Lasers December 12 and 13. First let me dispose of Jennifer. The first woman and what a great job she did with the first three races. She was sailing the full rig and the Kelley boat (no fancy rigging help) and it was not a light wind day. Not bad first race, a third and ahead of Patrick, Sam, and Bill. But the second race, while Alejandro and Rob went over to the left looking for wind she went to the strip of dark water way off to the right. She got into it first and rode if up to the mark and downwind couldn’t be caught. The only first place we could get away from Rob and Alejandro.
Then she went back to club and got an MC , just missed the time limit for the first race start. (I think that you have to start within four minutes of the starting "gun" to be counted in the race. That keeps you out of the next start in a 5 minute sequence thing.) But she got in the second race. Was able to have a lot of fun with a turn over and boats pushing each other. Ended up just behind Commodore June Howells – good thing because June was looking for a first place call. So she got it. First Commodore and First Woman.
So as far as I know, that is first time we have had people sail with both fleets. Now you could really do it if you would give up some Laser races, have someone put the Laser away for you and have the MC ready. That would require a Team. Sort of a negative for single handed boats.
Of course we had a few years ago, the Opti advanced folks sailing with us and then at 1 PM they had the Opti class and got a lot of sailing in on Saturday. Now we have the advanced Opti in the AM. .
Back to the ordinary.. Summary of the weekend. 8 sailors and 12 races. Wind up with holes and shifts.
Alejandro Illera 1-1-1-3-1-2+2-3-1-1-1-2 19
Rob Krentel 3-3-2-1-2-1+1-2-2-2-2-1 22
Patrick Daniel 4-2-3-2-5-3+4-5-4-4-5-4 45
Marc Solal 5-4-5-4-4-5+6-6-7-5-nf-ns 64
Bill Jackson 6-6-6-6-6-6+7-7-3-6-4-5 67
Sam Chapin 42+5-4-6-4-3-3 67
Jerry Beck 2-5-4-6-3-4+48 72
Jennifer Jones 42+3-1-5-ns-ns-ns 75
Let me start at the top with Alejandro. Sailing fast most of the time. Flat, hiking hard. Look around at who is flattest going up wind, and then who is rolled over to windward most going downwind. On Sunday in the gusts going up wind, he had the super vang on, eases the sail out a little, stays flat and accelerate. You have to practice that a little. You need to know it may happen, so you have the super vang on. You see the gust coming and are ready for it.
Rob is right there behind or ahead of Alejandro. He has most of the second places cornered. On Sunday they were tied on points, but Rob was already down 3 from Saturday. Maybe better transitions going down wind because that is when Alejandro picks up anyone ahead of him.
Patrick really has his best day Saturday with two second places. That is really good for us because it gives us another that could win any race.
Marc Solal sailed better. Had some good races. Better than the scores look . Sam got past he and Patrick, when they were hooked up going downwind. When you get two boat next to each other going down wind, you can only go as fast as the slowest. One gets a little head and the guy behind takes his wind. That is why you see Alejandro and Rob going back and forth dodging each other or going for the inside.
Jerry Beck had a good day Saturday. And he had won those races the week before. Started off with a second place between Alejandro and Rob. But he got his Xmas decorations up on Sunday and took a hit on the scores for the weekend. In the series we just count 60% so the two firsts will be there with the second.
Bill Jackson was a wonder– a third and fourth on Sunday. Catching on quick, but he will be on his way back to Mississippi. You can see his art on billjackson.net, Bil Jackson, Mississippi Artist.
We did the trophies at noon on Sunday.
We voted to do the "fun sail" on New Years Day with the "big boats". No one knows what the fun sail is — any way it won’t count in the next series.
Jennifer wants to know what we are doing this coming weekend.
More about that stuff and the FULL MOON SAIL on December 31.
Some people will be sailing Tuesday afternoon 3 to 5.

December 5-6, 2009

It was a really great weekend for the Laser group.
First let me dispose of the 420 story.. Craig Yates brought an Opti student out (the only one of his class that came) as crew on the 420. Our solid RC took times and Craig and crew corrected out to 1-4-6-3-1-6 finishes. They won two races and finished one point ahead of Luke Yates. (Luke had turned over and took a big hit in the first race.) Craig is happy to beat the kid, as he doesn’t do that much.
Now with that family affair taken care of and while we are happy to do Portsmouth for anyone that wants to come and sail with us, we don’t need to count them in the Laser group... especially if they are doing a lot of first places.
Next let me put down just the Sunday scores
Alejandro Illera 1-2-1-4-4 = 12
Sam Chapin 3-1-3-3-2 = 12
Jerry Beck 2-4-.5-1-1 =13
Rob Krentel 4-3-3-2-3 = 14
Marc Solal 5-4-5-5-5 = 24
Note that we had four boats with in 2 points after 5 races. And regular racing is paying off for Jerry beck with is two wins.
Now let me put together the Saturday and Sunday races. Note that Marc Solal got a second place after leading until just the finish. So all our regulars are moving up.
Alejandro takes a big hit for missing Saturday.
Rob sailed into some big holes, but was always close. He won Saturday and if I had left Craig in the scoring he and Sam would be tied for the weekend.
Sam Chapin 2-3-1-2-2-1+3-1-3-3-2 = 23
Rob Krentel 1-2-2-1-1-3+4-3-2-2-3 =24
Jerry Beck Ns-5-5-3-5-4+2-4-5-1-1=41
Alejandro Illera 36+1-2-1-4-4=48
Marc Solal Ns-4-4-5-5-2+5-5-4-5-5=49
Luke Yates Ns-1-3-4-3-5+30 =52
Luke yates did a terrific job sailing the full rig in a lot of wind. Won the second race.
Seth Bahr has been sailing with us during the week and we expect the whole High School bunch will be back soon doing 420s and Lasers.
Jim Rotella got an hour in sailing the Laser on Sunday afternoon – he is getting ready to join us.
Tom Doyle is back with his MX ray. Maybe we can get him racing it with us.

The Lasers had a great weekend with nine boats on Saturday and eight on Sunday. Before I try to get all the scores down let me remind you to check the Laser Bulletin board because I spent a lot of time getting the map of the world up. There are push pin for many of the Laser racing fleets around the world.. I didn’t get all the ones in Europe, because there is not enough room on the map for them. Note all the fleets in Africa. The little countries just south of Irak. Pakistan has a fleet as well as India. Do they have a regatta with Pakistan and India sailing against each other? Guam and Tahiti. The 2004 list is posted in the corners so you can look up your favorite country. Probably always a Laser sailing 24/7 around the world. Winter in Canada, where it all started, and it is Summer in Australia and New Zealand.
Our races on Saturday were postponed till 10:30 so Don Browning and June Howells could present awards to Senator Carey Baker and Alan Hayes for their help in saving us money on the water run off problem.
Week end scores:
Alejandro Illera 4-1- 2-1 + 1-2-2-1-1-1 16
Rob Krentel 2-2-1-2 + 2-1-1-2-2-2 17
Sam Chapin 1-3-3-4+ 3-sn-etc 59
Patrick Daniel 3-6-4-3+ 7-3-sn -etc 62
Seth Behr 6-5-6-6+ 4-6-3-ns-etc 63
Dean Grimes Ns-etc +ns-5-4-3-3-3 67
Jerry Beck 7-4-5-5+ 5-7-ns-etc 69
Marc Solal 8-7-8-7+6-4-ns-etc 74
Leah Ladley 5-8-7-ns+ns-etc 84
Chris DePriest 9-9-9-8+ ns-etc 89
Let me start with Chris DePriest the model boat sailor that has moved into Lasers with the help of Kim Kelley, one of our favorite helpers. Chris will be moving up closer to the starting line and if we can get the starting line a little closer to square to the wind, he will be starting with us. Good work Chris and we saw Max and Robin at the club on Saturday, but didn’t have a chance to visit.
Another Chris, Chris Laffin from Canada, is spending the Winter in Mt. Dora. He will be sailing Lasers with us. He has a Contender up in the frozen country. The Contender as I remember, came out about the same time the Laser did and was faster in the Tea Cup races, but it has a big rig and a trapeze for a singlehander. That makes it a pretty hard boat to sail–sooo look out for Chris 2.
Leah is down at the bottom of the list, but that is just because she didn’t sail with us Sunday. She knocked off two places on corrected time on Saturday. Keep the radials coming.
Marc Solal was just getting to those guys on Sunday when his hiking strap stitching came out. He had fourth and it was his weather. Too bad Marc, but with the winter we have a little more wind. Your day will come again.
Jerry Beck did well and he has been training with Alejandro so he will be climbing the ladder. I think he was having trouble with the big header gusts that tend to drop you in the water from the full hiked out position. Keep looking for those gusts. They tend to be the gusts that are moving in from windward and ahead, so be ready to bear off a little as they come in.
Dean Grimes was back with us. Missed the first race Sunday, but hung in for all the others and then went out to check on his Flying Scot friends after the Laser races. Good job getting around Dean. He has been crewing on Scots plus. He plans to continue the Scots and work us in also.
Seth Behr had the full rig up and really doing a great job with it. He knocking at the door of higher spots in the fleet and handled the wind with full rig on Sunday. I spoke with Mama Behr on Sunday and Seth has an older brother that we might be adding to the group.
Patrick Daniel had a bunch of third places on Saturday and Sunday. The death roll on Sunday with mast in the mud did him in. We are reminded that it is not a bad idea to knot the sheet on a windy day so that the boom can’t go out more than 80 degrees to the boat. Put on a little vang so boom is maybe perpendicular to the mast. Then if the boat start to roll to windward turn toward the sail with the rudder. The rudder is in the water and will try to turn the boat upright and give you half a chance to move across the boat and save a swim. Watch Alejandro going downwind, but it takes a lot of swimming to know just where the edge is.
Sam is sorry he is too damn old to enjoy all the wind– and besides Alejandro and Rob both got by me in that first race. I lead all the way except at the finish. How about a trophy for that guy that gets to the leeward mark first.
Rob won the series on Saturday and when he should have beat up on the little guy with the wind up, Alejandro outfoxed him. Notice that after 10 races of the week end they were one point apart. The next people were 40 points behind.
Sailing Tuesday and Wednesday 3 to 5 PM...

PORTSMOUTH AND LASERS

..
Portsmouth and Laser weekend. October 10-11, 2009 Portsmouth folks, Ron Stevenot sailing the Omega solo (his regular crew went camping) and his auxiliary crew, Peggy, is holding out for a bigger boat, and Jeffery Hayden sailing a Sunfish only sailed on Saturday.

I threw them in with the Lasers with the corrected time thing and Ron came from 11th to second place in the first race and Jeffery jumped from 8 to 5th. After that they only jumped one or two places in the next three races. So after the four races were put together Ron was 8th and Jeffery 9th.

So we will just call Ron first Portsmouth sailing the Omega and Jeffery second sailing the Sunfish. Good work both of you. As noted above, Peggy Stevenot is pulling for a big boat– like a Flying Scot.

After the races Jeffery switched off with his dad into the Laser. He enjoyed sailing that boat with
the full rig. Smart fellow Jeffery.

Now let us see if you can figure out the Laser scoring sheet for the weekend?
Alejandro Illera 1-3-1-3+1-2-1-1 = 13
Rob Krentel 2-5-2-2+2-1-2-2 = 18
Sam Chapin 5-1-3-5+4-3-4-3 = 28
Marc Solal 9-8-8-8+3-4-3-4 = 47
Luke Yates 3-2-4-1+ 40 =50
Charles Jensen 4-4-6-7+ 40 = 61
Patrick Daniel 7-6-7-4+ 40 = 64
Steve Hayden 6-7-5-6+ 40 = 64
Cameron Smith 10-9-10-10+40 = 79

Let’s start at the top this week. Alejandro won both days. He was never out of the hunt. Always fast downwind. Watch what he is doing and let us get more people going that fast. – flat and bow down going up wind – downwind , by the lee big time, sit way forward and strong windward heel (away from the sail). Remember to save the death roll, steer toward the boom.

Rob was Alejandro’s challenge all weekend. He was always way out there with him and the only one to beat him regularly.

Marc Solal is one of our faithful four that sailed on Sunday. He had a slow day on Saturday, but Sunday he was ahead of Sam a lot of the time. He and Sam were swapping 3rd and 4th while the other two were out in front going for first. The 3rd and 4th guys ended up tied. Sam had the last third and put himself ahead. There has to be some advantage of being the score keeper.

Luke Yates. We were all glad he had something else to do on Sunday. On Saturday he was always with us at the windward mark and smart and fast going downwind.. That is the way he won the last race on Saturday. Luke, just send your dad. next time.

Charlie Jensen came along on Saturday and brought the birthday girl to fill in on RC. Not Sunday, they had family duties, but we are glad to have them anytime they can make it. I still remember the regatta when on a down wind finish, I was trying to blanket Glenda and just cross the finissh line ahead, so I could win. Glenda was sailing off to the side to avoid my blanket and neither of us saw Charlie cross the finish line for the win, while we were chasing each other. Glenda beat me, too.

Patrick Daniel was back with us just like he said he would be. Maybe we should let him win one so he would come more often, but he got a fourth in the last race Saturday. Probably just warming up in the first three.

Steve Hayden had brought Jeffery out with the Sunfish two weeks ago and Steve had sailed a Laser and given Alejandro a run for his money. So this Saturday I thought I gave him a better sail, and not the tired old one with the big patches. Well, I don’t know what happened, but maybe I will start using that old patched sail myself.

Jeffery is sailing with the Lake Monroe Sailing Association Sunfish group. You can see his finishes on centralfloridasailing.blogspot.com . Jeffery’s grand father Fisk Hayden had Andy Forest out sailing a Lightning on Saturday. Fisk is a member here, keeps a Lightning here, and crews some times for Forest on his Precision 21 at Lake Monroe. You can check on their race results on the same blogspot along with our members Aggie and Carlton Brown sailing their SJ 21.

Cameron Smith was the last on the Laser list. Cameron is small and just getting started and did a great job with the full rig and on Saturday we did have some strong winds. Well, look out folks, Luke is small and maybe just getting stated.. That makes two of them and then there is Ben.

AND MANY Thanks to Mary Jensen for stepping in to help with the RC when we needed it. Of course thanks to Joan Bryant who hangs in with us all the time.

Oh yes, and thank you Marjorie Chapin for coming back on Sunday.

We missed all the fun at Ferran Park with the Folk Festival – and the big Saturday afternoon storm. Will try again to show the boat off, when they have the next big event at the park.

NOW THERE WILL BE NO MORE SAILING UNTIL TOMORROW EVENING (Wednesday)
AND THEN THURSDAY EVENING.. What about the free week end coming up– who wants a picnic?
..

Crazy weekend. September 26-27, 2009

It was another crazy week end! You folks that missed Saturday– maybe you were smart, but we got in three races in the time frame of 11 to 12. Then Sunday we got our races in before the big blow, rain, thunder and stuff..

We missed the high school sailors that said they were coming on Sunday– but haven’t heard boo from them about the sailing at Davis Island either.

I will try to get all the races down here
Alejandro Illera 1-1-1+ 1-1-1-3-2-1 =12
Rob Krentel 2-4-3+ 3-3-3-2-3-2=26
Steve Hayden nc 24 + 2-2-2-1-1-3=35
Marc Solal nc 24 + 4-4-4-4-4-4=53
Sam chapin 3-3-2+ nc 48 =57
Luke Yates 4-2-5+ nc 48 =62
Max Barten 5-5-4+ nc 48 =64
Then we had Ron Stevenot and grand daughter in Omega on both days. On Saturday he finished 6-6-6 and corrected out to 5-2-5. Note he corrected into second place in the second race. Then on Sunday he corrected into 5-4-4-4-4-5. I didn’t stick those corrected times into the Laser scores above because we are two separate operations as well as one. If we mixed everyone together then he would be 4th out of nine boats for the weekend..
Ron has been invited to head up a group of Portsmouth -(Jim Orth and Charles Manico and Carlton Brown take note.) But I think he is going to try a Wayfarer and a Scot at the present time.

Jeffery Hayden was our 8th competitor in his new shinny Sunfish. His dad, Steve Hayden, was going to sail along and help him in his first race, but Dad got caught up in the battle with Alejandro. Jeffery did fine without him and worked himself up to a fourth on corrected time in the last race. So I think he did better without much help. Sailing in more wind than he is used to. Steve, if you can find Derrick Fries’s book on Sunfish sailing, he has a lot of information on position of the goose neck in different winds. That would be for when Jeffery gets a little more confidence and sits out a little more – the old sail the boat flat stuff..

Max Barten was back with us and had grown a foot, carried his skate board so he won’t have to walk long distances. He picked off Luke in that lst race Saturday– but sure picked a miserable day to start sailing with us again. Max and Luke were our Free Style winners from last years contest. We need to do that again.

Luke Yates can do it. See that second place in the second race. He has been getting all the "Puffer" practice.

Mark Solal is back from Italy where he has been telling them how to fix their mini electronics. Notice he has moved into fourth place.

Steve Hayden is our Lightning sailor and his dad come over with his motor boat to check on us but was a little late to see the action. We hope they all come back again, often.

Rob Krentel was always right with Alejandro or right ahead of him. You look at the scores and you might not think so, but he is the one that has been pushing the little aggressor.. They both are busy changing sails and tweaking the boats.

Alejandro Illera has been making money on working the downwind stuff. We will get Ben Getchell back sailing with him and see if that slows him up. In the mean time the rest of us can do what he does– heel more, transitions more, sail hotter angles downwind. Since the Kurt Taulbee clinic, he has been sailing lower and faster going upwind too.

Now don’t forget Wednesday evening.

Don’t forget the catamaran regatta this weekend. A good chance for the Lasers to sail out and cheer our entry, A cat Richard Kinnie, when he sails around the windward mark.. Look out at the other end of the course, because they will be continually finishing and starting various classes. It is a really slick operation, if you have not seen it.

Laser racing again in two weeks.

It was a great Laser sailing weekend. Light wind Saturday, but we got 5 races in and Rob was able to corner Ben. Sunday had great wind, just short of white caps and from the west with cop in our area of sailing. Then the wind came up some more with rain and then faded off and left the bumpy water to deal with.

Patrick Daniel was back with us. Cameron Smith joined in for the first time on Sunday. Luke Yates gave up his spot on the Laser to Cameron and loaded a 420 with Opti kids that came on the wrong time or place or something. It is hard to keep up with the Opti switches of day, time and place.

The weekend results:
Rob Krentel 1-1-2-3-1+2-2-1-1-3-2-1 = 20
Alejandro Illera 2-4-5-4-5+1-1-2-2-1-1-2= 30
Sam Chapin 6-5-3-1-3+3-3-3-3-2-3-4 = 39
Patrick Daniel 5-3-4-5-4+4-4-4-4-4-5-3 = 49
Marc Solal 7-9-6-6-6+5-5-5-5-5-4-5= 68
Ben Getchell 3-2-1-2-2+ nc (70) = 80
The Browns (San Juan) 4-6-9-7-7+nc(70)= 103
Cameron Smith 8-8-7-8-ns+ nc (70)= 110
Luke Yates (420) nf-7-8-9-ns+ nc (70)=112

The finishes are by corrected times and results in a little juggling - like the Browns jumped up to 4th in that first race Saturday.

Rob won Saturday by enough of a margin that Alejandro’s wins on Sunday didn’t jump him ahead as we head down the first series of fall races.

Alejandro, our light weight, won the windier day with the full rig. Aren’t you big guys ashamed of yourselves? Did you notice that he was not pointing up with the rest of us, but sailing fast to the next shift and increasing the separation. Was that some stuff from the Curt Taulbee clinic? If you don’t know about separation, ask at a North U Wednesday night session.

We had Ben held to one first place on Saturday and second overall, but then he missed the Sunday races and that drops him to 6th for the weekend.

Sam managed to win the 4th race on Saturday sailing the his old red boat. He was able to steal the pin end of the line on a left shift and crossed the fleet. It was nice to be out in front where you can tack on all the shifts. It helps to have Ben covering and holding back Alejandro so the run is not so hectic. Thanks Ben.

Patrick Daniel is back from the big boat sailing. He says he will be sailing with us most of the winter. He had a third on both Saturday and Sunday and will be able to challenge the top.

Marc Solal is picking off some people and has moved out of the "always last" position. We are giving him a lot of hugs and advice. So look out we will be looking for someone else to be last.

Well, Cameron Smith was the last, but that was just the first time sailing with us and he did a great job and with the full sail.

Carlton and Aggie Brown sailed the San Juan 21 with us and ended up sixth. Not bad for first time out and crazy wind on Saturday. They will continue to show up on Wednesday and during the week.

Luke Yates filled in as sailing instructor with the two or three crew members. They had come to sail Optis. Luke gave them a lot of Sailor Talk they would not have had in the little boats– so good work Luke.

Comments on the sailing conditions at on howtosailthelaser.bogspot.com.

It was a tough weekend for the other fleets. Maybe the no sailing last weekend put them off, but the MC only had 9 out on Saturday. We had 9 in our races (counting the 420 and the San Juan, not really fair) but then on Sunday they had 10 and we only had 5.

The Mcs had good racing both days. The Scots suffered a lot with only Ray Laguna sailing Saturday. Did you notice that was really Laser sailing with Ray at the helm and Glenda Libby the spinnaker girl. Then on Sunday George Golder and Chris Erichsen sailed both races and swapped first and second. Ray was off pistol shooting or something else.

Wayfarers suffered on both days with Jim L and Mike M sailing in the first race Saturday and then coming in during the second race due to the light wind. On Sunday they had three boats out, but when the rain and increased wind came in, Jim and Mike came in an left Mike Tighe out to sail both races by himself. Jim and Mike M both have had enough experience that when that little rain storm came in, they figure it was time to get in before things got worse. The experienced mind at work. Too bad, because it turned out to be a nice day.

Comments on Fleet Building take up several days last week on howtosailthelaser.blogspot.com

Next racing in two weeks. We are still doing Wednesday evenings, Pizza and North U. Will try to have marks out and practice race for those that want it . Sun is going down about ten minutes earlier every night as the days get shorter.

MEMORIAL DAY REGATTA

This is out of place. It shoud have been in just ahead of the Wednesday night thing.

Labor Day Regatta report. September 5 and 6, 2009. Lasers were the only ones that got races in because of the light wind. Two races Saturday and Four on Sunday. The other classes did not have any races and just went home after Sunday. They didn’t have any trophy stuff, so we will do something later when the trophy maker catches up with his other work.

Ben Getchell 1-1+1-1-1-1 6 First place. First Youth. First High school sailor.
Alejandro Illera 2-2+2-3-2-4 15 Second Place. First adult.
Rob Krentel 3-3+3-2-3-2 16 Third Place First heavy weight.
Sam Chapin 4-4+4-4-5-5 26 Fourth Place First Golden Oldie
Marc Solal 5-5+6-5-6-6 33 Fifth Place First Frenchman
Seth Behr ns-ns+5-6-4-3 34 Sixth Place First to improve in almost every race.
Craig Yates ns-ns+ns-7-4-ns 43 Seventh Place First in the hearts of the others.

First let me start with Craig Kiwi Yates, high school coach, boat repair artist, etc. We are so happy to see him come and be the seventh boat. He sailed the Kelly boat without all the fancy stuff to adjust. He did a fourth in the third race on Sunday just ahead of Sam and then went home so Sam couldn’t get even. He dropped to the bottom of the list because he missed four of six races. He also made all the motor boat waves on Saturday driving around in the coach boat.

Did you notice that we had two fourth places in third race on Sunday. That is the way the RC reported it and we don’t argue with the RC.

Seth Behr, high school sailor, got out with us on Sunday and marched right up the ladder with a third place in the fourth race. Good work Seth. Seth found the old red Laser (first at LESC-- 35 years ago.) of Ford Matthews in a neighbor’s back yard. He was smart not to buy it, but Sam did get it and trying to get it in shape to sail a little. A lot of work and some expense to get an old soft boat, but historic piece. Vera, ask Jane if she remembers him.

Marc Solal, our big guy, was up in the pack going up wind and losing going down wind or he would have had a good race someplace. The wind will increase Marc. Keep coming.

Rob Krentel beat Alejandro out on Sunday but lost on the two races on Saturday. The duel continues.

Alejandro Illera picked off Rob by one point after six races. Not much of a margin, but then Alejandro has a great patch on the side of his boat and not that big hole.

Ben Getchell put together his light weight, light winds, great tacking, aggressive sailing, good
change of gears, and lots of good luck to sail away with the week end.

Let me make a special note. I was told by observers from shore that Ben’s roll tacks were illegal.— well yes if you read rule 42 in the rule book ,you might think so, but— they match the roll tacks that are in Steve Cockerel’s instructional DVD. Steve was the World Laser Master Champion a few year ago when they had the races in South Korea. His throw away race was a second place with 90 or so boats in the races.

Cabarete in the Dominican Republic teaches similar roll tacks and is training ground for many Olympic Laser sailors. Ari Bashire of Cabarete recently placed well in the Worlds Laser Master Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia and he was not flagged for any 42 rules. The web site publishes all the Protests and Rule 42 calls.

Interesting to look at that. All the rule 42 stuff was for rocking or pumping, not tacking or gybing.

Paul Goodison who won the Olympic gold medal in China and the recent World Laser Championship in Halifax rolls that way and I can show you pictures of him doing it in his instructional book.

The ads for the Cabarete DVD showed roll gybe with boat coming out of gybe with a lot os speed. The Laser blog "Proper Course" called them on it and referred it to the Laser judging committee that reviewed it an said that it was legal because the roll was induced to make the boat turn and it was not the sailors fault that the boat went faster.

In the Athens Olympic DVD that we had at LESC and which has been borrowed and not returned
you could see, if it was to be returned, the gold medal winner Robert Scheidt sailing down wind doing transitions ( broad reach to by the lee and back again) going around waves that he was catching up to and passing. Each turn had a good heel and straighten to make the boat turn and the judge boat following him just follows along.

My conclusion is that currently the Lasers can be radically heeled to induce turning and it is disregarded that it makes the boat go faster.

Another factor that may have come up this weekend is multiple roll tacks without substantial change in wind direction. I was out both days and especially on Sunday the wind was all over the place. I don’t think I have ever seen so many funny big and little shifts and up and downs.

General advice for light wind is to roll tack and rock (repeated rock is forbidden) and then sit quiet and forward and to leeward quietly so not to disturb the wind flow across the sail. The old guy can not roll tack and then get forward and to leeward without wobbling the boat all over the place and then it is time to roll tack again, but he is sitting up on the centerboard behind the mast. Forget it – Ben did a great job of doing all that stuff.

We will just have to get EVEN when the wind comes up a little or a lot.

Now I should tell you about our left handed starting line, the strange mysterious opposing down drafts, the down wind start— but that later.

Informal racing (all boats welcome now that you folks are sailing again) this WEDNESDAY 5 to 7 with second part of "Morning Light" at 7 to 8.

Up coming Portsmouth fleet racing news.

WEDNESDAY EVENING AND THE P FLEET

I don't know what is happening to this crazy Portsmouth thing. Ray Laguna wants to form a Portsmouth Fleet. Like we don't have one. Hey, what has Sam been doing for the past 3 years??

Then it looks like the Carlton and Aggie Brown with the San Juan 21 are the only ones really interested. They have the boat is the water and ready to go but not wind and no RC. Then they are off to check on grand babies-- that's OK, there is no wind and no RC anyway. Ray knows that the wind will be bad so he is off firing his pistol with gun group.

Now Jim Orth with the Lido wants to sail P. Ron Stevenot (new member) the granddaughter and the Omega want to sail P. Charles Mancino and the Precision 15 think that racing P would be a step up from single cruising. Steve Hayden (the lightening guy) will send the little fellow out in the Sunfish with the Lasers.

Now Wednesday evening, the folks that started all this, Carlton and Aggie Brown show up with Kevin Somebody that wants to join LESC and race his Oday Day Sailor. That is another P boat.

Now that is great, right. New members, growing new fleet-- but then they all get in Lasers. Carleton Brown, Aggie Brown, Kevin got emergency call and couldn't stay, Kim Kelley (full rig is a fair amount of wind), DENNIS OLDHAM, (RETIRED AND RUNNING OUT OF THINGS TO DO-- ask him about the wind, Darcy Jensen (one of our regulars and has to go home to study CALCULUS. I am glade I don't go to high school these days.) Luke Yates in Laser and part of time with the neighbor kid on the bow. Sasha had the Opti out. Craig Yates brought his new/old Phantom (like a biggish Sunfish)out and Darcy sailed it some.

Gosh, if those P guys would just sail Lasers it would save a lot of fuss.

The Pizza Lady came through. We saw the rest of the "Morning Light". They made it to Hawaii, but didn't win. Sam is glad he doesn't have a 52 foot boat and can sail and then go home for dinner and TV. Luke want to do the Morning Light trip and be the guy they hoist to the top of the mast to see if they can see Hawaii yet.

Next week it is back to North U and we will try to get the marks out earlier to have some race starts if any of the P fleet guys want to sail Lasers again.

Any way it was a lot of fun and sunset is about 7:28 now.

WEDNESDAY EVENING

Wednesday evening (8-25-09) there was a bunch of boats out. Dennis Oldham sat with the Pizza Lady– talked about sailing a Laser – but then was not sure about the weather. We had 6 Lasers, A cat, 420 and Puffer out with Leah Ladley, Chris, Kim Kelley, Sherry Magno, Nicole Dormand, Darcy Jensen, Melanie Ladley, Craig and Luke and Sasha Yates all out in that nice sailing breeze from the southeast until the dark clouds came rolling in from up the hill at Eustis. How did you know about that Dennis?
The wind came up with some thunder and everyone sailing back to club. Chris did a great job luffing to windward and getting home. Sam was watching him from the motor boat. He was doing pretty well, so when Sherry turned over he went down to help her. Then the wind really came up. And then the rain. Then the shore disappeared.
Sam got Sherry in the motorboat. That safety ladder really works great. We kept the Laser on its side holding the mast and sail across the boat. Lots of rain, lots of wind, the anchor down and waiting for it all to blow over. That took about 20 minutes. Then when we could see shore again the wind had rotated about 30 degrees to the right. We still had thunder, so motored in slowly with Laser on its side next to the motorboat.
Sam sailed and paddled the Laser in the last 100 yards. He would not have if he had known ahead of time that the thunder and lightening was not over.
Pizza was there. Boats put away. Motorboat cross tied. Richard was down tying up the A Cat so it wouldn’t blow away— also to take it home. Caroline Ladley came back from volleyball for Pizza, but didn’t come in. Say Caroline, Sam ate the last of the spinach pie.
Luke Yates teed up the MORNING LIGHT movie and we saw the selection process of the crew for the race to Hawaii. The man-over-board-drill. The torn Spinnaker. The big boat threw the big waves. The race from the start to Hawaii will be shown next Wednesday. They act like scow sailor in the movie– picking out who of the bunch will go one the race. Part of the crew they plan to leave ashore. I really didn’t understand that part of the story. Come next week and maybe you can explain it to me.

August 15 and 16, 2009. The weekend had eleven people sailing Lasers with nine on Saturday and ten on Sunday. Seven races each day. Sunday we had one 4.7 and our intrepid RC took times on seven of the eight races he was in.
I will try to get all the results down. I corrected the 4.7 times and these results represent corrected times.
Dave Chapin 1-1-1-1-wd-1-1+1-1-1-1-1-1-1 23 1
Rob Krentel 4-4-5-3-3-6-2 +3-2-2-2-2-2-2 37 2
Alejandro Illera 2-2-2-4-2-4-4 + 2-3-3-5-7-3-6 47 3
Ben Getchell 3-3-4-3-1-3-3 +5-5-5-3-3-5-5 49 4
Craig Yates 6-6-6-7-4-5-7 +ns-8-7-8-4-7-4 86 5
Sam Chapin 5-5-3-5-5-2-5 + ns 105 6
Marc Solal 7-nf-ns-8-6-7-6+4-7-6-nf-ns 113 7
Jerry Beck Ns-ns-7-9-7-nf-nf+7-4-nf-5-ns-ns-ns 123 8
Jonathan Edelman nc---- + 6-9-nf-ns-5-4-7 133 9
Luke Yates (4.7) nc---- +ns-6-4-4-6-6-3 138 10
Steve Chapin ns-ns-ns-6-nf-ns-ns+ nc 143 11

Steven Chapin is David’s younger brother and is visiting from California. He is a pretty good Laser sailor, has one of the old boats in his back yard, but doesn’t have time to sail it. He came late and had the mast step break on the "old green machine". Better luck next year, Steve.

Luke Yates came out on Sunday and sailed the 4.7. He and Craig missed the first race. When I corrected the times he picked up two places in the second race, three places in the third race, two in the fourth race, two in the fifth race, none in the sixth race and two in the seventh race. We should have had more 4.7 out sailing.

Jonathan Edelman is a new club member, has done some big boat sailing. He would have been in a lot more races if Sam had given him a boat with a knot in the end of the sheet. He is a little on the light side and would have done better if we had a radial program for him. He had a fourth and a fifth– not bad for the first time out with us. And he got the sheet fixed in all the wind.

Jerry Beck is climbing the ladder. He had to leave early on Saturday to tend some urgent business. He had flipo problems on Sunday with some others, and then stayed out another hour practicing in some the bigger winds. The races he was in-- had a 4th and 5th on Sunday. And it was Jerry who swam over to help Jonathan out with his capsize problem and then had to swim back to his own capsized boat. Oh, yes, Jerry and thanks for the bagels, too.

Mark Solal has impressed the RC with his improvement. Three races on Sunday he was beating a lot of people. Turn over on Sunday knocked lens out of sunglasses and he come in to save them. Too bad Mark– it was your wind day.

Sam went out Sunday and figured it was just a little windy for an old guy in a larger fleet. So he went in and watched from the picnic area drinking MC coffee and eating Jerry’s bagels –now that is Sailing.

Craig Yates was with us both days and sailed the Kelly boat with the old rig on Sunday– wow, the old Cunningham and vang system. And he got a couple of fourths. Way to go Kiwi.
He would have done better if he had left Luke at home.

Ben Getchell took it on the chin in the weight department. He was tied for second on Saturday and then with the wind up and the full rig– even adding Caroline Chapin for weight got him knocked down to fourth. Now before you begin to feel too sorry for Ben remember that in the light wind races he carries that light weight advantage. If he can hang in close going up wind being light is no disadvantage going down wind.

Alejandro Illera was happy with the Sunday action including some spectaculars at the down wind finish. He is another light guy that might have a better shot with the Radial. If he his three really bad races on Sunday were thirds he would have been tied with Rob for the weekend. Don’t feel too sorry for him.

Rob Krentel made his weight and higher wind ability get him back ahead for Ben and Alejandro for the weekend.

Dave Chapin proves again that boat handling and time on the water will make a difference. Thanks for coming over to help us, bringing Caroline and all the other stuff.

Thanks also to Trevor Chapin for holding the flags on Saturday, Caroline Chapin for helping Ben on Sunday.

Then there is Joan Bryant and Marjorie Chapin that do our regular faithful and on time RC. Dennis Oldham got the new oil tank for our motor, put it in the motor and the boat in the water for us. Jim Lingeman picked up the "leeward drifting away mark" for us. ( Longer anchor lines with the higher water is on the work list.)

It is with the help of a lot of people that the thing works.

The T-storms of Saturday and Sunday canceled the MC match racing this past week end but the Kurt Taulbee Laser Clinic worked around the storms with

Mark Solal, Jerry Beck, Seth Behr, Caroline Ladley, Leah Ladley, Ben Getchell and Alejandro Illera in regular attendance.

Kurt started with rigging and then all the rest to finish with exercise and nutrition.

Do you think our fleet will ever be the same again. Alejandro’s boat will always be different –lost rudder and tiller on Friday and Hole in the boat on Saturday. Never worry. Alejandro has a big roll of duck tape.

Maribel Illera with Genesis and the Getchell food group finished things off Sunday evening with the Mediterranean food specials so we wouldn’t go home hungry— yes, there are lots of Lasers sailing in the Med..

WEDNESDAY EVENINGS will continue and all invited.. 5 to 7 PM with Pizza and North U at 7 to 8 PM. Topic– maybe high lights from Kurt Taulbee.

This coming weekend –Post Clinic practice and maybe in the 5 to 7 Time frame on Saturday and Sunday.

REGULAR SATURDAY AND SUNDAY , 10 TO 12 RACING IN TWO WEEKS.

The Forth of July was a firecracker day for the Lake Eustis Laser Fleet. We had eleven boat out and struggled through four races, some heat but it was a great morning. The wind was up for Sunday with some hiking thrown in and big shifts. Eight sailing that day in six races.

Dave Chapin 2-1-1-2 + 4-1-2-1-3-2 = 19
Ben Getchell 1-2-2-1 + 3-3-4-6-1-1 = 24
Rob Krentel 3-3-3-3 + 1-2-1-4-5-4 = 29
Sam Chapin 4-4-4-4 + 8-5-5-5-4-3 = 45
Alejandro Illera (48) + 2-4-3-3-6-6 = 72
Jon Chapin 8-8-8-8 + 5-7-8-8-7-7 = 75
Craig Yates 6-5-5-6 + (63) = 75
Luke Yates 5-7-6-5+ (63) = 76
Caroline Chapin (48) + 7-6-6-4-2-5 = 78
Jerry Beck 7-6-7-7 + (63) = 90
Jim Orth (48) + 6-8-7-8-7-7 =91
Kevin Hines 10-10-10-9+ (63) =102
Tim Arnold ns12-9-9-nf12 + (63) = 105
Pete Hylen 9-nf12-12-12 + (63) = 108

We had fourteen that sailed with us. Five sailed both days and the other took big hits in the 2 day scoring. Maybe not fair, but I scored a Saturday series a few years ago and the same people won the Saturday series as the two day series so I gave that up.

Anyone that wants a Starturday Series, score it and get the trophies. The numbers are always there.

I am going to start at the bottom of the list of people this week, because those people are the most important. We give the trophies to the wrong ones. It is the folks at the bottom that hold the fleet together and are the big winners in a few years, if they work at it.

Pete Hylen is an old guy that has retired from the Wayfarer fleet and occasionaly has sailed a Laser and we got him back in, but on a bad day. Light wind and he is not use to folding up enough to get the boat to heel to leeward. He is a good sailor and knows what he has to do it, but discouraged after a really light second race. We will be glad to get Pete back in a boat when the wind is up a little more. Pleased that he come and gave it a try.

Tim Arnold had his first light wind racing and really did great. He was late getting rigged and all that stuff that is over come with more experience. He and his Dad are Jet Ski guys and I think they spent most of the weekend with the jet ski guys at Tavares.

Kevin Hines was in the Laser for the first time and he was great. We hope he was happy and can keep coming. He has the Holder 12 that was down on the beach.
Jim Orth did the Laser with us on Sunday. Jim has done a lot of
sailing and knows what he is doing and will move up fast in our little group. He has the Lido 14 (California boat) and his wife has told him to "get a Laser. I am done crewing." Welcome Jim.

Jerry Beck is still trying to retire, but just has a few more jobs to do and some Boy Scouts to raise. We were glad to see him on Saturday– it was a better day on Sunday, Jerry. Now Jerry was in the middle of the fleet. He has all the fast stuff and now a little more sailing.

Caroline Chapin. We were glad to see her again– she has been busy with the high school stuff in Orlando. She gets advice from her Dad that you can hear across the course, but she sails the boat and got a second place in the 5th race Sunday (full rig and our only woman).

Luke Yates is usually trying to beat his dad and Sam sees a lot of him around the course. He does a great job sailing the boat when he is paying attention and, Oh Yes, you would have beat Sam that time if had not fallen out of the boat going downwind.

Craig Yates, the Laser sailor from down under, just beat the kid and moved the marks and is our general high school coach and "I am not afraid of the windy days" guy.

Jon Chapin spent two days sailing and is getting better and is tackling the Sailboards over at Kelly Park. We will be seeing more of him.

Alejandro Illera is changing boats. He was sailing Charlie Yost’s old boat– now Alejandro’s and he is working things out. I think Rob got a little hand up in the practice department. Alejandro is planning to get that back and more. I am always glad to see them go off fighting with each other and giving me a chance to get closer.

Sam is trying to rehab the old red youth foundation boat. It is so old there is no number and it has to be heavy with the repairs and the PAINT. (Craig, the paint makes them heavy and slow.)
It didn’t leak any Saturday and just a little Sunday. A work in progress.

Rob Krentel sets the marks out (Kevin is helping him.) And he was in second place in Sunday’s racing and third overall for the weekend.. He had been special in helping Kevin get up to speed and generally helping people solve there problems.

Ben Getchell has been beating everyone up in our races and working hard with the Sailing Camp all week and Sailing down at the Park on the Eustis Friday Night fireworks thing.. He was tied with Dave for first on Saturday, but dropped back a few points on Sunday. I think he got caught on the wrong side of a couple of big shifts.

Dave Chapin was ahead at the end of the weekend in spite of sailing the boat and watching his two children all the time. Well, he has a lot more sailing time and Laser time than anyone else.
Now this note is going to Randy Rhea. We will see if he can get loose from volley ball and get over to challenge Dave and Ben.

\Thanks to Joan Bryant and Marjorie Chapin who continue to do the great RC work.
　
　

Summer Sailing June 20 and 21, 2009.
Lasers had nine sailors and 15 races over the two days with 6 racing on Saturday for 8 races and 8 sailors on Sunday for seven races. Great winds both days with everyone in full rigs, but wind on Sunday building to make it hard for the light weights, but great learning for them.
Ben Getchell 1-1-5-3-1-2-2-4 + 1-3-1-1-1-2-2 30 1
Rob Krentel 3-4-2-2-3-1-1-2+ 2-1-4-2-2-1-1 31 2
Sam Chapin 2-3-1-1-2-3-3-1+ 3-2-3-3-3-3-3 47 3
Luke Yates 6-2-3-5-4-4-5-5 + 4-4-2-5-4-nf-5 66 4
Marc Solal 5-6-6-4-6-5-6-6 + 7-ns-6-6-5-6-4 87 5
Craig Yates 4-5-4-6-5-6-4-3 + 80 107 6
Jennifer Burno 70 + 5-5-5-4-nf-4-ns 121 7
Tim Arnold 70 + 6-7-7-8-6-5-6 125 8
Aaron Arnold 70+ 8-6-7-8-nf-nf-7 134 9

Ben getchell was our big hero. He was third on Saturday, but one point behind Rob and Rob one point behind Sam. Ben had four bullets out of seven races on Sunday and worst race a third. He pulled ahead of everyone. Rob had to eat a 4 on Sunday and that was the difference.

So after 15 races Rob was one point out. If we would have had another high wind race on Sunday he would have been ahead. He won both of those last two races.

Sam was unusually good on Saturday and ended up one point ahead. With the wind increase on Sunday he realized that when tacking he should be getting in the hiked out position sooner in the higher winds. When Kurt Taulbee gets here next month he will probably be getting everyone jumping from side to side.

We had some of our 18 inch waves that we could get a little push from especially if you are sailing in transition. Broad reach to the right and then roll to the right and transition to by the lee when going down a wave for a little extra push and not staying in the dead down wind slow mode. We get to roll the boat to help steering, if you are worried about rule 42.
With the little chop that we had going up wind it is probably best to just sail a little full and power through the waves. In the bigger waves that we either don’t get or not often, it is general up the up side of the wave and down the down side with a move your weight back to push the tiller to leeward going up the wave and a move forward with the pull on the tiller to turn down the wave. One of those things that takes a lot of practice to get the rhythm right.

Four of the five youth foundation boasts boats have the old vang system and are without the supper vang ability. The old system to set up the vang was to stand up when head to wind with the hiking stick hand on top and the boom. Lean on the boom hard while you set up the vang with the sheet hand. It wasn’t easy to get off again either. I don’t recommend that to anyone now. If you get caught with too much wind just go from block to block to ease more sheet, keep the boat near flat and keep sailing fast. Sail fast is better than pinching up to keep the boat flat. Pinching up into the wind makes you just go slower. The waves will stop you especially when you try to tack and don’t have much boat speed and hit a wave.

Luke Yates beat his dad on Saturday (It wasn’t Fathers Day) and was back on Sunday which managed pretty well with a full rig and the wind increasing. A second place in the third race on Sunday and hung in there all day.

Marc Solal ended up 5th and was never LAST on Sunday. He was first to the weather mark in one race. Marc, just a little better boat handling and you will be there.

Craig Yates sailed with us Saturday but missed Sunday and got himself down to 6th place. He was our entry in the Poker run but drew a poor hand of cards.

Jennifer Burno, our first woman and only woman, she came late and got the old yellow boat. That boat is super soft, fast in light wind, but not in a little chop. She did the full rig and really did well with several 4ths as well and some turn overs. Skipped that last race to show she is not that dumb.

Tim and Aaron Arnold were 8 and 9. They were are most important sailors. Don’t forget that the people at the bottom of the fleet are the ones that make the group grow and maybe beat up on the others later depending on how hard they work at it. The first races that they have sailed in! The most wind thy have sailed it! Great work fellows! Now we have to figure out how to fit Mrs. Patricia Arnold in.

Kim Kelly, big boat and cruising sailor, big boat sailing instructor and Mt. Dora resident, will be sailing Laser with us and helping Leah Ladley with the Whirlwind group. She away on the RC boat and enjoyed the action.

Thanks again to Joan Bryant and Marjorie Chapin for the great RC work.

Next Summer racing in 2 weeks both Saturday and Sunday.

Wednesday evening sailing continues 5 to 7 with Pizza and North U 7 to 8.

Next week end is free from organizational sailing. We could so some coaching. If interested contact Sam.

Crazy about the Laser but this is the BOAT LIST

I tried to put this in the side bar so it would hang around up front, but it is too long to fit. I just add it show that you can expect people to come and go from a fleet. Some times the money, or the family, or the lake , or the health, or the itch. It will happen and we are all good friends.

THE BOAT LIST.
Boats I have sailed on and the ones I have owned are marked with* and if I owned
a few or a lot **
Somewhat in order of from 10 years of age up.
Old Town Sail Canoe
Moth (old wooden)
Snipe**
C scow *
R boat
Suicide
Rebel (Ray Green)
Hagerty Sea Shell**
Thistle*
Star
Sunfish**
Sailboards**
Laser**
Hobie 14
Hobie 16
10 sq meter canoe*
St Lawrence skiff*
Minifish
Nomad (not Vanguard)*
Alden 38
J24*
J30
J33
J44
Holder 20
Optimist Pram*
JY15
Cape Cod Frosty*
Westsail 43
Cape Dory Typhoon*
Stiletto 30
Catalina 27
Day Sailer
Piver 24 catamaran
Hirondella catamaran
Sea Pearl
Sea Snark
Flying Scot
Irwin 30
Raider
Bolger Tortoise*
Bolger Brick*
"50 footer" Springbok
Phantom
Hunter 140
Peep Hen
Bay Hen*
Victoria
Pintail*
MC scow*
Wayfarer
Key West Schooners
Wolf
Western Union
America (copy with modern design)

June 6 and 7, 2009 Summer Sailing
We had eleven sailors in thirteen races. Not bad. Here are the scores. See if you can figure out how I have them listed.
Dave Chapin 1-1-1-1-1-1+ ns10-1-1-3-1-1-2
Alejandro Illera 3-3-3-2-2-3+ 1-3-4-5-4-6-1
Rob Krentel 2-2-2-4-3-2+ 4-4-5-1-5-5-3
Marc Solal 4-4-4-3-4-5+ 6-8-7-7-7-7-5
Ben Getchell +2-2-2-4-2-2-6
Seth Behr + 3-5-3-6-6-3-4
Sam Chapin +5-6-6-2-3-4-ns10
Kevin (Holder 12) 6-6-6-5-5-4+
Jon Chapin(4.7) 5-5-5-6-6-6+
Leah Ladley(Radial) + 8-7-ns--------
Melanie Ladley (420) +7-ns-----------
Glad to have Dave and Jon Chapin sailing with us. Helps both ends of the fleet. Jon will be back with us some more.
Rob edges out Alejandro in the higher winds of Saturday, but then Alejandro came back on Saturday — and after 13 races. Alejandro was ahead by one point!
Marc got a third place on Saturday. Way to go French!
Kevin sailed with us on Saturday in the Holder 12 and gradually improved to the point when he bumped Marc on corrected time in the full rig laser in the 6th race. Rob, maybe it is time to move him into a Laser.
Jon Chapin was sailing better and needs some practice with his boat handling, which he will get this summer. It was good to see these last two hanging in there in all the races. They are the ones that will make the fleet grow.
The Whirlwind high school sailors had sail to the Crazy Gator for supper Saturday evening, then a camp out and were out sailing 420s early Sunday. So then we had Melanie sailing the 420 and Leah with her radial. In the first race Melanie bumped her mom out of seventh place on corrected time. Leah sailed another race and they both went in to get some other stuff done. One advantage of short races.
Ben Getchell spent the morning chasing Dave. He didn’t beat him over the finish line, but if we had scored Sunday separately he would have been in second and ahead of Alejandro.
Seth Behr was in the hunt all Sunday and had three third places. Not bad! We have invited Seth’s Dad, Steven, to join us. He is an old Opti sailor.
Thank you Marjorie Chapin and Joan Bryant for the good RC work.
Next week MC scow sailing.
Four rain barrels have been installed. Dennis is cutting the grass. Martin will be on his way to the St. Lawrence Wednesday while we are sailing and eating Pizza.
That is all the news from Lake Eustis.

LAKE EUSTIS LASER FLEET.

May 23 and 24, 2009 Memorial Day Series.

Four races on Saturday in increasing wind, storm clouds and races terminated. Sunday four races and wind went to nothing.

Dave Chapin ns8-3-1-1+1-1-1-1 17
Alejandro Illera 2-2-2-2+ 2-2-2-3 17
Ben Getchell 1-1-5-5+4-3-3-2 24
Sam Chapin 3-4-3-6+3-5-4-4 32
Seth Behr 5-6-6-4+6-6-7-7 46
Marc Solal 6-7-7-7+7-8-5-8 55
Craig Yates 4-5-4-3+nc 10x4 56
Jerry Beck nc 10x4+5-4-8-6 63
Charles Jensen Nc 10x4+ ns9-7-6-5 67


Collene (Late Spring) Series - April and May
48 races in 8 days over 4 weekends. Scored 60% or 29 races.
15 participants
Alejandro Illera only one in all 48 races.

1) Alejandro Illera 2) Rob Krentel 3) Sam Chapin 4) Pearce Pomerleau 5) Craig Yates
6) Marc Solal 7) Charlie Jensen 8) Dave Chapin 9) Jerry Beck 10) Luke Yates
11) Jennifer Burno 12) Kiwi Keith 13) Conner Kechriotis 14) Leah Ladley 15) Seth Behr

Youth 1) Pearce Pomerleau 2) Luke Yates 3) Connor Kechriotis

Women 1) Jennifer Burno 2) Leah Ladley

The wind was up with lots of white caps for the Lake Eustis session of the Treasure Coast 2009 Saturday afternoon races. Then the wind faded a little by race time, but was a good steady wind by Lake Eustis standards. There was also plenty of the 18 inch chop.
Eric Robbins came over from Davis Island and has come down from Cedar Point YC in Connecticut. After the first race he rolled up the regatta with 2-2-1-1-1 in the last 5 races of the six race affair. I tried to find him on the Cedar Point YC thing , but turned up some other interesting Laser stuff that I will try to get on my howtosailthelaser.blogspot.com.
Dave Chapin was second with only one win, while the guy that wrote the book on Laser Sailing, Dick Tillman, was third with most of the second places. We see Dick a lot at Lake Eustis when he borrows a boat for the MC regattas, but now he is getting one of those new 190,000 Lasers.
Randy Rea is one of our favorites from Crystal River and comes to sail with us when he has a chances and brings 2 Eric Eastmans with him. If you need to get your numbers up get Randy to come. Two months ago we had Randy, the Erics, and Dave and Caroline Chapin and our number was up to 14 sailing. Randy cornered more of the fourths and was fourth.
David Hartman, who organizes all of this had two firsts and finished fifth. How did he do that??
First Woman and second radial was Cindy Taylor.
First Youth and first 4.7 and last 4.7 was Seth Bahr, a beginning Laser sailor moving from 420 crew, hung in there for all the races. And big smiles.
Those were the trophy winners.
Travis Ouellette sailed into sixth place and just out of trophy zone and just missed the Youth thing because he is a year too old. You will see him again.
Alejandro Illera our regular local leader (when Dave Chapin is sailing the Scot) was number seven sailing his full rig. He had his radial on when he saw the wind fad a little about 12:30 and changed back to the full.
John Fox is one of the regulars from Melbourne and is sailing his new 190,000 boat, but was tied with LESC local board sailing champion Rob Krentel. Rob got a 7 in the last race to put him ahead. So Rob was 8th and John was 9th. That put Alejandro and Rob right next to each other. In our club races, half way up the beat they are out in front, covering each other. Today they had half of the fleet ahead and half behind– lots of fun for those of us watching.
Kevin Ratigan was the first radial followed by Cindy and Mike Taylor. They were 10- 11 and 12. At LESC we have been doing Portsmouth with corrected times. Sorry we don’t have times on these because it might be interesting. If you come and sail with us in club races we will do it and see if you are knocking down the big shots. For the 4.7 we have been using 95.5 and I think I may go up to 100 till the "youths" take all the trophies.
Dean Grimes is back with us sailing Lasers, so this was juts a warm up for him. Thirteenth place and no trophy.
Eric Eastman came with Randy from Crystal River sailed all the races, advanced his sailing skills, and had a good time. Fourteen.
Seth Bahr was 15 over all, but I told you about him above.
Jerry Beck ,16, and Marc Solal, 17, sailed the first two races. This is more wind than they are comfortable with, but they got out and did some. Then Jerry went blasting around on fast reaches . The things that in early Laser sailing was the most fun. Later I saw him test riding on the old E scow that the scow sailors are patching together for the Mug Race next month. Jerry, were you doing foredeck??
Marc has been one of our most regular local sailors. He is working on his boat handling and I am working on my French.

April 11, 2009
Treasure Coast Series, LESC
Eric Robbins 7-2-2-1-1-1 14 1
Dave Chapin 1-3-6-3-2-2 17 2
Dick Tillman 3-6-5-2-3-3 22 3
Randy Rea 2-7-4-4-4-4 25 4
David Hartman 4-1-1-5-11-6 28 5
Travis Ouellette 10-4-3-6-5-5 33 6
Alejandro Illera 5-5-8-7-7-8 40 7
Rob Krentel 6-9-9-10-8-7 49 8
John Fox 8-8-10-8-6-9 49 9
Kevin Ratigan Rad 9-13-7-9-9-ns 65 10
Cindy Taylor Rad 17-11-11-11-12-10 72 11
Mike Taylor Rad 12-10-12-12 -10-ns 74 12
Dean Grimes 11-12-14-13-13-11 74 13
Eric Eastman Jr. 14-15-13-14-14-13 83 14
Seth Bahr 4.7 16-16-15-15-15-12 89 15
Jerry Beck 13-14-ns-ns-ns-ns 99 16
Marc Solal 15-17-ns-ns-ns-ns 104 17

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....

Well if you missed sailing on Saturday or Sunday, you missed the whole bag. We had everything going. Light winds, big gusts, big holes, 180degree shifts, sailing from patch to patch and sailing right through some of the glassy spots.
We had four races on Saturday and six races on Sunday. Now the big news is I was counting the sixth race on Sunday—Listed on the Official Score sheet as the "FUN RACE"– Well Patrick Daniel got a second in that race and that had he and Charlie Jensen tied for third place for the day. Both had one second, two thirds, two fifths, and one sixth. We beak the ties then on the last race. Patrick had his second and Charlie had a 6. That wasn’t the end of it. The RC claims it was an extra FUN RACE and so labeled it. When Sam went out of his way to cross the finish line with out going to the leeward mark ( which was now the weather mark because of the wind shift) Charlie followed him. Gosh, because Sam is old and stupid is no excuse for Charlie.. THE RESULT is because I don’t want to cook and clean at home, the sixth race is dropped. Charlie Jensen is replaced in third place – remember he is the LASER CLASS FOUNDING MEMBER at the LESC.– AND ALL of you know that while Patrick is 4th, he did get a SECOND.
Alejandro Illera mopped up on the weekend with four or five firsts on Sunday depending on how you count, but Rob Krentel got him by one point on Saturday. Rob had two bullets and Alej only had one.
Pearce Pomerleau was our first and only youth racing regularly with us. I want you to know that he was the first around the weather mark on Saturdays third race, but let Sam and Alejandro go hard by the lee and get into a wind streak down the right side of the course (looking up wind) and Pearce ended up with a third – but a good race and if you feel bad about that, wait till I tell you about Sam’s capsize on Sunday.

The Frenchman is surely charging. All the internationals know that the Dutch started the yachting thing but the French are the leading sailors of the world and on Sunday Marc Solal got a second in the fourth race and tied with Craig Yates for 6th place (Last). That second broke the tie in Marc’s favor and he was fifth, not last place. Not our favorite sailor anymore. Just one of the Frenchmen climbing the ladder to superiority.
Marc and Craig were just one point behind Patrick. Nice close racing in the middle of the fleet.
Craig Yates had a full weekend of sailing and racing. Saturday morning he sailed in the 420 with Conner Kechriotis to second place and in the afternoon coached the high school 420 crews, then Sunday morning when he didn’t get a spot on an MC, he sailed a laser with us. In the afternoon crewed with Francois Simon (another of those devilish Frenchmen) on his Flying Scot– second again. Craig claims that the Kiwis are the best sailors and what we need is a Laser distance race like the Lasers have "down under". Maybe we have that in the works.
The 420s sailed with us Saturday morning and Ben Getchell and Seth Bahr were first, Conner Kechriotis and Craig were second and Bart Eckhart and Jonathan Watson were third. I can’t report much about them as I was busy watching for puffs on the water and trying to keep the boat moving, sitting forward in the light stuff and then back and flat for the puffs. Not a day for a lazy sailor.
Those high school guys and gals are welcome to sail with us on Sunday. We may need to solve the 420 problem, but the Lasers are usually free. I will try to telephone to get the message out. E-mail is wonderful, but we are not sure who reads and what they understand if they read.
Our Race committee was our regular Joan Bryant on both days and Mary Jensen and Caitlin Jensen (granddaughter) filled in while Marjorie took a day off after a few days in the hospital with a little pneumonia /bronchitis thing that she did instead of visiting her friends in Key West. So the Key West thing is put off till later. Well, Marjorie was back on Sunday full of Vim, Vigor, antibiotics and steroids. Thanks, thanks- if it wasn’t for RC, we would be taking turns or doing rabbit starts and really arguing about the finishes.
SOME OBSERVATIONS about what we can do better.
Coming into the windward mark. You are not quite there and need and double tack to make it, but another starboard boat is just above you and on the lay line. Be conservative, take a deep duck to leeward and tack to clear the starboarders transom or gybe around to port tack and go behind him. You have the next two legs at least to catch him. Do the Alejandro thing or at least sail fast and wait for him (or her ) to make a mistake.
Another windward mark thing, it you are trading tacks with someone coming up to the mark, stay to the right of your competitor so on the last crossing you will have starboard and that should be worth at least one boat length.
On the run into the leeward mark, if the last wind shift was from the left (looking downwind) then after the rounding, tack onto starboard as soon as you are clear of down wind sailors coming into the mark. Yes, I know you will have right of way as the close hauled starboard tack boat, but collisions are very slow. If the last shift is from the right (looking downwind) then stay on port tack until things get sorted out.
NOTE- Sam says it is easier to get a second place if Rob Krentel has to work on Sunday. Thanks, Rob, we love you.
Keep track of the upwind end of the starting line. If you get too far to the right (looking upwind) then it is hard to get back to the pin end if the wind shifts left. Use the three minutes– Time the line, get a range and check for the favored end. I think this is a repeat, but it seems we need it.
Then I promised about Sam’s Sunday capsize. It was in the fourth race at the gybe mark with the biggest blast of the day surrounding the mark and Marc Solal right in front of Sam. Marc gybed around the mark and Sam figured he had room to gybe and go above Marc. Sam was concentrating on getting turned enough to get above Marc and caught the sheet on the transom. Now the sail is trimmed in. Drop the sheet and it doesn’t go out. The boom end goes in the water. Sam is looking over the high side at the centerboard and still thinking he might come out of this. Then the sail is in the water, and now he climbs over to stands on the centerboard and we will be right back in the race, but when the boat comes up, he has tacked through the wind and the whole thing blows over on top of him. Now get around and pull on the centerboard climb in the boat– he is heading the wrong direction. Nice sixth place. Glad we didn’t have 20 boats or it would have been a 20. Thank goodness for the warm weather! Did anyone say boat handling was important or it needed practice?
If you can’t figure this stuff out, e-mail me the question, and maybe we can get some diagrams or something simple. This part of the message will go in the how to sail the laser blog at howtosailthelasser.blogspot.com so you can look at it again with all the other junk there.
Stu Einhorn came by to talk about sailing lesson but he is an old Sunfish sailor so Sam stole him and sent him out his Laser Sunday afternoon. He did fine and we have him on our e-mail list. We are still looking for more Laser sailors and with the evening hours and warm weather it is time to get them sailing. Call Sam if you need help.
Monday the Wayfarer fleet painted a great number of mooring buoys with the International horizontal blue stripe on the white buoy AND THE PERMIT NUMBER so any international traveler will be able to identify those little white and blue things on the water . The State of Florida Department of Buoys will also be happy and we have the Wayfarer fleet to thank for that. Thanks guys and gals.

The Lasers finished up February with 12 boats and eight races. Randy Rea and the two Erics came over from Crystal River and brought the brisk winds with them. Dave and Caroline Chapin came from Winter springs and between Randy and Dave took all the first places, but Randy got six of the eight.
Rob Krentel set up a triangle course so he could have windy reaches, and he made good use of the increased winds.
Alejandro Illera dropped out of his usual first place. Maybe it was a day for his radial?
Craig Yates was next in line. He was really proud of his third place in the third race. This is probably the time that he finds out that Darcy Jensen, sailing the 4.7 to fourth place, bumped him out of third when we did corrected times.. Sorry Craig, but you crossed the line third.
Charlie Jensen got a second in the second race and then the fatigue factor set in. He ran 5s and 6s. Charlie, that is what happens to Grandfathers. Charles sailed Friday night, 5 to 6, off Ferran Park so we could show George Fest Visitors what a sailboat looked like. Then he sat with us latter and on Saturday to help look for more sailors.
Caroline and Dave Chapin came a little late and missed the first race. Remember that, if you are a little late just keep coming and join in with the races when you get here.
David then added to the excitement in the second race by braking his upper mast with a big bang followed by a top mast paddling demonstration back toward shore (you just use it like a double paddle– after you get it out of the sail.) Actually the Laser race committee radioed for a tow for him. The regular race safety boat helped him in so he was able to get ashore, another mast section and out for the last five official races. After the races stopped at noon, three boat stayed out for rabbit start races.
Next was Darcy Jensen from your high school program sailing the 4.7. Her corrected time in the third race put her in third place and bumped Coach Craig back to fourth. She moved ahead in a couple of other races also. Great job Darcy. First youth and woman.
Then we had the Erics, Sr. And Jr., Sr. Ahead mostly on the basis of a fourth place in the first race and then they were trading places after that.
Marc Solal had a 6th place in that famous third race. Keep those coming Marc.
Pearce Pomerleau and Caroline Chapin were the radial team and were still over powdered. They went in after the third race. Pearce was beating people and Caroline was bring up the rear. She got some sailing in later in the day with a 4.7. Yes, it is hard to pick the right sail when the wind can shift all over the place.
Sam Montondo and Marjorie Chapin did the Race Committee. Thank, you RC. And they brought the committee boat to Sam down at Ferran Park. We used it to set the Laser marks for the Canoe Racing. Maybe you didn’t know that LESC is into Canoe racing. We love it all.
The big hit at the park was Coach Jennifer’s "Fleet Capsize" twenty feet from the shore. Seven Opti capsized, then righted, swamped, crew up bailing water out to see who is up going first. The shore was lined with spectators. And it was obvious the kids were having a good time! Nothing like a big disaster to draw attention. Lute Yates was a big capsizer in the morning and did the same thing with the 420 just before the Canoe race in the afternoon.
Sam spent Friday evening and most of Saturday at Ferran Park. Friday evening really spectacular fireworks shot from three barges on the lake. The fanciest I have ever seen and that is a lot of years watching. A tribute to Evelyn and Johnnie Smith’s grandson that died this year. The rest of the time talking to sailors and would be sailors. Well, sometimes just sitting. Thanks to Marjorie C., June Howells, Candi Robb, Charlie Jensen, Jane and Dave Hepting, and Aggie and Carleton Brown whole helped hold the chairs down and chase after tourists that might be interested in sailing.
And THANKS to Vera who keeps reading this junk.

It looks like this will be a long rambling thing — but here goes, I am looking at the Laser score sheet from the three races of the weekend. We had 7 sailors from LESC if we count Rob Krentel who signed up, but had to work showing homes over the week end. (Of that group, 1 from Winter Park, two from Longwood, 3 from Eustis and Conner who has roots in Mt. Dora and Orlando.)
Seven sailors from Halifax lead by Pete Haley and the Trainers that are on are e-mail list, and they all came. Then there was the Edgewater guy, Jack and Pat Delaney who should be sailing with Halifax, but we are trying to steal them. Stay tuned and see how that works out.
So where were the rest of our team? The Charlies were busy with various family things, Dave and Caroline Chapin on loan to Flying Scot fleet. Luke and Max were getting trophies in the Opti bunch. Ben and practically all of the high school 420 folks, we claim. Pearce was doing safety boat duty. Jennifer, Craig and Mother Leah were doing coach and RC (excuse me, PRO) work. Ray and Dean with the Scots. Maybe that is all except Allen and the Crystal River Rowdies who are into e-mails now.
Alejandro Illera cheated in the second race – he had his private wind and finished long, long before anyone else. He won all the races.
Jerry Beck was our second LESC sailor with a good consistent 7-6-6— no really stupid things on the week and he has a hat to show for it.
Franklin Trainer from Halifax was the first youth and will be memorialized on our Laser trophy at the club. He was also tied with Patrick Daniel and although Patrick beat him twice, Franklin had a third in that first race and that put him ahead. Patrick was our third LESC sailor, but missed a hat. I think we need a Laser hat, so a little bit of money and we can fix that no hat thing for Patrick.
Conner Kechriotis has been sailing with the 420s, but came back to Lasers with his radial sail. The first day he was scored as full rig and when we corrected that, he picked up a couple of boats in the first two races, but couldn’t catch Franklin. He had to settle for the second place hat.
Jack Delaney is next on the list with a 10-2-10. I am not sure how all that happened. He is an old Thistle sailor, but was able to lead that pack of light wind sailors trying to struggle after Alejandro in the second race. Good work, Jack. – but no hat.
I should mention Josie Trainer 5-10-11. She was the third place hat winner from Halifax and her mother gets the e-mails. I am sorry to say I don’t even remember which of the new faces she is, but the score looks like she was just getting tired. 5-10-11. I know I was getting tired.
Now we come to Marc Solal who has been practicing (look-out— Practicing?) And has move out of his traditional last place position. I want you to know he beat boats in every race and was third in the famous light air second race thing. That’s our heavy weight– and batting practice never hurts.
I need to mention Pete Haley because he is not only holding all the Halifax group together , but after Alejandro stole all the first places he had 2-4-2 No bad races. Good sailing, Pete.
We have had suggestions from our fleet that next year we run our own course next year. We have had 14 entries before and can do that. Include 420s if they want. Shorter course, one lap, windward leeward with short beat to finish. If big wind shift, first boat goes to move the windward mark and second boat does the leeward mark. If the wind is up then a triangle with a fast reaching leg (Arlen’s request) and required gybe point. Then maybe a two lap race or two. We just need one motor boat and we have our own marks.
Then we will arrange a warmer weekend. The campers won’t have to have a fire in the morning and can move the fire pit and conversation circle of chairs back out of the Laser rigging area in the morning.
The club has an old guy that picks up snail shells, bear cans, soda cans, and junk that washes up on the beach and wants to remind you all that it is not a pristine soft sand beach. Junk keeps showing up there, so be careful beaching and launching your boat.
Now the old guy that picks up the beach tried to educate the fire builders (keep the beach clean) and the first time they dumped the fire stuff in the dumpster it wasn’t all out. That is when we had the dumpster fire and some excitement for a few minutes. So soak your fire really out before you do the dumpster thing.
There was a younger guy that got the shovel out and moved the fire junk off the beach Sunday afternoon. Thanks, younger guy.

It was exciting days for races for the Laser fleet. Dave Chapin came without his Flying Scot skipper and so he sailed Laser and had 5 first places in the five races, but Alejandro Illera was pressing him a few times.
Alejandro really had four second places and really had the boat going fast.
Patrick Hall with his family from England (Father Tony, mother Gill, and sister Phillippa) came on Saturday right on time. Patrick sailed with us and got a second in the second race. Great roll tacks, but they have more wind in England and he ended up in the middle of the fleet. Tony went out on the committee boat and took some pictures that he promises to send. They will show all those funny postures as skippers crowd up forward of the cockpit, heeling the boat and all that stuff. They had lunch with Marjorie, Sam and Marc in the picnic area and then went off to visit the shops in Mt. Dora and back to Disney Land for a week. I begged them to come back for GWB regatta and renew the "Crossing the Delaware" or some other great naval battle, but they are on their way home next weekend.
Rob Krentel continued to be out in front with Alejandro and he won the last two races on Sunday when the wind came up.
Sam got a lucky shift on Sunday and got a second place in one race and that was his only claim to fame.
Pearce Pomerleau continued to be the only youth and our only claim to real support of the youth foundation, except he sails his own boat. He had a third on both Saturday and Sunday. String some of those together and his scores will look like Rob’s. He is learning not to go to the corners or the lay line early. If you get headed, the others tack and beat you. If you get lifted, those below you get lifted up to the mark. Now you can free up a little, ans try to sail faster and beat them to the mark. Probably not fast enough to make up for the shift. AND at the windward mark to get the boom out and go "by the lee" (fast) on starboard and aim for the inside at the next mark. AND when you are on a reach and pass someone to windward, you are on the same tack (windward boat) and need to keep clear (We used to call it a passing lane.). Alejandro is still working on that concept. AND then at 110 pounds with the full rig he hung in for a 4th in the high wind reaching race.
Craig Yates sailed with us on Saturday. He only beat me in one race and probably needs more wind. Usually every time I turn around he would be coming at me. We need to invite the high school team to come and sail Lasers or 420s with us again. They all showed up Saturday afternoon — but they could do both AM and PM with lunch in between.
Marc Solal and I struggled on Saturday with the big bodies crowding forward. Remember in light wind if you are comfortable you are not far enough forward. He did better on Sunday, and beating people and smiling all morning. How about those wind shifts Marc?
Jennifer Burno, our first place woman, out with us on Sunday. Two third places but most remembered by me for the last race (the high wind race) on Sunday– Triangle= crazy start and four reaching legs. On the second leg from B to A, which was downwind, we were all by the lee – Rob leading with Alejandro next with Jennifer working to get inside . I am next and we are all planing. Sam is working to the outside because Jennifer and Alejandro are playing the chicken game of trying to get more and more by the lee and I am expecting one or both to have a big splash. If they do, I will need to get by.– they Jennifer rolls big time and I think she is gone, but she somehow saves it after a big roll and turn toward the sail, just like the pictures in Downwind Boat Whisperer– great job Jennifer. (She turned far enough that they sail unloaded.)
That is all the 9 people that sailed with us on the weekend. Patrick Daniel was off at the big boat things. I will have to call around and find out where the others were.

Dave Chapin 1-1-1-1-1+0-0-0-0-0
Alejandro Illera 2-4-2-2-2+1-1-1-2-2
Rob Krentel 3-3-4-4-3+2-5-2-1-1
Sam Chapin 5-5-7-3-4+3-2-6-4-3
Patrick Hall 4-2-5-6-5+0-0-0-0-0
Pearce Pomerleau 8-8-3-5-8+5-3-4-6-4
Marc Solal 7-7-8-7-6+4-6-5-5-6
Jennifer Burno 0-0-0-0-0+ns-4-3-3-5
Craig Yates 6-6-6-8-7+0-0-0-0-0

Over the week end the Lasers had eight races and 9 sailors. The little slump that Alejandro had in January after his Xmas vacation didn’t last into this weekend. While he didn’t win all his races like Jim Lingeman did (two out of two) Alej won six out of the 8 and was second in the other two.
Saturday Patrick Daniel won the race that Alej missed and Rob Krentel won the one on Sunday.
Now watch out for Patrick because he out there on the course checking the wind and getting his rig set up while the rest of you are talking on shore.
Rob continues to be the one that is always challenging Alejandro. Patrick is moving up into third and will help him.
Sam had a second place in one of the races on Sunday– found a private wind some place, don’t exactly remember. Had a lot of good ideas that didn’t work out.
Coach Craig Yates brought his flu racked body out to sail on Saturday before the high school bunch in the afternoon. Not bad, he nailed a third and beat me in 2 or three races. Good going coach.
Pearce Pomerleau sailed with his radial on Saturday and with the wind up did a third place without any time correction. On Sunday he unveiled a new crisp full rig Intensity sail and began working on his light wind speed. He was also learning the downwind by the lee starboard tack inside at the next mark strategy. He is our first youth. Conner Kechriotis has signed up for the GWB regatta so our youth is coming back. If the Ladleys will get to bed earlier on Saturday after basketball they will add to our group.
Now looking at the scores, Marc Solal is beginning to beat people and I have seen him up at the weather mark with the leaders. Welcome to Laser Racing Marc. We have seen the fast French Laser sailor in the "Boat Whisperer" sailing with windward heel and good roll tacks.
Then the 420s are French boats and the Around the World Winner.
Coach Jennifer Burno joined us on Sunday for the light wind day and nailed one of the third places that Alej and Rob left for the rest of us to fight over. Our first woman and we will be looking for Leah and the two Carolines to join us.
Jerry Beck has managed to get elected to vice president of the Youth Foundation, Assistant Scout master, etc. He was the first here on Sunday, but just had trouble getting off the beach. Just hang in there Jerry. The sailing will always be waiting, but the scouts are growing up and that won’t wait.
Charlie Jensen got his sailing house boat out of the water Sunday– bigger job than a Laser. Maybe we will be seeing him some more.
The Youth Sailing Organization run by youth has been formed and their board is busy getting to know all the hard stuff about running things and paying for things. Wow!
January 31 and February 1, 2009
Alejandro Illera 1-1-1-2-1+1-2-1=10
Rob Krentel 2-2-2-4-2+ 3-1-2= 18
Patrick Daniel 3-4-4-1-3+4-4-3=26
Sam Chapin 7-6-3-ns-ns+2-5-4=45
Craig Yates 4-3-5-5-4+0-0-0= 48 tie
Pearce Pomerleau 5-8-6-3-6+8-6-6=48 tie
Marc Solal 8-5-7-6-5+6-8-nf=54
Jennifer Burno 0-0-0-0-0+5-3-5= 58
Jerry Beck 6-7-8-nf-nf+7-7-nf=73

Off Racing weekend.

The Saturday extra LASER RACES on January 24/09. We were delayed getting started. Fog- no wind- and Sam couldn’t get the RC boat started.. Scot managed to do the starting for us so we sailed from 10:30 to 12:30 with the wind going from light to medium when we finished. There were some MCs working out for the upcoming regattas and testing sails. Two 420s out in the morning and about four in the afternoon high school class. Optis morning and afternoon classes.
Sam was able to follow the boats around and here are some comments.
1) when the wind is really light sit as far forward as you can. Our heavy guy Randy Rea beats us regularly by just pushing a little ahead of the cockpit. Dave C. Sits on the centerboard or just to leeward of it. So does Sam, but he can’t see anything from there and hasn’t figured out how to tack from there.
Wetted surface is the main drag at low speeds so heel th boat to leeward big time even going up wind.
As the wind picks up then wave making becomes the main drag, now hold the boat flat or heel to windward.
A little vang on in light air holds the leach tight. About 8 to 10 inches from block to block and then let the sheet out to where ever you need to keep the boat moving.
2) Good roll tacks gets you about an extra boat length with each tack. Ask to see the Steve Cockerel Upwind Boat Whisperer.
If you have trouble knowing where the next tack will go, sight across the front edge of the cockpit or draw some big black lines across the deck. Check out the lines on Sam’s boat.
In light air to be sure you are on the correct angle before your tack, have your tell tales flowing on both sides of the sail. If the sun is on the windward side and you can’t see the far side tell tale ease the sail out a little and if the windward tell tale begins to wiggle, then just trim in a little. If the sheet takes a lot, then you are sailing too low, head up gently and trim the sail in.
3) Our going around the windward mark is getting better. Get that boom out so you can stay on starboard tack. In the light air have it out past 90 degrees pretty well, so when you heel big time (wetted surface and negative helm and wind stronger off the water) the weight of the boom holds the sail out nice and steady. — try to find a streak of wind and stay in it. (Yes, you are sailing toward the front and looking behind... say that is what my crew used to do.)
4) We need a lot of work on leeward mark roundings. If no one is around, then smooth turn to keep speed up and go by mark close on lee side, not going any further down wind than necessary. When in company then the tactical rounding, coming in wide with smooth turn and exiting close hauled next to the buoy. It helps if you can get the gybe in before the turn. If you are big time by the lee, then you should be able to trim in to get the gybe in. If you do that two or three boat lengths away from the mark that shouldn’t slow you much. Then you don’t have as much sheet to get in marking the turn. We need to be better about taking the long pulls of sheet with both arms. Yes, I know you are steering with the aft hand and arm. You have that long tiller extension, use it.
If you catch the transom (unlucky or not practiced enough) just trim in and go. If someone is right behind you, you want to be wrecking his wind and if you are right behind someone, the next tack will unhook the sheet.
As you go around the mark, head up to close hauled course even if your trimming is slow and the sail has big time luffing. It is just easier to trim then and reserves that close hauled slot for you. Sailing fast in the wrong direction will not help your cause.
5) And at the end we come around to starts. Stay close in light wind because it is hard to get back for the start. Use the 3 minutes A) check the line for bias. B) time the line (helps with speed -distance judgement) C) find a range D) check the current (none). In light air if the fleet will let, you keep moving. When the wind is up a little then do the stop and go thing. That needs practice.

BACK TO LASERS.

This blog is about the Eustis Laser fleet so here is the notes on this past weekend.

Rob Krentel dominated the weekend Laser racing, but it is hard for me to not be excited about all the other news. Pearce Pomerleau has a brand new 191913 Laser to match the one that Conner Kechriotis has. They are so nice and white and clean that it is a shame to put them in the dirty water of the lake.

Alejandro is back from the family visits and he worked his way back into shape by winning the last race of the weekend.

Marc Solas is showing up at the windward mark with the leaders. Good work Marc. Time in the boat really counts.

Patrick Daniel won another race over the weekend. That makes two for him so far.
Jerry Beck worked himself into several thirds on Saturday.

Pearce had a second in the third race on Saturday when I did corrected time. He didn’t correct up in any of the other races but is just getting used to the boat. We are currently short of youth due to the high school sailing on an up swing. Over the weekend, no one was using any of the Youth foundation boats, so when we get Ben, Luke, Max, Caroline L., Caroline C., Natalie, Maxwell, Conner, Tom, and don’t forget there is Jonathan, Seth and Bart, we will have a big gang of "youth" to sail with Pearce.

The weekend results:
Rob Krentel 2-3-1-1-1-1+1-1-1-2 Pts 13 Pl 1
Sam Chapin 1-2-4-3-2-2+2-3-2-3 Pt 24 2
Patrick Daniel 3-4-1-2-4-3+5-4-4-4 Pt 34 3
Marc Solas 5-5-6-5-6-5+4-5-5-5 Pt 51 4
Jerry Beck 4-3-5-4-3-4+0-0-0-0 Pt 51 4
Alejandro Illera 0-0-0-0-0-0+3-2-3-1 Pt 51 4
Pearce Pomerleau 0-6-2-6-5-6+6-6-6-6 Pt 56 7

Could youfigure out that that the + separates finishes from Saturday and Sunday.

Notice that we have a three way tie for fourth and I am not going to break the tie or recount because I like to see Marc up above those other guys.

Three 420s sailed with us on Saturday and Rob likes having extra boats on the line and Sam worries about sailing against them when they are having their own little race. E-mail back your ideas about that. They can have their own start after ours.

Eleanor Morad helped with the RC on Saturday. She is a recruit from the Lake Harris Sailing Club and lives up in Summerfield next to Lake Weir and the Ocala Sailing Club. A reminder that the group of central Florida sailing groups can help each other– we really do very different things, but it is all called "sailing". Check the blog at http://centralfloridasailing.blogspot.com

Continued THANKS to Eleanor, Marjorie and Joan for the RC work, faithful recording and taking of times.

This coming Saturday will be Fun Funny racing at 10 to 12 again. We may bet 420s or high school people in Lasers– hard to tell– come and see. That will be the end of that for a while as we dive into the regatta season with all the weekends busy.

Cool temperatures and brisk winds didn’t cool Jim Lingeman who scored four firsts in four races at he Lake Eustis Sailing club over the past week end in the Wayfarer Class including one come- from far behind in the last race. Second place was David Hepting and third Mike Murto.
Flying Scot sailboats were lead by Ray Laguna, second Jack Bazner and third was George Golder.
First place in the MC scows was Dave Moring with Jon Pomerleau second and Mike Baldacchino was third.
Laser sailboat first place was won by Rob Krentel, Sam Chapin second and Patrick Daniel third. Pearce Pomerleau was the first youth.
The high school teams sailed on Saturday in Club 420 sailboats. Ben Getchell and Seth Bahr were first after a tie break with Conner Kechriotis and Bart Eckhart. Lindsey Powers and Craig Yates were third.
Next Club Racing is in two weeks. Optimist pram sailing classes for ages 8 to 15 continue on Saturday with high school sailing Saturday afternoon.
The 10th Annual Wayfarer Regatta will be February 6-7 and 8 with boats from Canada and Michigan coming.
The 39th Annual George Washington Birthday Regatta will be February 21 and 22, a week before the City of Eustis’s George Fest.

Roll gybe in California

Warm temperatures and light winds dominated the Sailing at Lake Eustis over the weekend. In the Laser class Randy Rea from Crystal River won all three light air races on Saturday, but didn’t sail on Sunday so Rob Krentel won the weekend series with Sam Chapin second and Patrick Daniel third. Luke Yates was the first youth and Jennifer Burno the first woman.
The other classes only got one race in on Sunday with Lee Sayler winning the MC scow race, David Moring was second and Jon Pomerleau was third. Ben Getchel was the first youth.
Flying Scot class was won by Ron Baerwitz, Chris Erichson second and Ray Laguna third.
Jim McIntyre was the winner of the Wayfarer race. Jim Lingeman was second and David Hepting third.
Richard Kinnie won the A cat race.
Optimist sailing classes and 420 high school sailing was called off because of light wind. The sailing classes will continue next Saturday with special race coaching.
Next club racing will be in two weeks.