It has been a busy and fun year of sailing. Here is a quick run down of my results from the 2009-2010 season.
Richmond Yacht Club Midwinters 3rd place laser Fleet
Long Beach OCR 11th place
St Francis Spring Dinghy OCR 6th place
Laser Mid-Winters West 38th place
Laser Nor-Cal Championships 8th place
Big Dinghy 3rd place Laser Fleet
Elvstrom Regatta 8th place
Laser Pacific Coast Championships 13th place
Richmond YC Totally Dinghy 6th place
St Francis Fall Dinghy 13th place
Lake Washington Turkey Shoot 1st Place Laser fleet
Laser District 24 Grand Prix Ranking of 6th
North American Laser Grand Prix Season high ranking of 13th
Treasure Island Thursday Night Laser Series 1st Place
115 Individual races
38 Race days
*This Is Just Laser Regattas!
Whoa! Overall it was a successful year, and I have plenty to build on and to improve for next season. I appreciate the support from my sponsors, GU Energy Gel, West Marine Rigging, Zhik Sailing Gear, and the most important of all my wife Keely! I look forward to an even more action packed and successful season!
Thanks
Ryan Nelson
Sailing Addict!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Laser and Etchells and Ultimate 20's Oh My!
Ok Ok I know it has been a while since I have updated the blog! Here is the quick and dirty version on what I have been up to!
Richmond Yacht Club Totally Dinghy September 25-26th!
A solid 22 boat Laser fleet, with shifty light to moderate wind. I was consistently in the top ten with a few top five finishes. I finished the regatta in 6th place.
Etchells Fleet Race October 2nd
My second time racing on Etchells and I loved it! The San Francisco bay fleet is not that big but the racing is very competitive. We had ten boats out on the line and those ten boats seemed to be with in a few boat lengths of each other all day long. This produced some hairy mark roundings and really good drag racing up wind. Our driver Wayne Clough did an excellent job of keeping the pointy end in the right direction, John did a great job of trimming the main and calling tactics. I got placed in my usual keel boat position, the guy on the pointy end! Something about having a low center of gravity and weighing less then any body else on the boat. Maybe one of these days I will sport a beer belly and find myself at the back of a boat. Just kidding! We finished out the day with a couple of thirds and a fourth.
Fall Dinghy at St. Francis Yacht Club October 23-24th
Another solid 22 boat Laser fleet, with very shifty gusty and wet wind! I had a great start in the first race, won the pin and led the fleet most of the way to the weather mark. The wind shifted drastically and the lead pack was becalmed and the back of the pack sailed by. This was how the rest of the day went, I had great starts and great speed and tactics only to succumb to the extreme wind shifts, which resulted in bad finishes. Oh yeah did I mention it was pouring! There was no racing on Sunday due to extreme weather, 40knot gusts with dumping rain. I finished out the weekend in 13th place. Arrrrrrg!
Richmond Yacht Clubs Great Pumpkin October 30-31st
Ultimate 20 sailing! Buoy racing on Saturday, pursuit race on Sunday. We had a great day of sailing on Sunday, wind rain and tons of close racing. Finished 3rd out of 11 and claimed some hardware!
The famous Great Pumpkin Pursuit race the involves sailing from Richmond then around Angle Island and back. You can go either direction, most of the fleet along with us went clockwise. The boat owner Tom Hughs was nice enough to let me drive for the day which was awesome! I worried him a little when wind died at the start and we drifted over the line early having to set the kite to get to the proper side and then started last in our group... Once I got the boat dialed in we spent the rest of the day picking off boats. Unfortunately the wind never came up so we could not correct out on time as planned. We ended up beating all of the rest of the U-20's and finished 54th place out of 176! It's all about next year!
Richmond Yacht Club Totally Dinghy September 25-26th!
A solid 22 boat Laser fleet, with shifty light to moderate wind. I was consistently in the top ten with a few top five finishes. I finished the regatta in 6th place.
Etchells Fleet Race October 2nd
My second time racing on Etchells and I loved it! The San Francisco bay fleet is not that big but the racing is very competitive. We had ten boats out on the line and those ten boats seemed to be with in a few boat lengths of each other all day long. This produced some hairy mark roundings and really good drag racing up wind. Our driver Wayne Clough did an excellent job of keeping the pointy end in the right direction, John did a great job of trimming the main and calling tactics. I got placed in my usual keel boat position, the guy on the pointy end! Something about having a low center of gravity and weighing less then any body else on the boat. Maybe one of these days I will sport a beer belly and find myself at the back of a boat. Just kidding! We finished out the day with a couple of thirds and a fourth.
Fall Dinghy at St. Francis Yacht Club October 23-24th
Another solid 22 boat Laser fleet, with very shifty gusty and wet wind! I had a great start in the first race, won the pin and led the fleet most of the way to the weather mark. The wind shifted drastically and the lead pack was becalmed and the back of the pack sailed by. This was how the rest of the day went, I had great starts and great speed and tactics only to succumb to the extreme wind shifts, which resulted in bad finishes. Oh yeah did I mention it was pouring! There was no racing on Sunday due to extreme weather, 40knot gusts with dumping rain. I finished out the weekend in 13th place. Arrrrrrg!
Richmond Yacht Clubs Great Pumpkin October 30-31st
Ultimate 20 sailing! Buoy racing on Saturday, pursuit race on Sunday. We had a great day of sailing on Sunday, wind rain and tons of close racing. Finished 3rd out of 11 and claimed some hardware!
The famous Great Pumpkin Pursuit race the involves sailing from Richmond then around Angle Island and back. You can go either direction, most of the fleet along with us went clockwise. The boat owner Tom Hughs was nice enough to let me drive for the day which was awesome! I worried him a little when wind died at the start and we drifted over the line early having to set the kite to get to the proper side and then started last in our group... Once I got the boat dialed in we spent the rest of the day picking off boats. Unfortunately the wind never came up so we could not correct out on time as planned. We ended up beating all of the rest of the U-20's and finished 54th place out of 176! It's all about next year!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
It's Official!
2010 Treasure Island Sailing Center Thursday Night Laser Series Champion!
It came down to the final night! After 23 weeks of sailing I was leading the series by 5 points. After doing the math several times I realized that I was not untouchable going into the last night. The top 4 four boats were close enough in points to shake things up for the overall victory. Fortunately for me I saved my best night of the season for the last, I won 4 out of 5 races! I claimed the overall victory for the season! A hard fought second place was earned by Jon "Geezer" Andron, followed closely in third place was Mike Bishop.
Special thanks to the Treasure Island Sailing Center for providing the facilities for us. The volunteers that help organize the whole series week after week. Super Jr. and Super Duper for running the races. Finally the Laser fleet for continually pushing each other to sail faster!
It came down to the final night! After 23 weeks of sailing I was leading the series by 5 points. After doing the math several times I realized that I was not untouchable going into the last night. The top 4 four boats were close enough in points to shake things up for the overall victory. Fortunately for me I saved my best night of the season for the last, I won 4 out of 5 races! I claimed the overall victory for the season! A hard fought second place was earned by Jon "Geezer" Andron, followed closely in third place was Mike Bishop.
Special thanks to the Treasure Island Sailing Center for providing the facilities for us. The volunteers that help organize the whole series week after week. Super Jr. and Super Duper for running the races. Finally the Laser fleet for continually pushing each other to sail faster!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Geezer North Americans!
Okay Okay, it's not the Geezer North Americans...
It was the Laser Masters North American Championships in Long Beach, California. In the Laser class there is a whole separate series of regattas for sailors over the age of 35. One of my laser buddies, Jon Andron, has coined the phrase "Geezers" instead of Masters, hence Geezer North Americans. What does this have to do with me? Since I am not of age, i.e. lacking life experience... I was propositioned to coach/babysit a group of Masters from the bay area with whom I regularly race against. Jon set the whole thing up and put together an offer I could not refuse.
So there I was, 10 o'clock on a Thursday morning and I should have been at work hours ago. Instead, I was busy picking out my seat on a private jet with my wife Keely and several other Laser sailors bound for Long Beach. Yes, a private jet... piloted by none other than the main geezer himself, Jon. The bar has been raised when it comes to "Regatta Mobiles."
Details Details Details
Thursday we landed in Long Beach and drove to our home-base: the house of World Champion Sailor Howard Hamlin, just a few blocks from the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. Once the boat transport arrived (Mike Bishop and three Lasers) we rigged up for a late afternoon of tuning and boat prep. The highlight of the day happened early on during practice as I was following Lasers out of the harbor in the chase boat. Kurt Wessel's boat had a bad reaction to the cold water in combination with the warm air temperature... his boat attempted to implode! The hull sucked in about four to six inches in several places. Thankfully, after the the drain plug was removed, the boat took a deep breath of air and it popped back to normal. So what did we learn? Make sure your hull's breather hole is never plugged!
The 7 Amigos?
Not quite! During the event I was responsible for seven different sailors: Mike Bishop, Jon Andron, Nick Burke, Tracy Usher, Christy Usher, Kurt Wessel, and Peter Vesella. Luckily, Howard let me borrow his awesome chase boat for the weekend. This enabled me to tow the group to and from the race course, chase them around on the water, do wind checks across the course, keep them hydrated, store their spare clothing, and be there for anything else that they needed throughout the weekend.
SFB Fleet!
Over the course of the weekend the San Francisco Bay (SFB) Fleet established their presence. Tracy, as usual, showed his dominance in breeze. David "Mr Consistent" was always in the hunt in the top group. Kurt experienced the full spectrum of the fleet and finished the weekend with several strong results. Nick had a few finishes in the teens and occasionally mixed it up with the big dogs. Jon was finding his groove mid-fleet, occasionally venturing into the lead group to point out how much older he was than them. Mike was consistently hanging with the lead group of the fleet and had a couple strong finishes which landed him third for the weekend in the Apprentice fleet. Christy continually kept improving throughout the weekend to finish her last race in 5th place and securing the overall win in the Women's division. To round out the gang was Peter, whose consistency and sportsmanship earned him the victory in the Grand Masters Division.
Way to go Team!
Conclusion
Overall it was great weekend! I had a blast watching the group sail in some really challenging conditions, and learned a ton. We had a great time hanging out off the water, whether it was pounding Bud Lites, wandering Second Street, or inhaling some glorified cafeteria pasta. We all survived, slightly sun burned, bruised, and fatigued. Good times! Special thanks to my wife for allowing me to do this on our Anniversary Weekend. A special thanks to Howard for letting me borrow his boat, and giving my wife and I a place to stay. Oh yeah and another special thanks to Jon for organizing the whole production, and flying us all down there and back in the lap of luxury.
Tracy getting ready to pounce!
Mike doing some pre-race tuning.
Kurt cruising to the finish.
It was the Laser Masters North American Championships in Long Beach, California. In the Laser class there is a whole separate series of regattas for sailors over the age of 35. One of my laser buddies, Jon Andron, has coined the phrase "Geezers" instead of Masters, hence Geezer North Americans. What does this have to do with me? Since I am not of age, i.e. lacking life experience... I was propositioned to coach/babysit a group of Masters from the bay area with whom I regularly race against. Jon set the whole thing up and put together an offer I could not refuse.
So there I was, 10 o'clock on a Thursday morning and I should have been at work hours ago. Instead, I was busy picking out my seat on a private jet with my wife Keely and several other Laser sailors bound for Long Beach. Yes, a private jet... piloted by none other than the main geezer himself, Jon. The bar has been raised when it comes to "Regatta Mobiles."
Details Details Details
Thursday we landed in Long Beach and drove to our home-base: the house of World Champion Sailor Howard Hamlin, just a few blocks from the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. Once the boat transport arrived (Mike Bishop and three Lasers) we rigged up for a late afternoon of tuning and boat prep. The highlight of the day happened early on during practice as I was following Lasers out of the harbor in the chase boat. Kurt Wessel's boat had a bad reaction to the cold water in combination with the warm air temperature... his boat attempted to implode! The hull sucked in about four to six inches in several places. Thankfully, after the the drain plug was removed, the boat took a deep breath of air and it popped back to normal. So what did we learn? Make sure your hull's breather hole is never plugged!
The 7 Amigos?
Not quite! During the event I was responsible for seven different sailors: Mike Bishop, Jon Andron, Nick Burke, Tracy Usher, Christy Usher, Kurt Wessel, and Peter Vesella. Luckily, Howard let me borrow his awesome chase boat for the weekend. This enabled me to tow the group to and from the race course, chase them around on the water, do wind checks across the course, keep them hydrated, store their spare clothing, and be there for anything else that they needed throughout the weekend.
SFB Fleet!
Over the course of the weekend the San Francisco Bay (SFB) Fleet established their presence. Tracy, as usual, showed his dominance in breeze. David "Mr Consistent" was always in the hunt in the top group. Kurt experienced the full spectrum of the fleet and finished the weekend with several strong results. Nick had a few finishes in the teens and occasionally mixed it up with the big dogs. Jon was finding his groove mid-fleet, occasionally venturing into the lead group to point out how much older he was than them. Mike was consistently hanging with the lead group of the fleet and had a couple strong finishes which landed him third for the weekend in the Apprentice fleet. Christy continually kept improving throughout the weekend to finish her last race in 5th place and securing the overall win in the Women's division. To round out the gang was Peter, whose consistency and sportsmanship earned him the victory in the Grand Masters Division.
Way to go Team!
Conclusion
Overall it was great weekend! I had a blast watching the group sail in some really challenging conditions, and learned a ton. We had a great time hanging out off the water, whether it was pounding Bud Lites, wandering Second Street, or inhaling some glorified cafeteria pasta. We all survived, slightly sun burned, bruised, and fatigued. Good times! Special thanks to my wife for allowing me to do this on our Anniversary Weekend. A special thanks to Howard for letting me borrow his boat, and giving my wife and I a place to stay. Oh yeah and another special thanks to Jon for organizing the whole production, and flying us all down there and back in the lap of luxury.
David Lapier pounding upwind!
Nick Burke doing his thing.
Christy crushing the Radials!
Nick Burke doing his thing.
Christy crushing the Radials!
Tracy getting ready to pounce!
Mike doing some pre-race tuning.
Kurt cruising to the finish.Monday, June 7, 2010
Number 18!
My Season High!
After competing in the Mid-Winters West, District 24 Championships and the Pacific Coast Championships I achieved a 2010 International Laser Class Association North American Grand Prix Standing of 18th place. Unfortunately I will not be attending anymore ranking regattas this season so my standing will drop.
The Future!
I do not have any big regattas for the next few months. My focus for now is on the Svendson's Thursday Night Series at Treasure Island which I currently sit 3rd place overall. I also plan on sailing as much as possible, after work, weekends, when ever, it's the summer and I live in the Bay Area and it is one of the best places to sail!
After competing in the Mid-Winters West, District 24 Championships and the Pacific Coast Championships I achieved a 2010 International Laser Class Association North American Grand Prix Standing of 18th place. Unfortunately I will not be attending anymore ranking regattas this season so my standing will drop.
The Future!
I do not have any big regattas for the next few months. My focus for now is on the Svendson's Thursday Night Series at Treasure Island which I currently sit 3rd place overall. I also plan on sailing as much as possible, after work, weekends, when ever, it's the summer and I live in the Bay Area and it is one of the best places to sail!
Laser Pacific Coast Championships
Wind, wind and more wind! Three days of fun in Santa Cruz at the 2010 Laser PCC's. Twenty of the best guys on the west coast. Friday was typical Santa Cruz, Fog in the A.M. followed by nuking winds and decent size waves. Saturday there was no fog in the A.M., but the breeze showed up in full force with a bit more swell. Sunday ended up being a no race day due to two different wind patterns fighting over the same area and they both lost, which meant no wind.Hmmm my weekend in review...
I struggled to find a rhythm and found my self constantly over powered and lacking speed and height. I had great starts all weekend long but was unable to hang with the big dogs in the long run. My surfing background payed off and I was able to make huge gains on the runs with the big swells. By Sunday afternoon I was able to finally get into a groove upwind and makes some gains. Overall I had an OK regatta, I did not get the results that I was looking for, though I did gain a ton more experience that will help me excel in the future.
| 171314 | stephen bourdow | Sequoia YC | [16] | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | ||
| 196139 | Tracy Usher | St Francis Yacht Club | 3 | 1 | 2 | [12] | 1 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 2 | ||
| 192079 | Ben Leibowitz | ABYC | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | [20/OCS] | 4 | 18 | 3 | ||
| 176124 | Peter Phelan | Santa Cruz Yacht Club | 1 | [8] | 6 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 22 | 4 | ||
| 185557 | Peter Vessella | saint francis | 2 | 4 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 6 | [14] | 27 | 5 | ||
| 192051 | Michael Bradley | Long Beach Yacht Club | 9 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | [12] | 9 | 39 | 6 | ||
| 173666 | Mike Bishop | StFYC | 6 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 8 | [10] | 41 | 7 | ||
| 171638 | Nick Burke | RYC | 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 13 | [17] | 43 | 8 | ||
| 184619 | Max FRASER | SANTA CRUZ YACHT CLUB | 8 | 11 | [13] | 9 | 12 | 4 | 5 | 49 | 9 | ||
| 179426 | Stephen Orosz | SSC | 7 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 9 | [16] | 50 | 10 | ||
| 164243 | Kieron Kavanagh | SBYC | 11 | 10 | [12] | 10 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 53 | 11 | ||
| 188709 | jon andron | st.francis | 14 | [16] | 10 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 6 | 66 | 12 | ||
| 195948 | Ryan Nelson | West Marine | 10 | 12 | 11 | [15] | 13 | 7 | 15 | 68 | 13 | ||
| 155477 | Will Lowe | RYC | 12 | [15] | 15 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 8 | 78 | 14 | ||
| 191555 | Paul Foley | N/A | 15 | 14 | 16 | 13 | 16 | 11 | [20/RAF] | 85 | 15 | ||
| 162032 | Alexander 'Zan' Drejes | scyc | 13 | 13 | 14 | 18 | 15 | [20/DNF] | 20/DNF | 93 | 16 | ||
| 194053 | Michael Kraft | MPYC | [20/DNF] | 20/DNF | 20/DNF | 17 | 17 | 10 | 13 | 97 | 17 | ||
| 173200 | Sean McGinn | Cottage Park YC | [20/DNF] | 20/DNF | 20/DNF | 16 | 18 | 16 | 11 | 101 | 18 | ||
| 7 | Joseph crum | scyc | [20/DNF] | 20/DNF | 20/DNF | 19 | 19 | 20/DNF | 12 | 110 | 19 |
Monday, May 17, 2010
Caught in Action!
Good Form! This is a roll tack sequence from the Big Dinghy regatta. These shots are one second apart. Thanks to John Liebenberg on the chase boat for taking these photos. 
Friday, May 14, 2010
Thursday Night Fever!
Thursday Night Fever? I had a great Thursday night of racing out a Treasure Island. We had 11 boats and 5-15 knots of breeze. I had great starts, great up wind speed, insane down wind speed and great tactical awareness! I had a 3rd, a 4th and three bullets! Heck Yes! Super Special thanks to GU Energy for giving me that extra bit of energy to pull away from the fleet! I went threw two bottles of GU-2-O and 4 packets of GU Roctane Energy Gel! Man does this stuff work!
I also want to thank Zhik Sailing Equipment for giving me a spread of there new sailing gear! The "Power Pads" are freaking awesome! They took a couple days to get them dialed in and now they are a huge part of my performance gains!
Oakland yacht Club Beer Can?
Beer Can? For the past three years one of my co-workers has been begging me to go sailing on his boat. And I have always been busy racing my own boats and stuff, so when my friend John Foster asked me for the millionth time, my soccer game for the night had been canceled so why not!
We were racing on John's Non-Such 22 "Blue Berries" which is kind of like a combination of a tug boat, a laser and a windsurfer. We only had one race which consisted of sailing around several different buoys, channel makers and other obstacles that are spread through out the Oakland/Alameda Estuary.
The wind was light and shifty but some how I was able to figure that funny little boat out and we managed to win our fleet for the night. We were so far ahead that by the time we got the boat back into our slip, the second place boat just crossed the finish line just as we finished putting the boat away. Not bad for my first time driving a Tug-Surf-Laser!
We were racing on John's Non-Such 22 "Blue Berries" which is kind of like a combination of a tug boat, a laser and a windsurfer. We only had one race which consisted of sailing around several different buoys, channel makers and other obstacles that are spread through out the Oakland/Alameda Estuary.
The wind was light and shifty but some how I was able to figure that funny little boat out and we managed to win our fleet for the night. We were so far ahead that by the time we got the boat back into our slip, the second place boat just crossed the finish line just as we finished putting the boat away. Not bad for my first time driving a Tug-Surf-Laser!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Laser Nor-Cal Championships!
Laser Northern California Championships at the Santa Cruz yacht Club.
8-28 knots of breeze, shifty, 3 foot swells with a ton of chop. We only had ten boats show up, but it was solid group. We got the full range of Santa Cruz sailing, light shifty wind to nuking conditions with big swells. I t was awesome! The up-winds were challenging trying to find a groove in the chop and dealing with the random holes in the breeze. The down-winds were a blast, i sailed extremely well, at times I forgot that I was racing because I was having so much fun surfing the waves. I consistently passed boats on the downwind. I found myself in the top five 3/4 of the way threw the race , though I always managed to loose a few boats on the last upwind. I had good starts, which helped but my upwind speed was not there. We had five races, and i managed to get three 8th places, one 7th and finished up with a 6th. My consistency landed me in 8th place overall. Steve Bourdow finished in first place, wining all but one race. He was followed by Tracy Usher in second and Peter Vessela in third. Drake had a great day and was able to mix it up a bit with the "Legends" and finished in a solid in 5th place
Overall it was great day of racing! It was a taste of what it will be like for the Pacific Coast Championships that will be held at the same venue next month.
8-28 knots of breeze, shifty, 3 foot swells with a ton of chop. We only had ten boats show up, but it was solid group. We got the full range of Santa Cruz sailing, light shifty wind to nuking conditions with big swells. I t was awesome! The up-winds were challenging trying to find a groove in the chop and dealing with the random holes in the breeze. The down-winds were a blast, i sailed extremely well, at times I forgot that I was racing because I was having so much fun surfing the waves. I consistently passed boats on the downwind. I found myself in the top five 3/4 of the way threw the race , though I always managed to loose a few boats on the last upwind. I had good starts, which helped but my upwind speed was not there. We had five races, and i managed to get three 8th places, one 7th and finished up with a 6th. My consistency landed me in 8th place overall. Steve Bourdow finished in first place, wining all but one race. He was followed by Tracy Usher in second and Peter Vessela in third. Drake had a great day and was able to mix it up a bit with the "Legends" and finished in a solid in 5th place
Overall it was great day of racing! It was a taste of what it will be like for the Pacific Coast Championships that will be held at the same venue next month.
| 171314 | Stephen Bourdow | sequoia | 1 | 1 | 1 | [2] | 1 | 4 | 1 | ||
| 196139 | Tracy Usher | St Francis Yacht Club | 2 | 2 | [3] | 1 | 2 | 7 | 2 | ||
| 185557 | Peter Vessella | StFYC | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | [11/DNS] | 13 | 3 | ||
| 173931 | Martin Hartmanis | lkjkl | [5] | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 14 | 4 | ||
| 182870 | Drake Jensen | Richmond Yacht Club | 4 | 4 | [5] | 5 | 4 | 17 | 5 | ||
| 194041 | Mark Halman | RYC | 6 | [7] | 6 | 6 | 5 | 23 | 6 | ||
| 188709 | Jon Andron | duno | 7 | 6 | 7 | 8 | [11/DNF] | 28 | 7 | ||
| 195948 | Ryan Nelson | West Marine Rigging | [8] | 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 29 | 8 | ||
| 5477 | Will Lowe | Richmond Yacht Club | [9] | 9 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 34 | 9 | ||
| 167444 | Sean McBurney | Santa Cruz | 10 | 10 | [11/DNF] | 11/DNS | 11/DNS | 42 | 10 |
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