First off I am glad we went out and that there were so many boats that did go out. I had not been on my Laser since August and probably most people longer. It was a lot of fun. Now to the conditions. If you have not read James Jacobs write-up for last year’s Hangover Regatta then do so. It's well written and you’ll probably get more out of it. The conditions were similar and I used points from it. The one that I used the most was not hiking 100% upwind in the windy and shifty conditions. Upwind I used a ¾ hike, with my vang on tight and playing my mainsheet constantly. As the day lightened up I started to hike harder. I was not the quickest upwind, Mike Renda, Steve Yelland and Robert Bennett were probably quicker. When I stepped out for the last race I asked the guys on the boat what they saw and they said that I was sailing very flat. It did not seem that I was sailing very flat but I must have been keeping it flat upwind by mainsheet trim. I feel that I was the quickest on the reaches. On the reaches in the first two races was where I made up ground. I never tried to go too high of the rhumb line so as to minimize sailing dead downwind in the breeze. So when I saw a puff over my shoulder I would head down just a bit so I would stay in control and not round up as the breeze built in. Look forward to next week. |
||||
Join the PRSA Laser Fleet Email List
Contact the PRSA Laser Webmaster at: