March 28 and 29, 2009 THE END OF MARCH - and what a weekend for Laser sailors— but not many of us.
Three on Saturday. Sam was going to go out to keep the numbers up, but by the time that he had gotten the RC off, the big gust of wind came from the south when Scott was trying to get his MC off the dock with a great flapping and crackling of sails and stuff —Sam just said to himself, "we don’t want a nutty old guy out in this" and he just got the binoculars out to watch.
Alejandro Illera had the radial rig, Rob Krentel had a full and Craig Yates was out with the full rig. Alejandro is staying with Rob or ahead of him and sailing up wind with his board up about 10 to 12 inches. (I am making this estimate from about ½ mile away.) We have been sailing full rigs on windy up winds with 3 to 4 inches of board up. Alejandro is smiling and saying , "It was working!"
Craig was going a little slower, more heel and more rock and roll with the gusts. From a ½ mile away I think he should have supper vang with the boom out a little more and sailing a little deeper. This will let him sail flatter and faster with the same amount of hiking. Then if it turns into "survival" get the vang off and let the top of the sail luff as much as it needs to.
The high school "whirl wind sailors" came late. They made it out for the third race which turned out to be the last race. In that race Bart Eckhart and Jonathan Watson got to beat "hot shot commodore" Ben Getchel and Seth Bahr who usually beats them in the 420s.
Conner Kechriotis got his Laser rigged with the 4.7 and looked pretty good going out. He got caught is the big wind that come in before he was able to get into any of the racing.
Then when it was sure all the racing was over the Laser RC couldn’t get anchor up. Craig turned his boat down and got on the RC boat got the anchor up and ended up towing Conner’s boat back in on its side. Various other MCs and things were out sailing and some getting into trouble. I remember these things better on Saturday than on Tuesday (this day of writing).
The big boat PRO called their part off . I think we had other boats over and exciting sailing back into the club and coming into or crashing into the dock. Jon Pomerleau and his MC was swamped and towed in about the same time we were getting Conner back in.
Charlie Jensen arrived late and missed all the fun but he sailed a Full rig in the afternoon just for some blasting around. He reported that it was Glenda Libby weather– what she would love.
Rob got the sailboard going.
Craig had the 420 sailors out and the Optis were sailing– beginners class! Congratulations folks.
SUNDAY the wind had shifted to the west with a few white caps and with predicted thunderstorms. I had trouble getting any action and finally put the marks out — and, Oh Boy, we now had some waves, yes little waves, but 18 inches plus and minus.– enough to work up wind and down wind. Rob came but wanted to go home and sail later, but Alejandro showed up and shamed him into it. With begging we got the RC out in the boat. Alejandro with the Radial and Rob with the Full and Sam dug up a 4.7 to see if he could sail it up to its rating– more on that later.
Alejandro and Rob continued to trade places and occasionally Sam would be close enough at the windward mark (we were sailing triangles) but lose it on the reaches. I had sailed the 4.7 in light wind and heavy, but not in races before and it was clumsy for me. The radial sails pretty much like the full, but the 4.7 has lower boom and a lot different feel, at least for me on Sunday. It got better– more about that.
Luke Yates and Coach Jennifer Burno came out with 4.7 rigs for the last two races. Coach Jenn brought Faith and Natalie out with her on the Laser 4.7. "Family racing" and they beat Sam in the last race.
Luke really sailed well. He went by me nicely on the reaches and could hold on going up wind.
The waves. Some were big enough to work (up the upside and down the down side) but most were just sure you have the "bow down" (sailing fast) to power through. When they get bigger, sometimes you want to let the boat heel more so the solid water that comes over the bow mostly rolls off to leeward and not back to fill the cockpit. Going down wind we were able to get some waves under the stern and a good rush out of the bigger waves. That is mostly looking for the deep spots in front and heading into them, followed by a turn down the side if it is more than one little hump. Try and stay riding down it until you get to the end.
We had some rain that come through about 11 AM and maybe that was what put the other racers off. I think everyone was already pretty wet and didn’t care.
We kept asking"You want to sail another race?" until we had 7 races in and the RC was all done with us.
Sam was unhappy with how the tacks felt and the last two gybes at the leeward mark had caught the transom and brought lots of havoc, so he strayed out practicing tacks and gybes. Jennifer without the family and Luke came back and wanted to race more – so we just went around the marks a few more times and they continued to beat up on me.
Rob was sailing with his friend and the Sunfish and then with his friend on the Laser.
Overall for the weekend we had 10 races and Rob finished first most of the time, but when we did corrected time Alejandro was first most. Sam never got near on corrected time nor did the other 4.7s. Maybe if I get excel spread sheet I can send the data out or at least put it up on the bulletin board.
It was a weekend– FUN TO SAIL OR TO WATCH....