"Almost Every Sunday Laser Series"

Back in October I started sailing in a new winter Laser series at Richmond Yacht Club. "The Almost Every Sunday Laser Series" The Richmond yacht club junior program invited the local laser sailors to come out and race with their junior sailors. The youths benefit from having experienced sailors racing with them and the adults get in some fun racing/practice in the winter season. It has been great! Depending on the weather we run between 4 and 6 races, which means I get to practice a bunch of starts and mark roundings. Currently I am 5th in the standings, even though I have missed a few days. Ranking is not my main focus in this series. I am using it as a place to try out new things... be it a new tacking method, or purposely putting myself in a bad situation in an effort to learn something new. It has been very rewarding so far!

The Results Are Finally In!

The official results are finally in! I did place 6, 5, 5, 7 and that consistency bumped me up in the overall series to 4th place out of 32 boats. The 3 boats in front of me are good friends as well as my closest competitors for the past 3 years. This gives me even more motivation to get some good training in between now and the next event so I can hopefully edge them out!

Mr. Consistency!

The results are not In! Sorry I have not giving a recap on last weekends Richmond Mid-winters regatta. The Club still has not posted the official Laser fleet scores. For now I will give you my re-cap and eventually I will post the official scores. My unofficial scores were: 6th, 5th, 5th, 7th out of 25 boats.

First Race: 5-10 Knots of wind, 50 degrees, flat water. I had a great start and was able to catch a few good wind shifts and rounded the top mark in 4th place. On the down wind I surfed into second place, only to tack on a couple bad wind shifts on the last leg to the finish and ended up in 6th place.

Second Race: 10-15 Knots of wind, 50 degrees, a lot of chop! Had another good start and rounded the top mark in 3rd place place. Worked my butt off on the downwind leg and snuck into second. On the last downwind I got caught up in some leeward mark rounding chaos. The chaos involved two very fast catamarans screaming in at high speed into the leeward mark claiming right of way and forcing me into some bad wind. This resulted in getting pushed back into 7th place, me getting fired up, and kicking it into high gear and finishing the race in 5th.

Third Race: 15-20 Knots of wind, 50 degrees, a lot of chop! At the start I got forced out at the pin end of the line at the last second and had to gybe around and duck half the fleet before crossing the start line. At the top mark I was sitting in 16th place... I managed to surf a few waves and made up some distance. At the leeward mark I was in 10th place, I needed to make some more gains and I took a "flyer" (I gambled an didn't follow the fleet and went the opposite direction). It paid off I passed another five boats to finish the race in 5th.

Fourth Race: Steady 18 knots of wind, 50 degrees, even more chop! I had a great start, I started on the right side of the line and was able to hold my position and force the entire fleet to the wrong side of the course. By the wrong side I mean the side with more current and shifty wind. I got around the top mark in second place. I managed to maintain this position for two laps, then on the last leg I got distracted by a line on my boat that was tangled and I ended up capsizing! I got the boat back up right and found myself in 10th place! Dang! So what did I do? I sailed my butt off again and was able to cross the finish line in 7th.

In the end I was consistently in the top end of the fleet. I made a few mistakes, learned a lot and I have more to build on for the next event! My next regatta is not until the first weekend in Febuary.

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy new year!