Spring Laser Regatta May 13th

Saturday didn't provide the best weather for our regatta with a high of only 58 and winds mostly in the high teens and low 20's, but the seven sailors who entered had a good time. The entrants were Linda Coleman, Curt Gruenberg (ALSA), Jim Hilgard sailing a radial rig, John Lark, Tim Logan (Creve Coeur), Eric Waldschmidt, and Steve Wyers. Rick Conaway, Nelson Laffey and Mike Reed provided race committee. Becky and Chris Williams provided the beer, Budweiser of course (Actually Michelob Ultra)! The course was a narrow triangle with the weather mark opposite the club,
the jibe by ALSA and the leeward near the Scout Base, all on the Missouri side of the channel. The river current was strong, only slightly below what a Laser could make good upstream after the 30% hit for beating. At the start 2 boats went over and another at the windward. Tim and Eric led with me in 3rd but Jim Hilgard passed me on the rounding and extended on the reaches to get 3rd. Curt was 5th and Linda 6th. I decided to go in to put a reef in, expecting Linda to follow. She didn't see me leave and started race 2, doing nicely until she tangled herself in the mainsheet on a jibe and went over. Mike quickly picked her up in the safety boat and Curt righted it to sail it in, but by that time it had been down too long and was full of water. It stays dry in normal sailing but it must be leaking at the deck seam. I need to pump some air into it and leak check it with soap suds! The fleet came in to eat lunch and went out. The wind had diminished so I took the reef back out and made it for race 4. Linda, still drying out, stayed on shore. Tim and Eric were strong with Curt holding on to 3rd and Jim 4th, me 5th and John plagued by capsizes 6th. Curt collided with me at the mark in race 5 when his boat wouldn't respond to the helm on a crossing, then went over as he tried to do turns leaving me in 3rd, but Jim got by on the beat to the finish to edge me out. The wind was rising again, making it hard for me to hold my boat down even with sheet, vang and Cunningham on full and hiked flat, so I called it a day, joined by John who'd had enough swimming. They ran race 6 but the places stayed the same. The finishes were 1 Tim Logan (2nd time winner of the traveling trophy) 2 Eric Waldschmidt 3 Curt Gruenberg 4 Jim Hilgard 5 John Lark 6 Steve Wyers 7 Linda Coleman.

I'd like to thank the race committee for their management and excellent attention to fleet safety. We had a great time.

Steve Wyers reporting!

Spring is here!

All the signs point to an early start to the season again this year!

Saturday, April 22nd is the harbor opening day and all are expected to come and help get the club put back together for the season. There will be some big projets underway so bring some tools: drills, saws, hammers, nails, etc.

Today, April 3rd, we found out that the big storm last night flipped the committee boat off the trailer and damaged the roof superstructure and some of the handrails. Hopefully we can get it up and running before the first races on April 30th.

Sunday, April 23rd, Greg Polanik will be giving his now famous annual Race Management Seminar. Details to follow!

If you would like to join this blog let me know and we will get you set up!

Leukemia Cup - 2005

Thought I would write a brief note on my experience this past weekend over at Lake Carlyle.
Early in May, I decided to sail in the 2005 Leukemia Cup. I recruited Rick Conaway and Nelson Laffey as crew. Rick intended to meet us there on Saturday, so Nelson and I drove over together, pulling my boat. The rain held off until Nelson and I parked the boat, but the wind kicked up enough to thwart us from putting up the mast. After dinner at the local Legion Hall, we put the mast up and retired for the evening.
Saturday, everything went well in meeting Rick, getting the boat in the water and shoving off from the dock. Set the spinaker to make it out to the course. Saturday racing was two-lap winward leward courses. With Nelson as fore crew and Rick as middle crew, we sailed the first race really well. There were three starts with roughly 10 boats in each start. Before the race there was something like 37 boats milling about the starting line. It was very exciting and kept us on our toes about steering or being on starboard.
The first race went well, with the wind fairly steady at about 10. We had a great start and were near the front of the pack when I did a bad tack and dipped the rails. Several boats passed us, but we recovered and went on. Nelson was doing a great job keeping the jib going, and Rick enjoyed flying the chute on the long downwind legs.
We did fairly well in that race, coming in about the top third of all boats.
The second race we were really doing well on the first lap when I decided to hike a little extra hard. Well, I lost my footing and went over the rail still hanging on to the main sheet. We inadvertently tacked, and the boat capsized. Everyone was okay, but the boat got really disorganized. We righted the boat eventually, but a lot of stuff floated away and was picked up by a committee boat. We had to bail the boat, as we did not have enough speed to use the back drains.
My backstay broke at this time, so we retired from this race and the next one. We put the boat away in good order and settled down to eat and talk with people. Met many people from Creve Coeur and had a great evening.
Rick could not crew on Sunday, but Nelson had already set up a prospective crew. We met him on Sunday and again got the boat off in good order. Wind had picked up this time to at least 15 though whitecaps were out later. I prudently did not fly the spinaker as the wind was shifty, too.
The first race was an Olympic Modified. I got off to a great start and pulled into an early lead. By the end I was a full leg ahead of the fleet and finished first! Smiles all around!
Second race was a windward leward race. I barged around the committee boat to get a nice start though only because a San Juan gave me room when he did not have to. (Lesson learned there about getting too close to the committee boat). A Laser then came up from leeward, and my sail overlapped him before I could respond. Did my turns and continued, though I was last by now. Through great wind reading by all on the board, I passed a number of boats to come in around third in that race.
Retired for the day to pack the boat up. At the trophy award, I was totally surprised to get a second in the Misc class ! Stayed ‘til the end, then had a long, tiring drive back home.