October 16 and 17, 2010 Lasers hang in there at Lake Eustis. We had six boats out both Starturday and Sunday with a total of 8 sailors and then 3 more practicing with Lasers after the races on Sunday. The MC fleet has dropped off with only six sailing on Saturday and four on Sunday. The Scot group has sort of taken over top spot with nine on Saturday and dropping off to 5 on Sunday. Several of the Scots are sailing single handed. Sort of to bad for building fleet from the group of crews. Not sure if those skippers just prefer sailing alone when the wind is light or if no one will crew for them twice. The Wayfarers had 6 boats out Saturday and four on Sunday. That is good for them.

Randy Rea came over to sail with the Lasers us on Saturday. He suffered from the light wind and should have been with us on Sunday. Here are combined finishes

Alejandro Illera 1-1-1-1+1-3-1-2-2-1 =10
Sam Chapin 3-3-3-4+3-1-2-3-3-5=30
Rob Krentel 28+2-2-3-1-1-2=39
Randy Rea 2-2-2-2+42 =50
Patrick Daniel 5-6-6-6+4-5-5-6-4-3 =50
Marc Solal 6-5-5-5+6-6-6-5-5-4= 54
Bianca Mesa 4-4-4-3+42 =57
Charlie Jensen 28+5-4-4-4-ns-ns =59

We didn’t use any of the Youth Foundation boats. Bianca was the only youth and the only woman sailing with us. Somehow we need to do better on both things.

Bianca sailed her radial rig and I calculated the corrected times for her and the boats ahead of her. She got close, but her finishes stayed the same. Fourth for the day. We have promised her the loan of a full rig anytime she wants.

The news on Alejandro is that we got to him a little Sunday when the wind was up a little. He got hit with a third in the second race and after five races he and Rob were tied for the day. Then we had a short reaching race in light wind—Alejandro on top.

Sam had a better day on Sunday with a 1 and 2.

Rob got a lot of important work done at home and in the neighborhood Saturday. We were glad to have him back setting marks and stuff on Sunday and keeping Alejandro entertained.

Randy Rea missed Sunday. I am sorry we didn’t see how he could handle our strange winds.

Patrick Daniel sailed both days with us and a good bit of the time was dueling with Marc. Marc, our heavy weight, beat him on the light day and then lost it with the better wind. Hard to figure these things. Patrick worked his way up to third in the last race.,

I asked Marc what Patrick was missing on Saturday and he thinks Patrick should pay more attention to sailing to the “pressure”– sail to the dark water.

Charlie Jensen was back with us on Sunday. Mary had another 39th Birthday party on Saturday and it was a big success. We should have another Birthday Party for Mary when we sail again in November. Charlie had a string of 4th places and then went over to the big course and sailed with the Wayfarers where he finished in the middle. That is an option that any of us have. Our RC should be able to check on the radio when they start there second race. That will give you a extra hour of racing on a long course.

Come and help and watch all the youth sailing the next two weekends.

Tom Rhodes should be back with us the first weekend in November and if we get the high school group with us we will be back up to ten boats starting which will help us with boat to boat tactics.
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Laser stuff for October 9 and 10, 2010.

We struggled with light wind and progressive left shift on Saturday. The wind shifted left after Rob set the marks and we had a light wind reach to windward mark and then a broad reach back to the leeward mark. We did it one more time hoping that the wind would shift back. Then Joan drove the RC boat up and changed the windward mark while Rob moved the leeward. Then the wind went more left the mess it up again but not as bad. Ended up with only three light air races.

Alejandro Illera 1-1-1 3
Rob Krentel 2-2-2 6
Sam Chapin 3-3-4 10
Marc Solal 5-6-3 14
Cameron Smith 4-4-6 14
Mike Caputo 7-5-5 17
Claire Epaillard 6-7-7 20

The big news is that Rob passed Alejandro on one of the runs. Well, then Alejandro still beat him to the finish. Maybe it helps to have your wife and daughter on the RC. Yes, Thank you Maribel and Genesis for helping out with RC while Marjorie was playing with the Master Gardeners.

Light wind and our big and heavy weather guy, Marc, was never last and even sailed into 3rd once. Second place in one of the races coming up.

Cameron Smith sailed with us before and handles the boat really well. He was tied with Marc, but Marc had that three, so he slips ahead for the day. Cameron is a good friend of Luke Yates and they have been sailing Lasers together. Luke broke his arm playing football and we are trying to get him into the band. It should be a safer sport.

Mike Caputo came and sailed Patrick Daniel's boat. Mike has sailed with us several years ago, and has an invitation to come and do it again. He claimed he had a good time and learned a lot. He made Claire happy in the first race and then sailed a little better.

Claire Epaillard sailed with us for the first time ahe has been sailing the Laser with the high school group, but not this crazy kind of race and day. She was the winner of our woman's trophy, but we didn't have one.

I really messed up on the race report that I sent to the newspaper. Cameron should have been listed as the first youth and Clarie as the first Woman and second youth.

Now, the part that you are waiting for..to find out how Sam got into second place. That was Sunday and the Lake looked flatter than we had ever seen it. Sam, Alejandro and Rob were the only ones that showed up. Marc was off on his trip to Africa and our Iron-man, Tom Rhodes, was nursing his cold or pneumonia.
Rob and Alejandro looked at each other and said "why not just sail next week when there will be more wind." So they went home to get some of the "home work" done so they would be free for next weekend. Sam excused the RC and sat around talking to what was left of the MC group until a little wind filled in and Dave Williams called for 12 o'clock start for the "big boats". So Sam went out with the Laser to race against Wayfarers but Williams started everyone in one start--- fine, but a 14 foot boat starting with 19 footers and 16 footers is not a very happy camper. A forty minute race and Dave Hepting in a Wayfarer and all the MCs and a couple of Scots beat the Laser. But Sam was the first Laser so when I added that to my 10 from Saturday and Alejandro got a 8 for a DNS on Sunday--- Sam is tied for first for the weekend, but Alejandro has more firsts and so Sam is second. It pays to be the score keeper.