2005 U.S. Laser Masters Championship Start of race 3 at the 2005 US Laser Masters Championship at Severn Sailing Association.

Notice of Race

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Hard Rock Laser Masters Regatta

• Saturday, October 4th, 2003 - Sunday, October 5th, 2003
• Rock Hall YC
• Rock Hall, MD

The forcast looked like garbage all week long, but by Saturday morning the
sun was shining strong. That was enough motivation for 17 Laser sailors to
haul their boats over to scenic Rock Hall, Maryland. Yes, it did rain, but
only after 9pm. By that point most of the competitors couldn't feel the wet
weather, what with having been for 6 hours straight.

What were the highlights of the regatta you ask? Normally I would classify
Mike Heffernan locking his car keys in his car a noteworthy item. However,
Susan Shipman couldn't let Mike steal the moment. She flat out lost her
keys. No word yet on how Susan got home, or where the keys were lost. More
on that later; first let's return to Heff. AAA took 31 seconds to break
into Mike's car. 5 Laser sailors are $1 poorer as a result. The bottom
line, don't bet against the professionals. Susan's options were less
defined but she seemed to be leaning towards getting a AAA tow back to
Annapolis. Yes, that would be a flatbed tow truck, with VW Jetta and Laser
on top. Triple A should have been the title sponsor of the regatta!

Let's talk about the racing for a little bit. Saturday was light and
shifty. By light I mean in the 5-10 knot range. It was delightful sailing.
The RC did a nice job of chasing the wind around and we got off 4 good races
(triangle, windward, leeward variety). Bob Tan (SSA) had two bullets to put
him atop the leader board going into the Saturday night party. Liz Hancock
(MRSA) put on a strong showing with two top ten finishes. Rob Maxwell came
out of hibernation to pick off a seond in race #4. Mike Schmidt (MRSA) was
the epitomy of consistency as he carded a 2,2,1,3 on Saturday.

Most folks camped out at Rock Hall Saturday night. We all endured a night
of rain, but awoke to zero precipitation and a gently Northerly breeze.
That breeze slowly built to the low teens and we got off three additional
races. Schmidt again ruled the day with scores of 3,1,1. He took the
regatta in convincing fashion with a total of 13 points. That was 8 points
greater than 2nd place overall Bob Tan. Bob owes his 2nd place success
largely to Karen Long. You see, Karen basically got Tan to explode in a
profanity laced fit of rage in the last race...generating enough angst to
propel him across the finish line in 2nd and to avoid the free fall that had
hit him in the first two races of the day. I personlly think there was
something fishy with the Coors Lite that Bob was drinking.

There were some other random Rock Hall observations. I loved the plywood
sign on the outskirts of town that hawked "fresh dressed rabbit, low
cholesteral." I've never seen a fresh dressed rabbit!

Kudos go out to the Rock Hall members who put on a great show for us. They
had tons of volunteers working the regatta and we are greatly appreciative
of the warm reception they gave us. The Saturday night Thai cousine was
fantastic and whoever was bartending was mixing up some potent dark and
stormies. 50/50 mixing was the norm! We heard horror stories about the mud
at Rock Hall, but most of it was largley unfounded. You see, the folks at
RHYC trucked in tons (and I mean tons) of paving rocks to make things
perfect.

If you skipped the regatta because the Weather Channel lied to you, too bad!
You missed a great weekend of fun. Have no fear though. You can always
head back out there in early October for the Rock Hall Masters regatta!

Added: 10/05/2003 10:17:27 by Jon Deutsch
Updated: 7/13/2005 22:12:32 by Jon Deutsch