District 11 News
3/21 Frostbite Recap
March 24th, 2010
It was a beautiful weekend in District 11 for Frostbite and over 50 Lasers got out on the water to take advantage of the weather. Both SSA and PRSA concluded their frostbite series. The report below is about the final day of sailing. A series recap and final scores will be posted once they are available.
3/21 Hampton Roads Frostbite
3/21 SSA Frostbite
3/21 PRSA Frostbite
3/21 Hampton Roads Frostbite
Quite simply a most spectacular day on the water! We had 9 Lasers on the line as well as 3 A Cats, a 29er, a 470, a Tazer, a Holder 12 & and a Sunfish for a total of 17 boats. Outstanding RC on Ron's boat by our "Laser Dad's" and perfect conditions with winds generally above 10 kts' with sustained puffs into the teens. Definitely favored the heavier sailors. The Laser fleet was extremely competitive with a few of the 2nd downwind legs looking like a line abreast on the way to carnage at the leeward mark!!
After adjusting for a few DNS's, the Lasers finishes were:
1. Mike Moore
2. Ron Thompson
3. Jake Spracher
4. Jon Deutsch
5. Henry Amthor (Had Henry made the first few races he could have easily carried the day!)
6. Leon Garber
7. Oliver Ross
8. Glenn Atherton
9. Jimmy Hardesty (missed first 2 races)
Thanks to all those who contributed coffee, bagels, pizza & "beverages"!! - Leon Garber
SSA Frostbite
It was a beautiful day to end our 2009/2010 Frostbite Series. With temperatures in the 60s and water temperatures already nearing 50, many sailors opted for wetsuits instead of drysuits. I think even more chose to take the fist day of spring to work around the house. 20 Lasers enjoyed the warm temperatures and good sailing of the final frostbite day. With a high school regatta, a college regatta and the AYC keelboat frostbites, we had to set our course quite a ways from SSA. The winds were quite light and with many lulls and puffs throughout the day. Very difficult conditions to be competitive let alone dominate, yet Ashley Love and Brian Fishback managed just that by tying on 14 points with Ashley taking the tie breaker.
Thanks to Fuller Moore and Sandy Westphal for running the RC boat and Gretchen Esbensen and Buck Downes for running the mark boat.
Photos by Sandy Westphal
The first thing about today was recognizing the situation out on the water. There was a high school regatta, a college regatta and the other keel boat frostbiting. All of that meant a couple of things. It meant that our course was probably going to be far away, so with the light air, it was important to get launched and leave some extra time to get out to the race course. The situation also included very light winds with a sizable laser fleet on the line. This is where the never ending debate of risky vs. safe begins. Figuring out which end of the line is favored is half the battle. If the boat is favored, is that enough of a reason to start there? There are 15 other boats that are going to fighting for those spots and 1 might get it. The other 14 are going to spend the first 10 minutes of the race on top of each other. The first race, I started about half way down the course with full speed and a hole beneath me. I chose a safe start and was able to sail my own race. The entire day, I was forced to tack away from where I wanted to go 1 time. In light air it is so important to sail your own race. Patience. You can't tack every time you think you're going slow. You also don't want to tack because there's a starboard boat approaching. Packs of boats are slow and on a small link in a small course, that means boats are not going to get as much separation, so you need clear air instantly. Once you're free, stay free. Look for breeze and the lifts, of course, but if you are plinko boarding through boats i.e. obstacles and sailing in bad air following the masses, you won't be free to make your own decisions about the wind nor make it to the front of the fleet.
Sum up for the day: Look at the situation, location of the course, breeze determining how long it will take to get to the starting line, safe vs. risky with the ultimate goal of getting free and staying free to be able to sail your own race in clear air.
Ashley Love
Division: Laser (20 boats)
| Pos | Bow/Sail | Club | Skipper | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Total Points |
Pos |
| 1 | 196147 | SSA | Love, Ashley | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 14.00 | 1 |
| 2 | 170058 | SSA | Bryan, Fishback | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 14.00 | 2 |
| 3 | 184472/ 155315 | SSA | Whitacre, Hal | 4 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 16.00 | 3 |
| 4 | 92 | EYC | O'Hare, Gavin | 9 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 22.00 | 4 |
| 5 | 161025 | SSA | Brady, Christopher | 3 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 35.00 | 5 |
| 6 | 187874 | SSA | McKenna, James | 21/DNS | 3 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 38.00 | 6 |
| 7 | 173641 | SSA | Wilson, Leo | 7 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 41.00 | 7 |
| 8 | 183879 | SSA | Long, Karen | 11 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 42.00 | 8 |
| 9 | 194520 | SSA | Sliom, Dave | 6 | 9 | 9 | 13 | 9 | 46.00 | 9 |
| 10 | 166167 | PBSA | Cottrell, Matt | 2 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 53.00 | 10 |
| 11 | 187741 | SSA | Clifton, Tip | 8 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 53.00 | 11 |
| 12 | 262 | SCC | Empey, Bruce | 15 | 17 | 14 | 7 | 12 | 65.00 | 12 |
| 13 | x 92 | Bandit, Guest | 21/DNS | 10 | 4 | 17 | 17 | 69.00 | 13 | |
| 14 | 178857 | SSA | Glass, Adam | 12 | 20 | 19 | 5 | 14 | 70.00 | 14 |
| 15 | 133949/ 173674 | SSA | Young, Peter | 13 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 21/DNF | 71.00 | 15 |
| 16 | 194547 | SSA | Caruso, Jeff | 10 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 13 | 78.00 | 16 |
| 17 | 149958 | SSA | Wilkins, Alan | 21/DNS | 11 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 79.00 | 17 |
| 18 | 11 | SSA | Probhakar, Rohan | 21/DNS | 13 | 15 | 16 | 15 | 80.00 | 18 |
| 19 | 180536 | SSA | Cofer, Steve | 14 | 18 | 17 | 21/DNS | 21/DNS | 91.00 | 19 |
| 20 | 168272 | SSA | Cook, Jen | 16 | 14 | 21/DNS | 21/DNS | 21/DNS | 93.00 | 20 |
PRSA Frostbite
Quite a nice day this past Sunday to finish up this years Frostbite Series. Temps were in the high 60F's and winds were up and down between 6MPH and around 12MPH. We had 6 races in the cove, Erich won the day.
| Pl | Sail | Skipper | Avg | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 644 | Erich Hesse | 1.8 | 1 | 1 | (6) | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | 783 | Sam Dobbs | 2.6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | (4) | 4 |
| 3 | 049 | Robert Bennett | 3.3 | (15) | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
| 4 | 550 | Tim Zimmerman | 3.4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 1 | (6) | 6 |
| 5 | 817 | Michael Renda | 4.8 | (9) | 8 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2 |
| 6 | 113 | Len Guenther | 4.8 | 6 | (15) | 2 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| 7 | 258 | Bob Wilbur | 6.8 | (13) | 4 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 9 |
| 8 | 421 | Jim Graham | 8.6 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 11 | (17) | 8 |
| 9 | 053 | Jim Greenly | 8.8 | 2 | 11 | 11 | (16) | 9 | 11 |
| 10 | 136 | Dan Miller | 9.2 | 12 | 5 | (18) | 12 | 10 | 7 |
| 11 | 829 | Jim Klein | 9.8 | (16) | 12 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 13 |
| 12 | 647 | Scott Snyder | 10.2 | 5 | 10 | 9 | (14) | 13 | 14 |
| 13 | 057 | Farley Will | 11.6 | 8 | 14 | (16) | 15 | 11 | 10 |
| 14 | 655 | Kevin Cowley | 11.6 | 10 | (17) | 12 | 10 | 14 | 12 |
| 15 | 818 | Keith Barron | 12 | (17) | 7 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 15 |
| 16 | 892 | Jacob Donkersloot | 13.6 | 11 | (18) | 17 | 8 | 16 | 16 |
| 17 | 925A | Alexander Nelson | 15.4 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 18 | (19\DNS) | 18\DNS |
| 18 | 000 | Marc Marc | 16 | (18) | 16 | 15 | 17 | 15 | 17\DNF |
| 19 | 329 | Cary Comer | 0# | (5) |
Posted March 24th, 2010 by Jon Deutsch