Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Yes, we did it. I thought I might be doing the old "one boat race" but the wind was up with numerous west wind white caps and we started using all the 4.7 sails but ran out of them.We had Ben Getchell, Jonathan Watson, Bart Eckhart, Marc Solas, Patrick Daniel, Rob Krentel, Conner Kechriotis, Alejandro Illera with his brother and Genesis. Tom Doyle came with the MX-ray and Richard Kinnie with the A cat.Sam decided it was motorboat time and put the big whaler in, the marks out for WL and triangle course. By the time I had that set up the gang was spread all over the lake. With the breeze building we sent those we could corral on a reaching race to the anchored boat off the Eustis Marina and back. This was out of the play book of coach Craig Yates, eat your heart out Arlen and Glenda. It was like a motorboat race.Ben Getchell won the 4.7 race, last of 2008.Rob Krentel won the full rig race, last of 2008.Aljendro Illera and crew won the three in a Laser race, the last of the year.Jonathan Watson and Bart Eckhart tied for "we sailed the nearest to Leesburg".Patrick Daniel won the swimmers trophy.Mark Solas won the swim to the beach trophy and the big smiles award.Tom Doyle won the "my rudder comes off" trophy.Richard Kinnie won the "first out sailing and first out and boat covered" award.Marjorie Chapin and Greg Murphy were incharge of the spectator group.Joan Watson, Chris Kechriotis (Conner is driving), Laura Getchell our loyal support group.TOMORROW WE WILL TRY FOR THE FIRST RACE OF THE 2009 YEAR. SAME TIME - SAME PLACE. Wind prediction a little bit less and from the EAST. Don't bet on the prediction. Come and see what happens.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Fog on Saturday shut us out and to no wind closed out the other boats, but wind came up later and C scows were out with the Optimists.
Sunday turned around and brought brisk west wind with a little chop. We had 8 boats out for six races. Leah Ladley and Patrick Daniel sailing with us for the first time. Where were all the youth with the 4.7s? Were they at an Opti regatta? The 420 folks?? We will try to find out and report later.
Sunday’s races:
Alejandro Illera 2-1-1-4-1-1 = 10
Rob Krentel 1-2-2-1-2-2 = 10
Patrick Daniel 5-4-6-3-4-5 = 27
Jerry Beck 8-3-4-6-3-4 = 28
Leah Ladley 6-6-3-5-5-3 = 28 This was the Radial. Corrected time ate into Jerry twice.
Charlie Jensen 4-5-5-2-ns-ns= 34
Marc Solas 7-7-7-7-6-6 = 40
Sam Chapin 3-ns,etc = 48
Rob and Alejandro changed leads all morning and ended up tied but the break goes to Alej as he has more firsts.
Rob was the first out and got the marks set. He will be rewarded for that later.
There was a big contest for third. We did the corrected time thing for Leah in her radial and she took two places away from Jerry, which left them tied – they both has two 3s but Jerry had some fourths so he edges back. Patrick Daniel got them both by one place. Patrick was steered to us by Ray Laguna. He has signed up for a trial membership and will be back to sail with us again. We are looking for a boat for him and one for Marc Solas. More on that later.
Third place would have easily gone to Charlie J but he skipped out early to get the Xmas tree decorated and had to eat 9s for the last two races. Charles almost has Chutzpah glued up and if I can find the parts that go with it, we can have a new christening party for her. Maybe George Barton who originally brought her to us will come and sail with us.
Marc Solas has started beating boats and he didn’t swim at all. Now he wants to tack better and sail faster. The happiness from just being out sailing is starting to disappear.
Sam was just uncomfortable for a variety of reasons and packed it in after the first race. The wind was near my threshold as I don’t sit out as far as I did a year or two ago. I just didn’t get set up. Probably if I had gotten out a little before the first race and figured out the Cunningham and outhaul settings that I wanted to use, had the vang on and tacked a couple of times under the low boom. I sailed the first race without any Cunningham just because I was too busy sailing the boat to reach in and pull it on.
When the wind is up and we are bending the mast, the draft will move aft and forces begin to want to turn the boat over and less trying to pull you forward, i.e. everything gets harder to do.
So before the start you should get the outhaul and Cunningham set for the upwind leg. Have a good idea about where you want the vang. Then sail up to the start with the vang off. That will keep the leach soft when luffing to stop or slow the boat. In a crowded start you may have to sit and not be going anywhere. It is harder to do that if you have some vang set up. Then when you are ready to move, pull on the vang, pump the bow down with the tiller, lean in to heel the boat to leeward, hike out to flatten the boat and drive forward on a close reach to gain speed and then sheet in more and get close hauled and out in front at the start. I am so good at this, in typing it up.
When I left the club Sunday the High School Team was arriving, setting up tents and getting ready for the evening sail and night sail, games and food and stuff. Three boys and five girls and Leah Ladley. Robert L went home to feed the dog. I think high school sailing has turned around.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

NEWS RELEASE FROM LAKE EUSTIS SAILING CLUB

Fog and light wind shut down the Saturday racing at the Lake Eustis Sailing Club on Saturday December 20, 2008. C scows had a late afternoon scrimmage when the wind came up and the other sailors got busy with the holidays.
Brisk winds on Sunday with exciting racing gave a mixture of finishes in the MC scow class. Consistency payed off for Jon Pomerleau as he won the two race series with finishes of 2 and 5 and no big mistakes. Second was Texas visitor, Jack Kern, with 7 and 1 and third was Dave Moring with a 1 and 8.
In the Wayfarer fleet Jim McIntyre won both races with Jim Lingeman second and Mike Murto third.
Ray Laguna won both Flying Scot races with George Golder second and Randy Boekema third..
Alex Shafer won both C scow races with Richard Kinnie second and Othon Dominguez third.
The Laser fleet was tied after 6 races and the tie break went to Alejandro Illera with Rob Krentel second. Patrick Daniel was third and Leah Ladley was the first woman.
High School sailing continues irregularly during the holidays and then resumes regular practice Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.
The next Club racing is in two weeks and the next regatta is the 10th Annual Wayfarer regatta on February 6 to 8 followed by the George Washington Birthday Regatta on February 21 and 22.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Laser racing this weekend at usual time. 10 to 12 on the water both Saturday and Sunday. Wind will probably stay on the light side so you need to figure a little extra time to get out to the course. Multiple races, but not as many as when wind is up so you want to be early and not late.
Anybody that wants afternoon racing or off weekend racing speak up– there is a case to made for both and it would not take much to do it.
Did you want to know what has been going on and why you have not been flooded with e-mails? I was waiting for my correspondents to let me know what was going on around the area..
Dean Grimes reports that Ray Laguna and the Cal 22 gang (four on the boat) ended up 10th in the Cal 22 big races at Indian River this pat weekend. The main problem was the jib halyard parted and disappeared down the mast and left them with not enough sail power to dust everyone off. Maybe a little like the old sheet I had been using for 5 years that came apart when the wind was up a month ago. When we had the high school sailors here for their regatta, as protest committee I gave one of the teams average points for the race when his tiller extension broke off before the start. The high school official that was helping us complained mildly because they instruct the sailors to check the tiller extension, ringdings, halyards etc when they exchange boats and that those sort of accidents should be noted ahead. Or if Ray had high school coaching he would have changed that halyard last month. Ray and Dean will be back in the Flying Scot this weekend. If we had some races on off weekends we might pick them up sailing Lasers.
The cool Saturday that is just past had all the high school 420s (7) out sailing with coach Chris and then he kept them out for a good long practice. I sail a Laser out to middle of the lake, saw that they were working pretty hard and then got out of the way. Bob Getchell had his big deep sea fishing motor boat out with Jeannette Getchell driving. That was worth the trip– imagine that big smile.
The mystery Alan showed up with a revised version of his rotating tiller for Laser sailors that don’t like the tiller extension. He is Allen Edelberg form Apopka and has sailed with us twice, but we had lost rack of who he was. We will try to keep him coming because we have some other big boat sailors that want to sit in the middle of the boat and steer with one stick or a wheel.
On Sunday Aggie and Carlton Brown had the San Juan 21 down to try and work out the problem of trimming their new jib, mast rake, and spinnaker work.. We gave them a lot of Laser advice and not sure that it helped any. A Compact 16 complete with anchor on the bow, engine on the stern, reefed main, tricolor and VHF antenna on the mast head stopped by on a visit from Buzzard Beach. Sherry Magno came to sail. Yes, a Laser sailed again.
This Wednesday with a very light wind Tom Doyle, one of the big boat (44')sailors, had his MX -ray out – he looked fast particularly as it looked like next to no wind. Sherry Magno was advanced to Laser radial and had a good "magic" sail— boat moving along and no sign of wind on the water while she was sitting on the lee side and boat just moves along like magic.
Mary Anne Ward planned, but missed sailing with us-- again. We will get her yet, but it is a little bit of a drive over from
Cocoa, but remember you don’t have to have a crew and if the wind is up instead of talking some spectator into become a combatant, we just move down to the next smaller sail.
Leah Ladley tried to get in an extra sail in her Laser. She and Caroline are planning to sail with us on Saturday and Sunday. Wait till you see their Christmas card. I will pin it up on the Bulletin board even if it is of a 420 boat.
Patrick Daniel is planning to come and race with us on the weekend. Be nice to him so he will come often.

Monday, December 8, 2008



Max's trophy
We finished the Keenan Series last month. It was the races of September, October and November. Lasers had 66 races. There were 18 sailors not counting Randy Rae and the two Erics. Rob Krentel was the only one that sailed in all 66. We counted 60% of the races or 40 of the 66. There were five of us that races in 40 of the races. Rob,.Alejandro, Sam, Marc Solas and Charlie Yost. The rest took a big hit for the races that they missed— with 18 sailors, that is 19 points for each of the races up to 40 that they missed.
Some of the trophies were given out at the Christmas party and the rest will be passed out individually as I can find you. Next time we will try to have our own little get together after the series.
After 40 races Alejandro Illera was one point ahead of Rob!! Then way behind was Sam in third. Marc Solas as fourth and had his trophy award at the Christmas party by Frank Keenan who was there with his wife, daughter Candi Robb, and friend and old sailing supporter Jane Hartge.
Fifth was Charlie Yost who also gets the Second Place Gold Award for sailors over 80 years of age.
Sixth was Caroline Ladley who also picked up first woman and first youth. I rolled that into one trophy with the label.
Seventh was Ben Getchell who as the second youth. Eight was George Sola. George was pretty regular for a while and I need to hunt him up.
Ninth was Charlies Jensen who receive our Middle of Fleet award.
Tenth is Jerry Beck who will climb up now that he is sailing regularly.
Eleventh is Jennifer Burno, second woman, sailing some with the MCs and busy Saturdays with the Opti coach job.
Twelfth is Conner Kechriotis, he is third youth, won one race, sails with high school team and is down in the scoring only because just recently got his boat.
Thirteen is Coach Craig Yates with just a few races with us. Fourteen is Glenda Libby, just sailed the first weekend.
Fifteen is Alan, sailed with us twice – nice guy, good sailor but we can’t figure out where we got him.
Sixteen is Arlen Bensen on leave to library school in Tampa.
Seventeen is Tom Galasso, Rudy’s son and happy to have him back anytime.
Eighteen was Max Barten who has been busy busy this fall season, but is our young youth award at 11years and a great sailor.

The complete 66 races will be posted at the club for everyone to check out. I hope to have the next series posted regularly on the blog– http://eustislaser.blogspot.com
The winds varied across the central Florida sailing lakes with the Saturday noon races at Lake Eustis cancelled because of calm, but the afternoon racing at Lake Monroe goes on schedule. Lake Monroe Sunday racing was delayed because of the heavy winds early, but the Lake Monroe Sailing Association was able to get their annual Kettle Cup regatta off with twenty boats and raised $1400 for the Salvation Army. The Kettle Cup is named for the Salvation Army.
Results from the Kettle Cup:
Division Catalina 22
1 Mercury Rising---- Brad Ruffe
2 White Hawk----- Randy Pawlowski
3 Bangerang --------Al Pivonka
Division: Portsmouth 1 ( 9 boats)
1 Old Yellar --------Kyle Everly
2 PDQ2-------- Patrick Daniel
3 Sticky When Wet------ Joe Waters
4 Just Us----------- Carlton Brown
Division: Portsmouth 2 ( 7 boats)
1 Miss Fits ----------James Davis
2 Andiamo -----------John North
3 Show Me ----------Andy Forrest
4 Lough-Buoy -------Michael Loughlin .
http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000010
At the Lake Eustis Sailing Club this weekend with very very light wind on Saturday, the Laser fleet got in two slow races and the other fleet races were cancelled. On Sunday, brisk winds and cool temperatures made for exciting action.
On Sunday Ron Baerwitz won both races in the Flying Scot class. Randy Boekema was second and George Golder was third.
In the MC scow class Bob Cole was first, David Moring second and Jon Pomerleau was third.
The Wayfarer races were won by Jim Lingeman, second was Rudy Galasso and third was Jim McIntyre.
In combined weekend races for the Lasers the winner was Rob Krentel with Dave Chapin second, Sam Chapin third. Jennifer Burno was first woman and Caroline Chapin was first youth.
The calm winds of Saturday picked up to brisk in the afternoon for the Optimist pram and high school 420 clinics which will continue every Saturday. Next club racing is December 20 and 21st.
The Central Florida Yacht Club will have it’s annual beach Ball Regatta at Lake Fairview this coming weekend. Members participated this weekend at the Kettle Cup Regatta with Lake Monroe sailors.
The Sailing Club of Central Florida- Orlando has a number of it’s members sailing with Reinhard Schilp in Antigua. They will soon be starting another set of sailing lessons at Lake Baldwin.

Sunday, December 7, 2008



At the finish if you are coming in from the right, it is starboard tack and that is worth a boat lenght or a little more.


A picture Kelly took with his i phone from the committee boat Sunday 12-7-08. Dave Chapin in 91 and Rob Krentel almost beat him.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008


November 22 and 23, 2008 participation was down a little but we had a great weekend. Cool and windy on Saturday. Sam chickened out and went on Race Committee for a little different look. Rob had put the marks out. That worked well. Randy Rea came over to check out the windy conditions.
Watching from the committee boat 1) when the wind is up boat handling is different. 2) Faster. 3) more physical. 4) Randy is better. Starts were at the boat end favored and only one did Randy get challenged when Rob got underneath him. We had five out for Sunday, but Craig Yates had a capsize that torn loose the gooseneck and he was out of the last several races. Marc Solas was game. Sailed one race and decided he needed more practice on a calmer day.
Randy won six of the eight races. Arlen, Rob asked for a triangle course about half way through so we had that in your honor. Rob won one race and Alejandro won one, but Rob had a bunch of seconds and was ahead for the LESC members. I was really proud of Alejandro as he was sailing his full rig and giving Rob 30 pounds and maybe more to Randy. He had the vang sheeting bending the boom good and was sailing fast and low, and really smoking on the reaches. Randy didn’t bring the Eric’s, but they are coming back and are fixing up a boat for Eric Sr as Eric Jr already has one.
Saturday Charlies Jensen and Yost came by to see who was going out. Jensen is making arrangement to pick up Chutzpah to glue it back together and give us another boat. C. Yost is working on his stretches to get his muscles back in shape.
On Sunday we had seven for six races. Conner Kechriotis had his new boat put together and got out for the last five races with his new radial sail. In the second race he corrected out to second place (bumped Sam out of second). The third race he won outright. Then he dropped back to 5-5 and 4 to finish fourth for the day. When we get Caroline Ladley and Ben Getchell back our youth program should be ready to take off.
Jennifer Burno and Sam were looking at each other on a lot of the races and were the only ones once to figure out starting at the buoy end after the big wind shift. (Always check the line.) Jennifer should have won that race but sailed into a hole right at the finish line and Sam got across first. It doesn’t hurt to have a family member on the RC. Now that Jennifer is about to win races, no more "be nice to the lady" stuff.
Jerry Beck got up on Sunday. We usually see him on Saturday with the youth program, but he had Boy Scout camp out on Saturday. We were glad to see him and he got caught in all the wind shifts and holes that we had. Really tough to shift gears when you are just getting started again.
Marc Solas was out again, smiling and having a good time. He is sailing better and getting closer to everyone and we love it.
On Sunday Alejandro had a 1-1-2-3-3-1 and Rob had 2-4-3-4-1-2 and when we added the Saturday score Alejandro had 32 and Rob 33 after 14 races over the weekend. Wow! The next person is 35 points down.
Overall we had 9 sailors over the weekend plus Tom Doyle was sailing his MX - ray. That is the little red flat boat that is in the Northeast corner of the club. It rates a little faster than a Laser, has an unstayed mast, cat rig, and a spinnaker. Tom is a big boat sailor converting to a little thing. He has been invited to come and race with us – he is practicing his boat handling. He has also been invited to do the Laser thing with us.
Then Sunday afternoon Sherry Magno, who has been skippering big boats in the Virgin Islands for a number of years, was out in a 4.7 getting used to steering with a little stick at the back of the boat. She had a good time and is coming back for more.
Vince Renzoni visited late Saturday. He has a Laser down at Lake Placid and has been sailing it in preparation to joining and sailing with us.
Ex-mayor and soon to be ex- Eustis commissioner Dr. Jim Rotella dodged a Laser sail and ended up crewing for Richard Kinnie on Saturday in the C scow. When the new commission takes over he will have a little more time and we will get him on days the C scows aren’t sailing. He is another that need converting from big boat sailing to steering with a stick and leaning out to balance the boat. It is a lot easier to move the other way– little boat to big boat.

Sunday, November 23, 2008


Club racing at Lake Esutis...

Dear Lake Eustis Sailing Club Members,
Our local newspapers are trying to get our news in. The Daily Commercial got the two weeks ago story in and the Lake edition of the Sentinel put in this past weeks news.
We appreciate their help.
This is a tough time for newspapers to find their way, but we need them for local news. TV and internet do well for national and international– but then you have to sit through the ads and the come on stuff. With the paper - read the first paragraph and get a summary. If you want all the details read on or pass to the next section. Then there is the funnies, editorial, cartoon and local ads.
Don’t forget to enjoy the local paper and look for your name or your neighbors.
This past weekend.
Sailors of the Lake Eustis Sailing Club had a variety of winds over the weekend, with high winds on Saturday and light shifty winds on Sunday. Dave Moring mastered both conditions with two wins in the two races on Saturday sailing the C scow, a 20 foot boat and winning the two races on Sunday in the 16 foot MC scow. Second place on Saturday in the C scow was Scott Tillema and Don Fancher was third.
The Saturday MC scow races were won by Geoff Moehl. John Houck was second and David Leather was third.
The MC races on Sunday were both won by Dave Moring. Second was Don Houck and third was Robert Newland .
Sunday Flying Scot races were won by Ray Laguna and second was Randy Boekema.
The Wayfarer races on Sunday were won by James McIntyre, second was Ted Benedict and third was Jim Lingeman.
In the Laser class Randy Rea of Crystal River won six of the eight races on Saturday, but didn’t race on Sunday so he dropped back to third for the weekend. Alejandro Illera won big enough on Sunday to put him ahead for the weekend with Robb Krentel in second. Jennifer Bruno was the first woman and Conner Kechriotis was the first youth.
Next club races will be in two weeks. The Optimist pram sailing will continue on Saturday morning and afternoon. The high school sailing continues on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.

Friday, November 21, 2008



These are some of the entries in the T shirt contest. Actually I have ordered some of the "big wave", can you guess which one that is?

Design one to enter!!!



Maybe this is the one that Arlen wanted.


Have you gybed this way? Another T shirt entry.


Maybe too many colors for a T shirt.


Another T shirt entry.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

This is an unusually cool day in November and the bunch of people invited to sail Lasers this afternoon all chickened out. The high school guys-- five of them -- had a good workout and Sam sailed a little. None of the girls showed up-- basketball for the Ladelys. Just too bad about the rest of you.
Host club members top the entries in the South East Regional Championships of the MC Scows and the Melges 17 scows at the Lake Eustis Sailing Club this past weekend. The South East Region runs from Texas to North Carolina but the regatta is "open", so boats from Michigan and Wisconsin were also present in the 37 boats entered.
First place in the MC scows was David Moring of Ocala but a LESC member. Second place was Jon Pomerleau of Winter Park, but a LESC member. Third place was Eric Oppen of Pewaukee, Wisconsin. Mark Marenokos from Charleston, South Carolina was the first "master" ( over 50) and the eleventh overall. The first "grand master" (over 60) was Lenny Krancheck of Charleston. Jack Kern from Texas was the first "mega master" (over 70) and fourth over all. Ben Getchell of Eustis was the first youth and seventeenth over all.
In the Melges 17 scow races Mary Ann Ward of Cocoa Beach and LESC member was first with crew, Ross Blair. She grew up sailing on Lake Eustis as Mary Ann Erban. Second was Jim Wilgard of Glenn Lake, Michigan with crew, Brian McMurray. Third was Benjamin Birver of Pewaukee, Wisconsin with crew, Sprink Drake.
High winds and waves on Saturday with the arrival of the cold front caused cancellation of the third race with only a few capsizes.
Next weekend will see the regular club racing on MC scows, Flying Scots, Wayfarers, and Lasers with Optimist Pram classes for youth and 420 sailing for high school teams on Saturday.

Friday, November 14, 2008


This is the Blog for the Lake Eustis Laser Fleet-- that is the sailboat that is most popular worldwide for youth, women and men, six contents and 122 countries.

We sail and race on Lake Eustis at Lake Eustis Sailing Club in Eustis, Florida. Check the LESC web site for more detailed information.

We are looking for more Laser sailors and boats to race with us. We usually have 5 to 12 boats racing with us and sailors from 10 to 80 years of age. Laser Full rig, radial and 4.7 are sailed and we try to do the Portsmouth corrected time thing.
If you want to sail with us get in touch or show up.
I will try to keep the race results posted .
Sam
11-15-08 The MC regatta is going on, but Sam got Dean Parsons, a big boat sailor from Maine, out on 4.7 and getting him to use the tiller extension and to turn forward in tacks. Lots of fun. Wind came up in the afternoon. Blew the third race of the MCs out. While Jerry Beck and Sam took turns planing the 4.7 around the Optis and 420s had a great sail. If you didn't come you missed a lot of excitement.