last regatta I sailed in was th e District 22 champs and this happened:

The last regatta I sailed in was CROOD and I got a 1st place overall & had fun sailing against the crazy old people in my Yacht Club.

In my first real La ser racing experience, I borrowed an old 70’s boat which leaked badly. First, I tripp ed over the strap and went over the side – bo at kept going, I pu lled myself up the transom. Then I tried a big roll ta ck and went in backwards. Next, My hero is my parents because they have the tiller extension snapped off and I had to sa il it with a solid du always been there & supporte me through ct tape joint. But I actually beat several boats! everything.

My favorite part of racing a Laser is going fast & surfing waves & reaches & downwind. At the end of a long day of sailing, I like to eat then go straight to sleep!

My hero is my Da d because he sacr ificed so much to help othe rs. My favorite part s of racing a Lase r are beating someone to the m ark, blasting along on a reach, meeting new peop le, and the chance to sail in interesting places. At

the end of a long What other Laser sailor has helped day of sailing, I like to lie down in the grass and rest! you the most with your Laser sailing? Hmmm, that’s hard, probably Thomas What other Lase r sailor has help Barrows. ed you the most with your La ser sa

If I had an unlimited bank account, I’d go crazy.

iling? Jim Christopher fro m CA, who helped me with rigging and strategy.

If I had an unlim ited bank accoun t, I’d educa te every child ever I’d like to see more Laser sailors from ywhere. Then I’d get a fleet of used Lasers to teach local kids to the Caribbean go & compete outside of sail.

the Caribbean.

I’d like to see m ore Laser sailors in my district, on Flathead Lake!

SUMMER 2007

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Laser Profiles Name: Ken Robinson Occupation: President – Engineered Textile Products (We make Race Marks).

Name: Ashley LeGr os Occupation: Student City/state/provinc e: Jeanerette Louisi ana Age: 17 I sail a radial

City/state/province: Mobile, AL Age: 39 I sail a Full Laser I’ve been sailing since I was 10 and sailing a Laser for 25 years. In the last year, I’ve sailed my Laser 20 number of days and raced in 3 regattas.

Laser

I’ve been sailing since I was 8 year s old and sailing a Lase r for about 2 years In the last year, I’ ve sailed my Lase r 50 number of days an d raced in 8 regatt as. The last regatta I sailed in was Closing regatta and I was the only one who showed up but the race committee let me race (or really prac tice)

The last regatta I sailed in was O’day Quarter Finals and out of 5 boats, I won 2 of 3 races. I appreciate the 3 non Laser sailors who came out just for fun.

My heroes are my parents becaus e They are the ones wh o got me into sailin g and they have alwa ys supported me in m y endeavors

My hero is Green Lantern because he can use his will power to accomplish anything!

My favorite part of racing a Laser is meeting all sorts of people from all over

My favorite part of racing a Laser is endorphins from a really physical upwind leg At the end of a long day of sailing, I like to drink a beer

At the end of a lo ng day of sailing, I like to take a long nap

What other Laser sailor has helped you the most with your Laser sailing Zane Yoder If I had an unlimited bank account, I’d eliminate disease & hunger and achieve world peace.

What other Laser sailor has helped you the most with your Laser sailing? My brother Geoff has he lped me the most wi th the Laser by teachi ng me all sorts of lit tle things and giving m e friendly competitio n between family mem bers If I had an unlim ited bank accoun t, I’d definitely travel mor e to sail

I’d like to see more Laser sailors behind I’d like to see more La ser sailors not worry just about th me. e competition but al so have fun with new people

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Technical Tips Heating Up Your Downwind Sailing ANDREW CAMPBELL We have all felt slow downwind at some point in our Laser sailing careers. Luckily for all of us, downwind sailing is the single easiest place to make lasting impacts in our overall game. Very few people, maybe ten in the world at any given time can really be called experts in the field of downwind Laser sailing. So, be not afraid, you are not alone if you feel like you could use some work. We all can use help, and happily, we all can improve. Here are three quick and easy ways to make strides towards better downwind sailing. First, try sailing wider, broader, and hotter angles. Second, look for breeze instead of worrying so much about technique. And third, get off your butt and put your weight on your toes. Before you laugh me off and thumb away to another article, let me explain…

Heat it up, or down Often the biggest difference between fast and average downwind sailing is in the angles. It is common Laser jargon to talk a lot about the magic S-turn as the “be all and end all” of going well off the breeze. Why do we use the S-turn? Rationally isn’t the fastest path between the windward mark and the leeward mark a straight line between the two? How can a bunch of scalloping turns possibly be a good thing? Yes. That’s the simple answer. No matter how you look at it, the kinetic nature of the Laser demands movement and angle change to jumpstart VMG.

However, instead of describing with great amounts of vague language and useless description of “feel,” there is one trick to consider a starting point for better speed: sail bigger angles. If we sail the boat dead downwind, hanging onto the centerboard and sitting on our butts, the boat will likely be slower than potential target speed the majority of the time. When the boat feels slow try bearing away a bit, and sailing further by-the-lee, or heading up a bit to a broad reach. What should happen is that the angle change in the boat’s direction causes the apparent wind over the sails will increase as you sail relatively closer to the true wind angle. The Laser, like any

work for you. This may demand some changes in your control settings. For instance that boomvang might have to be cracked off a bit in order to sail deeper. Inversely, the vang may have to be tightened slightly to sail a faster broad reach. Try not to over do it at first. Try it in practice and see what you feel comfortable with, and then go a little bit looser to see what your made of. Usually improvements in sailing are made in the realm of the uncomfortable. Never be afraid to try things slightly more out of your control. Practice until you know where your boundaries are, and the enhanced speed will eventually show.

Keep your head on a swivel One of the best ways to make yourself look like a fantastic downwind ace is to sail your boat in more wind. If it were only that simple, right? It can be.

other boat, likes sailing these broader angles off the breeze. Unfortunately, especially in flat water, it is very common to see Lasers cruise down a leg without ever changing course away from the mark. In almost every other class in the world it is common knowledge that in most conditions you must sail proper gybing angles in order to get the most performance out of the boat. The beauty of the Laser is that you can sail both gybing angles on both gybes. We do not have to gybe in order to sail 45 degrees of angle away from dead-downwind thanks to by-thelee sailing. So use it! If you find yourself going slow… sail hotter. Take it up, or deeper, which every makes the most sense strategically, but make that apparent wind do the

With all the technique in the world, it is impossible to win without decent tactical awareness of what is happening to the breeze. That is why it should be more emphasized when talking about downwind technique to keep your head on a swivel looking upwind behind you for changes in breeze and downwind in front of you for potential waves to ride. Often clinicians and coaches will talk and talk and talk about downwind technique and feel that is possible for everyone to understand and pick up after years of practice and competition. This is fine, and often times can lend small points toward the improvement of sailor’s downwind speed. If you sail in the puffs with mediocre technique on the same course as Larry Laser Ace with great technique, but Larry is in a lull, it is almost guaranteed that you are going faster. Often times the guys with good technique are better at sailing in better breeze because both skills develop after more time on the water. But, it is important to acknowledge the role that wind-spotting and wave-finding SUMMER 2007

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can play in successful downwind sailing. By looking aft every fifteen or twen-

ty seconds, not only do we make sure that we have clear lane, but we can also see puffs coming down the racecourse. When we do see puffs that we can sail into, now is a good time to employ our recently gained skill of sailing deeper, or reaching hotter across the leg to get into that breeze. It might not be fast to reach all the way across from one side of the leg and back ten times in a leg, but having the skill set necessary to heat it up and get into a little extra breeze can make a big impact on perceived downwind speed. By sailing in more breeze on average, you will get comments like: “Hey, Ralph, you’re extra hundred hours last month working on downwind sailing have really paid off!” Ralph, meanwhile is snickering to himself, because he was just sailing in more wind. By keeping your eyes out of the boat, looking around for darker water, Ralph can come across to the rest of the fleet as having some Robert Scheidt-style talent. The most basic principle in sailing is that more wind equals more boatspeed. The Laser is no exception. Use your eyes to your advantage, search out breeze and watch the downwind speed improve. Special thanks for JohnPayne for finding great photos for this article.

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Get off your butt Next step to better downwind sailing is to use your legs. “What!?!” You may be asking yourself. No joke, and I hate to break it to you, but you may start feeling the burn in your legs on the downwind legs now too. And, it is for the better. By concentrating the majority of our body weight in about eight knots or more onto the balls of our feet instead of our butts on the rail we can drastically improve the kinetic power of the boat. Taking the weight off the rail under your butt and putting it into the floor under your feet can make a significant difference in how you feel your boat’s natural rock and turn in the waves and water. In lighter wind conditions in may indeed be necessary to hook your leg under the hiking strap in order to heel the boat over. That is fine, but in breeze where the boat will heel itself over just on by-the-lee pressure on the mainsail, it then becomes necessary to actively counter that energy with pressure from your toes and legs into the bottom of the cockpit, and maybe a hand on the leeward rail at times. Finn sailors and Laser sailors alike have the same conundrum, and I heard this concept from a Finn sailor, and did not even realize that I was doing it. Whenever you feel as though you are getting slow, often times it coincides with a moment of sloth in your body’s activity level. If we shift the weight off of our rear-ends and into our feet we can then sail deeper and with more pressure against our sails (a point of possible improvement conveniently listed earlier in this article). More pressure in the mainsail is a symptom of more

apparent wind and speed is an unavoidable consequence of more apparent wind! Get out and try it Of course, all downwind speed comes from experience and experimentation. If you are willing to spend time concentrating on downwind sailing, and trying things outside of your comfort zone, then you will find yourself able to improve. This is true for any aspect of your sailing. It is also important to know that there are a thousand other details involved with downwind sailing that can lead to increased speed. You know the vast majority of them, but the three tricks in this article are just three that sometimes get overlooked in Laser sailing. Don’t be fooled by the by-the-lee dinghy. Sailing the downwind angles is still necessary and sailing in the most breeze on the racecourse is still necessary. The last point is to keep on your toes. This is an important one. As you experiment and strive to improve, you may find the boat getting wobbly and might find your boat upside down from time to time. Don’t fret, you are not alone in the desire to improve, and you’re not the only one turning over. I turned over three times in one practice last month preparing for the World Chapionships in Portugal. A quick grimace turns into a smile as we learn from how fast the boat felt just before the capsize. Keep up the good work, spend the time on the water and the improvements will come. About the author: Andrew Campbell is no stranger to our regular Laser Sailor readers. As a member of the US Sailing Team, Andrew is currently on the campaign trail and was able to squeeze in this technical article between practice sessions. For more information, sailing advice and a look into daily life on the campaign trail, visit www.campbellsailing.com.

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Technical Tips Downwind Sail Trim 101 MIKE JOHNSON It is my opinion that sailing downwind fast is mostly a function of finesse (anticipation, body mechanics, steering, wave placement, S turning, …) combined with the proper setup of the rig and sail trim to provide maximum power. This essay will attempt to lay some groundwork for proper rig setup and sail trim for maximum power downwind. It is by no means authoritative and I believe there are many debatable topics in this area. This issue will focus only on conditions where surfing or planning is possible (>8 knots of wind and >1 ft sea). Many of the concepts discussed also apply in light winds, however going through all the exceptions would dilute the central theme. Please keep this caveat in mind.

Twist Twist is the curve the leech takes when the sail is under load. Twist is sometimes measured by a comparison in the angle of the top batten relative to the boom. For example, zero twist is when the top batten is parallel to the boom. Twist can also be measured by comparing the relative angles of each batten to one another. When going downwind the twist is mostly controlled with the boom vang tension.

Active Leech As the sail loads up due to a puff or added resistance of stuffing the bow into a wave, the upper roach will fall off to leeward creating twist. When the sail unloads after the puff, the roach returns to the neutral position. When the leech is said to be “active” it will easily oscillate about the neutral position without any help from body kinetics. Michael Blackburn uses these words to describe the concept: “The leech should move 2 to 3 foot of its own accord”. A good comparison is a spring that moves back and forth after a force is applied. Andy Vance says the leech should be “springy”. This natural action can be easily mistaken by a judge as “leech flick” if the motion appears to be rhythmically timed with body movement or mainsheet pumps. Watch the following video clip to see Robert Sheidt demonstrating this concept (fast fwd to 2:15). http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4270530856 689008464

Velocity Made Good (VMG) When sailing a course other than straight downwind your boat speed vector can be broken into two components: 1) dead downwind; and 2) perpendicular to dead downwind. VMG is the magnitude of component (1). If you luff to a beam reach, your VMG drops to zero. This concept is important when considering whether to momentarily sacrifice VMG to go after a wave that may result in a ride that provides double the VMG if you just remained on the downwind course.

Sail Trim Remember the caveat that this guide only applies when surfing conditions exist. At the windward mark it is most common to set the cunningham, outhaul, and vang for the conditions. Once on the run it is uncommon to adjust the trim of any control other than the mainsheet and the tiller. The only exception to this is after a significant change to the wind (velocity or direction). Given this assumption, it is critical to set the cunningham, outhaul, and vang properly to get the maximum thrust from the sail. Here is a discussion of each setting along with my rules of thumb. Cunningham Pretty simple. All the way off in all but very high wind. End of story. Outhaul The outhaul and vang settings share a symbiotic relationship. If the vang setting is left alone as you ease the outhaul, the foot moves toward the mast and the leech tension will decrease and create twist. To achieve an active leech, it is critical to match the outhaul setting with a correct vang setting. At the 2000 Cancun Master Worlds I arrived two days

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early and watched the finals of the Senior Worlds. Scheidt, Ainsle, Blackburn, Suneson, and many other downwind maestros were 4 months away from the Sydney Olympics and we had 12 to 18 knots with 2 to 3 ft seas in water that looked like a very clean swimming pool. It was downwind heaven. I walked around the beach one morning and noticed that almost every boat had a similar outhaul rig. This was in the days when the outhaul was cleated on the boom and the purchase was achieved by wrapping the tail around the mast and back to several thimbles. I noticed that when every outhaul was eased all the way to the knot (handle) the clew grommet was always about 9 to 10 inches from the fairlead on the boom. Watching the Gold fleet round the weather mark, every boat eased the outhaul so the knot went all the way to the thimble and thus the 9 to 10” setting. After seeing this I conclude the optimum setting for almost all times when surfing and planning conditions exist is having the clew grommet 9 to 10” from the fairlead. When in Rome...

Boom Vang Similar to the symbiotic relationship described above, the vang and the mainsheet share a symbiotic relationship. Given a standard outhaul setting as stated above, the optimum vang setting to achieve the active leech concept will vary slightly depending on the wind and sea state. It has been said that the top and middle battens should be kept parallel to one another and also kept 90 degrees to the boats centerline. Not enough vang tension will create a situation where the top batten is slightly more twisted than the middle batten. Too much vang tension will create a situation where the leech will not react to a load / unload and therefore will be “inactive”. The optimum vang setting to achieve an active leech is somewhere between these extremes and necessitates finding the optimum amount of twist.

vang purchases goes tight. --Put the sail on the mast. --Grab the clew in one hand and the end of the boom in the other. --Pull down and aft on the sails leech (without bending the mast) and lift up on the boom (without bending the boom). --The vang stopper knot should be adjusted so the clew grommet is about 4-5 inches above the top of the boom. --When you get a new sail (not yet stretched) it may be necessary to adjust the stopper knot if you have previously been using a relatively blown out sail. Steps 1 to 6 should get you in the ball park and may require some fine tuning to achieve the ultimate “active leech”. This procedure sets the position of the stopper knot so that when fully eased the vang is in its loosest setting.

Mainsheet As stated earlier, the main sheet trim shares a symbiotic relationship with the vang setting. While the vang is set to achieve an active leech, the main sheet is used to keep the top two battens perpendicular to the boat centerline. As wind speed increases the average load on the sail increases, and therefore the twist increases. This requires that the boom always be trimmed at an angle less than 90 degrees to the centerline.

To keep things simple and allow the majority of focus to be on the finesse aspects of downwind sailing, I placed a mark on my main sheet that is 25 ft-6 in. from the end that ties to the becket. When this mark aligns with the forward boom block I am at the optimum trim for sailing dead downwind in the 8 to 20 knot wind range. This is only true given the previous discussion My theory is that between 8 to 20 knots of breeze, one of the outhaul and vang settings and the symbiotic relavang setting can do the job. This “one size fits all” set- tionships. While this is another “one size fits all” theory, it is not something that I think should be rigidly ting is probably not what the pro sailors would subscribe to, however I have found it to be just fine for pro- adhered to. Since the main sheet is in your hand, the mark is helpful to keep the sail at near its optimum trim viding an active leech through this wind range. This and not be grossly out of trim. When sailing by the lee theory assumes that the main sheet performs the fine the mark is eased 8 to 12 inches and similarly when tune and the vang the coarse tune, thus the symbiosis heating up it is tighter by 8 to 12 inches. The mark between these two settings. For those that do not submay need to be moved slightly to match your style; scribe to this theory, I’d like to hear yours. however I suggest the 25’6” as a starting point. I recommend placing a stopper knot in the vang tail so at the windward mark all that is required is to un-cleat it My hope is that this guide will stimulate some experimentation and fine tuning of the theories made. There and let it run to the stop knot. In the upper wind ranges it will be necessary to pull the line in a few inch- are many theories on what is fast and what is not. es to limit twist. To determine where to put the stopper One irrefutable fact is that time in the boat (TIB) will do knot here is a procedure I use. the most to improve your downwind performance. Getting the rig tune and sail trim create the framework --Attach the vang to the mast and boom. Put the boom that allow the TIB to be most effective. Good sailing. in the gooseneck and lift the end of the boom until the

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District Reports District 2 Deny Deschambeault Trois Rivieres, Quebec We are exploring any way to increase participation in the district. There seem to be plenty of regattas for Youth sailors but not enough for regular Laser sailors. We are hoping to get another person in the district to help with getting more sailors to participate in the few regattas we have and to help to encourage established regattas to add the Laser fleet to their event. While the Canadian dollar has gained strength making new Lasers more affordable, there are still concerns about the quality of the boats which may deters some potential buyers

District 4 Secretary Tim Felbel Winnipeg, Manitoba Big Storms Bring Big Winds! After a bit of a slow start to the sailing season things are certainly heating up here in district 4. While most “land lover’s” are complaining about the many summer storms, sailors all over the province have been happier than ever as the low pressure systems have been bringing spawning bumper winds. While it’s not very often that a sailor will complain about too much wind, last month many sailors at the Gimli Yacht Club did just that after winds hit with gusts up to 150 kph in the early hours of the morning. Fortunately there was little to no damage on the laser fleet, just another great story to share after a long day of racing. As most of the summer regattas are yet to take place there are no results available to publish however make sure to keep checking the Manitoba Sailing Association website at www.sailmanitoba.com for updates and results throughout the summer months.

District 5 Mark Lammens Saskatoon, Saskatchewan 2 regattas in 1 weekend. At the Wascana Short Course in Regina, it was the battle of the brothers, the Fabulous Baker Boys, finished 1,2. David finished in the top 3 in the first 7 races and held on with the late charge from Craig who won the last 2 races. Both Sailors represented MN at 2 Canada Games and are still active and, as reflected by the score and other sailors, fast. “Lagatchie”, Paul Lagace finished 3rd. In the Radial Fleet, National Champion and Past National Team athlete Tanje Smutny had 5 top 3’s (and a 16th) in the mixed fleet for the win. Jocelyn McLaren was 2nd thanks to a 7,7,2 in the last 3 races. Canada Games silver medalist Paloma Corrin finished 3rd. 20 boats 10 races no drops and the boat handling improved quickly. The racing was tight and the wind gusty and shifty. Swimming skills also improved..............everyone slept well. At the Icebreaker spring regatta at the Regina SC on the Sunday and Monday, the only thing that stayed the same was Tanje Smutny winning the

Radials again. However she had to win the last 2 races and get some breaks to beat sister Katje Smutny. Katje is also a National Champion in the 29er and sailed a boat older then her. She is fast and smart, a good combination. Paloma was 3rd. In the Laser, the battle this time was between training partners from Calgary, Eric and Ian. Ian made an excellent bid but Eric sailed well and consistent dropping a 3rd. Eric has maintained his National Champion form from 2 years ago and is still going very well. He was very concerned about a 7 hour car ride if it was a different result. Payton Byrns finished 3rd. A big thank you to the Regina Sailing Club, Patty Coons and her RC team of Mark, Sandy, Judy, Kevin, Stefan, Helen and others. The Regina SC is an excellent venue, Race Management was very good and this event is a great way to start a fun year of racing. See you next week at the Calgary YC for their Icebreaker Regatta. This event is always well run, well supported and great racing.

District 6 Andy Hunt Vancouver, British Colombia In addition to the usual slate of regattas in British Columbia and Washington State, there has been local weekend and evening racing at local clubs. The Jericho Sailing Centre has racing on every nonregatta Sunday until the end of August and then every two weeks until the end of October. There is also the most popular racing series, the Tuesday Night Racing Series. This series happens every Tuesday Night until mid-September. The average turnout for the Lasers on Tuesday Nights is 8 Lasers. Results for both Sunday and Tuesday evenings can be found by going to the following website: www.jerichorace.com. The Bellingham Yacht Club also has racing on Tuesday evenings until September 11th. No results are posted as yet but please go to their website (www.byc.org) for more information. The Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle has racing every Thursday evenings until July 19th. There are 33 Lasers registered for the Thursday evening racing program with an average turnout of 17 Lasers. Five of the 33 Lasers have not yet participated in a Thursday race. Results for the Thursday Night Series can be found on the website: www.cycseattle.org/slf (schedule). The 2006/2007 District 6 Frostbite Series is now over. The series has been going on for around 25 years. It starts out with the Bluenose Regatta, hosted by the Kitsilano Yacht Club in November and ends with the Flights of Spring Regatta, hosted by the Jericho Laser Fleet at the Jericho Sailing Centre in April. Both Lasers and Radials are scored in the series using a best 4 of 5 format. If there are no Radials at a regatta, the Radials are then scored using a different format. This year they were scored using a best 3 of 3 format. The five regattas that make up the series are: Bluenose Regatta, Frigid Digit Regatta, Frozen Assets Regatta, March Madness Regatta and the Flights of Spring Regatta. Only one Laser sailor competed in more than two regattas and that sailor, Jacek Suski, won the overall title. Jacek competed

in four of the five regattas and also won the ironman mention. 57 Laser sailors competed in at least one regatta. There were 23 Radial sailors who competed in the series but none who competed in all three regattas that had a Radial component. The Frigid Digit had the most Laser sailors with a total of 31 while the Bluenose Regatta had the most Radial sailors with a total of 13. Most of the Laser and Radial sailors who competed in the Frostbite Series either came from the Seattle area or were from the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. It seems as though that unless the Seattle area sailors the the RVYC race team decide to travel, attendance will continue to suffer at regattas that are hosted by clubs either than CYC or RVYC. The top ten Laser sailors are: Jacek Suski, JSCA, 15.00; Luke Ramsay, RVYC, 23.00; Abe Torchinsky, RVYC, 25.00; Greg Miller, RVicYC, 27.00; Kevin Grierson, RVYC, 28.00; Dalton Bergan, SYC, 31.00; Mike Karas, CYC, 32.00; Brendan Fahey, NKSC, 33.00; Andy Mack, CYC, 34.00; Jay Winberg, CYC, 34.00. The top seven Radial sailors are: Alanna Vitteray, RVYC, 11.00; Isabella Bertold, RVYC, 12.00; Michael Schalka, SYC/RVYC, 14.00; Jen Spalding, RVYC, 18.00; Ricardo Montemayor, RVYC, 18.00; Kelsey Shugg, RVYC, 22.00; Sebastien Fritz, RVYC, 23.00. The Flights of Spring Regatta was hosted by the Jericho Laser Fleet on April 21 and 22, 2007 at the Jericho Sailing Centre. There were 9 Lasers and no Radials. Just under half of the Lasers (4) came from south of the border. Many thanks for those who made the effort to come to Vancouver. There were 9 races and one throwout race. Top three sailors are: Jacek Suski, 13.00; Peter Wall, 18.00; Andriy Kanyuka, 21.00. The following weekend, April 28 and 29, saw the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club host the Kitten Cup. This is the first of the youth regattas. There were nine races and one throwout race. There were 18 Lasers and 32 Radials. The Radial fleet saw one race abandoned so they had 7 races with one throwout race. The top five Laser sailors were: Luke Ramsay, RVYC, 16.00; Abe Tochinsky, RVYC, 20.00; Brendan Fahey, NKSC, 32.00; Kevin Grierson, RVYC, 38.00; Elliot Drake, WSC, 48.00. The top ten Radial sailors were: Ricardo Montemayor, RVYC, 12.00; Clair Dennis, StFYC, 17.00; John Renehan, SYC, 18.00; Isabella Bertold, RVYC, 20.00; Chris Tulip, RVYC, 27.00; Katie Maxim, StFYC, 43.00; Alexander Heinzemann, RVYC, 43.00; Adrian Passier, HSC, 51.00; Karl Jensen, RVicYC, 51.00; Miklos Tasz, 55.00. The first weekend of May saw the Royal Victoria Yacht Club host the Spring Dinghy Championships. There were 6 races with one throwout race. There were 21 Lasers and 23 Radials. Top 5 Lasers were: Andy Wong, RVYC, 17.00; Ben Scott, RVYC, 19.00; Greg Miller, RVicYC, 21.00; Kevin Grierson, RVYC, 28.00; Geoff Abel, RVicYC, 28.00. The top five Radials were: Isabella Bertold, RVYC, 9.00; Ricardo Montemayor, RVYC, 12.00; Karl Jensen, RVicYC, 20.00; Robert Berry, RVicYC, 21.00; Gina Chen, RVYC, 28.00. The Bellingham Yacht Club hosted it’s annual Sea-to-Ski Regatta on May 18 and 19. There was a very low turnout of Lasers (2) but there was also 3 Laser 4.7s. There were 10 Radials. There were 6 races with one throwout race. The two Lasers were James Rhyne with 6 points and Brennan Ashton with 8 points. The three 4.7s were Teddy Weaver with 6 points, Maddy Erjavec with 8 points and Alexis Aird with 16 points. The

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top three Radials were: Josh Larsen with 5 points, Molly Jackson with 13 points and Erika Vranizan with 14 points. The Seattle Yacht Club and the Corinthian Yacht Club cohosted the SOCKS Regatta. There were 11 races over the two days (May 18 and 19). There was one throw-out race. There were 26 Lasers registered but only 22 sailed in the regatta. Top five Lasers were: Brendan Fahey, NKSC, 18.00; Dan Falk, CYC, 30.00; Anthony Boscolo, CYC, 30.00; Michael Johnson, 39.00 and Michael Schalka, SYC, 59.00. None of the two Radials sailed on the first day. There was four races on the second day and no throwout race. Only Milica Dukic sailed in the four races and Lucinda Stockett did not sail but was scored anyway. Results for the Jericho Classic Regatta, hosted by the Jericho Sailing Centre on June 2 and 3, can be found on the Jericho website: www.jsca.bc.ca/racing.

District 7 Sally Sharp Enfield, New Hampshire The 2007 regatta season is well under way here in New England. In fact the first ‘major’ just concluded down in Hyannis – the North Americans drew a total of 220 sailors in three fleets, an amazing turnout! And lots more to come: two more regattas in the D7 championship series, at New Bedford MA (D7 Grand Prix) and Falmouth ME, plus the three D7 Radial series events at Newport, Hyannis, and Buzzards Bay (please note that BBR is the D7 Radial GP, not Hyannis!). Then in mid-August head on up north for the US Nationals at Malletts Bay VT – they’re looking for a strong turnout so be sure to register early! Lots of club fleets have their summer series in full swing. I’m getting weekly reports from both Malletts Bay (20+ boats on the line..) and Greenwich CT, where over 30 sailors have registered for their Sunday series. Keep the regatta results coming in, as well as NORs for upcoming events – Chris Morin continues to post everything on the D7 website (http://d7.laserforum.org), thanks Chris! Have a great summer – sail fast! 2007 District 7 schedule: June 30-July 1 Saltmarsh Trophy / Championship of Buzzard’s Bay - DISTRICT 7 GRAND PRIX New Bedford, MA - New Bedford Community Boating (July 1 only - O’Day Area A Qualifier Haas Trophy). John Bentley feathrdc@rcn.com #2 of 3 for D-7 Championship June 30 Bass River Yacht Club 2nd Annual Laser Regatta - South Yarmouth, MA. Matthew Fitzsimmons MatthewFitzsimmons@nesl.edu July 7 Stone Horse Laser Regatta - Harwich Port, MA - Stone Horse YC. Laser & Radial fleets. Vicky Wiseman cvwiseman@comcast.net July 14-15 2007 Newport Regatta - Newport, RI Sail Newport. Laser, Radial, 4.7 fleets. Adam DeSantis adam.desantis@sailnewport.org #1 of 3 for D-7 RADIAL Championship July 14-15 Lipton Cup - Quincy, MA - Squantum YC. Laser & Radial fleets. Dick Casey ycase@msn.com Website: www.Squantumyc.org New England Women’s Radial Championships July 21-22 Lobster Bowl Classic - Falmouth, ME Portland YC. Jack Zinn jzinn002@maine.rr.com #3

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of 3 for D-7 Championship July 27-29 Hyannis Regatta - Hyannis YC, MA. Peter Johns pjohns8@comcast.net Website: www.hyannisyachtclub.org. #2 of 3 for D-7 RADIAL Championship Aug 3-5 Buzzards Bay Regatta - New Bedford Community Boating, New Bedford, MA. DISTRICT 7 RADIAL GRAND PRIX info@buzzardsbayregatta.com Website: http://www.buzzardsbayregatta.com/ #3 of 3 for D-7 RADIAL Championship Aug 10-12 US National Championship (Laser/Radial) - Outer Malletts Bay, VT - Malletts Bay Boat Club. Al Russell: alrussellvt@yahoo.com Website: http://www.mbbc-vt.org/ Aug 11-12 YRALIS Championship Regatta Greenwich, CT - Indian Harbor YC. Jonathan Nye nyehome@optonline.net Website: www.yralis.org Aug 18 RI Leukemia Cup - Lasers & Radials launch from Colt State Park in Bristol, RI. http://www.leukemiacupri.org/ Sept 8-9 Seitech New England Masters - Newport, RI - Third Beach. Peter Seidenberg sei704@cox.net Sept 14-16 Last-Chance Olympic Trials Qualifier Westport, CT - Cedar Point YC. Andy Hoffman andy@andyif.com Website: www.cedarpointyc.org Sept 16 Ponce de Leon Laser Regatta (#1) - Marblehead, MA - Eastern YC (#2 on 9/30, #3 on 10/7) Wayne Colahan wcolahan@verizon.net Sept 22 Lake Mascoma Fall Regatta - Enfield, NH. LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED! Sally Sharp Sally.Sharp@dartmouth.edu Sept 23 NH Seacoast Open Laser Regatta - Dover, NH. Ken Jennings Ken.Jennings@redhook.com Website: http://www.sailpsa.org/laser.htm Sept 23 – Hospice Regatta - Niantic, CT - Niantic Bay YC. 860-848-5699. Website: www.hospicesect.org Sept 30 - Merrimac River Regatta - Newburyport, MA - American Yacht Club. Al Lavender allavender@comcast.net Oct 3-14 - 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Newport, RI - Third Beach. Oct 13 (tentative) - QYC Last Blast Laser Regatta Wakefield, MA - Quannipowitt YC. Deb MasonMcCaffrey DebMM@comcast.net Website: www.sailqyc.com Oct 27 (tentative) - Halloween Regatta - Stamford, CT - Stamford YC. Lasers, Radials. Kurth Anderson kurth@optonline.net To qualify for either D7 Championship series, you must attend 2 of the 3 series regattas.

District 9 Chas Williamson Ithaca, New York We have had a great relaxing warm season so far, with some Summery light very shifty breezes, at every venue so far! A breeze would be welcome! Our three main regattas have been Ithaca, Willowbank, and Saratoga Lake sailing-yacht clubs, followed by Newport next weekend - Today, I am off to a conference on the island of Corfu, Greece, and nobody believes I would rather stay here. ITHACA WINE KEG - 26 May 2007 On Lake Cayuga last year we had a nice mix of wind strengths, but this time it was really light and very shifty, but it was pleasantly warm and sunny. It was pleasure to welcome back Mike Hecky from

New Jersey, with his son Kevin. Mike sailed solidly in the first two races, winning them both, followed each time by Chas Williamson. David Filiberto was third in Race 1, and represented one of the new squad of sailors at Ithaca YC, comprising Dave, Peter Gould, Clare Fewtrell, Wade Leftwich, Byrne O’Brien ex-Commodoro, Jim Scarpulla, Len Dolhert, and also Luke Miller, an enthusiastic 13-year old. I am proud of these guys, and want to welcome them to the fleet (and encourage all to join ILCA!). Race 3 was won by Len Dolhert, and he was visibly excited to win his first Laser race since his days at MIT on the team. Clare Fewtrell, exQueen Mary Sailing Club, outside London, then won the next race by going inshore on the West side of the lake, and she streaked to the finish, also very excited to win. Zuber from Rochester YC pipped Chas overall by winning Race 5. Mike Hecky was third overall, followed by Liam of the Faudree Team, with Len finishing a comfortable fifth. Many thanks are due to the Race committee led by Wade Leftwich and Sarah Gould, and a lovely Pizza party and Awards ceremony with some beer followed the racing onshore. It was super to see Jim Cuddihee and Steve Leach on the water, from Newport YC. The final places were: 1. Zuber; 2. Chas Williamson; 3. Mike Hecky; 4. Liam Faudree; 5. Lennie Dolhert; 6. Jim Scarpulla; 7. Peter Gould; 8. Clare Fewtrell; 9. Dave Filiberto; 10. Kevin Hecky; 11. Steve Leach; 12. Jim Cuddihee; 13. Luke Miller. WILLOWBANK YC - 2 JUNE 2007 Willowbank was beautiful as always, and at last we saw Richie Wait, who had been absent from Ithaca, and he has brought a new consistency to his racing this year, buoyed up by the incredible national performance of Cornell’s Lacrosse team. It was indeed sunny but the wind was blowing little zephyrs, not enough to race until after we had time to eat our scrummy lunch (Thanks Peter Bushnell and Ray and Dick). When we eventually started against the very light Northerly wind, it would shift around 30 degrees, even during one beat, and so Chas struggled up to the first mark just ahead of speedy Peter Bushnell, who chased him down to the lee mark. On the last beat, Dick went far left (West) which sometimes pays at Cazenovia, and he pulled ahead of Peter by the finish. Liam and Allan Miller sailed through to finish just behind. The second race was also the last one, and this was even more shifty. Chas’ outhaul came undone after he was showing off that he did not need the new metal system, and it was difficult to catch Campbell Woods, the head instructor at the home club, who was followed by local lad Andrew Smith. Chas won overall, followed by Liam, then Peter Bushnell, Dick Mitchell and Campbell Woods, counting a 11th and a first, indicating the large fluctiations in scores. However Richie was very consistent with a 6th and 7th to pip his rival Allan Miller from Saratoga. Thanks so much to Peter Bushnell for a charming regatta, in a great ambience, and for the stylish awards too. Thanks to the Finn Team for special running of the race committee. Thanks to Peter Gould for coming to the regatta with me ! Nice to get the Masters sailors going again at IYC. The final places were: 1. Chas Williamson; 2. Liam Faudree; 3. Peter Bushnell; 4. Dick Mitchell; 5. Campbell Woods; 6. Richie Wait; 7. Allan Miller; 8. Andrew Smith; 9 Eric Magnuson; 10. Peter

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2007 Schedule Regatta

Laser

Radial

World Championship

ISAF Worlds Cascais, Portugal

ISAF Grade 1

July 2-13

NA Championship

Hyannis YC, MA

40 GP pts. ISAF Grade 1

June 14-17

Sept. 29-Oct. 6 Austin YC Austin, TX June 1-3

Ft. Lauderdale, FL www.lyc.org Feb. 1-4

Canadian Championships

Buffalo Canoe Club, ON

Jerico Sailing Center

www.buffalocanoeclub.com

Vancouver, BC

30 GP Pts. ISAF Grade 2

June 22-24

Sept. 1-3

US Championships

Colchester, VT www.mbbc-vt.org Aug 10-12

Wrightsville Beach, SC

30 GP Pts

Colchester, VT www.mbbc-vt.org Aug 10-12

CORK

Kingston, ON

North American Women’s Radial Champs ISAF Grade 1

Laser 4.7

Masters

Hermanus Rep. of S. Africa Dec. 26,’07-Jan. 4,‘08

Rosas, Spain

May 18-20

www.cork.org

30 GP Pts. ISAF Grade 1

August 18-22

Midwinters East

Clearwater, FL

www.clwyc.org

30 GP Pts. ISAF Grade 1

Feb 22-25

Feb 17-18

Midwinters West

California YC, CA

30 GP Pts., ISAF Grade 2

March 23-25

March 23-25 na

Miami, FL

www.ussailing.org/olympics

ISAF Grade 1

Jan 22-27

Atlantic Coast Championships

Jensen Beach, FL USSCMC May 26-27

Rock Hall, MD

Treasure Island

San Francisco, CA

August 10-12

Lake Tahoe www.tahoeyc.com Aug. 24-26

Rolex Miami OCR

25 GP Pts. ISAF Grade 2

Pacific Coast Championships 25 GP Pts., ISAF Grade 2

Gulf Coast Championships 25 GP Pts, ISAF Grade 3

No Coast Championships

Southern Yacht Club Southern Yacht Club New Orleans, LA New Orleans, LA May 19-20 May 19-20

D21

Kingston Ontario, Canada Sept. 28-30

Sept 29-30

D13, 14 or 15

D16, 21, 22 or 23

25 GP Pts, ISAF Grade 3

Great Lakes Championships 25 GP Pts., ISAF Grade 3

D19 or 20

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District Reports - continued from page 21 Gould; 11. Bruce Poushter; 12. Steve Leach; 13. Mike Mueller; 14. Tom King; 15. Paul Martellock; 16. Peter Colman; 17. Jim Cuddihee. SARATOGA DERBY REGATTA - 9 June 2007. For the first time I drove the night before to Saratoga Lake, so that I would, for once, not repeat the desperate rush to get to the start line in time, sometimes depending on general recalls to make it. This year, I was well rested, and I needed it because yet again, it was light and shifty, from the North on Lake Saratoga, one of the most wonderfully beautiful locations to sail in this area. As I put it last year: “The clubhouse is actually also a private house, with creaky staircases and lots of rooms rather unusual as a clubhouse, but with such an ambience, like your Granny’s house” It was nice to show Peter Gould around, noting the new showers! It was not only fluky on the race course, but one or the other side of the course had distinctly different wind strength, usually favouring the right (East) side. Al Russell from Vermont went like a rocket in race 1, followed by club mate Al Baker, and then Chas, and Richie to one of his many 4th places. Race 2 was won by Chas only just from Ray Cudney, who always sails brilliantly on Lake Saratoga, and sometimes cleans up. Al Russell was in third. Race 3 was strange, originally favouring the starboard coimiittee boat end then shifting hard left, dumping Chas to 14th place about 100 yards behind leader John Beal down the first reach. However, Chas was able to move back up with Ray to be in contention for third place by the next windwards mark - the key was going right this time picking up stronger breeze, almost like taking an elevator. Finally, after a long run, Chas reached the front and pipped John Beal at the line on the final beat for first. Al Baker was also being consistent and went on to take Race 4 from Chas and Allan Miller. Allan came through to third in the final race too, behind Richie Wait and a long way behind Ray Cudney who had a brilliant horizon-job race. Chas won the regatta from Al Baker of Vermont, and Richie Wait in third, who had placings of 4,4,3,4,2 - Mr Consistent. Ray Cudney took fourth in front of Al Russell. At the feast afterwards at Granny’s house, Al Russell reminded us to sign up for the US Nationals at Malletts Bay, and we all look forward to that event in August. Thanks to Allan Miller and Barbara for putting on a great event, with lovely surroundings, food and friends. Absolutely magnificent ! 1. Chas Williamson; 2. Al Baker; 3. Richie Wait; 4. Ray Cudney; 5. Al Russell; 6. John Beal; 7. Allan Miller; 8. Liam Faudree; 9. Mike Kitner; 10. Peter Gould; 11. David Nicol; 12. Gary Werden; 13. David Greenwood; 14. James Nicol. 15. Brandon Dickerman; 16. Bill Hamilton; 17. Lois Haignere; 18. Ryan Werden. __________________________________________ _______________ DISTRICT 9 REGATTAS 2007 (still to come) Sat 16 June Newport YC Jim Cuddihee 585-266-8686 Sat 30 June Chautauqua Lake YC David

www.Laser.org

Menzies 716-763-4331 Sat 7 July SBYC/SBJSA Sodus Bay YC Open Laser regatta - - Also represents the Laser District 9 Junior Championships !! -Lory Ghertner and Tom Knapp 315-483-4864 14-15 July DISTRICT Grand Prix CHAMPS (Centrals Regatta) ROCHESTER YC Brad Buell 607-279-9182 Sat 21 July Youngstown YC Paul Hays 716745-1279 26-28 July Empire State Games - Ossining YC (Regional Qualifiers Only) 10-12 Aug Rochester - Junior Olympics Youth Jason Evans 585-342-2976 Sat 18 Aug Seneca YC Jim Gindling <jcngind@frontiernet.net> 18-22 Aug C.O.R.K. Kingston Kingston, Ontario Sat 8 Sept Willowbank YC “Deathroll” Peter Bushnell 315-655-4671

District 10 Eric Reitinger New Jersey The Spring had some great regattas going on in District 10. Cooper River hosted its annual spring regatta on May 19th. 8 boats sailed on some tricky conditions with the breeze coming across the river and oscillating 30 degrees every race. 6 races were sailed with Eric Reitinger won with Carl Oberg 1 point behind and Robby Seidelmann third. Shrewsbury Sailing and Yacht Club had their annual regatta on May 19th. 6 full rigs and 3 radials were racing with Theo Ingram first, Mike Hecky 2nd and Dave Watts third. Radials had Ryan Riddle in first, Andrew Tamblyn in second and Tee Craves in third. Riverton Yacht Club had their frostbite series over 3 weekends. Carl Oberg won the full rigs with Clint Neuman 2nd and Jim Knab 3rd. The Junior Full rigs had Craid Williams in first, Chris Lojek in 2nd and Glenn Smyth in 3rd. The Radials has Mike Rabbetts in first Nick Pro in 2nd an George Bader in 3rd. The 36th Annual Jack Elfman Orange Coffee Pot Regatta was hosted by Surf City Yacht Club on Long Beach Island on June 2nd. This Laser only regatta dates back to the start of the laser class in the early 70’s and is the oldest running laser regatta in the country. Over thirty years of this event’s history it has drawn many of the great laser veterans. Previous winners include Skip Whyte and Gary Jobson. This year the regatta served a dual purpose as the Area C Eliminations for US sailing’s O’Day Championships. This year the 27 boat fleet consisted of 1 radial, 3 4.7’s and 23 full rigs. Of those 23 full rigs 15 were competing for a chance to represent Area C in the O’Day Championships. Conditions ranged from 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 out of the south which steadily built over the course of the day as the sea breeze filled in. The courses were windward leeward five legs with half-mile beats. A total of seven races were sailed. Theo Ingram placed third with 30 points. Dave Breder placed second with 25 points and Jerry Tullo finished first with a total of 14 points.

Brant Beach Yacht Club hosted the District 10 Championships on June 9th. 23 full rigs and 2 radials raced in some great conditions throughout the day. Clay Johnson, just back from representing Harvard at College Nationals, finished first with Matt Geotting in 2nd and Glenn Dickson 3rd. In the Radials, Nicolaus Pro was first and Mike Rabbetts 2nd. A few regattas that weren’t mentioned in the previous issue include the Surf City Annual Regatta which will be held on September 8th and 9th. MAYRA will be hosing Laser and Radial regattas every weekend starting June 9th and finishing up the end of August. Look at the official laser site and http://mayra.org for more information.

District 11 Jon Deutsch Richmond, Virginia Our district championship was held the first weekend in May at Severn Sailing Association. While gale warnings kept sailors in the 2007 District 11 Championship off the water on Sunday, Alden Shattuck had 3 top 5 finishes in 3 races Saturday to take the overall title. Several general recalls and later black flag starts kept the aggressive 57-boat fleet at bay. Alden Shattuck, Kevin Shockey, and Henry Amthor, our 2006 District Champion, consistently finished near the top of the fleet to take 1st-3rd respectively. In the radial fleet Kim Couranz topped the radial division followed by Margaret Podlich and Jennifer Parrow. Thanks to all of the laser sailors at Severn Sailing Association for putting on another great event. Elsewhere in the district our District Series is well underway. The first event in March was the Capital City Regatta held at Potomac River Sailing association just a stone’s throw from our capital. Twenty laser sailors braved cool and windy weather to take part in the two-day event. Keri Harris finished first followed by Stephen Yelland and David Teale. Check out the PRSA Laser Fleet website for photos and videos of the event: http://www.potomacriversailing.org/lasers/ Our second series event, the Crystal Bowl Regatta, was held at West River Sailing Club Memorial Day weekend. Mike Schmidt edged out Nick Von der Wense by a point to finish first overall. Kelsey Averill was two points behind in 3rd. Our District Series continues 8/11-12 at Fishing Bay Yacht Club, 8/18-19 at Deep Creek Sailing Association and 9/2223 at Severn Sailing Association. This fall District 11 will host a couple of great masters regattas. September 8-9 is the Chesapeake Bay Laser Masters Championship at Fishing Bay Yacht Club in Deltaville VA. September 29-30 is the Laser Masters ACC’s/Hard Rock Masters at Rock Hall Yacht Club in Rock Hall MD. These are sure to be two not-to-be missed events, so make your plans to attend now! For events, results, boats for sale and all kinds of other up-to-date information about laser sailing in the Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware areas, check out the District 11 website at http://www.laserdistrict11.org.

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District Reports - continued from page 23 District 12 Arland Whiteside Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina We have held 3 Laser events in the D12 area this spring. Our first two events in the D12 Championship series have been held and they were in such different conditions. Sunny weather warmed 37 D12 Laser sailors at Lake Norman Yacht Club’s NC States. 4 races were completed in light air racing , April 21-22.Glenn Walker, returning to his home lake won 1st overall. Before racing started, Glenn shared some of his inside information at the Friday night clinic held for early arrivals. LNYC provided a very fair series of races in difficult wind conditions. 1st jr.-John Mellnik 1st female-Emily Aspland 1st master-Glenn Walker 1st radial-Benton Whitesides The next Laser event in D12 area (26 D12 sailors raced)was the US Laser Masters Nationals at Carolina Yacht Club-NC, Wrightsville Beach, NC. 67 Masters showed up for 3 days of races in the Atlantic. Some days the winds were light and some days the sea breeze showed up. Sailors from the East Coast, West Coast, Canada, Dominican Republic and Great Britain all converged to race and have a great time socializing with each other. Mark Bear took 1st overall and 1st master. Mike Matan was 1st apprentice master. Peter Seidenberg was 1st great grandmaster. Alden Shattuck was 1st grand master. Susie Pegel was 1st female. The top D12 sailor was Martin Willard at 14th. All sailors, RC and guests enjoyed a sumptuous cocktail party at the upstairs ocean front bar, followed by a great dinner and rowdy give-away on the new open dining deck. The terrific souvenir fleece vests were welcome during the cool ocean breezes that were unusual for a May evening night. Many thanks to the Carolina Yacht Club-NC for their RC and hospitality. Tropical Storm Barry beat up D12 at the second series event in Savannah. 15 of 29 registered sailors were either good enough, brave enough or naïve enough to head out in sustained winds of 22-25 with gusts over 35. One 2 lap race was completed before the RC made the right call and sent everyone in on one of those “sit down, shut up and hang on” rides back to the docks. There were unbelievable downwind runs with many many deathrolls. Horizontal tropical storm rains drenched everyone and everything. 6 inches of rain fell. No one got upset as we all bunched up in Charlie Usher’s garage for a great supper. Sunday’s races were cancelled as the forecast called for even stronger winds. Peter Gamble took 1st overall and 1st master. Charlie Usher took 1st radial. Krysta Rohde took 1ST female and1ST jr. Andrew McIntosh and John Mellnik won the O’day quarterfinals. Glenn Walker took 1ST Apprentice master. Finn Hassing took 1st grand master.Our one great grand master ,Ken Hopkins, was wise and stayed on the shore. Our next event will be the Radial Grand Prix to be held at Carolina Yacht Club-SC, Charleston, SC, July 28-29. This will not count as a series event except for radials. The following week will be the

Sayra Open at Carolina Yacht Club-NC, Wrightsville Beach, NC, August 4-5. That race will count in the series for full, radials and 4.7. For series standings and all nor’s for the remaining series events, and suggestions for other non-D12 racing this summer, check the D12 site. See you on the water.

District 13 Meka Taulbee Dunedin, Florida We had a great Atlantic Coast Championships at Jensen Beach just before Memorial Day Weekend. The weather was perfect and they really got a great number of races in. Now summer is upon us and D13 is starting to slow down. Our Treasure Cost series is going strong with events every month. Thanks to James Leibl and David Hartman we are never at a loss for a regatta in FL. July 14th we have the TCS at Kelly Park in Titusville, August 25th at Jensen Beach and September 22 at Palm Beach Sailing Center. Also coming up, July 15, we have the Gulf Rats Offshore Challenge at Ft. Walton Beach. A lot of our junior sailors are moving on to college and it looks like they will get a chance to sail in some other great districts. I wish all of them luck. There is a great lineup of events on the East Coast this summer so if you aren’t sailing in D13 I hope to see everyone there.

District 15 Renee Ruais Texas Since I wrote last, we had our third D15 Circuit Regatta of 2007 at Rush Creek in Heath, TX. This is one of my favorite venues as power boats seem to be limited to small fishing craft and RC Boats! It is also a great facility with plenty of room for camping. Turnout was a bit light, with just 12 Lasers. And the wind was pretty light too, if I remember correctly. It was quite shifty and I just had a hard time making the boat go or being on the right side of the shifts. So…I can’t really say much for the excitement at the front of the pack, but I do have a bit of a story from the other end, maybe a story most of you can identify with. I’m no rock star, but I’m usually at least a bit better in lighter air, so I was really disappointed in myself towards the end of the event. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to stay out for what was to be the last race. On seeing that RC decided on a W1 instead of the W2 they had run earlier I decided to stick it out…I didn’t want to be a quitter again...I had already bailed on a miserable drifter race the day before. Surprisingly, I got a pretty good start and somehow found a groove with the sail trim. I got out front early and managed to hold it, but just barely. It really is true; staying in front is easier than catching up. Anyway, I was holding my breath as I sailed towards the finish line, trying hard to keep up my speed as Brad Winslett had gained enough that he might just get there before I did. As I saw him turn to round the weather mark, my eyes got wide and I secretly hoped he’d just keep going…and that who-ever was yelling to him that he was supposed to finish would just

‘shhhh!’. Lucky for me, he didn’t hear it anyway and I got the win. Even though I knew it could have been a 2nd place, it felt great; almost like I felt the first time I ever won a race. If you are racing Lasers and haven’t felt that yet, keep at it, it takes time and is well worth the effort! In the overall results, David Grogono from Austin was 1st, followed by Ed Henkel and Brad Winslett, both from Dallas, in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Congratulations! Looking forward, we are in the midst of a flurry of Laser events before the Dog-Days of summer and the typical Texas pause in activity. We just finished hosting the 2007 Laser Masters North Americans at Austin Yacht Club. Thanks to Alan Clark from Canada for keeping us honest on the North American claim J. Of course, I’d like to extend my thanks to all who attended and those who helped with the event. It really was a pleasure to meet so many Laser enthusiasts from all corners of the country. I believe there is a regatta report elsewhere in this issue, so I won’t go into any detail here. We continue June with two D15 Circuit events, both probably complete by the time you read this. First we return to the salty seas for another run at some waves at the Summer Solstice Regatta, June 23 & 24 at Seabrook Sailing Club in Kemah, TX and then we come back to fresh water and Austin Yacht Club the following weekend (June 30/July 1) for the annual AYC Centerboard Regatta. That brings us to the dog days of summer, when most of our Laser sailing happens at a local level, in the evenings.

District 16 Tim Fitzgerald Wichita, Kansas Two regattas are in the books so far for District 16 and so far we’re 2 of 2 for regattas with great races even though it’s raining. The first was a one-day event at Walnut Valley Sailing Club. Every year they do an outstanding job of catering to the Laser fleet. This year we saw all kinds of fun stuff like downwind starts, starboard roundings, and a screamin’ reach course that looked a lot like the old slalom course. Winds were 6-12 most of the day with some interesting variations as rain came through in the middle of race 2. 7 Races were sailed in total making it a great regatta for everyone there. Saturday night WVSC served a great Mexican dinner to make sure everyone was plenty full before heading home. They do an excellent job of hosting our fleet and we look forward to another fun one to start the season again next year! Last weekend the fleet was in Oklahoma City for the Lighthouse Charity regatta. Boats came from everywhere between Kansas City and Austin, TX, including some familiar faces who have been absent for a while. It was great to get the whole group back together and made for some excellent competition. Day 1 saw lighter winds between 6 and 12 which made for a great day of sailing. In three races there were three different winners, and close competition throughout which kept scores tight going into Sunday. Sunday’s forecast was the topic of discussion all the way until it was time to rig Sunday morning. The heavier guys all praying for wind, and the light ones hoping it wouldn’t get any windier than it was. The smaller ones got what they asked for, and winds stayed between 8 and 15 almost the entire day. The name of the game was to go to the nearest storm cloud, take your shift, tack, and ride the lift out in the rain. We were lucky to

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avoid any lightning in the area and had a great day that showed us some planning reaches, and very exciting beats. By the time you read this the Weatherby Lake regatta scheduled for this weekend will also have been sailed. Be sure to catch the next Laser Class mag or if you cant wait that long, see the results on the web. Google Search “Laser D16”. Sail Fast,

District 21 Mike Elson Minneapolis, Minnesota The evening Laser racing season opened April 18 at Wayzata Yacht Club with reasonable 10 to 12 mph winds. There were 3 Wednesday races to tune up for the Heckl invitational at White Bear Lake on May 5th. But I was certainly not prepared for a 20 to 30 mph blow out. After the big winds at Okoboji for the D 21 GP in September I vowed to get a radial rig for the next big wind regatta. Did I get it? Of course not, and I was one of the three sailors who got blown off of the lake. Lars Hansen, a certified extremophile, won the coveted Heckl Cup with 4 fists and 2 seconds. Mike Bowers was second with 2 firsts, 3 seconds and a third. Kurt Holtze finished third by one point over David Thompson, the number one radial sailor in the regatta. The strong winds continued as the evening Laser racing to include Calhoun in May and White Bear Lake in June. It was either 15 to 20 mph or complete calm. The pattern was demonstrated again at the D 21 Championship/ GP/ O’Day qualifier. The event drew 21 boats, 5 from Canada. Saturday was 20 to 30 mph and the only race on Sunday was finished in an almost dead calm. And, you guessed it, Lars Hansen, the extremophile, was first with 3 firsts, 2 seconds and 2 thirds. John Dyer was second and Bruce Martinson was third after missing the start of the first race while being the extraordinary host of the event. Kurt Holtze was fourth, a point behind Bruce and a point ahead of fifth place Gordy Lampher, the first junior in the regatta. I should note that Lars had a second place on Sunday, the no-wind day, so he certainly does not need heavy air to do well. As of June, D 21 has 4 venues for evening Laser racing: Tuesday evenings at Wayzata, a choice of Calhoun or Bald Eagle Lake on Wednesdays and Thursdays at White Bear Lake. Other class boats seem to take sailors away from weekend Laser racing. The next weekend event will be Calhoun’s Aquatennial Regatta, July 14 and 15. D 21 will be having the second annual event at Duluth on August 18 and 19. It is a big lake and more convenient for Canadian sailors. I hope to see you there!

District 24 David LaPier NorCal Laser sailing in Northern California is growing strong. We are seeing attendance increases of 50% at local weeknight races. Ralph Pombo and Steve Orosz have done a great job building the Treasure Island fleet, which has grown to 15 boats in just two years. Further south at Shoreline Lake, the fleet has doubled, with 12 boats regularly racing. Roger Herbst continues to build a great spirit of fun and cooperation every Wednesday night. The Saint

www.Laser.org

Francis YC is hosting Laser races every other Thursday, and Lake Tahoe has a great series on Monday evenings all summer long. The Northern California Spring sailing season started off with the Nor Cal Regatta a Santa Cruz YC. Saturday started outl looking bad with a bit a rain, but it cleared up and there was plenty of sailing and breeze after that. The St Francis YC Elvstrom Regatta featured Vann Wilson and Chuck Tripp visiting from LA for some heavy weather action. The Radial fleet racing was very close on the City Front. Richmond YC added a new dinghy event to their very active callendar. Tom Burden won the Big Dinghy Regatta, and Mark Halman, who is a very successful single handed ocean racer, won the Dinghy Invitational. Up in Gold Country, Ron Witzel reports of warm water, beautiful weather, gusty challenging breezes, good competition, and excellent organization (evening party w/ barbacue and band) at the “Go For The Gold” Regatta. Dan Oulett dusted off his Laser skills and raved about his first experience with the new rigging upgrades. Once again it was a great time. Put it on your calendar for next year! Our summer callendar continues with the Open PCCs at Treasure Island, the Master’s PCCs at Tahoe YC, the Summer Sailstice at TI, the High Sierra Regatta at Huntington Lake, and the Kip Laur regata at Tahoe.

District 25 Nils Andersson SoCal The Midwinters West was held on March 23-25, 2007 and hosted by California Yacht Club. for complete results see www.calyachtclub.com. As usual it was followed by Alamitos Bay YC’s traditional Olympic Classes Regatta on March 31 and April 1, 2007. for results see www.abyc.org. California Laser Masters Championship and Womens California Radial Championship was hosted by Mission Bay YC in Sand Diego. Here is a report written by Ken Wild: MBYC hosted the California Laser Master’s and Women’s Radial Championships on April 14-15. Laser Masters sailors are age grouped as follows: Apprentice 35-44, Master 45-54, Grand Master 5564 and Great Grand Master 65 and over. In addition to age group awards, a formula is used to adjust scores to give the older competitors (some in their 70’s) in this very physical Olympic Class dinghy a

chance to win overall against the younger guys (in their mid 30’s). Saturday on the ocean was a challenge with no wind and then a light south/east wind shifting 140 degrees to the north/west over afternoon. Three races in mostly hiking conditions were completed, however the first race was tossed due to some competitors (without compasses) confusion regarding the location of the weather mark. Following Saturday night’s “Cook Your Own BBQ” at MBYC was time to catch up on old and new friendships, Sunday arrived with a nasty storm providing winds in the teen’s, gusting into the 20’s. The storm combined with a high surf advisory closed the jetty entrance diverting our competitors to complete four double windward leeward races in the bay. Jim Buckingham of NHYC bested us all winning overall (his son is Sabot & Laser champ Charlie Buckingham) A strong contingent of 14 MBYC sailors did well in the overall results to include our new Military Flag member Keith Davids in 2nd, Dixon Smith in 3rd, Doug Hart in 4th, Dave Leuck in 7th, Kendal “Wild in 8th Ian Storer in 9th, Peter Gerstoft in 10th Nils Andersson in 16th, Jim Hecht in 17th, David Bloomberg in 20th , Barney Rickett in 21st , Keith Sternal in 23rd, Malcolm Napier in 28th and , Karen Gerstoft in 29th. In the age groups Keith Davids was 1st in the Apprentice Division; Kendal Wild won the Grand Masters Division, while Nils Andersson won the Great Grand Masters title. Karen Gerstoft won the Women’s Radial title and is to be commended for sticking with it through some tough conditions. Competitor and special awards were beautiful reproductions of a water color of a Laser scene by our favorite local artist Julie Anderson. Special thanks to Scott McKay, John Billings and Tom McKinney doing R/C duty both days in the “Bob Gales.” Also thanks to Jamie Hoffmann for R/C duty, Carol Hartman and Danah Woodruff for handling registration and Ron & Debbie Lane for providing new charter boats for our visitors from Washington and New York.

Laser 2007 New England Circuit June 14-17 Laser/Radial/4.7 NA Champs June 30-July 1 D7 Grand Prix -Saltmarsh July 27-29 District 7 Radial Grand Prix August 3-5 Buzzards Bay Regatta August 10-12 Laser/Radial US Champs September 8-9 New England Masters September 14-16 Laser/Radial Olympic Trials Q October 3-14 Laser/Radial Olympic Trials

Hyannis YC, MA New Bedford, MA Hyannis YC, MA New Bedford, MA Mallets Bay BC, VT Newport, RI Cedar Point YC, Westport, CT Newport, RI

See District 7 Website for more information: http://d7.laser-forum.org/

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ILCA-NA Fleet Review Treasure Island Laser Fleet Treasure Island, San Francisco,. CA (District 24)

TLS is proud to unveil our newest series, The Fleet Review. After we printed an article on the Cedar Point YC fleet and their great organization and fleet goings-on, we decided that fleets around the country should be profiled. Treasure Island in San Francisco is our first guinea pig. If you’d like us to profile your fleet, contact the NA Laser Class office!

http://www.technicalwizardry.com/d24laser/d24.htm

Fleet Captains Steve Orosz

Ralph Pombo

Sailing Venue The Treasure Island Laser fleet sails out of the Treasure Island Sailing center (TISC) located on Clipper Cove. (www.tisailing.org) TI is located in the center of San Francisco Bay which is known for its heavy air sailing with winds regularly in the high-teens and low-twenties during the summer months. Since Clipper Cove is sheltered somewhat from the prevailing winds, sailing in the cove can be milder than sailing on the Bay itself with flat water and little current. One advantage of being in the center of San Francisco Bay is that, TI Laser sailors have the best of both worlds — flat water and moderate winds in the cove or strong wind and waves getting out into the “thick of things” is just a short sail away. TISC offers boat storage on racks or in trailer spaces, a ramp and two hoists for larger boats. In addition to boat space TISC, has very active youth and adaptive programs and has hosted to numerous regional and national level dinghy regattas.

Racing Program The TI Laser fleet races every Thursday night from April to September in conjunction with the local Vanguard 15 fleet. In addition to the Summer Sailstice Regatta in June, the TI Laser fleet is also the host of the 2007 Pacific Coast Championships. URL: http://pcc2007.laserforum.org/ Fleet members also regularly sail in other district and regional regattas including the Northern California Grand Prix Regatta which is a tour of major District 24 regattas.

After Racing Activities The post-race parties are often the highlight of the week. The competition continues after racing with the social chairs (who rotate each

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week) competing for the coveted end of season “Best Social Chairman” award. Festivities include food and drink, scores and awards of the evening, and always free advice and sharing of techniques. This year our local Laser dealer, Svendsen’s, is sponsoring the series with end of season trophies and food, drink and raffle prizes on three evenings spread throughout the season.

The Best thing About the TI Fleet... TI fleet members have a wide range of skill and experience levels but always offer really close, friendly competition on the water.

Attracting new sailors to the fleet We try to help connect prospective new members with boats and rigging and cajole local owners of Lasers to get their boats out and join us sailing. The post-race sharing of tips and tricks helps everyone continue to improve and stay motivated to come back next week. But when necessary we resort to kidnapping, threatening, bribery, and sheer animal magnetism.

Last Words District 24 is the greatest place in the world to sail Lasers. Contact us to come by and join in, there is always room for more. We have nine different fleets in the district that are very active and competitive, with something for every sailor.

www.Laser.org

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Masters Sailing

Masters North American Championship

SCOTT YOUNG

Throughout the year, I have written some articles for my yacht club newsletter about my plan for preparing myself for competing in the Laser Masters North more importantly, it told me that my so he could not bear off and try and Americans. I decided to spend as duck below me. I was able to regupreparation for the regatta was much time as I could sailing with late our speed so as to burn off going to pay off and that I would be my good friends Mark Salih, Matt some time and was able to eek competitive enough to have a Romberg and Doug Kern to prearound the pin end without slowing chance to win. Things started going pare for the regatta. My main probdown too much. It was a good start a bit downhill after this. Dave and lem was self discipline. but Matt did a good job of keeping Matt took advantage of the wind I was able to learn a few clear air and maintaining his lane. shifting to the right and were able subtleties from my friends such as After being pinned by some boats to work low and get inside at the sailing with less vang tension to weather, Matt was finally able to first jibe mark. Things got worse on downwind than I ever had prior, not tack and I went right with him. We the 2nd beat when Al Clark, manletting the mainsheet out past 90 both looked golden. aged to claw his way back to degrees, having a stopper knot in Sure enough though, the wind fourth. He had made a lot of disthe boom vang so that I could unstarted to clock back to the right. Al tance and it seemed only like a cleat the vang completely when I Clark rounded the weather mark 1st matter of time before he passed rounded the weather mark in order and I rounded close behind. Al me. On the run, the wind had to bear-off faster, getting all of my did a great job sailing downwind begun to increase and the â&#x20AC;&#x153;S-turnâ&#x20AC;? control lines marked in the approand started to stretch his lead out. technique for sailing downwind was priate settings, getting my sail broOn the next beat, I was able to starting to play big dividends. Matt ken-in properly, working on better maintain a pretty strong 2nd and on Romberg was sailing a beautiful tacks and jibes, and sitting more the last downwind leg, On the forward in the boat last beat, I thought there was downwind. no chance of catching him but After that, I had to rely I continued to hike hard and on getting in some good stay in phase with the wind Wednesday night races shifts. He was so far ahead against folks that I will that he was in a different oscilargue make up one of lation pattern than I was. I kept the most competitive sailing lifts and he kept tacking Laser fleets in the counon me to cover but he was try. tacking out of phase. Slowly, I Race 1: With about a started gaining ground on him. minute to go, I saw that It seemed like each tack I Scott Young, Matt Romberg & Eric Faust the wind was swinging made, I was able to gain a to the right and decided photo: Melissa Leboeuf Tothero boat length. As we approached to setup a few boat the last 100 yards, he tacked lengths down from the weather on me on what appeared to be the race. end. I noticed a lot of the regatta starboard tack lay line. I decided to Race 2: The 2nd race had the favorites were down at the leeward tack off and hope for a better breeze continuing to build and go end and I anticipated the wind breeze right. I went only about 4 or left. It seemed many people were would eventually shift back, so I 5 boat lengths and tacked back to caught off guard with the left shift decided to go for maximum speed starboard. As we sailed to the finand no one seemed to be really and tried to foot over the top of the ish, he fell into a hole and was no fighting for the pin-end so I decided fleet. This worked pretty well and I longer laying the finish line. to go for it. I sailed on port tack and was eventually able to round the Meanwhile, I got a nice right hand did a tight lee bow on Matt first windward mark in 1st. The first shift and a puff and I was eased out Romberg and tried to keep his bow beat put me in a good position but stuck up above my weather quarter and planing to the finish line. He

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had to tack back to port to get to the finish line and he tried to sail to me and tack on my lee bow. Realizing this, I kept bearing off and going faster to force him to tack back before he could get up to speed. Just as he tacked, to starboard, I shot the boat back up to weather and trimmed in and shot up towards the line and was just able to nip him at the finish by a few feet. I was as shocked as he was that I was able to catch him. Race 3: I don’t remember as much detail of this race as I do the others but the breeze continued to increase. I remember thinking that it was a going to be a long day with so much breeze and hiking. At the first weather mark, I rounded just behind Tracy Usher from San Francisco and a few boats ahead of Al Clark. On the first run, I was able to hang pretty close with Tracy with Al slowly gaining on us. We were still on a pretty good starboard tack angle so I decided to work hard at keeping my air clear from Tracy so I wouldn’t be forced out of phase. Al decided to tack off to port and head to the other side of the course. At the weather mark, Tracy still led but I was right on his tail. We had both opened up some distance on Al. On the run, a pretty big puff hit and I just let it all hang out and tried to hang on to the edge without capsizing and I managed to get past Tracy. On the final beat, I just covered him with a “herding” type cover where I tried to encourage him to stay with the rest of the fleet. I was able to win with Tracy 2nd and Al in the 3rd. Race 4: Just before the start, the wind shifted right. The right shift lasted almost the entire beat. I had to duck a pack of boats that came in from the right at the weather mark and rounded about 5th or 6th. Al Clark came off the right and was one of the first 2 boats to round. The fleet was tight and there was a lot of jockeying downwind. Al held on to his lead and I could not catch him this time. Eric Faust sailed a nice race to grab 3rd.

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Race 5: Saturday dawned with a very light southerly breeze. After a general recall, the fleet got off. The port end of the line was pretty favored and most of the fleet tacked to port immediately. I could tell that I was moving faster than the boats on my hip and the boats to leeward were doing better than I was. About 2/3rds of the way up the beat, a big right shift came in. It looked like I was going to be about 12-15th. Al Clark was stuck on the left side of the course. Fred Schroth sailed a masterful race in very light and tricky conditions and held on to win. I was able to slowly work my way up to 3rd. The race committee sent the fleet to shore and we were finished for the day. Race 6: Sunday brought a light and shifty westerly breeze which can be very random. I decided to start near the windward end in response to a pretty big right shift that had come in. The right side of the course looked like it had more breeze but my gut told me that eventually the wind would try and go back to the south. Sure enough, a few minutes after the start, the right faded hard and the left was looking much better. I played a few shifts in the middle and was not looking good. I rounded the weather mark about 12th and just concentrated on trying to slowly work my way back up. Eric Faust sailed a great race and held on to the win and I was able to rally back to

a 2nd. Race 7: The breeze was from the same westerly direction but the holes were more pronounced. My goal was not to commit to one side and take the risk of getting stuck if a big shift came in. I took a pretty conservative mid-line approach and got off on to port tack pretty quickly. I ended up rounding the first weather mark in the top 5 with Eric Faust and Matt Romberg both sailing well. At the finish, Matt held on for the win and I took second. In retrospect, this was a really rewarding victory. I had established this event as one of my primary sailing goals for this year. Mark Salih and I spent a lot of time sailing together leading up to the regatta. Mark was able to offer me some great insight and offer a few tips for improving my downwind speed. And just having another person to help keep you motivated to spend time on the water and in the boat is invaluable.

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2007 Master’s US Championship The Carolina Yacht Club Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

. Leading up to the 2007 Master’s US Championship the Carolina Yacht Club had hosted two major Laser Class events in the past five years and has earned a well deserved reputation as one of the finest Laser racing venues in North America. The racing is on the ocean in front of the club, typically on a warm Southwesterly seabreeze peaking in the 1518 knot range which develops a nice regular pattern of waves. Upwind requires hiking, but not too much hiking, downwind is Laser nirvana with enough wind to plane and surf the waves, making it easy even for the old folks to S-carve their heart’s away, but not so much wind to make it a white knuckle ride. Onshore the CYC hospitality is tough to beat, especially with the beautiful facilities they have overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. With a reputation like that it was no wonder that 68 eager Master’s sailors descended upon Wrightsville Beach May 18-20 to race the Master’s US Championship, coming from all corners of the North American Region and even bringing some out of a long retirement! As soon as registration we knew we were not to be disappointed - the r egatta giveaway was a beautiful fleece lined shell 30

vest. This was going to be a great event! Unfortunately, the regatta coincided with the departure of a late season weather system leaving us with a weakening offshore flow the first day or so of the event, though at least leaving us with plenty of sunshine. This offshore breeze is tough to sail (and tough for the Race Committee too!) since it is characterized by large (20-30 degrees) shifts at seemingly random intervals. On the first day of racing this breeze still had some velocity with the puffs in the 12-15 knot range and the lulls still in the 8-10 knot range, so we were still hiking and it was possible to get sideways on a puff downwind and capsize (at least that is my excuse!). As a credit to the ability of the Race Committee to get it right, we got in three solid, and very interesting, races on the first day. In trying conditions consistency is always key and already the

three main players were establishing themselves with Mark Bear always in front, with Al Clark and Ari Barshi always nearby. Day two saw further weakening of the offshore flow with the fleet getting in one early race in a slowly dying breeze, a race where connecting the puffs and anticipating the next shift were the keys. In this race Mark Bear began to establish himself as the guy to beat by finishing second. The Race Committee attempted to run a second race in these conditions but the offshore flow finally ran out of steam and Below: Mark Bear leads the pack. Photo: Chip Whitesides

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Point Yacht Club fleet. Rounding out the positions were familiar names with top Grandmaster going to Alden Shattuck and top Great Grandmaster going to Peter Seidenberg. As usual, Chip and Arland Whitesides once again did a fantastic job hosting the Laser Class. They again put together a great team with a Race Committee that Above: Len Wells on his Honda Gold Wing with Laser in tow. In spite of sev- appeared to anticipate exacteral motocycle “incident” ove rthe years, Len is undaunted and continues to ly what the wind was going to arrive at D12 regatta on his Honda. Photo by Marilyn Sechrist. do, set up great race courses they wisely abandoned the when they do, well suffice it and got in 7 good races over race. After a short wait, the to say that it was a perfect three days, two of which were seabreeze finally made its day of sailing with two great very trying. Onshore, the fine first appearance of the regatta races in 15-18 knots of wind folks at the Carolina Yacht though it never really filled in with beautiful waves for sail- Club again showed us why to more than about 5-8 ing downwind - as they say: the South is so famous for its knots. In these conditions the just like the travel brochure hospitality. Thanks to the Race Committee got in one described! Whitesides and the Carolina more solid race to then send By the start of the day Mark Yacht Club for a beautiful us in for the banquet dinner. Bear, Al Clark and Ari Barshi event! Saturday evening’s dinner were in control with Mark The first question after trowas really fantastic with a having to sail poorly to not phies: how long until we can beautiful buffet greeting the win. Mark, however, loves to come back? hungry sailors with the warm sail in these conditions and evening perfect for sitting out- was not about to have a bad Below: Mark Salih has an overlap on side beside the beach. This race, easily holding his lead to Al Clark coming into the weather mark. photo: Chip Whitesides was followed by the regatta become the overall 2007 raffle in which everyone (or Master’s US so it seemed) ended up walk- Champion ing away with something with and to finish cool stuff ranging from Zhik top Master. hiking pants, boat covers, Top apprensails, all the way to t-shirts tice was Mike and hats. Mataan who On Sunday the locals said hails from “seabreeze.” Music to the England but is sailors ears... until the sail out currently resiwhen it seemed like a steady dent in New 2-3 knots. Hmm.... But that is York and sails how seabreezes work, they with the take their time to come in but famous Cedar

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2007 Vanguard NA Grand Prix Results Standings through May 31, 2007

LASER Pos.

1 2 3 3 3 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 13 15 15 16 18 19 19 21 21 23 23 25 25 25 25 25

Last

for full results: www.laser.org First

# of Events Total

Pearce Ramsay Strammer Torchinsky Horowitz Buckingham Shockey Hancock Shockey Luttmer Vranizan Campbell Funk Garber Grierson Rodriquez Smith Johnson Raab Wright Kalin Paine Hernandez Taulbee Fox Lawrence Shattuck Walker Wenner Anderson Deermount Potter Swetka Amthor Lapier Mellnik Rogachenko Toole Wilson Higgins Rothenbuhler Tripp Tullo Von Der Wense Willard

John 3 Luke 2 Fred 2 Abe 2 Zeke 3 Charlie 2 Kevin 2 Cleve 2 John 2 Bernard 1 Derick 2 Andrew 1 Brad 1 Josh 1 Kevin 2 Ernesto 1 Colin 1 Clay 1 Chris 1 David 1 Michael 1 Caleb 1 David 1 Kurt 1 Andrew 1 Luke 2 Alden 1 Glenn 1 Peter 1 Niklas 1 Adam 1 John 1 Ken 1 Henry 1 David 2 John 1 Kyle 1 Pat 1 Vann 1 Conner 1 Rick 1 Chuck 1 Jerry 1 Nick 1 Martin 1

66 39 38 38 38 36 35 33 31 29 28 27 26 26 25 25 25 24 23 23 22 22 21 21 20 20 20 20 20 19 19 19 19 18 18 18 18 18 18 17 17 17 17 17 17

Aspland Buckingham Lewis Schmidt Sutherland

Joseph Jim Evan Mike Ian

16 16 16 16 16

1 1 1 1 1

Last Usher Andrews Buckingham Frechette Dold Forgione Lamphere Morgan Spevak Wong Aspland Dusek Jones Orosz Strilky Bell Hatton McRitchie Tan Wright Adolphs Aspland Davis Hall Japikse Kelly Raney Cruickshank DeWolf Drake Hiller Usher Breder Drasnin Hanson Hartman Herr Harmon Jackson Parkhill Scott Seynhaeve Hopkins Johnston Legg McNally Vallo Brand Cairnes Mulhausen Pesch

First

# of Events Tracy 1 Tyler 1 Bill 1 Rob 1 Chris 1 Phil 1 Gordon 1 Ted 1 Walt 1 Andy 1 Emily 1 Jeff 1 Ned 1 Stephan1 Rick 1 Simon 1 Cole 1 Thomas 1 Bob 1 David 1 David 1 Mark 1 Michelle1 Mitch 1 Jason 1 Sean 1 Brian 1 Keith 1 Henry 1 Elliot 1 Todd 1 Charles 1 Dave 1 Peter 1 Bill 1 David 1 Fred 1 Dick 1 Chris 1 Lee 1 Michael 1 Guillaume 1 Ken 1 Paige 1 Chris 1 John 1 Matt 1 Tyler 1 Charles 1 David 1 Ryan 1

Total 16 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 14 13 13 13 13 13 12 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6

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photo by John Payne

RADIAL Pos.

Last

First

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

Railey Maxim Tunnicliffe Dennis Lihan Ross Bertold Haeger Griffin Crain Billing Rasa Smith Alley Doane Dugdale Blouin Dube Schalka Barnard Wallace Hoeven Taylor Crowder Toole Montemayor Cameron Liebl Cruickshank Vargas Givens Jesberg Peterson

Paige 2 Katie 4 Anna 2 Claire 4 Sarah 3 Lisa 2 Isabella 3 Annie 3 Genoa 3 Philip 2 Emily 3 Keamia 2 Colin 2 Philip 2 Justin 2 Nick 2 Sam 2 Danielle 2 Michael 2 Chris 1 John 2 Ryan 1 Chris 2 Victoria 1 Oliver 1 Ricardo 1 Rex 1 James 1 Tyler 1 Mateo 1 Matt 1 Peter 2 William 1

69 69 68 68 67 60 60 60 59 53 52 49 47 45 44 41 39 36 36 29 29 28 26 25 25 24 21 21 20 20 19 19

Shea Filbert Moynahan Scott Graef Lozier Lezin McClatchy Rohde Rupert Weitzman Antunes Bertrand Mace Jensen

Maggie 2 Anne 1 Sean 1 Jon 1 Richard 1 Philip 1 Ben 1 Bo 2 Krysta 1 Janet 1 Cindy 1 Jacob 1 Alex 1 Sally 1 Drake 1

19 17 17 17 16 16 15 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 13

www.Laser.org

# of Events Total

Last

First

# of Events Total

Nickbarg Spalding Vallo Holtzworth Japiske Roble Spector Ahearn Howard Wilson Soto Witkowski Wright Kelchner Laube Robin Dube Dudenhoefer Davis Haeger Wettergren Ahearn Heasler Tulip Beuchler Reynolds Larsen Stocke Vittery Allen Foscue Hall Norris Stubbs De Lisser Martinelli Smith

Max 1 Jennifer 1 Nick 1 Ian 1 Chris 1 Steph 1 Ben 1 Justin 1 Will 1 Morgan 1 Julian 1 Kim 1 Caroline 2 Zach 1 Kevin 1 Allison 2 Tiffany 1 Robert 1 Michelle1 Will 1 Viktor 1 Cullen 1 Ian 1 Chris 1 Nicole 1 Jake 1 Josh 1 Chris 1 Alanna 1 Lindsay 1 Chris 1 Ryann 1 Phillip 1 Emily 1 Arielle 1 Dennis 1 Darby 1

13 13 13 12 12 12 12 11 11 11 10 10 10 9 9 9 8 8 7 7 7 6 6 6 5 5 4 4 4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1

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Regatta Reports BRIAN

RANNEY

Hyannis Yacht Club hosted the 2007 Laser/Radial/4.7 North American Championships (13-17 June). They had a lot of challenges, aside from the usual logistical ones related to running a large regatta for 200+ independent-minded singlehanders. But let’s just say the challenges at HYC were “unique”. First, there’s the wind. Most regatta venues suffer from the “it’snever-like-this-here” syndrome, where the winds vacate the area for the duration of a major regatta. Not at Hyannis. Here the problem was too much wind! Second, there’s the current. A quote from Peter Johns: “We were setting the weather marks upcurrent, not upwind!” And it flows in the opposite direction from what anyone not familiar with the area would expect. Third, there’s the ferries. Lots of them. Big ones. Fast ones. The race area had to be chosen to avoid their routes - something about them not being able to stop or turn on a dime at 30+ knots. And because of the ferries, sailboats are prohibited from the channel into and out of the harbor. Very confusing for out-of-towners. But those ferries use the channels, so we don’t want to be there at the same time. This forced the Laser and Radial fleets into short-tacking up the side of the channel in some very shallow waters. Many a curse was uttered on the way through as board found bottom. HYC tried to get a handle on those logistical issues early. There was an absolute cutoff to registration two weeks before the event began. No showing up on opening day and expecting to sail! They also allocat-

North American Championships

ed the Wednesday before as a mandatory registration and sail measurement day - again, no showing up the morning of. Most folks expected to use it for a little practice. They even planned for split fleets after two day of racing and four races, and had a checkin/check-out board to account for all the sailors at day’s end. Things started to fray a bit, though, right from the start. Arriving at HYC, one found some good organization - parking, rigging area, efficient lines at measurement and registration. But challenge number one was rearing its head - wind. A lot of it. 26 knot averages with 37 knot peak gusts. Many thought better of practicing in those conditions - something important could break, like the skipper! In contrast to the high wind speeds, the air temperatures were low. The local Eastern Mountain Sports had a run on cold-weather gear.

channel marker - to avoid those ferry routes. Challenge number one was also to be a factor on the first scheduled day of racing. To start the day, however, some folks didn’t realize they really had to be there on Wednesday, so there was some measurement and registration going on Thursday morning (but kept to a minimum). At 0830, the Answering Pennant went up, and we began to wait. Apparently, it was blowing 25-30 knots out in the racing area, with large seas. A notice was posted at 1100, continuing the wait. And at 1245. Finally, at 1400, racing was canceled for the day. So of course, some people went sailing. They reported that the conditions were fine. (A post of the winds the following morning confirmed a significant drop-off in wind strength just after 1400.)

A competitors’ meeting was held in the evening, with the most important note being that the 4.7s would sail inside the harbor, not out in Nantucket Sound. The Lasers and Radials were to take heading 235 out 1.25 nm from the last

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Another posting changed the fleet splits so that only Day Two’s races would be used. Day Two saw more reasonable conditions. 16-18 with gusts to 23 knots from the N, shifting to NNE. That 1.25nm was about right, but the last channel marker seemed to be at least 1 nm out of the harbor! At least it was downwind to get there. Except for some folks who didn’t “move their dot” to check out before leaving the beach. They got to sail part way out, beat back into those shallows along the channel, and then sail back out. Tom Duggan and his team did a solid job in setting the course in some stiff chop, adjusting for a slow shift to the right during the day. They got in three races for the arbitrarily split Laser and Radial fleets. Burgers and dogs were waiting for the fleets when they got in, and the ILCA-NA Annual General Meeting was run by Treasurer Ben Richardson, with presentations by Sherri Campbell and Ned Jones. The third day started a bit warmer and with more moderate winds, but saw the fleets waiting ashore due to a postponement. Some scoring issues needed to be resolved in order to properly split the fleets between championship and consolation divisions. Rumor has it that some younger competitors sailed around the outside of all of the marks, neglecting the extra down/up of the outer/inner trapezoid courses. The delay gave the wind time to back to the SW and give the fleets a long port tack and shorter starboard tack to the starting area - again, seemingly way offshore. Boards started finding the shallow spots at the mouth of the harbor this morning. The RC again set good courses, adjusting for the strong current, and managed to get three races in for both Laser fleets, and two races for the Radials. Day Four would be needed to get a throw-out, which would apply after seven races. The highlight of the www.Laser.org

day was the broad reach and run back to the harbor - warmer temperatures and the boats playing in the waves as they stacked up in the shallows near shore! The final day saw the fleets heading out in a more moderate SW breeze of about 9 knots. But the breeze had a slight chill to the gusts. As we got out of the harbor (with much cursing as still more shallow spots were found), the RC boat put up code flag Lima - “Come within Hail”. The reason was obvious as we watched two ferries disappear like phantoms into the fog bank as it rolled in near shore. This gave the fleets the opportunity to do some sightseeing! We were sheltering in Hyannisport, within view of the famed Kennedy compound. Along with the compound, we managed to find Sen. Kennedy’s Mya on a mooring, and another mooring labeled “Kennedy”, with a very wellmaintained catboat (appropriately named “Cattin’ Around”). Once the fog cleared, we followed the RC boat out, and out, and out. Back to our usual starting area. It just seemed even longer due to the lighter winds. This also made setting the courses more difficult, as the current was a larger factor. Not that the winds made it any easier, throwing in a significant back in the middle of the day. The direction made for a pleasant ride back into

the harbor, though! Congratulations to Thomas Barrows (USVI) for the overall win, earning him his country’s berth at the 2008 Laser Worlds. Fred Strammer (USA) and Kyle Rogachenko (USA) earned the two North American berths available, finishing second and third. Lee Parkhill (CAN) and Evan Lewis (CAN) rounded out the top five. The top fifteen Americans also earned themselves berths at the Olympic Trials this fall. In the Radial fleet, Colin Smith (USA) claimed the overall victory, followed by Cameron Pimentel (USA), and W. Ian Heausler (USA). Sarah Lihan (USA) was the top female in fourth, with Anne Haeger (USA) behind her in fifth. The 4.7 fleet was won convincingly by Cameron Hall (USA). OJ O’Conell (USA) and Blake Cabassa (USA) finished in the next two places, separated by only a point. Marissa Lihan (USA) and Corey Hall finished fourth and fifth. Marissa was also the first female in this fleet. Thanks to the Hyannis Yacht Club and all of its dedicated volunteers who put on a good event, in spite of the usual challenges, and some new ones! photos by John Payne

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Regatta Reports MICHAEL KISS The 2007 Laser 4.7 North American Championship was held on June 14-17, 2007 in Hyannis, MA hosted by the Hyannis Yacht Club. This event took place at the same time and venue as the Laser & Radial NA Championship with the Laser 4.7s sailing on a separate course inside the harbor area just off Hyannis Yacht Club. Sailing the Laser 4.7s on a separate windwardleeward course allowed the race committee to complete 12 races for regatta. Twenty one competitors consisting of 11 boys and 10 girls competed in the event.

2007 Laser 4.7 North Americans again from the S-SW much like the previous day. As had been the case throughout this regatta PRO John Fields and his RC crew ran four more fine races. Cameron Hall sailed four great races with finishes of 2, 2, 3, 2 to win the Laser 4.7 North American Championship with a score of 35 points. Second place went to O.J. Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connell (50 points), Blake Cabassa was third (51 points), Marissa Lihan fourth (60 points) and Corey Hall fifth (66 points).

Special thank you goes to the Hyannis Yacht Club and PRO John Fields for hosting a great Laser 4.7 North American Championship. To the parents of Optimist age outs and/or size out I would like to encourage you to get your kids out in a Laser 4.7. I believe this is the best sailing going for sailors not big enough for the Laser or Laser Radial!!!

Strong northerly winds caused racing to be postponed on the first day of the regatta. Racing on the second day took place in a 15-20 knot breeze from the north allowing for 4 fast races to be completed. Cameron Hall with finishes of 1, 6, 5, 1 led after the first day. Marissa Lihan followed closely behind in second (finishes of 9, 3, 3, 3) with Corey Hall third (finishes of 3, 5, 8, 2). The second day of the event saw winds from the S-SW at 5-15 knots. Four races were again sailed with Mitchell Kiss sailing the most consistently this day with scores of 4, 2, 9, 3. At this time competitors could take their drop race. In the top five after the drop were Cameron Hall with 26 points followed by Blake Cabassa (33 points), Marissa Lihan (33 points), O.J. Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Connell (34 points) and Corey Hall (37 points). So far Cameron Hall had been sailing a great series with a six point lead over the second place boat with the point spread between second and sixth only 5 points. The final day of racing saw winds

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2007 ACC Regatta RYAN MINTH This year’s Atlantic Coast Championship Regatta was held a bit earlier in the NA season to ensure breeze at the host venue, the US Sailing Center of Martin County, Florida. Breeze there was! Although the racing days were scheduled for the weekend of May 26th and 27th, the staff at USSCMC, led by Peter Strong, also organized a pre-regatta clinic on Friday the 25th. From Friday’s clinic through the Award Ceremony, the wind started in the low 20’s and held up well into the teens, only touching the single digits briefly at the top of the sheltered beats on the last day. The USSC-MC is one of the oldest, if not THE oldest, of the too-few US Sailing Centers. Now nestled nicely in Jensen Beach, FL on the Indian River, they boast a wonderful dinghy facility. There is plenty of beach launching space, nice grassy lawns for rigging and rinsing, close parking, and a new building with great meeting space, a huge deck, four bathrooms, outdoor showers, nice workshop facilities, and ample storage for their ongoing sailing programs. Just north of the West Palm Beach (PBI) airport, the area is friendly and very reasonable when compared to ILCA-NA’s other favorite Florida venues. The complete package is a low-key, top rate place to sail. After hosting David Hartman’s successful Mid-Week Madness Master Regatta/Clinic for its first two years, the secret is getting out quickly within the NA Laser fleet. Friday’s clinic was led by Ryan Minth of C-vane Performance Sailing. With 20 knots of breeze, the briefing started late morning and was followed by on-the-water drills emphasizing boat handling at marks, practice starts, straight-line upwind, and downhill S-turn sailing.

It was a perfect regatta warm-up to build confidence for the sailors aboard their Lasers, Radials, and 4.7s. The de-briefing included extensive video shot during the day, where everyone was able to view areas they needed to improve and observe the best techniques performed by others attending the clinic. Ryan also let them in on some of the secrets of his top clients from Australia, China, and the US Elite Youth Sailing Teams. Peter and the USSC-MC team assembled a fantastic race management team, always critical for a good regatta. With full Olympic trapezoid courses, complete with reaching finishes, the PRO kept up with what was a busy oscillating easterly breeze all weekend long. There were 23 Full Rigs, 47 Radials, and 28 4.7s that launched Saturday and sailed north under the bridge to the racing area under a blasting, full-spray beam reach. What a way to start a regatta! Once out at the track, it became clear that getting off the line near the favored end and staying in phase with the 20-30 degree wind shifts would be crucial to getting to the top mark with the front of the fleet. Overall, the bottom half of the beats were the breeziest, with more consistent and rhythmic shifts. Big grinders had an advantage if they could come off the line in the front row and separate themselves with better boat speed. At the top third of the first beats, the wind would drop off, as the innertrap windward marks were placed near the shoreline. Here the shifts became more erratic, where seeking pressure and balancing it with angle made big passes possible and kept the racing exciting. Top sailors from each fleet typically did well by getting off the line and heading left early in the beat, consolidating, and then heading toward a starboard approach to the first mark, where there was a bit more open water off to the right making

for a more consistent shift and better pressure. The first reach leg was interesting as well. Holding the high lane early often got the big puffs first, making for nice gains. But holding high into the second half of the leg placed them too close to the shore, where the puffs could go right over the tops of the sails, only hitting the low-lane boats and scooting them into the wing mark quickly. Almost every race, someone in each fleet would get it 100% right, resulting in commanding leads, but that someone was seemingly never the same sailor. Heads up sailing was the order of the day. Proof was in the inconsistent results at the top of the Laser and Radial Fleets. Saturday’s results: In Laser, Fred Strammer of the US Elite Youth Team, popped out of the box hot with a quick bullet. At the end of Saturday, he was only hot enough to hold third though, as Ernesto Rodriguez’s slower warm up was more consistent, scoring (10)-2-2-72-1 for the top spot of Day One. Only one point back was DOM sailor Raul Aguayo’s (11)-1-3-1-5-5. On the inner-traps with the Radials, Colin Smith, a Junior from Lauderdale YC, put together a remarkably consistent score-line under the conditions and tough competition of 1-4-1-2-9. Anyone in the top seven could still take the regatta as a throw-out would come into play with another race. Sharing some of the day’s glory was Sarah Lihan, a US Sailing Team member and Sam Blouin, a Junior from DIYC; both won races during the day by huge, convincing margins. Probably the only surprise was in the 4.7 fleet, where Edgar Diminich was the only sailor afloat that seemingly had everything figured out all day, scoring a 1-4-1-1-2 and commanding the second largest fleet competing. Even the pending drop race held little hope for other 4.7 sailors trying to keep up with Edgar’s blistering pace and smart sailing. continued on page 41

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MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

ILCA of NA, 2812 Canon Street, San Diego, California USA 92106 619-222-0252, Fax 619-222-0528 admin@laser.org, www.laser.org

Name_______________________________________________________ Address_____________________________________________________ City ___________________State / Prov. _____Zip / postal code ________ Phone ____________________ E-mail____________________________ Sail # ______________DOB (month/day/year) _____________Sex ______ Boat sailed

______Laser

______Radial

______Laser 4.7

Want to pay by Credit Card? We accept Visa and MC:

Current 2007 Membership Fees All amounts are in US dollars. Canadian checks must be in US dollars. Regular - $40 for one year or $75 for 2 years Junior - $35 (Member may not turn 18 in 2007), or $65 for 2 years (Member may not turn 18 in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;08) Family, 1 year - $40 for the primary members and $25 for each additional member Family, 2 years - $75 for the primary members and $45 for each additional member Please provide family members names, DOB, boat type and sail number on an additional sheet of paper.

International - $50 (any member not living in the US or Canada), one year only Amount enclosed __________________US$

Name on card: _______________________________ CC #: Visa_____ MC ______ _______________________________ Exp. date:___________________ CC billing zip code: _____________

Please make checks payable to ILCA of NA. Thank you for joining the Laser Class. NOTE: Occasionally we make our mailing list available to our advertisers. If you do not want your name included on these lists, please check here: ____

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

ILCA of NA, 2812 Canon Street, San Diego, California USA 92106 619-222-0252, Fax 619-222-0528 admin@laser.org, www.laser.org

______Laser

______Radial

______Laser 4.7 Want to pay by Credit Card?

International - $50 (any member not living in the US or Canada), one year only Amount enclosed __________________US$

We accept Visa and MC: Name on card: _______________________________ CC #: Visa_____ MC ______ _______________________________ Exp. date:___________________ CC billing zip code: _____________

SUMMER 2007

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After a tiring six-race day for the Lasers and five races for the big Radial and 4.7 Fleets, everyone was sent home on another fast blast reach back to shore, where drinks and a nice dinner were waiting. Sixteen complete trapezoid races held across the three fleets on the first day! Conditions were almost identical for Sunday’s racing. The breeze may have been a bit lighter and the median heading a touch to the right, but the competition was no less fierce. The PRO made another stellar call keeping the Laser Fleet, one race up on the other fleets afloat, first in the starting order. Race winning strategy was no less tricky either, with the lulls at the top of the first beats (and second for the inner-trap course) more dramatic than the prior day. Sunday’s and Final results: In the 4.7 Fleet, Edgar Diminich kept it together with a 1-1-(5)-1, winning the regatta by a significant and impressive margin. Second through sixth was separated by only three points after nine races, with Cam Hall and Alec Anderson second and third overall. Tied for third on points, but just out of the medals on the tiebreaker in a watch-this-upcoming-sailor-performance was Marissa Lihan, as top Female (and younger sister to Sarah). Sarah had it together Sunday in her Radial with a 1-1-8-1, but it was only good enough for Bronze after dropping a 33 and keeping a 26th. Phillip Alley was second overall, scoring three thirds Sunday. Colin Smith’s drop-2-1-9 was easily enough to keep an eleven point gap over second for the Radial title. Only five points separated 2nd and 6th, with another top female US Radial sailor Genoa Griffin in 4th followed by fleet favorite-guy James Liebl, scoring the top, not-disclosed-upon-entry Apprentice Master spot. The drama ran high with the Laser fleet. Fred Strammer won the day with an impressive 2-2-1-3, and looking to take the championship. However, a tight final leeward mark rounding with regatta leader and always tough competitor Ernesto forced Fred into retiring from the race after finishing. In the end it was only drama, as the positions held steady with Ernesto Rodriguez winning the ACC title as top Apprentice Master, followed by Raul Aguayo. The RAF score kept Fred Strammer in third. Top Junior was David Hernandez of the CGSC in fifth and top Master was Rick Strilky, making it down from Chicago’s CCYC. In the teens, Michelle Davis was first Female and Henry Dewolf made an impressive showing in the breeze for top Great Grand Master. For complete results, go to http://www.usscmc.org/ and http://www.webshots.com/user/usscmc for photos. The Laser Class should be looking forward to getting back to Jenson Beach soon.

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D18 Championships Leatherlips Yacht Club Columbus, Ohio. May 11th, 2007 JOHN SHOCKEY D18 SECRETARY

The District 18 Championships held in Columbus, Ohio proved to be a successful event as any. Friday night sailors began to roll in for the free clinic run by Rick Rothenbuhler of Dieball Sailing. The clinic provided rigging tips, with on the water filming for dissection later on that night. The night was capped off with tips and tricks by some of the experienced locals who knew the shift patterns. With the arrival of collegiate sailors from Indiana, Florida Atlantic,

Old Dominion, and Bowling Green, the regatta boasted some of the top young Lasers the district had to offer, along with experienced apprentices and masters making the game a bit more tactical than the “endurance” aspect of Lasers. The first of five races on Saturday was light, shifty, and difficult to figure out. Reassuring winds were on the way however, as a strong 15 knot breeze rolled through making the inland reservoir a prime spot for Lasers. After Saturday’s races, standings were tight and the competition was apparent. Five different winners in five races! (Saturday Bullets: Barret Rhoads, Ken Swetka, Gordon Lamphere, Tyler Andrews, and Kevin Shockey) Sunday’s forecast was for 15 knots as well, but 7-10 was probably all we saw. After two more races and a throw out, Barret Rhoads of Eagle

Creek took top honors in the full rig, followed 2nd place Ken Swetka of Michigan, and I finished up in 3rd representing Vermilion Boat Club. Tyler Cruickshank of Leatherlips Yacht Club took the radial class throwing out a 2nd with all bullets remaining. Following Tyler was Matt Givens and Wick Hardenbergh. For all those who missed this year’s district championship, next years will be just as fun, and just as exciting. Special thanks goes out to former D18 secretary Janet Rupert, PRO Jamie Jones, and the volunteers for putting on an excellent regatta at a terrific venue! -

Guy Fleming Takes Hawaii Districts SCOTT MELANDER 14 Laser competitors attended the District 26 Champs on a beautiful day off Waikiki. The winds were shifty trades 4-12 knots. In the first race the left side of the course attracted a few boats trying to take advantage of the pin end on port at the start. After a few races this tactic was proven to be a poor idea and the fleet setteld down. Race 5 had a huge right shift with a Radial sailor almost winning! Paying attendtion with a minute to go was crucial to understanding the shifts. Thanks to our race committee staff of Ted Miller, Tracy Woodrow, and Ailana Warren. Congratulations to Guy Fleming who qualified for the US Sailing Singlehanded Nationals. He plans on traveling to vacation-friendly New Jersey in July for the ODays. This is Guy’s first win at the Laser Districts. The next few Laser races will be June 23 in Pearl Harbor; July 12-13 in Waikiki, and August 4-5 in Kaneohe. The Hawaii State Singlehanded Champions will be in Kaneohe on September 8-9. Guy Fleming Scott Melander Jimmy Fowler Seamus Murphy

1 4 5 9

1 4 2 14

1 2 6 10

1 6 8 9

1 4 5 11

1 5 4 12

1 2 10 6

total 7 27 40 71

with t/o 6 21 30 57

Jennifer Proctor Jackson Cook Lance Miller Morgan Merrill Rinchen Harrison Steve Marzo Paddy Loughlin Brett Fischer Ian Marshall Ryan Chan Wa

3 2 7 10 8 14 6 11 12 13

8 9 7 5 3 6 11 10 12 13

3 4 11 7 5 8 12 9 13 14

5 7 4 3 10 12 2 11 13 14

2 7 3 6 10 9 12 8 13 14

6 2 8 11 10 3 7 9 13 14

3 4 7 9 8 5 11 12 13 14

30 35 47 51 54 57 61 70 89 96

22 26 36 40 42 43 49 59 76 82

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Photos: Above: Scott Melander relaxes between races. Left: Morgan Merrill (#25) with Guy Fleming leading the pack.

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Sailing Fit What’s your excuse? MEKA TAULBEE ACE CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER

Well, my deadline is coming up and I really thought that I would have to reprint something for this issue. Then it hit me. I was running and I started thinking about what different athletes put themselves through to be able to stay on their game in their sport or even just for their own satisfaction of staying in shape. As you can imagine as a trainer I hear all sorts of excuses as to why someone didn’t work out, couldn’t work out, couldn’t eat healthy or left the regatta early. Hopefully this short article will light a fire under some of you. What lead me to this train of thought? Well, for those of you that don’t already know, Team Taulbee is adding another member to the team. We are expecting our second baby at the end of June. Yes, you read right, I was running when I thought about this article. I am 36 weeks pregnant and still run at least five days a week and do light weights. Most times I am pushing our two year old in his jogging stroller as well. Crazy? Maybe, but it’s what I do. It would be really easy for me to make excuses to not go. I too have to motivate myself and talk myself into it sometimes, but in the end I do it and feel great for going. I started thinking about some of the sailors out there who have had setbacks, but have kept going and are stronger for it in the end. One is Brad Funk. He had to go through major surgery and rehabilitation on his shoulder. He timed his training around this and now look at how well he is doing. He is

still just as strong of a sailor if not stronger. He has been traveling back and forth from Europe to the US to train and sail. Doesn’t look like it stopped him one bit. It would have been really easy for him to make excuses to not train as hard. The next person that came to mind was Andrew Campbell. Just recently he broke his wrist in Europe while cycling. He had to change his plans a bit and make sure he heals causing him to travel back to the states for some time in a cast. It doesn’t look like this slowed him down much. He was still out on the water doing some judging and then as soon as the cast was off he was doing some Etchells racing. This was the day before he left to head back to Hyeres, France for some more high level Laser racing. He got injured during his training and still no excuses from him. He’s back and ready to rumble. I have had the pleasure to be able to work with one of the Paralympic teams before the last Olympic Games in Athens. This was an extraordinary experience for me. If anyone has the right to make up an excuse not to train it would be these guys.

Yet, they worked harder than a lot of other sailors I know. The last person I thought about is my idol as an athlete. Whenever I think I can’t go out and work harder or even train at all I think of him. Lance Armstrong. Need I say more? WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE?

SUMMER 2007

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