Spring 2004 - Laser Class Website

SPRING 2004
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Official publication
of the International
Laser Class Association,
North American Region
Box 6120
Annapolis, MD 21401
Phone: (410) 991-3719
Fax: (410) 266-3173
James@Laser.org
www.Laser.org
S P R I N G
2 0 0 4
District Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
ExCom Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Editor
James Appel
Executive Director
ILCA-NA
Officers
Peter Johns
Chairman
15 Farm Valley Rd.
Osterville, MA 02655
Phone: (508) 420-5210
Tracy Usher
Vice Chairman
22 Creekside La
San Mateo, CA 94401
Phone: (650) 926-3253
tracy.usher@stanford.edu
Eric Faust
Secretary
821 East 53rd Street
Austin, TX 78751
Phone: (512) 467-1317
efaust@flash.net
John Dawson-Edwards
Treasurer
795 Wheeler Road West
Edmonton, AB T6M 2E5
Phone: (780) 487-0937
Fax: (780) 429-4843
john@jdecm.com
Message from ISAF President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
The Road to 2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Laser Maintanence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
2004 Midwinters East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Masters Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
From the Districts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Laser World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Center
2004 Event Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
2004 Grand Prix Standings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
Sailing Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Advertising Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Index to Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
Membership Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32
The Laser Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
Tim Landt
At Large
450 4th Ave North
Tierra Verde, FL 33715
Phone: (727) 866-0613
Fax: (727) 866-8838
timc3@gte.net
James Appel
Executive Secretary
Box 6120
Annapolis, MD 21401
Phone: (410) 991-3719
Fax: (801) 454-8632
james@Laser.org
Chris Raab, Newport
Harbor Yacht Club, Newport
Beach, CA
PHOTO BY MARIA CHANDLER, M.D.
www.Laser.org
5
BRITISH COLUMBIA
5
ALBERTA
SASKATCHEWAN
QUEBEC
4
MANITOBA
NEW
BRUNSWICK
ONTARIO
6
WASHINGTON
NORTH
DAKOTA
22
OREGON
IDAHO
VERMONT
MINNESOTA
MICHIGAN
NEW
9 YORK
WISCONSIN
21
WYOMING
19
IOWA
10
PENNSYLVANIA
20
NEBRASKA
OHIO
18
UTAH
ILLINOIS
WEST
VIRGINIA
KANSAS
23
25
16
OKLAHOMA
NEW JERSEY
11
MARYLAND
NORTH
CAROLINA
12
TENNESSEE
ARKANSAS
17
NEW MEXICO
TEXAS
SOUTH
CAROLINA
GEORGIA
LOUISIANA
15
RHODE ISLAND
CONNECTICUT
KENTUCKY
MISSOURI
ARIZONA
8
MASSACHUSETTS
VIRGINIA
COLORADO
CALIFORNIA
NEW HAMPSHIRE
7
DELAWARE
INDIANA
NEVADA
NOVA SCOTIA
MAINE
MONTANA
SOUTH DAKOTA
24
1
2
3
PUERTO RICO AND
THE CARIBBEAN
14 ALABAMA
MISSISSIPPI
29
13
FLORIDA
District 1
District 9
District 18
Andrew Childs, 5369 South Street #3,
Halifax, NS B3J 1A3
902-423-5919. andrewchilds@yahoo.com
Chas Williamson, 9 Lagrand Court
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-272-0630. cw26@cornell.edu
We need a new District Secretary,
please contact James Appel if you
know of anyone.
District 2
District 10
Denys Deschambeault, 5120 Du Havre,
Trois Rivieres, PQ G8Y 5Y9
819-372-0842
denys.deschambeault@tr.cgocable.ca
Phil Karcher 1104 Kennedy Drive
Wall, NJ 07716 732-974-1887.
pkarcher@springlakenj.com
District 3
JR Futcher
11 Iowa Ave, Lewes Beach, DE 19958
302-465-2563, jrfdelaware@hotmail.com
Dave Abbott, 1248 Crestwood Dr.
District 12
District 21
John Overton, 407 North Channel Drive
Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480
910-509-0196, d12laser@yahoo.com
Johannes Aubrecht, 25 Inner Drive
St. Paul, MN 55116-1819
651-695-3157. jasa2@linux1.mmm.com
District 13
District 22
Tim Landt, 450 4th Ave. North
Tierra Verde, FL 33715
727-866-0613. timc3@gte.net
Orrin Webber, 460 Orchard Ridge Rd
Kalispell, MT 59901
406-257-7757. compassgroup@centurytel.net
District 14
District 23
Cal Herman, 7038 Catina St
New Orleans, LA 70124, 504-282-1770
callender.herman@wachoviasec.com
James Richmond, Box 132
Nederland, CO 80466, 303-258-7125
jerichmond@earthlink.net
District 15
District 24
Bruce Moore, 201 River Rd,
Coppell, TX, 75019, 972-393-5075
bwmoore@augustmail.com
Peter Phelan, 523 Mello Lane
Santa Cruz, CA 95062
831-462-5528. peterp@westmarine.com
District 16
District 25
Katy Towles, 3117 Kerry lane,
Oklahoma City, OK, 73120, 405-476-2859
Katytowles@sbcglobal.net
Nils Andersson, 13460 Hwy 8 SPC #92
Lakeside, CA 92040-5228
619-561-1722. nilssail@cox.net
District 17
District 26
John Coolidge
Guy Fleming, 44-392 Olina St. #6
Kaneohe, HI 96744-2617
808-955-4405. guynsyd@lava.net
Heinz Gebauer, 2205 South Millway - Unit 109
Mississauga ON L5L 3T2
905-820-8446. heinzgebauer@hotmail.com
District 4
Maureen Mathews, 11 Harvard Ave.
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3M 0J6
mmathew@winnipeg.cbc.ca
District 5
John Dawson Edwards
795 Wheeler Rd. W., Edmonton AB T6M 2E5
780-487-0937. john@jdecm.com
District 6
Andy Hunt, 111-2260 W 8st Ave,
Vancouver BC, V6K 2A7
604-733-9663. Hotline: 206-525-5788.
bclaser@hotmail.com
District 7
Sally Sharp, 39 Caleb Dyer Lane
Enfield, NH 03748
603-632-4192. sally.sharp@dartmouth.edu
D7 Newsletter / Website
Chris Morin
abcmorin@maine.rr.com
207.775.5485
District 8
Don Woodworth, 15 Woodfield Ave
Northport NY 11768 631-754-2840.
donaldwoodworth@hotmail.com
6
District 11
District 19
Michael Moody, 7 Agate Way
Williamston, MI, 48895-9423
517-655-3435. MichaelCMoody@cs.com
District 20
Northbrook, IL 60062
847-564-8722. davidabbott@ameritech.net
SPRING 2004
Laser World Championship 2002
Laser.
The boat is just the beginning.
competition
4.7
camaraderie
Radial
Laser
commitment
1-800-966-SAIL
www.teamvanguard.com
Sailing. Spread the Word.
Repor t s
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
PETER JOHNS
Spring is almost here. For those in
the Northeast it is a time to go over
your boat and look at all the upcoming regattas to plan your summer
sailing. Get off your couch, now it's
time to shut down your computer and
go sailing! You will meet lots of new
sailors and support people who enjoy
the sport as much as you. I went to
the Masters Midwinters East and had
a wonderful and very busy weekend.
I was asked to help with the Race
Committee and happy to be in a
warm locale. I gladly accepted. What
a great job Clearwater Yacht Club
did, for two weekends they opened
their club to the Laser class and put
on two great regattas. These regattas
do not just happen; they require planning and forethought for all the little
details. There is usually one
Chairperson in charge. That was the
case in Clearwater. For several years
Cassie Featherston has set up and
run these regattas for the Laser
class. We would like to thank Cassie
for her hard work, I would also challenge each Laser sailor at their next
regatta to find the Chairperson and
show them your gratitude.
There are many new items on the
landscape at ILCA-NA; we have completed a first version of the Regatta
Guidelines. This will allow each
Chairperson running a Laser event to
have a document they can edit,
NOR, Sailing Instructions and general information. Look for this on the
website. Speaking of the website, we
are trying to make the regatta schedule more user friendly, in this issue is
the hard copy schedule. Please send
in pictures, results and anything
about Lasers or their sailors to
James; he will post it on the website
or add it to The Laser Sailor.
We have created a new set of ByLaws which, by the time you read this
will be on the website for your review.
Please remember these are general
guidelines by which we will operate.
We have kept them simple and
reflected how we operate now. Please
email someone on the Executive
Committee if you have constructive
input. After these are approved by the
District Secretaries, we will continue
forward with our quest to become a
8
501c3 organization. This will allow us
to take donations and the donor will
get a tax deduction.
During the Masters Midwinters
East, Tim Landt organized a fund
raiser for Mark Mendelblatt at St
Petersburg Yacht Club. This was a
great event and raised enough
money to cover the remaining costs
for Mark to get to Athens. I know the
entire Laser Class wishes Mark
good luck!
Finally, I want to challenge each
member to add to the class. We
need every member to take a
younger sailor or new member under
their wing, help them get up to
speed on the course, take them to a
new regatta or even get them to be a
member of ILCA-NA. Now who is
going to help me get up to speed on
the race course? I have been known
to be terrible downwind. See you at
the next regatta.
VICE CHAIRMAN’S
REPORT
TRACY USHER
It is amazing how fast time passes; it
hardly seems like last year's sailing
season ended, when the new one is
already on top of us!
The major master's and open
events of winter are now in the
record books (see results and writeups of the Jack Swenson Master's,
Master's MWE, MWE and MWW in
this issue) and those of us lucky
enough to live where the water is
liquid are already starting our spring
racing series. Pat Healy put in his
second year as chief judge at the
Midwinters East with his job made a
bit easier this year by the breezier
conditions (and fewer yellow flags
than last year). I spoke with him for
a while on the subject of Rule 42
and on the water judging (see his
article in this issue). One question I
had was how we can make sure to
get experienced judges for our
events and one of the things he suggested was that we should work to
recruit judges from our own ranks. I
think this is an excellent suggestion
and I thought I would try here to
being the process of encouraging
our class members to consider
going through the process of becoming a judge, with an eye to putting
experienced people out on the water
at our events. If you think this is
something that sounds interesting,
please don't hesitate to contact me,
James or any of the Executive
Committee members!
As everyone knows, the Laser
Worlds are "early" this year, to be held
in Turkey during the month of May.
North America will again be well represented at both the Senior and
Master Worlds, though the total number we're sending to both is definitely
down, a sad reflection on the reality of
the times we live in now. It is unfortunate, especially since everyone tells
me what a beautiful place Bitez is and
how great the sailing conditions are
there. Hopefully, this doesn't keep people completely out of their boats,
especially since the really big event of
this year will be the Laser North
Americans at Cedar Point YC.
With all I have been told, I am convinced this will be the biggest North
Americans in recent memory, so start
making your plans for that event now!
For those on the West Coast there
is a great line up as well, with the
Laser PCC's in Monterey preceding
the Laser/Radial US Nationals in
Santa Cruz, then up to British
Columbia for the Laser/Radial
Canadian Nationals at Squamish.
What a great way to start the summer!
Hope to see lots of you on the water!
TREASURER'S REPORT
JOHN DAWSON-EDWARDS
By the time you read this, the half year
financials should be posted on the
website. This is the first full year of the
calendar year memberships, so we
are watching with interest the rate at
which revenue comes in.
To encourage early payment
each year we have introduced a
$5.00 late fee (also applicable when
you join at major regattas). We are
being squeezed by the exchange
rate to the British Pound. We remit
4.50 GBP to the UK for ILCA international dues for each member. At
time of writing this is worth $8.25 US
of your $35.00 US membership fee.
Then also send back to the Districts
up to $4.00 US per member based
on the previous year's membership
numbers. Our real income, therefore,
is at a maximum, $22.75 per member. We are also down on the revenue front, with Vanguard advising
us we will be down $3,500 compared
to last year's contribution from boat
sales. This squeezes us another
$1.17 or so. While we can manage
this year, we may be forced to raise
annual fees next year to keep a balanced (or slightly positive) budget.
Stay tuned and remember to pay
your fees on time!
SPRING 2004
A Message From President Henderson
To LASER Sailors:
It surely does not seem to have been
over thirty years since Ian Bruce
showed up in Toronto at the "Water
Rats" with his "Toy" called the Laser
designed by Bruce Kirby. It was a bitterly cold December day but we had
an area where a Power Generating
Station pumped warmer water into the
bay keeping it free from ice. Ian asked
Hans Fogh to sail it and it was Hans
tightened the leech and made it such
a powerful rig. Ian wanted to show the
boat at the New York Boat Show and
then enter the "Little America's Tea
Cup" at the Play Boy Club on Lake
Geneva Wisconsin here Buddy
Melges grew up. The rest is history.
The Laser fitted the needs of sailing as it was a counter culture to the
nemesis of sailing which is escalating
costs. What you see is what you get
and win by talent not technology. It
has stayed true to its original concept
and is still the most popular sailing
dinghy in the World. The various Laser
rigs have allowed for a broader range
of sailors to enjoy the concept.
The major challenge to the Laser
has been allowing the equipment to
be used in the Olympics while not
allowing those pressures to dominate
the local and regional competitions.
Several ideas have been used and the
British idea of having a National
Championship of club sailors was
excellent. The Masters and Super
Masters events also have ensured the
health of the class.
On top of this the class association both internationally and regionally has ensured it continued
growth. It is strong class associa-
tions and Yacht Clubs who face their
responsibility to host regattas which
makes sailing work. The sailors must
be constantly reminded about this
and respect that they are privileged
to be allowed to use these facilities
and structures. I would be remiss if I
did not thank the Laser manufacturers especially Performance Sailcraft
and Tim Coventry along with his
sidekick Jeff Martin for their constant
support by supplying equipment to
Regional Games and ISAF Youth
and other regattas. Without their
involvement these international
events could not happen.
Laser Forever!
with great respect,
Paul Henderson, President
International Sailing Federation
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9
The Road to 2004
ANDREW CHILDS
Laser sailing has been a part of my
life for more than ten years. In those
ten years, it feels like sailing has
become more than just a past time,
but a part of who I am. When Tracey
Usher asked me to write an article
about my road to the Olympic Trials, it
gave me an opportunity to think about
how and why I really started sailing. I
don't think that racing Lasers has
ever been about one event for me, but
the things that have happened along
the way. I can imagine that my own
experiences as an athlete are not that
different from many others in our
sport. It's nice to have this opportunity
to speak about it.
Junior Sailing was always a lot of
fun at my home Yacht Club (Bedford
Basin) in Nova Scotia. Our program
had a long history of producing great
sailors. We also had amazing instructors and parents who enthusiastically
helped organize summer travel plans.
I'm sure that without these people I
wouldn't still be racing Lasers today. I
began to race my first Laser Full Rig
when I was 15 years old, and less
than 120 lbs. -there were very few
Radials around in Nova Scotia at that
time. It was tough, but the excitement
of going to big regattas all around
North America lured me in. I got to
meet great people from all corners of
the continent, as well as race a fun
boat in many different places.
As my regatta results gradually
improved, so did my desire to train.
This has not always been easy here in
Nova Scotia where the water gets cold
early in the fall, and warms up late in
the spring. If you can't train year
round, you're handicapped against
those who can. My coach, Brian Todd
has always been really keen to keep
local sailors on the water late into the
fall (or until its unbearable). The hours
of the cold fall and early spring training
always paid off. A good base of basic
skill training early in the spring can set
you up for a really solid racing season.
On the other end, a good long push
late into the fall will make it much easier to get back on the water in the
spring, or at Mid-Winters!
By the age of 18, I had bought a
cargo van, equipped with bed and
chesterfield. This was the normal progression amongst other good sailors
from my area. Summers of traveling
10
with parents were over, and traveling
solo or with friends was the norm.
Taking this next step was important
because I was able to go wherever
good sailors were. As any great sailor
will tell you, it's really important to train
with competitors who are able to challenge your ability. In my case, I was
extremely lucky to have an older, more
experienced training companion. Mike
Simms was going to Law School at
Dalhousie University in Halifax (Nova
Scotia) when I was starting to sail
Lasers seriously. He had just finished
his first Olympic campaign ('96), and
was beginning another for 2000. The
timing was right, and I was fortunate to
spend hours on the water improving
my skills with Mike. This time was
invaluable to me; I pushed hard to
become better. Each day was a new
challenge, and this made sailing really
fun. Mike's approach to sailing still
affects the way I train and race today.
Over the next three years I traveled
to a lot of regattas. I had my first
European regatta experience in 1999
at SPA, Danish Nationals (which I love
to hate), and Kiel Week. These were
humbling times as the level of competition was extremely high. Nevertheless,
I had moments that were encouraging,
and when I came home I still wanted
to be a Laser sailor. Anyone who has
been to a rainy Danish Nationals
knows what I mean! I think that the
toughest experiences we have while
sailing tend to increase our desire for
this sport. Since my first trip to
Europe, I have made several more,
and each time is a rewarding experience. There are a lot of great sailors in
our class, and I have a lot of respect
for those who are at the top. It takes a
serious discipline to be a champion at
any World Championships.
My intent in writing this article
was to elaborate on some of my
experiences and memories while
training for the 2004 Olympic Trials.
However, I don't have any singular
moments that really stand out alone.
I can say that it takes a lot of practice, dedication, and sometimes perseverance to become a good sailor,
but in the end it always feels worthwhile. For me, the best times have
been traveling with great friends, or
racing on a perfect day, windy and
warm. I've been lucky to have some
great friends who have remained in
the sport for a long time; I think this
has pushed me even harder.
Perhaps that's what sailing Lasers is
all about -always striving for the next
level. My focus has never been
placed entirely on one event. I think
that sailing is a sport where you can
achieve different objectives at every
event you enter. My suggestion to
anyone interested in becoming a
better sailor is to learn as much as
possible at every opportunity. Those
who sail Lasers know that there are
no boundaries for improving. That's
what makes this sport so wonderful.
See you on the water.
SPRING 2004
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DEALER
Laser Maintenance & Care
BY JACK MCVICKER, VANGUARD SAILBOATS
From my position back in the fleet I
have a hard time appreciating the gofast nuances that we always talk
about after the racing is done. Getting
tangled in the mainsheet or forgetting
to install the tiller retaining pin are
things I relate to. On that level, here
are a few things that I have learned
working in the Vanguard production
facility that we should all know about
our Lasers. They aren't the things that
get you that last fraction of a knot.
These are the things that could keep
you from getting started.
Each Laser has been made from
the same recipe for about 30 years.
There may be some slight differences
but in general today's Laser is same
boat as a 1970's version. The strength
of the fleet is based on a strict dedication to one-design. On a practical level
that means there is some old technology in each Laser.
Towing
First, here is some advice about towing. Don't! The pressure exerted on
the hull when a Laser is towed can
cause damage that might be visible
but could remain hidden. Towing damage can significantly affect the stiffness of your hull and lead to gel coat
and fiberglass cracking. It might be
convenient to be first back to shore
but it isn't worth the risk of sailing a
damaged hull.
Back-up Plates
Each piece of hardware is screwed
into a plywood back-up plate except
the mainsheet block eyestrap (plastic
or aluminum) and the outboard screw
on each traveler fairlead (plastic).
Since the backups are wood, caution
should be taken when re-installing
screws to prevent the wood from getting wet and to maintain the integrity
of the initial thread. To re-install a
screw always use a sealer and a hand
screwdriver. Force the sealer into the
screw hole before inserting the screw.
Then twist the screw with your fingers
12
to find the thread. After finding the
thread use a hand screwdriver to tighten the screw snugly. Using power drivers can result in cross threading and
over turning the screw.
result if frostbiters don't get all of
the ice out of the mast step before
stepping the mast.)
Hull/Deck Joints
Understanding two other design
features of a Laser could help
avoid problems also. At the bottom
of each mast step, under the gel
coat and a thin layer of fiberglass,
there is a stainless steel wear
plate. Under normal use the bottom mast plug wears away a portion of the gel coat and fiberglass.
The plate stays secured because
the wear pattern does not reach
the outer diameter of the plate.
The plate remains securely
attached and prevents excessive
wear under normal conditions.
Occasionally, someone rigs a
Laser and there is a rock or sand
in the bottom of the tube. In the
worst case, the foreign object can
cause wear around the circumference of the plate. In the unlikely
case that the plate becomes
loose, simply glue it back in with a
marine adhesive.
Each Laser is bonded together with
polyester bonding putty. There may be
higher tech alternatives available but
then it wouldn't be a Laser. Several
times a season and after an impact,
especially if your boat is leaking, you
should inspect and repair the bonded
joint. The repair is simple. Place the
boat upside down on a set of saw
horses. Use a disk grinder or Dremel
tool to remove any cracked putty to a
depth of ½". Be careful not to grind
away the fiberglass hull or deck. The
putty you are removing will be a
pink/white color. If the area is wet let it
dry before filling. Your local marine
supply store will have putty appropriate
to fill the void. Try to force the putty
down into the void for a lasting repair.
Mast Retaining Line
Since the Pro style rigging package
has become so popular a key preventive line is being overlooked by many
sailors. Each boat is shipped with a
mast retaining line in the kit. The line is
intended to secure the mast in the
event of a capsize. The construction of
each Laser includes a rigid deck and a
rigid mast base to support the mast.
The mast base is not visible but it only
supports the bottom 1" of the mast
step tube. The tube connecting the two
is not intended to support the rig. If the
mast retaining line is not attached correctly the mast could slide out of the
mast base (about 1" from the bottom
of the mast step) when the boat capsizes. As the boat is righted, the pressure from breeze in the sail and the
weight of the rig can cause the mast to
break through the tube. This will not
happen if the mast retaining line is
rigged properly. (Similar damage could
Wear Plate
Breather Hole
One last design feature to understand is the hole just below the
hiking strap under the main sheet
block. This is the breather hole. It
allows the pressure in the hull to
neutralize as the air inside warms
and cools. The breather hole protects the boat as it is transported,
stored, and launched. On a 70
degree spring day it is common to
launch into a 50 degree body of
water. It is helpful to realize that
the air in the hull will contract and
cause a vacuum effect. The
breather hole will allow a free flow
of air to relieve the pressure.
Additionally, it is located in a "dry"
location so water is not sucked in
along with air. The breather hole
should be checked often to be
sure it is not obstructed.
SPRING 2004
2004 Midwinter East
RULES REPORT
PAT HEALY, CHIEF JUDGE
Here is a quick report about the onwater judging of Kinetics at this
years Midwinters East Regatta.
Since it has been twelve months
since the class has tried on-water
judging of Kinetics, it might be a
good time to see what ISAF has
done and how North American Laser
sailors have responded.
In Clearwater this year, we had
nine Yellow Flag jury protests. This
compares to sixteen last year's regatta
and twenty-two at the US Nationals
last August in Sayville, New York. Part
of the difference is that there were four
jury boats in Sayville and two in both
Clearwater regattas. Also, this year's
regatta had more races in winds over
ten, sometimes thirty, knots. I was
impressed by how the top sailors go
fast without relying on protestable
kinetics. Even in the light winds kinetics was at a minimum downwind.
Upwind there was only one pumping flag due to violent body movement
athwartships and the resulting flicking
of the sail's leech. Most of last year's
MWE flags were for pumping downwind. This year three were for pumping, three for rocking and three for
sculling at the start.
A misunderstood area of the rule
is when you can pump in strong winds
and big waves. RRS 42.3(b) says,
"…when surfing or planning is possible, the boat's crew may pull the sheet
… in order to INITIATE (my emphasis)
… planing, but only once for each
wave or gust of wind." You can pump
once to help get your boat up on a
plan or help it start down the face of a
wave. However, if you are already
planning, pumping ("repeated fanning
… by trimming and releasing the
sail…") you are breaking the rule.
A second misunderstanding is
sculling ("repeated movement of the
helm not necessary for steering."). The
four ISAF RRS 42 Interpretations on
Sculling say that a penalty should be
signal when: sculling but no clear
www.laser.org
change of direction (42-24), to offset
the steering by the sail (crabbing) (4225), sculling continues when the sail
can be filled (42-26), and to offset previous sculling (42-23). This last one
caused the three sculling flags in
Clearwater. A boat may scull above
close-hauled to hold her place on the
line or avoid a leeward boat. Then she
must backwind the sail or simply drift
down to close-hauled. Alternatively,
she may sail head-to-wind and then
scull back down to close-hauled. She
cannot scull above close-hauled then
scull back down to close-hauled. It
was the later that the three sculling
flags were flown. While we are on it,
ISAF has posted the RRS 42
Interpretations in the Rules section of
their website at sailing.org/rrs2001/
42Interpretations.pdf. They were also
reprinted here in "The Laser Sailor"
last spring. It may be worth downloading the four pages and studying them
for fifteen minutes.
A non-RRS 42 rule is worth mentioning, the 720 Degree Turns Penalty
(RRS 44.2). The rule has a time
requirement. "After getting well clear
… AS SOON AS POSSIBLE AFTER
THE INCIDENT … by PROMPTLY
(again, my emphasis)… making two
complete 360 degree turns…" A boat
that fouls just before going into a
weather mark and allows herself to be
swept around the mark then sail five
or ten boat lengths before doing turns
down the reach is putting themselves
on this ice. Her skipper should not
complain if they are called to task by a
protesting boat that was deeply
offended by the indiscretion.
FULL RIGS
BY TRACY USHER
Thursday was warm, mostly overcast
and the Laser fleet set sail for the racing area with hopes for a light air racing day. Unfortunately, it was too light
for racing and after waiting for nearly 3
hours the RC wisely sent us ashore to
try again the next day.
Friday dawned with a nice breeze
from the Northwest and low temperatures. Ok, it was downright cold. The
forecast had called for highs in the mid
60's but I was told that the actual high
temperature was in the mid 50's. Still
better than the ice and snow most had
run away from, but certainly not the
suntan weather of the Master's regatta
the weekend before. This was the
windiest day (20+ knots?) with the
largest waves (due to the onshore
direction of the breeze) and there was
a clear split between those who have
regularly sailed in these conditions
(and thought it was good, challenging
racing) and those who haven't (and
spent a fair amount of time upside
down). In the end the RC probably had
the worst of it, having to sit on pitching
boats at anchor the entire day, but
stuck it out to run three good races.
Saturday was still overcast but the
breeze had backed off quite a bit and
the direction had clocked around
enough to reduce the size of the seas.
And it was at least 10 degrees
warmer. My memory of the day had
the breeze oscillating with large shifts
either side of North (or just to the
West of North) with a rather long time
period. Seemingly the favored side of
the first beat of each race was exactly
the opposite of the previous race. The
RC ran four races on Saturday and it
was windy enough that everyone was
really tired by the time they hit the
dock (hungry too!).
By Sunday the wind had swung to
the East, directly offshore at
Clearwater Beach, the sun was back
out and the temperatures headed back
up. I was told by a reliable local (and
anonymous high ranking ILCA WC
member) that it would be tricky sailing.
And he was right: the wind would take
turns filling from the left, then die, then
fill from the right, then die, etc., always
seeming to get just a bit stronger. The
RC ran three races with the last starting to get windy again.
In the 93 boat Laser Fleet, Mike
Leigh won convincingly, besting
some top Laser sailors including
Marc de Haas from the Netherlands
(second), Brendan Casey from
Australia (third), Gavan Jones and
Rory Fitzpatrick from Ireland, as well
as a good fraction of the usual suspects from North America. In the end
there were competitors from nine different countries sailing in the Laser
fleet. The Laser MWE is one of four
ISAF Grade 1 Laser events in North
America (Miami OCR, MWE, NA's
13
and CORK) and its great to see how
it is starting to attract top international competition to our events!
Over in the 65 boat Radial fleet,
Paige Railey dominated, with 6 firsts in
nine races (she didn't need to sail the
tenth, and last, race), beating out Matt
Goetting in second, Charles Fulmer in
third and James Liebl in fourth. Paige
took home more hardware than anyone else: first in class, first Radial junior, first Radial woman and first in the
qualification for US representative to
the ISAF female single handed youth
worlds. I think if anyone wants to catch
her they better start by studying her
article in the Winter Laser Sailor! The
Clearwater Yacht Club again did a fine
job running the MWE with great racing
on the days they had control over.
Cassie Featherston and her crew
deserve our many thanks on again
hosting a great event to kick off the
2004 Laser sailing season!
BY CHRIS RAAB
For at least four years now my wife
and I have been flying to Florida for
the Laser Midwinters held in
Clearwater Beach. We stay at the
Bellview Biltmore, the largest wood
structure in the U.S. We love it
because it resembles a Great Gatsby
Mansion and includes an indoor spa
that is as grand as they made them in
the early 1900's including real coral
pillars and tile work. The sailing facilities aren't fancy but very friendly.
This year there were 64 competitors including some real studs like
Augie Diaz, Kurt Taulbee and Andre
Martinie from the Dominican Republic.
On the first day there were 3
races. After the first two, I was in trouble with Kevin Kelly getting a 1-1. My
first two races were a 5-9. In the third
race, I leveraged left, rounded in the
lead, and extended to win the race.
The second day was warm,
sunny, 6-10 knots and really, really
choppy (just my stuff). I finished that
day with a 3-3-2 which enabled me to
finish in first place and 15 points
ahead of second. I was pleased with
my large "bowling" trophy which I
gave to my father. We proceeded to
play golf with Mark Mendleblatt
(Laser Olympic representative) for the
next three days. We got big ink in the
St. Pete Times which recognized
"Newport Harbor Yacht Club's Chris
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Raab." The article focused mainly on
Mark's Olympic fund raiser at St. Pete
Yacht Club which we attended along
with the Florida Attorney General, and
the Mayor.
Needless to say it was a success. I
am starting to train for this year's
Laser Master World Championship in
Bietz, Turkey. Landing in Istanbul is
worrying my wife, this will be the first
year she isn't attending.
RADIALS
BY JAMES LIEBL
What happened in the Radial Fleet at
Midwinters East? The quick answer to
that question is that Paige Railey went
faster than the rest of us upwind and
downwind. Any other questions?
For those still curious, the fleet got
a taste of things to come during
Friday's first race. With a beautiful
breeze, about 20 knots, and lovely
waves, five to six feet, the race committee got us racing. The fleet split
right after the gun, half heading to the
right side and half sailing left. When
the wind backed about 75% of the way
up the beat, the left side paid big.
Railey, coming in from the right, was
a good distance back at the first weather mark of the regatta. However, with
the combination of her boat speed and
the fleet's confusion in trying to find the
small leeward mark on the first run, she
leapfrogged to first place at the top of
the second beat. She didn't look back
from that point, taking the bullet.
Copying race one, Railey grabbed the
lead on the second beat of the second
race and won that one. For the third
race, Railey had some company as
Matt Goetting found some serious
upwind speed. Once they headed onto
the first reach of the trapezoid, both
sailors extended slightly to give Railey a
first and Goetting a second.
Hats are off to the RC for racing
us on Friday. Everyone had a blast!
The downwind surfs were a wild, wild
ride! Woo Hoo!!
Alas, nothing lasts forever, and that
includes the wind. So Saturday
dawned totally different from Friday.
Where Friday had big air and big
swells, Saturday began light air and
choppy. Royce Weber was the first to
shift into the right gear for the lighter
stuff, hitting the left side to get a win.
Railey must have watched Weber use
the left in that first race, because she
hit that side in the second race and
boat sped her way to a first place. The
competition started to heat up though
as Charles Fulmer earned a second
place in this race. Combined with his
third in the previous race, he was
leapfrogging forward in the rankings.
Unfortunately, his charge derailed for
the day when an OCS in Saturday's
third race negated a top three finish.
Matt Goetting apparently decided that
if Fulmer wasn't going to pressure
Railey, he was. Goetting found the
good shifts on the left, winning both
the third and fourth races of the day.
At the end of Saturday, with a total
of 7 races run for the regatta, people
started looking at the first throw out.
Everyone, with the exception of Railey
who had a total of 8 points after the
discard, had ups and downs. Goetting
sat in second with 20 points, Fulmer
occupied third with 28 points, and Cy
Thompson from the Virgin Islands
possessed 33 points.
With positions known, we headed
out of the pass for Sunday's races.
The good news was that the prediction showed decent breeze and significantly warmer conditions for the
day. For the first time, people wore
normal baseball caps instead of the
nifty red ski hats given out at registration. The bad news for the fleet
was that Railey figured out the shifts
to nail wins in the first and second
race. When Goetting ate a 20th in the
first race, and Fulmer fell to a fourth
in the second race, the regatta was
mathematically over. Railey caught a
coach's victory tow into the beach,
leaving the rest of us to decide consolation positions with a final race.
Back on shore, everyone enjoyed
the nice, finally warm, sunny weather
to pack the boats up. No matter how
you ended up in the fleet, we all thoroughly enjoyed this regatta. Great sailing conditions, a super race committee, a nice facility, and the unbelievable organization and hospitality of
Cassie Featherston made this an outstanding event.
SPRING 2004
BY JOHN DAWSON-EDWARDS
With cries of "about bloody time" and
other worse phrases, your erstwhile
master's coordinator has finally
processed last season's results and
arranged for the draw for the free sails.
(Well actually he has not yet, but by
forecasting the future he is trying to
commit himself to doing it as stated!).
Just two sails from Vanguard in 2003,
but Steve Cockerill's Rooster Sailing is
throwing in a pair of hikers (or goods
of equivalent value) for the third and
final draw prize. Check the web page
for details of who won the draw.
The NA Masters in Houston will be
now history, with a few brave souls
headed out to Turkey soon to challenge the rest of the world, or at least
the part of it that shows up in Turkey.
Your NA Region executive had
requested a change of venue from
ILCA but no dice. Strange that ILCA
would allow two EuroMaster events to
clash with the Worlds, but I gather
there is some belief in Europe that the
Turkey worlds are in the Asia-Pacific
region, notwithstanding the proximity
to all of Europe. Maybe we should be
choosing more locations where we
have some local masters sailors (as of
March 4, there was one local sailor
entered out of 117 posted).
2004 Jack Swenson
Memorial Laser Master's
Championships
BY CARL SHELLBACH
Sunday, February 15, 2004, dawned
bright, as memories of recent romance
faded and thoughts of serious sailboat
racing descended upon the grounds of
the Palm Beach Sailing Club. Not one,
but two regattas were occurring this
day, and the sailors and hosts were
treated to a breakfast buffet that couldn't be beat.
Promptly at 0930, the joint
Skipper's meeting was called to order
by Commodore Triangle, who introduced Carl Schellbach as PRO for the
Laser Master's Championships for the
coveted "Dirty Old Man of the Sea"
trophy. Skipper's meeting over, time for
www.laser.org
Masters
the Laser sailors to depart for the offshore course, leaving the Billy Cup
sailors the entire lake.
After a minor hang-up getting the
courses set in the ocean, the first race
started in about 12 knots of a southwest breeze. This was a difficult
course to set, as the main committee
boat, Jack Bailey's Trilogy, is difficult to
anchor in more than 50 feet of water,
which happens pretty close to shore
around these parts! With the breeze
out of the western half, Trilogy was
forced to anchor in all of that, allowing
for a moderate length course to stay
far enough offshore to minimize the
effect of the land on the breeze. As it
was, the breezes were very shifty, and
provided a good challenge for the
sailors.
Three races were run this day, all
lasting approximately one hour (15
minutes short of the time limit). The 31
sailors seemed to have had enough,
certainly of watching Jim Liebl of
Melbourne trounce them three times
in a row! Well, maybe except Buzzy
Heusler of Tampa, right behind in
each of the three races. The funny
thing is that with the three firsts, Jim
was TIED with Buzzy for first overall,
with Great Grand Master Peter
Seidenberg (of Seitech Dolly's fame)
close in the hunt.
The racers pulled into shore at
about 1600, and got moderately
cleaned up in time for a dinner party
that couldn't be beat. Thanks much to
Gail Schellbach and Sally Bailey for
pulling the whole thing together. They
got all the shopping done, and went
off while the sailors were out doing
their thing to obtain fresh fish and
steaks for the revelers to grill that
evening. Much fun was had, rehashing
the days - and many day's prior, and
I'm sure - racing.
President's Day dawned a bit cooler, with breezes out of the northwest,
again providing for a race committee
challenge. As Trilogy had ingested
something other than diesel, we had
Ken Abbott's Edgewater for a main
platform - a much easier boat to
anchor in lots of water. Besides, the
wind and the current were at odds,
which had us drifting around in a circle
around the anchor without putting too
much stress on it!
Jim Liebl had to work this day,
giving some others opportunities to
lead the way around the course.
Another three races were run, lasting
about 40 minutes each this time.
Again, shifty conditions prevailed, giving a good challenge of both mental
ability as well as the physical. The
sailors arrived back at the dock at
approximately 1400, with the awards
ceremony scheduled for 1500. Molly
Swenson arrived with the coveted
Green Jacket, signifying honorary
membership in the Royal Turkey
Yacht Club, and the awards were presented to the top three in each division - Apprentice (35-44 years of
age), Master (45-54), Grand Master
(55-64), and Great Grand Master
(65+). We had, for the first time, a
bona fide Women's division, an eventuality we'd like to see repeated. The
top sailor of the event, Great Grand
Master Peter Seidenberg, was presented with the Jack Swenson
Memorial "Dirty Old Man of the Sea"
Perpetual Trophy, and again read all
the names of every previous winner
of this event (sewn into the green
jacket). Lo and behold, his name
came up in 1985. Yes, that's 1985.
It was a great event; the sailors got
a bunch of great racing in, a great
party, and good revelry. Many of the
sailors who had been coming to this
event for years commented on what a
great job the PBSC is doing with the
property, and what a great facility it is
for events such as this one.
The regatta is indebted to Ethel
Lindsey, without whose efforts and
support this event wouldn't have been
a mere shadow. We will truly miss her.
Thanks also to the entire membership
at the Palm Beach Sailing Club for
their continual support of this event.
15
From the Districts
District 1 – Andrew Childs
Spring has arrived in D-1! This season’s regatta planning is well under
way. Here are some of the relevant
dates: The annual Spring Series will
take place at the RNSYS on May 1-2,
8-9, and 15-16. Dress warm! The
Youth Olympic Training Seminar
(YOTS) will take place at BBYC on
July 8-9. Expect some great coaching
as always. YOTS is followed immediately by ARK also at BBYC on July 1011. The annual St. Margaret’s Bay
Regatta will take place July 17-18 on
“The Bay”! The Bay Regatta is also
District One’s Grand Prix Title Event,
so be there to collect your points! The
RNSYS will be hosting Sail East this
year on July 23 - 25. This will be a
huge event, don’t’ miss it! Next is the
CYA 23 and Under Championships
which is hosted by the Charlottetown
YC on P.E.I., July 30-31. Finally, the
Annual Fall Series will run on weekends Sept. 18-19, Sept 25-26, and
Oct. 2-3. The location is T.B.A. It will be
another great season of Good Times
Laser Racing in the Maritimes. See
you on the Water!
District 2 – Denys
Deschambeault
For the second year in a row I have
not been able to come up for a date to
hold the grand prix district two regatta
in time for publications in the spring
edition. As of today I am not aware of
anything going on, rest asure as these
things usually comes out in May. I am
getting lots of request for used boats.
Do not hesitate to contact me for any
matters related to laser sailing. In just
ten weeks we will be able to get the
bottom of our boats wet, in the upright
position that is. Regards, Denys
District 3 – Heinz Gebauer
By the time you get this message sailing should be getting into full swing in
Ontario, at least at the Water Rats it
will be, weather permitting of course.
Right now there is a whole lot of nothing going on, as we wait for the ice to
melt and the frigid water to warm up.
There had been a lot of work going by
our District 3 regatta coordinator, Paul
Muldoon, to get the 2004 schedule in
order. This is often a very difficult and
time consuming task as we try to
16
schedule so many regattas in a short
period of time. We cannot always
meet everyone's request, but we try
our best to do so.
We have a full schedule of events
planned, which you will find in this
newsletter, or on the District 3 website (www.d3laser.ca). Not yet on the
schedule is an informal racing and
camping week we are planning for
August 8-13 at Killbear Provincial
Park (Killbear Race Week?). If you
have never been there, you should
go. It is absolutely beautiful and probably one of the best sailing locations
in Ontario. Get on the Ontario Parks
website and book a campsite soon
(launching from the beach at Harold
Point), as this park is very popular.
Hope to see you there, or at another
regatta. Nigel Heath
District 4 – Maureen
Mathews
I'm in Oxford going to school this winter and I won't be back to District
Four until the season is well begun. I
haven't been idle though. Oxford has
a Sailing team and I went out to
cheer them on when they hosted a
multi-university team sailing regatta
on a little reservoir nearby. I do mean
small, a rectangle less than 1 km in
either direction, and at the moment of
the races there was very little water in
it. I arrived mid-afternoon and
thought I'd missed the event because
as I walked up the slope of the reservoir bank, I couldn't see any boats at
all. I reached the edge, looked over
the concrete walls of the reservoir
and down at the tops of Laser masts!
The wind must have been a little
unpredictable down there in that hole.
They had set a zig zag course and
were running races every five minutes
and were on race 40 when I got
there. They managed to get sixty
races in before the wind died and the
darkness fell.
I can't tell you how happy I was to
see all those boats and all those kids. I
won't bore you with results but the
hosts did all right - much better than the
most recent "boat race" - the Oxford
/Cambridge rowing race - which was a
debacle. One of the Oxford crew members was hit by his own oar and broke a
rib right at the start and it got worse
after that! Oh, the shame!
I'm sure the Sailing team will
redeem Oxford's honour. In any case,
spring is here and a new set of races
begins on Sunday next so I'm going to
get out and meet the Laser sailors.
District 5 - John DawsonEdwards
The usual “Spring” D5 report is short
and succinct with between five to six
weeks of frozen water remaining at
time of writing (March 20, 2004). New
news is the District 5 Championships
will be at Battlefords Sailing Club on
Jackfish Lake, North of North
Battleford, Saskatchewan in late
August. The District 5 Grand Prix this
year is a traditional event short as
Newell Sailing Club declined to move
its regatta to avoid a clash with
SailWest near Regina in July. Unless
anyone else has a better idea, we will
include the Chestermere Ice Breaker
regatta on May 29-30 as the first D5
GP event. Other events will be
Wabamun Open, SailWest, D5
Champs (above) and the Alberta
Provincial Regatta. Check the D5
Schedule posted on the D5 website
for additional information and late
breaking news.
In Alberta this year we are going to
experiment with combining the Radial
and Standard fleets (it’s allowed
except at a District Championship or
higher) to give the younger Radial
sailors some better start line experience and harden them up for the big
fleets. And one other thing—bring your
bike to laser events. We will be going
for training rides in the evening and
especially if the wind dies.
District 6 – Andy Hunt
Greetings to all District 6 4.7, Radial,
Laser and Laser 2 sailors. The District
6 Frostbite Series is now underway.
The second regatta of the series, the
Frigid Digit Regatta, was held at Sail
Sand Poin on February 7 and 8, 2004.
Sail Sand Point is a fairly new community based sailing centre on Lake
Washington in Washington State. Its
main function is to encourage junior
sailing and they offer US Sailing learnto-sail programs.
Thirty-seven full rig Laser sailors
and three Radial sailors showed up for
the event. Thirty of the full rigs and all
of the Radial sailors were from the
Seattle area. The Royal Vancouver
Yacht Club sent six sailors including
their youth coach, Al Clark. The other
visiting sailor, Ken Brown, came from
SPRING 2004
Victoria. Winds were very light on both
days. There was only one race on
February 7th and four races on
February 8th. The top ten full rigs are:
Mike Leigh, RVYC, 8.00; Brendan
Fahey, NKS, 8.00; Al Clark, RVYC,
10.00; Luke Ramsay, RVYC, 22.00,
Steve Larsen, CYC, 27.00; Mike
Johnson, CYC; Derek Vranizan; Ben
Young; Abe Torchinsky, RVYC; Alex
Jones. Michael Shalka won the Radial
class. Matt Pistay was second and
Elizabeth Shalka was third radial.
The third regatta of the series was
the Frozen Assets Regatta. This regatta is held every year at the Royal
Victoria Yacht Club. The dates were
February 21 and 22, 2004. Northerly
moderate winds (9 - 14 knots with 17
in the puffs) blew both days. Sailors
had to look back on the runs otherwise
they ran the risk of death-rolls. The
turnout was low with 17 boats in total.
There was no Radial fleet. Six of the
boats came from outside the Victoria
area (five from Vancouver and one
from Portland). There were 4 races on
Saturday and 3 races on Sunday. Five
of the races were double windwardleewards and the other two races were
triple windward-leewards. Top five
boats were: Greg Miller (who dominated), RVicYC, 6.00; Michael Bond,
RVicYC, 11.00; Ken Brown (first master), RVicYC, 18.00; Peter Woytkowiak,
JSCA, 26.00; Sean Spence, RVicYC,
32.00. First youth was Kevin Grierson
from the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club,
first grand master was Jacek Suski
(JSCA) and first great grand master
was Charlie Simpson (RVicYC).
Charlie is in his early seventies and
can still out-sail sailors who could be
his sons and grand-sons. My thanks to
the Bosun’s Locker who provided
prizes for the regatta.
The fourth regatta of the series
was the March Madness Regatta. This
regatta was hosted by the Royal
Vancouver Yacht Club on March 6 and
7, 2004. Eighteen full rigs and four
Radials showed up for the event.
Sixteen of the full rigs and all of the
Radials came from either the Jericho
Sailing Centre or the Royal Vancouver
Yacht Club. My thanks go out to the
two Seattle area sailors, Michael
Cenname and Scott Malone, who
made the trip north. The race committee tried to run four races on Saturday
in light easterlies but had to abandon
the first race when a tug and tow
came through the course. They also
abandoned the last race to due inconsistent wind. The two races that they
www.laser.org
got off were run in 4 - 7 knots.
Figuring out the correct side of the
course and avoiding holes on the
course were the key for the day. There
was no racing on Sunday due to rain
and unstable wind. Al Clark won the
regatta with RVYC juniors Luke
Ramsay and Abe Torchinsky in second and third place respectively. Top
five sailors were: Al Clark, RVYC,
3.00; Luke Ramsay, RVYC, 6.00; Abe
Torchinsky, RVYC, 7.00; Mike Leigh,
RVYC, 8.00; John Romanko, RVYC,
10.00; Sean Dethlefson won the
Radial class and Jimmy Craig was
second while Ben Scott was third.
I would like to congratulate the
following two RVYC sailors, Mike
Leigh and John Romanko. Mike won
the Mid-Winters East beating some
high-class competition and John
qualified for both the Youth Radial
Worlds and the Open Radial Worlds
by virtue of his eighteenth place finish which was good enough for first
youth sailor at the MME.
I would also like to remind sailors
of the West Coast Laser Circuit (hosted by Districts 6 and 24) and a new
subset regatta of the Kamloops
Invitational. The West Coast Laser
Circuit starts with WAVES and ends
with either the US Laser Master
Championships or the District 22
Grand Prix. WAVES is hosted by the
Royal Vancouver Yacht Club and is on
July 3 and 4, 2004. The next regatta is
the Pacific Coast Championships. This
will be at the Monterey Peninsula
Yacht (Monterey, CA) and will be on
July 10 - 12, 2004. The next regatta is
the US Open Laser Championships at
the Santa Cruz Yacht Club (Santa
Cruz, CA). The US Open
Championships will be from July 15 18, 2004. The Canadian Open Laser
Championships will be at Squamish,
BC and hosted by the Royal
Vancouver Yacht Club. Details for the
regatta are being worked out but it will
definitely occur on July 22 - 25, 2004.
There will be a break on the next
weekend and then the Circuit resumes
with the CGRA Open at Cascade
Locks, OR, on August 7 and 8, 2004.
Master sailors should come to this
regatta as a tune-up for the US Laser
Master Championships which will be
at Cascade Locks on August 13 - 15,
2004. The District 22 Grand Prix is the
final regatta. This regatta will occur on
August 21 and 22, 2004 at the
Flathead Lake Yacht Club on Flathead
Lake, Montana. The subset of the
Kamloops Invitational is the BC Laser
Master Championships. This masters
regatta is not part of the official
Masters Circuit but Trevor Owen (KSA
Fleet Captain) has agreed to provide
a trophy and promote the event.
Please don’t hesitate to call or email
me with any questions or comments.
As always, NORs and complete
results along with other information
can be found on the District 6 website:
www.drlaser.org/D6.
District 7 – Sally Sharp
First and foremost - a big round of
thanks to Mary Ann Crandall for all
her work on the District 7 website and
newsletter the past four years. She
really did a great job getting the website up and running, we’ve all come to
rely on it for up-to-the-minute schedule changes, NORs, results etc. Thank
You, Mary Ann!
And a hearty welcome to Chris
Morin who’s taking over! Chris can be
reached at abcmorin@maine.rr.com please help him out by sending him all
your race results, NORs - and reports
& photos would be good too! And a
special note to all D7 fleet captains:
can you please send Chris or me a
short description of your fleet to post
on the website (include location, contact person, website link, summer racing schedule etc.); this will be very
useful information to have readily
accessible to both D7 and visiting (or
new) Laser sailors.
Sailing-wise, frostbiting is still
going strong in southern New
England. The most active fleets are at
Cedar Point YC (Westport CT),
Cottage Park (Winthrop MA), Newport
RI & Essex CT. They’ll all wrap up
their seasons in mid-April when we
jump into a new regatta season. And a
busy season it is, with a couple of
majors (North Americans at Cedar
Point YC in June, and Radial ACCs at
Portland YC in July) to squeeze in
between all the regular D7 events.
Once again we’ll have a 6-regatta D7
championship series, where you need
to attend 3 events to qualify. Five
regattas have been designated – the
sixth will be added to the schedule
soon – check the website,
http://d7.laserforum.org
Three brand new regattas to note:
Vicky Stump has organized the Stone
Horse Laser regatta on Cape Cod
July 3, Syd Sewall helped schedule a
Maine D7 series regatta up on Lake
Cobbosseecontee (say that after a
couple of beers!) in August, and
CONTNUED ON PAGE 19
17
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LaserWorld
THE INTERNATIONAL LASER CLASS MAGAZINE
216 ENTRIES AT
THE SAILMASTER
AUSTRALIAN
CHAMPIONSHIPS
photo: Teri Dodds
4 - 10 January, Corio Bay, Geelong, Victoria, AUS
A total of 216 entries (109 standard, 84 Laser Radial and
23 Laser 4.7) were hosted at the expansive Royal
Geelong Yacht Club (which only one week later hosted
460 keel boats for Skandia Week).
Sponsored by Sailmaster, a Victorian based not-for-profit
advanced youth sailing program, the regatta incorporated
a series of innovations which were appreciated by the
competitors and their supporters. These included the
availability of on-water food and water, the use of
competitor accreditation passes for social event entry and
sign on/off formalities, free internet access, pasta
immediately after each day’s racing, boat trolley
identification tags and open entry to social events.
Plenty of wind was available all week with one day lost to unsafe conditions. This led to the unusual situation where no discard was
available for the four finals races - and thus a well behaved fleet on the starts and downwind!!
The short chop and decisive shifts of Corio Bay provided an ideal opportunity for the demonstration of advanced upwind and downwind
boat handling skills.
Representatives of 22 countries (including the US Virgin Islands,
Finland, Japan, the Czech Republic and the UK), many in the final
A RECORD 18 COUNTRIES AT
stages of preparation for the 2004 Olympic Games, ensured the
CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICANS
competition was of the highest standard.
Sailors from 18 countries in Europe and the Americas were However the regatta wasn’t all about the top guns. With age
present at the 2004 Central & South Americans, held by the Yacht variations from 12 to 67 years, a good gender mix and some
Club Santo Amaro in São Sebastião, Brazil. The total number of serious entries in the over 90 kgs category, diversity was the
entries was 144, in strong Standard, Laser Radial, and Laser 4.7 mood of the boat park. A forum hosted by former World
fleets, an obvious indication that the Laser Class is becoming Champion, Stewart Wallace, with a panel including Brendan
stronger and stronger all over the World. Another indicator of Casey, Krystal Weir, Hugh Styles (GBR), Phillippa Brown and
this huge development was that around 30 sailors were Matthew Chew provided some insights from the front of each of
displaying sponsorship or supporters’ logos on their sails or the fleets.
hulls.
In keeping with tradition, the result of the standard rig
Robert Scheidt BRA once again had a remarkable championship, Championship was fought out in the last race of the series with
winning 8 races against top names such as Gustavo Lima POR, Vasilij World ranked No.1 Michael Blackburn taking the series by 2
Zbogar SLO, Diego Romero ARG, Mate Arapov CRO, Matias del points from Brendan Casey.
Solar CHI and Andre Streppel BRA.
continued on page 2 In the Laser Radials, Matthew Chew just edged out Krystal Weir
by 1 point after an incredibly hard fought series.
In the Laser 4.7 fleet the quality was excellent. James Burman
scored 6 wins in a very consistent performance.
The 2005 Australian Championship will be held at the Belmont
16 ft sailing Club Club, Lake Macquarie (2 hrs north of Sydney)
in January 2005.
Laser: 55 competitors 16 countries 1 Michael Blackburn AUS
23 pts, 2 Brendan Casey AUS 25 pts, 3 Hugh Styles GBR 32 pts,
4 Pieter-Jan Postma NED 38 pts, 5 Matias Del Solar CHI 44 pts
Laser Radial: 42 competitiors 1 Matthew Chew 20 pts, 2 Krystal
Weir 21 pts, 3 Simon McGoldrick 41 pts, 4 Zac Skulander 48 pts,
5 Brian Case 54.5 pts
Photos: Jose Pinho www.boatspeed.com.br
Laser 4.7: 23 competitors 1 James Burman 15 pts, 2 Jye
Murray 40 pts, 3 Thomas Scully 45 pts, 4 Jeremy Wawn 56 pts,
Youngsters at the mark: Eduardo Couto BRA, pursued by
5 Harry Mighell 56 pts
Daniel Jakobsson BRA and Franscoso Lobato POR
wild!
180,000 and still growing!
page 3
COPYRIGHT AND LIABILITY No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the publishers. The articles and opinions
in LaserWorld may not represent the official views of ILCA. The publishers do not accept any liability for their accuracy.
LaserWorld
April 2004
LaserWorld A p r i l 2 0 0 4
2
continued from page 1
Robert showed the way in almost every race and proved he will
be really a tough man to beat in Athens.
Brazilian Eduardo Couto matched Robert’s record, winning 8 races in
the Laser Radials to become Central & South American Champion with
a race to spare.
Alexandre Tinoco also won the Laser 4.7 title with a race to spare. But
the person with the best record in the event must have been Argentinean
Cecilia Carranza Saroli, who won every single race between the Ladies
in the Laser Radials.
If the champions in the Standard, Laser Radial and Laser 4.7s were
decided before the last race, the battle for second place was not easy. In
the Standards, 2002 Southern Hemisphere Champion Diego Romero
had a hard fought single point advantage over Mate Arapov CRO. In the
Laser Radial, only 12 points separated 2nd to 4th position, and in the
Laser 4.7, Matheus Dellagnelo BRA won the battle for second place,
even though he even got a shot for first overall after a remarkable 1, 1,
2 first day.
The venue of São Sebastião / Ilhabela showed once again why it is
considered one of the best in South America. All scheduled races were
completed, in all events. The Standard and Laser 4.7 fleets sailed all
races in an Easterly breeze that varied between 12 and 25 knots, while
the Laser Radials got different conditions in the following week and
sailed in winds from South, East, and North.
Next year’s Central & South American Championships are scheduled for
Paracas, Peru, in the Easter holiday period.
Carlos Fanucchi
Under 21 sailor Francisco Lobato, POR
LASER / LASER 4.7: 9 - 14 FEBRUARY,
ILHABELA, BRA
Laser: 51 competitors 12 countries 1 Robert Scheidt BRA 8 pts, 2 Diego
Emilio Romero ARG 23 pts, 3 Mate Arapov CRO 24 pts, 4 Vasilij Zbogar
SLO 30 pts, 5 Gustavo Lima POR 31 pts, 6 Matias del Solar CHI 40 pts, 7
André Streppel BRA 44 pts, 8 Francisco Lobato POR 72 pts (1st under 21)
1st under 19: Daniel Jakobsson BRA 195 pts 1st Apprentice: Jyrki
Taiminen FIN 94 pts 1st Master: Ronaldo Senfft BRA 176 pts
Laser 4.7: 37 competitors 6 countries 1Alexandre Tinoco BRA
12 pts, 2 Matheus Livramento Dellagnelo BRA 22 pts (1st under
18), 3 Ruy de Azevedo Guimaraes BRA 27 pts, 4 Guilherme
Baumgartl Barbosa Lima BRA 28 pts (1st under 15), 5 Daniel
Mendoza PER 42 pts, 6 André de Brito Arueira BRA 54 pts, 7
Joaquim Gonzalo Razetto PER 56 pts, 8 Daniel Cantinho Lemos
Dantas BRA 59 pts 1st female: Fernanda Decnop BRA 84 pts
LASER RADIAL: 15 - 19
FEBRUARY, ILHABELA, BRA
World Council member Miguel Aguerre URU leads a multi-national group
of Ari Barshi DOM, Alexander Kirkland BER and Alejandro Foglia URU
Chris Meech
“Nurse” Schlachter
www.laserinternational.org
51 competitors 12 countries 1 Eduardo Cunha de Magalhaes
Couto BRA 8 pts, 2 Eduardo Pacheco Chaves BRA 21 pts, 3
Tiago Cortes Rodrugues BRA 29 pts, 4 Samuel Albrecht BRA 31
pts, 5 Carlos Eduardo Wanderley BRA 33 pts (1st Apprentice), 6
Daniel Jakobsson BRA 44 pts (1st under 19), 7 Thomas
Baumgartl BRA 49 pts, 8 Luis Canuto ARG 50 pts 1st female
ELECTRIFYING SAILING AT GOSFORD!!
Chris Meech, a Laser sailor for over twenty years, got the best lift of his sailing
career recently, and can probably claim the world record for lifts. Chris got lifted
clear out of his boat, and landed ten metres away when he was struck by lightning
at Gosford Sailing Club, situated eighty kilometres north of Sydney, Australia.
We were sailing home after the race had been abandoned due to a thunderstorm heading
our way. I was steering with two fingers holding the rubber stopper at the end of my tiller
extension, heading for the nearby tall masts of moored yachts, when I felt a sharp tingle
through the tiller.
I looked around to see Chris hanging motionless in his life jacket some way away from his
boat. I gybed over to him and he initially agreed to let me take him on board, but quickly
changed his mind as another clap of thunder overhead persuaded him to stay in the water!
He went ashore in the rescue boat to be treated by ambulance officers, and in fact spent
the night in hospital.
The hull was a write off. The deck had lifted off from the bow to the cockpit. There were
two holes in the hull below the water line one third down from the bow. There was a large
black hole at the gunwale opposite the mast. The mast step had separated from the hull. The rivets on
the mast had melted and the top section had dropped into the bottom section. The lightening exited
through the top of the sail sock.
Zac Skulander said later that “Chris was on fire out there today”.
On Sunday morning Chris was back on the water in a borrowed boat!
Jack Schlachter
Ed note: A quick search on the internet for ‘lightning safety’
The damage
produced
a
number
of
sites.
Try
also:
www.lightningsafety.com. From this search: Lightning will
be attracted to the highest
point - not good on the water.
If you cannot get ashore
keep your body out of
contact with the water.
Probably better to stay
upright and let the mast act
as a conductor instead of
your body sitting on a
capsized boat!
This
The damage close up
probably saved Chris.
LaserWorld A p r i l 2 0 0 4
3
From our President
Over the last few months the focus has definitely been on the southern
hemisphere and warmer climates. Reading through the regatta
reports, many of our top sailors have been continuing their Olympic
training all over the world. Where normally a geographically isolated
country would only welcome sailors from other countries at a world
championship, in the Laser class all regattas from national championships upwards now attract a multinational entry. You do not see that
in any other Olympic dinghy class!
Laser 4.7 continues to grow
Outside the Olympic circuit the Laser 4.7 enjoys the same benefits of ease of
travel. 37 competitors from 6 countries took part in the Central and South American
Championships. In Dubai Laser 4.7 competitors from 6 countries took part in a joint Laser 4.7 and
Optimist regatta, 5 countries took in the 4.7 class in Qatar providing the first step on the international ladder of development for Arab sailors. Croatia has provided the example of how an active
Laser 4.7 programme for youth leading on to the Laser Radial and then to the Laser develops top
sailors. I am confident that we will see similar success in those countries that have been proactive
in adopting the Laser 4.7 and the following the Laser Formula through the Laser Radial.
Interestingly leading Laser countries including Australia, Brazil and Great Britain also have a
growing Laser 4.7 programme. They obviously want to stay out in front!
Paige wins again in the Laser Radial
Remember last year when a US girl put the boys in their place by winning overall in a large mixed
Laser Radial in Kiel Week and then went on to win the girls single handed event at the ISAF World
Youth Championship? Well she has done it again at the Laser Mid Winters East in Florida
dominating a mixed fleet of 65 competitors. Congratulations Paige.
Next stop Athens
The 2004 Olympic Games promises to be one of the most exciting yet for our class as once again
Laser is on course to deliver an epic competition. Looking at the latest ISAF ranking list there are
15 countries from 5 continents in the top 20 places, all of whom have a realistic chance of getting
a medal in our highly competitive class. At the last two Olympics the Laser provided a classic last
race drama that thrilled the sailing world.
Robert Scheidt has avenged his 1-point defeat by Gustavo Lima at the last Worlds, winning 8 races
to take the Central and South American Championships. Michael Blackburn heads the ISAF
ranking list after a brief affair with a 49er and Paul Goodison is back on form following indifferent
results at the Pre Olympics and Worlds. Goodison still needs to get through the UK trials and there
are a few top Brits who would be happy to take his place.
If the in depth standard is high and the equipment is equal there will be close competition
irrespective of the competition format or scoring system.
I cannot wait to see the drama unfold.
Good luck to all our sailors!
Χαπταιν’σ Λογ
Νεωσ, ϖιεωσ ανδ οπινιονσ φροµ ΙΛΧΑ
Εξεχυτιϖε Σεχρεταρψ ϑεφφ Μαρτιν
180,000 ΑΝ∆ ΣΤΙΛΛ ΓΡΟΩΙΝΓ
We have recently passed another landmark in
Laser history. We have just issued building plaque
number 180000. Laser has come a long way
since its humble beginning as an “off the beach
fun boat”. In the seventies ISAF wanted the Laser as an
Olympic class and we said no because at that time we felt the pressures
would be too big on what was then a new concept - “take your boat out
of the box, don’t change anything, just go sailing.”
The original concept was the result of a
telephone conversation between the first
builder, Ian Bruce, and designer Bruce
Kirby. During that conversation Kirby
sketched the lines on a scrap of paper
which were very similar to the final
production boat. Like a number of good
ideas the project sat in a drawer until early
in 1970 when a sailing magazine decided
to hold a competition for low cost sail
boats. The drawing was revived and Ian
Bruce built a boat. For the competition
the boat was called “Weekender” and sail
maker, Hans Fogh, stitched “TGIF”
(Thank God It’s Friday) on the sail. Fogh
completed the first sail without seeing the
mast, just in time to meet with Ian Bruce
and the boat on the way to the regatta!
Fogh sailed the boat for the first time on
Ian Lineberger
Electronic Watch Compass
There are a growing number of electronic wrist
watches on the market that incorporate a
compass. I have seen some sailors using them.
Class Rule 22 prohibits electronic compasses.
Competitors may be protested for using these
watches.
Please pay attention to this class rule especially
sailors at the Olympic Games or at the World
Championships which is also the final Olympic
country qualifier.
Jean Luc Michon
ILCA Chief Measurer
BLACKBURN STILL LEADS
RANKING LIST
Little change at the top in the lead up to the
Olympics, with top sailors more than ever
travelling the World circuit of major regattas.
This Olympic Class shows its true Worldwide
status in the number of different World nations
represented at the top of the ranking: 4 of the 6
continents are represented in the top 10 alone,
with sailors from every continent and an
impressive 29 different countries appearing
within the top 60.
Top positions at at 6 February are shown below,
and include Sydney International Regatta (1);
Christmas Race (3); 27th International New
Year's Regatta (3); Australian Laser
Championships (1); 2004 NZL Laser National
Championships (3); Sail Melbourne OCR (1);
Roles Miami OCR (1). Full details available
from:
www.laserinternational.org
POS
NAME
NAT PTS
1 (1)
2 (2)
3 (3)
4= (4)
4= (4)
6 (6)
7 (7)
8 (10)
9 (8)
10 (9)
Michael Blackburn
Robert Scheidt
Paul Goodison
Daniel Birgmark
Kalle Suneson
Gareth Blanckenberg
Vasilij Zbogar
Brendan Casey
Philippe Bergmans
Gustavo Lima
AUS
BRA
GBR
SWE
SWE
RSA
SLO
AUS
BEL
POR
4787
4757
4712
4620
4620
4535
4516
4499
4490
4460
the Saturday and finished second in class. He made a few alterations to
the sail overnight and went out and won the next race. The rest is
history!
The original concept of an “off the beach fun boat” is as valid now as it
was 35 years ago. Yet the same hull, mast and sail now also provide
some of the most demanding and intense Olympic sailing competition.
All the Lasers in the world could support 174 jumbo jets.
For fun I asked our Technical Officer, Adam French, to number crunch
some figures into unusual statistics which I hope will amuse you and
provide the opportunity for challenging
questions in the clubhouse:
• If you put the masts of all the Lasers ever
built (not including spares and replacements) end to end, they would reach from
London to Copenhagen and take two hours
to fly from one end to the other (in a jumbo
jet).
• Over 2.5 million m2 of Laser sails have
been made, enough to cover 500 football
pitches.
• If packed into standard 40 ft. containers,
you would need over 9,000 trucks and the
truck convoy would be over 270 km long.
• If you built a raft of all the Lasers ever built,
it would be able to support the weight of 174
jumbo jets.
• If all the Lasers ever built started on a
single start line (2 boat widths per boat) the
line would be nearly 500 km long, so
starters at each end would have to cover
about 350 km before they crossed, taking
about three days in medium breeze!
Ed note: That would be a challenge for a
www.laserinternational.org
LaserWorld A p r i l 2 0 0 4
4
Matthew Goulter in action
photo: Kevin Lewis
HONG KONG
LASER
In clinching his third title, Hamish joins a select group of 3 other sailors:
Russell Coutts, 2000 Olympian Peter Fox, and World No 1 Michael
Blackburn AUS.
photos: www.sportlibrary.com.au
CHAMPIONSHIPS
29 November - 7 December
1 Matthew Goulter 10 pts, 2 David Early 13 pts, 3 Jorgen Christensen 17 pts
1st Woman: Julie McKenzie 195 pts
1st Youth Male: Jamie Dalton 64 pts
1st Youth Female: Akiko Sakai 103 pts
1st Master: Nick Andrews 36 pts
AL-KHARAFI INTERNATIONAL
REGATTA, 1 - 5 December, KUW
Laser: 21 competitors, 9 countries
1 Peer Moberg NOR 14 pts, 2 Timofei Zbankov RUS 15 pts, 3 Taher
Selmane ALG 26 pts, 4 Paul Damen NED 27 pts, 5 Sami Koheji BRN 40 pts
ST NICHOLAS RACE, 4 - 7 December Pula, CRO
Laser: 11 competitors, 6 countries 1 Milan Vujasinovic 7 pts, 2 Ivan
Kljakovic-Gaspic 7 pts, 3 Boris Vidajic 15 pts
Laser Radial: 41 competitors, 6 countries 1 Daniel Mihelic 8 pts, 2 Ivan
Taritas 12 pts, 3 Marko Matic 15 pts
EUROMED 2003, 17 - 21 December St Paul's, MLT
Laser: 8 competitors 1 Mario Aquilina 7 pts, 2 Aaron Podesta 17 pts, 3
Neil Borg 20 pts
Laser Radial: 5 competitors 1 Simon Aquilina 15 pts, 2 Zak Borg 17 pts,
3 Andrew Selvagi 17 pts
Laser 4.7: 9 competitors 1 Adel Khalid UAE 19 pts, 2 Christoph Podesta
MLT 19 pts, 3 Matthew Fleri Soler MLT 26 pts
SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL
REGATTA (SIRS)
18 - 21 December Sydney, AUS
The 2003 event, part of the Sail Down Under series, saw competitors
travelling from all corners of the globe to race during the four-day regatta,
sailed out of Woollahra Sailing Club. The 55-boat Laser fleet experienced a
variety of conditions during racing with the breeze direction being shifty and
strength ranging from 6 to 25 knots.
Laser: 56 competitors, 13 countries 1 Michael Blackburn AUS 26 pts, 2
Tom Slingsby AUS 41 pts, 3 Pieter Jan Postma NED 46 pts, 4 Andrew
Murdoch NZL 52 pts, 5 Brendan Casey AUS 53 pts
Laser Radial: 20 competitors, 3 countries 1 Zac Skulander 12 pts, 2
Matthew Chew 16 pts, 3 Simon McGoldrick 20 pts
Laser 4.7: 13 competitors 1 James Burman 11 pts, 2 Jye Murray 12 pts,
3 Harry Mighell 31 pts
PALAMOS CHRISTMAS RACE, 26 - 30
December Palamos, ESP
A total of 60 competitors from 13 nations
participated in the 2003 Palamós Christmas
Race. The fleet was divided into 2 groups
that sailed a qualifying series (5 races),
followed by a final series (1 race) on the last
day.
1 Diego Negri ITA 8 pts, 2 Mathias Rieck
GER 12 pts, 3 Mathieu Murati FRA 12 pts,
4 Alexander Schlonski GER 15 pts, 5
Sergey Desykevich BLR 16 pts
THIRD NATIONAL
TITLE FOR
HAMISH PEPPER
photo: Jose Pinho
Laser Radial winner Matthew Chew AUS
In the Laser Radials, it was the turn of another ex-Team NZ member, Mark
Orams to reclaim the title he won several years earlier. His string of firsts
was only disrupted 3 times in the 10 race series when young sailor
Mathieu Frei took first, which was
First Laser enough to earn the youngster second
youths.
4.7 Mark place overall and first in theMatt
Blakey
Lincoln Laser: 20 competitors, 3 countries 1
Hamish Pepper NZL 27 pts, 2 Michael
Bullot NZL 29 pts, 3 Andrew Murdoch
NZL 43 pts, 4 Rod Dawson NZL 44 pts,
5 Dan Slater NZL 52 pts
Laser Radial: 11 competitors 1 Mark
Orams NZL 12 pts, 2 Mathieu Frei FRA
26 pts, 3 Martin Winter NZL 29 pts, 4
Kate O'Brien NZL 33 pts, 5 Scott Blakey
NZL 41 pts
SAIL
MELBOURNE, 21 - 17
January, Melbourne, AUS
Sailors came from across the world to
compete in what is regarded as the
largest regatta of its type in the southern
hemisphere.
The Laser class was hotly contested - Paul Goodison, back from his break
in the class, showed he was in top form, finishing first ahead of Australians
Brendan Casey, who is having a resurgence in the class, and Michael
Blackburn, who had earlier beaten Casey to the AUS spot for the
Olympics. Only Pieter Jan Postma NED, finishing 8th, stopped it being an
all Oz and Pom scenario in the top nine finishers of the top-ranking
international fleet.
Mark Lincoln (VIC) did not lose a single race in the Laser 4.7 series.
Matthew Chew AUS owed his title to a strong finish in the Laser Radial
fleet.
Laser: 32 competitors, 11 countries 1 Paul Goodison GBR 12 pts, 2
Brendan Casey AUS 24 pts, 3 Michael Blackburn AUS 26 pts, 4 Tom
Slingsby AUS 28 pts, 5 Mark Howard GBR 28 pts
Laser Radial: 12 competitors, 2 countries
1 Matthew Chew AUS 8 pts, 2 Richard Bott
AUS 13 pts, 3 Andrew Mowlem NZL 18 pts,
4 Jeffrey Schulz AUS 32 pts, 5 Craig
McPhee AUS 35 pts
1st Laser 4.7: 1 Mark Lincoln AUS 7 pts
SOUTHEAST
BRAZILIAN
CHAMPIONSHIP
(OPEN)
18 - 21 January, BRA
Laser: 24 competitors 1 Robert Scheidt
BRA 10 pts, 2 Gustavo Lima POR 22 pts, 3
Luis Martinez Doreste ESP 23 pts
Laser Radial: 38 competitors 1 Philipe
Theophilo Nottingham 25 pts, 2 Daniel
Coloneze de Pinho 25 pts, 3 Tiago Cortes
Top 3 at the Cricket Match Race, L to R: Andre Streppel
BRA, Robert Scheidt BRA, Fredrik Lassenius SWE
New Zealand Nationals, 8 - 11 January,
Hibiscus Coast, NZL
Another hugely successful National Championships. 1996 Olympic Rodrigues 31 pts
representative and tactician for Team NZ, Hamish Pepper won the title he Laser 4.7: 30 competitors 1 Henrique Duarte Haddad 13 pts, 2 Andre de
earned previously in '95 and '97. He remarked: "it's been a long time since Brito Arueira 22 pts, 3 Philipe Wender 33 pts
I first won it back in '95 and its great to come back a bit older and a lot
ROBERT SCHEIDT WINS
wiser and win it again".
CRICKET MATCH RACE
Typical of Laser, the overall title was decided in a tense last race. In the
22 - 25 January, Buzios, BRA
end Bullot's blistering downwind speed wasn't enough to haul Hamish in he won the start and led to the finish. With such close racing the Olympic As part of the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the Brazilian Laser
trials will be closely fought.
Class, this unique event was held in Buzios. The matches were sailed in
www.laserinternational.org
5
LaserWorld A p r i l 2 0 0 4
LASER 4.7’S AND OPTIMISTS IN DUBAI
Dubai International Sailing Week Regatta, 26 - 30 January, 30 competitors, 6 countries
Dubai International Marine Club welcomed around 100 international Optimist and Laser 4.7 youth
sailors for the 5th Dubai International Sailing Week Regatta off the coast of Mina Seyahi. For many,
this was their first dip into the warm waters of the Gulf.
“Although it’s winter here, the weather is practically tropical compared to our normal
conditions!” said one European competitor, who obviously won’t mind too much if he suffers a
capsize during the practice races! Conditions were varied, giving the young sailors plenty of
experience.
Adel Khalid UAE and Arron Larkins RSA
Positions were hard earned. South Africa’s Justin Onvlee proved fastest to the finish line in all three
sailing head to head
races on the first day, a pattern that he
maintained throughout, only dropping from top position in 3 of the 14 races. “During the first two Justin Onvlee RSA
races there was a lot of wind so I think that gave me the advantage as I am heavier. For the third sails across the line to
take the Laser 4.7 title
race the win was more down to tactics.”
Visibly excited about his winning the title, Justin said he was very happy and will go on for the Worlds
in Italy in August this year.
In the Laser 4.7 female category, strongest showing went to Egypt’s Dina Ahmed Ramadan after her
impressive 7th, 9th and 16th place finishes. Again, it was consistency that won her the female title,
with only 3 results outside the top 10 and finishing the final race 2nd overall.
Overall results 1 Justin Onvlee RSA 16 pts, 2 Charlie Hill BRN 50 pts, 3 Aaron Larkens RSA 51 pts, 4
Adel Khalid UAE 55 pts, 5 Seezer Moritz ITA 72 pts 1st female: Dina Ahmed Ramadan EGY 117 pts
SAIL AUCKLAND, 6 - 9 February, Auckland, NZL
Light, shifting winds dominated the event which, for both the Laser and
Laser Radial fleets, promised to be highly competitive. Positions remained
close to the end at the top of both fleets, with the Laser title and the Laser
Radial 2nd and 3rd positions being decided only in the final race.
Laser: 17 competitors, 2 countries 1 Andrew Murdoch 20 pts, 2 Dan
Slater 23 pts, 3 Michael Bullot 28 pts, 4 David Weaver 28 pts, 5 Matthew
Blakey 29 pts
Laser Radial: 28 competitors 2 countries 1 Jake Bartrom NZL 15 pts, 2
Mark Orams NZL 39 pts, 3 Craig Prentice NZL 42 pts, 4 Zac Skulander AUS
43 pts, 5 Blair McLay NZL 49 pts
First woman: Krystal Weir AUS 53 pts
Fifteen year old Adel Khalid bettered even this in the Laser 4.7s, sailing a
superb card of nine bullets and a second, which he discarded, whilst in the
Laser Radial Muhamad Mohd Romzi also never finished outside the top 3.
Laser: 23 competitors, 16 countries 1 Gareth Blanckenberg RSA 9 pts, 2
Jan Seekamp GER 28 pts, 3 Dmitry Tereshkin RUS 30 pts, 4 Timofey
Zhbankov RUS 33 pts, 5 Sami Koheji BRN 37 pts
Laser Radial: 19 competitors, 9 countries 1 Muhamad Mohd Romzi MAS
15 pts, 2 Abd El-Gany Karim EGY 24 pts, 3 Mat Rofaizal MAS 27 pts, 4
Charlie Hill BRN 40 pts, Yaqoob A.Aziz BRN 43 pts
Laser 4.7: 9 competitors, 5 countries 1 Adel Khalid UAE 9 pts, 2 Abdulla
Abderrahman BRN 24 pts, 3 Alkandri Mohammad KUW 33 pts
PAIGE RAILEY BEATS ALL COMERS IN LASER RADIAL
Laser Midwinters East, 26 - 29 February, Clearwater, USA
Oops! A rather too close mark
rounding
ATHENS EUROLYMP WEEK, 15 - 21 February, Athens, GRE
Athens Eurolymp Week
photo: www.sailingphoto.gr
A total of 83 Laser sailors from 27 countries took advantage of the chance
to try out the waters that will host the Olympic Regatta in August.
With many competing and using the event as a build up regatta for the
Olympic Games, competition was bound to be tough and the racing close,
in a variety of conditions throughout the week ending with a brisk 35-knot
breeze that tested even the strongest sailors.
1 Karl Suneson SWE 19 pts, 2 Andreas Geritzer AUT 23 pts, 3 Maciej
Grabowski POL 24 pts, 4 Daniel Birgmark SWE 34 pts, 5 Paul Goodison
GBR 35 pts
photo: Gary Hufford,
www.digiproofs.com/beachmaster/
XXX CAMPEONATO BRASILEIRO
31 January - 8 February, Rio de Janeiro, BRA
Some whole families were sailing this year, along with stars such as Robert
Scheidt. The entry record was once again broken in the Laser 4.7, and the
fleet is now a sound path for ex-Optimist sailors in the country.
Laser: 54 competitors, 12 countries 1 Robert Scheidt BRA 9 pts, 2 Vasilij
Zbogar SLO 27 pts, 3 Luis Martinez Doreste ESP 29 pts
Laser Radial: 65 competitors, 3 countries 1 Samuel Reis Albrecht BRA
15 pts, 2 Eduardo Pacheco Chaves BRA 23 pts, 3 Tiago Cortes Rodrigues
BRA 24 pts
Laser 4.7: 60 competitors 1 Matheus Livramento Dellagnelo 10 pts, 2 Ruy
de Azevedo Guimaraes 20 pts, 3 Guilherme Baumgartl Barbosa Lima 26 pts
164 competitors from 11 countries battled it out over four days of very
intense racing in the Gulf of Mexico, reflected in the fact that the top 5 in
the Laser included sailors from 4 different countries and 3 different
continents.
Laser: 93 competitors, 11 countries
1 Michael Leigh CAN 18 pts, 2 Marc de Haas NED 24 pts, 3 Brendan
Casey AUS 25 pts, 4 Brad Funk USA 33 pts, 5 Zach Railey USA 34 pts
Laser Radial: 65 competitors, 4 countries 1 Paige Railey USA 10 pts,
2 Matthew Goetting USA 28 pts, 3 Charles Fulmer USA 28 pts, 4 James
Liebl USA 36 pts, 5 Cy Thompson ISV 41 pts
1st Laser 4.7: Emily Billing USA 10 pts
Winners at the Laser Midwinters East
photo: Amanda Fleming
SAIL THE GULF 2004, 21 - 27 February, Doha, QAT
On the first day, the wind built from a steady and warm 15 knots to gusts of
over 30 knots, leading to some capsizes and tough conditions, although by
the end of the day everyone was safely ashore.
By the end of the series clear leaders were emerging; in Laser it was South
African Gareth Blanckenberg who established an early lead, taking the initial
difficult conditions by storm - a pattern which he continued with a series
score of nine 1sts and a 3rd.
www.laserinternational.org
6
LaserWorld A p r i l 2 0 0 4
“We were able to launch off the beach!”
COACHING COACHES
IN INDONESIA
Normally when you combine Jeff Martin with
constant wind it is not a good thing, but in this case
Constantwind was the Laser dealership for Southeast Asia run by Kah Soon and it turned out to be a
memorable experience.
A partnership of ILCA, Performance Sailcraft,
Constantwind and the Indonesian Sailing Federation
combined together to run a single-handed instructor
course and I was asked to be the coach.
When I arrived I was met by Ravie, who acted as course
interpreter. I am used to people trying to interpret what I
say and that’s when we all speak English, so Ravie did a
fantastic job.
He filled me in on certain key facts about the country
which might affect its development as a growing Laser
region. Indonesia is an island nation of 210 million
people, the fourth most populous country in the world. It
photo: Irish Apprentice Master Declan O' Byrne
is spread over 5 main islands, three time zones and thirty
provinces. The average wage is less than $100 a month
so giving access to the population to sail is going to rely heavily on government intervention.
The course was run at the Bandulu water sports resort, an excellent facility, where we were able to launch off the beach. There was a bit of
a problem with a pretty steep swell that caused us to sink the coach boat twice, but the water temperature was 25 degrees, so who cared.
We had 15 coaches on the course, not all familiar with the Laser, but all good sailors. As the week progressed I tried to improve their coaching
skills and did a lot of tutorials on the racing rules. There is no Indonesia version of the rules, and as most of the coaches couldn't read English
the explanations seemed to help a lot.
It was a great week and I think ILCA should help to kick start sailing in the region by bringing a major Laser event to South-east Asia. Thats
the sort of project that would encourage the government to get involved. Once the Indonesians can combine their perfect conditions with
access to boats the rest of the World had better watch out.
Bill O’Hara
THE
LASER
BOOK 4TH
EDITION
by Tim Davison
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE RADIAL AND THE
STANDARD RIGS
The Radial sail has an open leech and less power than the Standard
sail. As a result there is less weather helm - you don’t need to pull on
the tiller to keep the boat going in a straight line. That’s why it is a very
pleasant rig to take windward in a blow. On the other hand, it can feel a
bit wishy-washy in light airs so you may need to heel the boat to leeward
to give the tiller a bit of “feel” when beating. Ten degrees is enough!
The Radial mast is shorter and lighter than the Standard mast. This
means you have to overemphasise your movements when roll
tacking, roll gybing and accelerating off the line. And if you’re light
yourself you need to work harder still.
THE MARK 5 AND MARK 6 SAILS
128 pages, with 276 colour photos plus 59 colour diagrams
A completely revised, colour edition of this invaluable Laser
sailing manual, which will take a complete beginner up to Club
Championship standard. It will teach you to rig the boat using
the new control lines, then launch and sail it. There are new
sections on the Radial and 4.7 rigs. Finally, it covers the
elements of how to race. It forms the ideal precursor to the
Laser Campaign Manual by Ben Ainslie, available through the
Laser Library at www.laserinternational.org.
THE LASER BOOK 4TH EDITION will be available from May
2004; we are able to offer a sneak preview from the section
on the Laser Radial, with kind permission of the publishers.
The book will be on sale in the Laser Library, priced £16.50 for
UK orders, £17.00 within Europe and £18.50 elsewhere.
O R D E R F O R M O N PA G E 7
THE RADIAL RIG
I’m very grateful for help with this chapter from Ian Clingan (RYA
Laser Radial coach), Steve Cockerill and Philip White. They are fast
Radial sailors and shared their knowledge freely. Thanks guys!
www.laserinternational.org
The Radial sail was redesigned 3 years ago. As a result the Mk 6 sail
is more responsive to cunningham pressure. In other words, as you
gradually pull on the cunningham the leech opens progressively. With
the Mk 5 sail the initial tightening of the cunningham did nothing, then
the leech suddenly opened.
SETTING UP THE BOAT
Stick pairs of telltales on the sail like this (one third of the way back
from the luff). Use candle wax to wax them and the area of the sail
they move over. Then they won’t stick in the rain.
7
LaserWorld A p r i l 2 0 0 4
Use the same candle to drip wax onto the
screw head under the bailer, and use a credit
card to scrape the still-soft wax until it’s level.
Take purchases out of the kicking strap (vang)
system or you will have too much tail rope in
the cockpit. (It then wraps round everything
and jams in the mainsheet block.) Either
reduce the 3:1 section to 2:1 or take purchase
out of the tail. Ian reports that light girls in his
squad can still pull on the kicking strap easily.
Do tie the tail rope to the centreboard so you
can always grab it.
Use 4:1 for the cunningham i.e. don’t use the
cascade system. There must be enough travel
for you to get the cunningham right on and
right off, and if you have too much purchase
this won’t happen.
FAX / MAIL ORDER FORM: The Laser Book 4th Edition, Tim Davison
Price: UK 16.50 GBP, Europe 17.00 GBP, & rest of World 18.50 GBP, postage & packing
included. Payment may be made by UK cheque in Pounds sterling (payable to "ILCA") or by
credit card (American Express, Solo, Switch, JCB, Mastercard or Visa) please give credit card
details below (2% admin charge will be added).
No. of copies required: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Email: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Telephone: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Fax: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Family Name: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
First Name:
Delivery Address:
________________
__________________________________________
____________________________________________________
_______________________
Country: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Card Number: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
On the other hand you need more purchase in
the outhaul so you can adjust it without
coming inboard. Add additional purchases so
you have 3:1 instead of 2:1 at the cleat on the
boom. This also makes outhaul setting more
precise.
Please charge card: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _GBP (+2%)
BEATING IN THE RADIAL
Cardholder’s Name: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Card Expiry Date: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Card Issue No. (Switch only): _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Cardholder’s Address: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
________________________
Country: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Cardholder’s Signature: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
When going to windward in any wind strength
Fax to ILCA at: +44 1326 318968
(and with any rig) the objective is to have the
or send by post to: ILCA, PO Box 26, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3TN, U.K.
boom end directly over the outer edge of the
deck. Having the traveller very tight and the
tiller low help. You may also need to ease the mainsheet a bit.
Beating in Light Winds
Having the mainsheet bock-to-block stalls the sail because the leech
is over-hooked (or too closed). Let off the mainsheet so there are six
inches between the blocks.
Looked at from behind, this puts depth into the head of the sail and
increases the power.
If you let off the mainsheet too much the mast straightens and the luff
of the sail is too full (a round entry) which stops you pointing. If the
mainsheet is too tight the leech is hooked. Aim for the best
compromise.
Set the kicking strap block-to-block. Use the cunningham to just pull
out the creases. Have the outhaul quite tight - from your fingertips to
the base of your thumb i.e. 2/3 of a hand. This shallow curve gives
the wind a chance to bend around the sail.
In very light airs pull on the kicking strap a little more to bend the mast
and open the leech.
Where you sit is a cleat treat - sit on it!
Young sailors can easily injure themselves by hiking wrongly. Wear
footwear that supports your ankles, e.g. Aigle Boots. Have an ankle
support inside. Hike with your ankles, knees and hips in line and don’t
point your toes - your toes should be pointing at the sky.
Beating in Medium Air
Your aim is to have all the power low down in the rig. And remember,
as you increase the kicking strap tension the leech opens - the
opposite effect from a boat with shrouds and a jib.
This is because the kicking strap bends the mast.
SAIL CONTROLS
Pull in the mainsheet block-to-block and play it to
give the boat a slight heel.
The kicking strap should be tighter than block to
block and pulled on more as the wind builds. Pull it
on if you want to sail low and fast. Let it off if you
want to point higher.
Begin with the cunningham half on and
progressively pull on more as you become
overpowered.
Set the outhaul to be one hand (fingertips to
watchstrap).
TRIM
Sit just behind the cleat and give the boat a 10o
heel.
Watch the telltales and make sure the leeward ones
are streaming all the time.
Beating in Strong Winds
Your objective is to flatten the sail and be able to pump the mainsheet
in and out without the boom end rising. Heavier sailors can actually
plane to windward by pulling on the kicking strap and easing out the
mainsheet to keep the boat flat - this is really fast.
Pull on the kicking strap hard, but note it is possible to pull too far.
You are aiming for vang-sheeting i.e. the boom doesn’t rise when you
dump the mainsheet,
which then simply
controls the angle of
the boom to the boat.
Pull on loads of
cunningham to open
the upper leech and
bring the centre of effort
forward.
Set the outhaul to half a
hand. Never have it bar
tight because you want
some flow low down.
As the wind pipes up sit
further back - up to 30
cm behind the cleat if
need be. Aim for about
one wave in ten to
come
onto
the
foredeck.
www.laserinternational.org
8
LaserWorld A p r i l 2 0 0 4
LASER
TERS 2004
S
A
M
NEW ZEALAND MASTERS NATIONALS
8 - 11 January Hibiscus Coast NZL
Laser:
13
competitors,
3
countries 1 Torben
Grael BRA 134 pts (1st
Apprentice), 2 Nelson
Guimaraes BRA 148
pts, 3 Ricardo Zanetti
London 183 pts
1st Master: Ronaldo
Camargo
Ribeiro
Senfft 246 pts
Laser Radial: 23
competitors,
2
countries 1 Carlos
Eduardo Wanderley 44 pts (1st Apprentice), 2
Lauro Henrique Wollner 152 pts, 3 Joao
Frattini Ramos 161 pts
Richard 1st Master: Philipe Theophilo
Blakey Nottingham 251 pts
1st Grand Master: Helio Albano de
Araujo 227 pts
Tony Park
FLORIDA MASTERS, 15 - 16
photos: Eleanor Blakey
In the Masters Class this year it was a family affair, with Richard
Blakey taking the overall honours as well as first in the Apprentice
Master division (35-45), while father Bob convincingly won the
Grand Masters category (55-65), both scoring 5 firsts out of 8 races.
In the grand Masters division, Tom Speed proved
age is no obstacle, taking second place despite
actually being too old for the
Mark Orams
division. As the only sailor in the
Great Grand Masters age range,
he was allowed to enter in the
Grand Masters Division amongst
the “spring chickens”.
Matt Blakey
Laser 1 Richard Blakey 9 pts, 2 Tony Evans
13 pts, 3 Peter Van Ryn 26 pts, 4 Bob Blakey
29 pts, 5 Luke Van Batenburg 40 pts
Laser Radial 1 Mark Orams 8 pts, 2 Kevin
Welsh 12 pts, 3 Amanda Wilson 25 pts, 4 Mark
Miller 28 pts, 5 Colin Maddren 33 pts
EURO MASTERS SERIES: ANTIBES
23 - 25 January, Antibes, FRA
Apprentices 1 Christophe Plotton FRA 14 pts,
2 Caroline Jacot SUI 17 pts, 3 Philippe Jacot
SUI 17 pts
Masters 1 Regis Berenguier FRA 17 pts, 2 Gilles Grenier FRA 19 pts, 3
Laurent Bernaz FRA 19 pts
Grand Masters 1 Tomaso Ambrosi SUI 10
All the prizewinners at
pts, 2 Yves Dominique Spichiger SUI 45 pts, 3
Photo: Jose Pinho
Louis Marcon FRA 50 pts
Great Grand Masters 1 Gerard Jeannot
FRA 62 pts, 2 William Roger FRA 74 pts, 3
Pedro Jimenez-Meifren ESP 81 pts
Laser Radial Open 1 Georges During FRA 4
pts, 2 Pierre Yves Lambert FRA 5 pts, 3
Laurent Vigo FRA 8 pts
Laser Radial Women 1 Christelle Marsault
FRA 14 pts, 2 Claudine Tatibouet FRA 26 pts,
3 Antonella Sabatini ITA 30 pts
CAMPEONATO BRASILEIRO:
MASTERS
31 January - 8 February
Rio de Janeiro BRA
Winds averaged 20 knots, rising to 30
knots in a couple of races. All age groups sailed together; results are
extracted from the overall rankings.
www.laserinternational.org
February West Palm Beach,
USA
Handicapped results:
1 Peter Seidenberg (GGM) 17 pts,
2 Buzzy Heausler (M) 19 pts, 3
Alden Shattuck (GM) 22 pts, 4 Ian
Lineberger (M) 32 pts, 5 Tim Landt
(M) 37 pts
1st Apprentice: Ken Tarboton 48
pts
MASTERS MIDWINTERS
EAST
21 - 22 February, Clearwater,
USA, 64 competitors, 7 countries
Apprentices 1 Kevin Kelly 39 pts, 2 Hal Gilreath 46 pts, 3
James Liebl 46 pts
Masters 1 Chris Raab USA 24 pts (1st overall), 2 Andre
Martinie DOM 45 pts, 3 Mark Bear USA 45 pts
Grand Masters 1 Alden Shattuck 47 pts, 2 Joe Van
Rossem 110 pts, 3 Newt Wattis 123 pts
Great Grand Masters 1 Peter Seidenberg 58 pts, 2 Dick
Tillman 90 pts
2004 EUROPEAN MASTERS
CHAMPIONSHIP
Largs, Scotland, 18 - 25 September 2004
Largs Sailing Club will host the 2004 International
Laser Class European Masters' Championships
between the 18th and 25th September. Situated on the west
coast of Scotland, an hour outside of Glasgow, the club
enjoys a unique sailing area in the shelter of the Western
Isles.
With easy transit links
the Campeonato Brasileiro
from all areas of the
U.K. and a very efficient
ferry service from the
East Coast the site was
a very popular choice
for the UK Laser
Nationals in 2003.
Details of the racing and
social
programmes,
together
with
the
facilities offered by the
club, including details of
charter boats available
can be found on the
UKLA website:
www.laser.org.uk
or by contacting the
organizer, Joanne
Dixon, at:
jodixon@scottishsailinginstitute.com
or on + 44 (0)1475 670011 / 07786 736907
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18
there’s a new “YRALIS” Laser regatta at
Cedar Point YC in late August. The
Vermont Open is moving back to Malletts
Bay this year, in mid-August, and the
Seitech New England Masters also
moves to Lake Champlain (in late Sept.)
to complete its New England circuit.
So lots of travelling to do. Hope to see
many of you on the water this summer!
District 8 - Don Woodworth
This winter is finally over and we can
begin think about sailing in liquid and
only slipping or falling on the deck of a
boat and not ice.
The sailing starts early this year
with a new addition on May 15th a
clinic at the Oyster Bay Sailing Center.
Rudy Ratsep, one of the most knowledgeable people on boat construction,
repair and maintenance as well as an
excellent sailor, will go over any problems or questions you have about
your laser. Rudy will also spend time
on proper rigging and any improvement or upgrades that could be made.
With a short break for lunch (BYOL)
we will go out on the water for practice
and some short course racing. The
clinic will start at 10AM and end about
4PM with a $25 fee, well worth the
money for any one who wants to
improve their boat, sailing technique
and boat handling. Go to www.thewaterfrontcenter.org for direction.
The following week May 22nd
Centerport YC will be hosting the
Open Atlantic Coast Championships
for full rigs and 4.7s (not Radials). It is
limited to the first 120 boats and will
be a popular event for local seniors
and juniors so get your entry in early.
Go to www.laser.org click on Racing to
get the NOR and entry form.
Our standard Saturday racing starts
with Seawanhaka and CSH Beach
Club, please note the skippers meetings are at 1PM in order to take better
advantage of the afternoon breezes.
We are back to a 10AM start with
Southampton, Dinghy shop and
Bayshore. Bayshore will again host the
Area B finals for the O’Day trophy with
the Nationals also held at Bayshore
later in August. District 8 will again
support the Great South Bay YRA racing schedule with Babylon YC on the
July 4th weekend and at Sayville on
July 23-25. In between, Sayville will
host the 7th annual Grand Prix which
has become a very popular event,
always a great location and breeze.
Devon on August 7th NOTE: back to a
www.laser.org
10AM start, this is a great place to sail
with lots of local talent. Sayville is
hosting the Leukemia Cup on August
21 and the District will support this
good cause with Laser racing. The
season closes with a racing at Bellport
YC on Memorial Day weekend.
It is a full schedule with many
great locations, please be sure to
thank the host club members and
organizers as we are grateful guests
and value the opportunity to use their
facilities with access to the water. See
you on the water.
District 9 – Chas Williamson
Hello to all District 9 sailors. We look
forward to a great Season. I will soon
be sending out a District Newsletter
which will wrap up last year, and provide details for the upcoming season.
Just below you will find our District
Schedule. So.....best wishes to all, and
thanks indeed to those who have contributed to organize the regattas for
the great 2004 season.
Schedule
Sat 29 May, Ithaca YC "Wine Keg"
Chas Williamson. 607-272-0630
Sat 5 June, Willowbank YC Ray
Cudney. 315-655-5477
Sat 12 June, Saratoga YC "Saratoga
Derby" Allan Miller. 518-885-5510
Sat 19 June, Newport YC Jim
Cuddihee. 585-266-8686
Sat 26 June, Chautauqua Lake YC
Cilla Menzies. 716-763-4331
Sat 3 July, FREE
10-11 July, GP DISTRICT 9 CHAMPS
(Centrals Regatta) Skaneateles YC.
Dave Penfield
Sat 17 July, Youngstown YC. Kevin
Doyle. 716-873-0664
Sat 24 July, Sodus Bay YC. Nancy
Ghertner
29 - 31 July, Empire State Games.
Ithaca (Regional Qualifiers Only)
6-8 Aug, Rochester - Junior Olympics
Youth Event
14-15 Aug, GREAT LAKES
Championships !! Rochester YC. Steve
+ Jane Wilde. 585-544-5898
21 Aug, Keuka Lake YC. Debbie Koop.
315-595-2523
21-25 Aug, C.O.R.K. Kingston
Sat 11 Sept, Willowbank YC Deathroll
Ray Cudney. 315-655-5477
District 10 – Phil Karcher,
Janet Combs
Greetings from District 10 where we
are in the midst of yet another snowstorm! It has been snowing here in
Monmouth County since Tuesday and
our future Laser sailors here in Wall are
home for another snow day! We are
receiving a lot of emails and phone
calls from people who are looking for
regatta information, so the warm
spring weather must be on its way!
If you are a fleet captain in D-10
and have not contacted Dave Magno,
the District 10 scheduler, please do
so as soon as possible. We are still
missing lots of dates for the 2004
schedule. dmagnoeng@aol.com
If you are in charge of a regatta,
please feel free to post that information on www.laser.org ASAP. James
has made it extremely easy for anyone
to enter their regatta info, and with
more and more sailors using the internet for their planning, we need to have
it posted immediately.
We will start our District racing off
with the annual Marsh Creek regatta,
which is being held on Easter Sunday,
April 11, 2004. Please visit
www.ussailing.net/mcsc for the contact, time, and directions. We will end
the season with the annual Marsh
Creek Fall regatta which is scheduled
for Saturday, October 16, 2004.
Please contact Rich at mcsc@ussailing.net for further information. Marsh
Creek is a great venue: close to home,
awesome wind shifts, and great folks
hosting these annual events.
As always, if you have anything you
want to contribute to the Laser
Newsletter, please contact janet@congored.com or James at laser.org.
Special thanks to Glen Dickson for
his continued contributions, and congratulations to Dave Magno who is
taking a day off from sailing to marry
the lovely Heidi Soellner at the Toms
River Yacht Club this May!
Important Dates are as follows: (for
those of you not using the web for
information, always feel free to call)
Marsh Creek Regatta - April 11, 2004
Shrewsbury YC Regatta - May 8, 04
Lavallette YC Regatta - May 29, 2004
Orange Coffee Pot Regatta - June 5
District 10 Champs & Grand Prix June 12-13, 2004
Laser Radial/4.7 ACC’s - Surf City July 19-20, 2004
CONTINUED ON PAGE 24
19
2004 Schedule
Regatta
Start
End
Host
City
State
Contact Info
Spring Dinghy Champs
5/1
5/2
RVicYC
Victoria
BC
Leslie Fraser, 250-592-6113, sailing@rvyc.bc.ca
Week-End Warior Indy
5/1
5/1
Eagle Creek Sailing Club
ECSC ~ INDY
IN
Wayne Myers, 317-627-3400, alarmco@netdirect.net
Start of Summer Regatta
5/1
5/1
Santa Clara Racing Association
San Diego
CA
Patrick Thompson, patrickthompson@san.rr.com
Hank Davies Mem. Regatta
5/1
5/2
Chicago Columbia YC
Chicago
IL
John Thomas (JT), skilo@flash.net
Charleston Laser Champs
5/1
5/2
CYC-SC
Charleston
SC
http://d12.laserforum.org/
Friday Night Racing
5/7
8/27
West River Sailing Club
Galesville
MD
Carl Berninger, 301-530-4218
Mothers Day Regatta
5/8
5/8
Lake Geneva Yacht Club
Lake Geneva
WI
Lake Geneva Yacht Club, 262-275-2727
D6 Grand Prix
5/8
5/9
Jerico Sailing Center
Vancouver
BC
Andy Hunt, 604-733-9663, athunt@vcn.bc.ca
Scott Melander, jrsail@pixi.com
D26 Grand Prix
5/8
5/8
Hawaii Yacht Club
Honolulu
HI
Senior and Master Worlds
5/10
5/19
International Laser Class
Bitez
TUR
Jeff Martin, office@laserinternational.org
SOCKS
5/15
5/16
SYC
Seattle
WA
Doug Gordon, 206-328-7009
Vlad Kobal Regatta, Area K Elim 5/15
5/16
Chicago Yacht Club - Monroe
Chicago
IL
Scott Diamond, scottdiamond@sbcglobal.net
Blossomtime Regatta
5/23
COSA
Kelowna
BC
Ron Rubadeau, 250-868-0388, rrubadeau@sd23.bc.ca
5/22
David Irey Memorial
5/22
5/22
West River Sailing Club
Galesville
MD
Carl Berninger, 301-530-4218
Gulf Coast Championships
5/22
5/23
Southern Yacht Club
New Orleans
LA
Howard Schmalz, 504-581-2804
Full Rig and 4.7 ACCs
5/22
5/23
Centerport Yacht Club
Centerport
NY
Brian Whitehead, 631-673-9480
Sea-to-Ski
5/22
5/23
BYC
Bellingham
WA
Gus Farrar, info@byc.org, www.byc.org
Memorial Day Regatta
5/28
5/29
EYC
Eugene
OR
Club Manager, 451-484-5233
Wine Keg Regatta
5/29
5/29
Ithaca YC
Ithaca
NY
Chas Williamson, 607-272-0630
Lavallette YC Laser Regatta
5/29
5/29
Lavallette Yacht Club
Lavallette
NJ
Dave Magno, dmagnoeng@aol.com
Lake Naomi Mem Day Regatta
5/30
5/30
Lake Naomi Club
Pocono Pines
PA
Chris Daggett, 570 646 6341, cdagg@aol.com
Deathroll Regatta
6/5
6/5
Willowbank YC
Cazenovia
NY
Ray Cudney, 315-655-5477
Vancouver Lake SC
6/5
6/6
VLSC
Vancouver
WA
Randy Anderson, 360-573-0073, regatta@vlsc.org
Jericho Classic
6/5
6/6
JSCA
Vancouver
BC
Andy Hunt, 604-733-9663, athunt@vcn.bc.ca
Orange Coffee Pot
6/5
6/5
Surf City YC
Manahawkin Bay
NJ
Newt Wattis, 609-494-2801, nwattis@msn.com
June Gloom Regatta
6/5
6/5
Santa Clara Racing Association
San Diego
CA
Patrick Thompson, patrickthompson@san.rr.com
Savannah Championship
6/5
6/6
SSC
Savannah
GA
http://d12.laserforum.org/
NOSA Invitational
6/12
6/13
NOSA
Vernon
BC
Alex Muhlert, 250-260-4255, alexm@drlaser.org
Saratoga Derby Regatta
6/12
6/12
Saratoga YC
Saratoga Lake
NY
Allan Miller, 518-885-5510
HSC Invitational
6/12
6/13
HSC
West Vancouver
BC
Heather Drugge, 604-926-5744
LWSC Spring Regatta
6/12
6/12
Lake Washington Sailing Club
Sacramento
CA
Ken Crawford, 916-374-0433, secretary@lwsailing.org
D10 Grand Prix
6/12
6/13
Brant Beach YC
Brant Beach
NJ
David Long, 973-543-2910, dwl@verizon.net
Laser Regatta
6/12
6/12
Kaneohe Yacht Club
HI
Scott Melander, jrsail@pixi.com,
North Americans
6/16
6/19
Cedar Point YC
Westport
CT
Eric Robbins, ericlaser@aol.com
The Badger State Games
6/26
6/27
BS Games
Madison
WI
Mark Kastel, 608-625-2042, kastel@mwt.net
Vancouver Lake SC
6/26
6/27
VLSC
Vancouver
WA
Sue Drake, drakefam@aol.com, www.vlsc.org
D7 Grand Prix
6/26
6/27
New Bedford Comm. Boating
New Bedford
MA
Sally Sharp, sandra.M.Sharp@dartmouth.edu
WAVES
7/3
7/4
RVYC
Vancouver
BC
Sail West
7/9
7/11
Last Mountain Lake Sailing Club
Saskatchewan Bch SK
Fraser Pearce, 604-224-1344, sail_dir@royalvan.com
Patti Coons, 306-729-4363, kpcoons@imagewireless.ca
Kitsilano Invitational
7/10
7/11
KYC
Vancouver
BC
Charles Hansen, 604-730-1646, hansech@telus.net
Laser PCCs
7/10
7/12
Monterey Peninsula YC
Monteray
CA
Peter Phelan, 831-761-4164, peterp@portsupply.com
Patrick Thompson, patrickthompson@san.rr.com
Firecracker Regatta
7/10
7/10
Santa Clara Racing Association
San Diego
CA
D9 Grand Prix
7/10
7/11
Skaneateles YC
Skaneateles
NY
Bob Castle, rcastle166@aol.com
D8 Grand Prix
7/12
7/12
Sayville Yacht Club
Sayville
NY
Don Woodworth, don.woodworth@bowne.com
US Nationals
7/15
7/18
Santa Cruz Yacht Club
Santa Cruz
CA
Peter Phelan, 831-761-4164, peterp@portsupply.com
Radials ACCs
7/16
7/17
The Boathouse
Portland
ME
Scott Fox, 207-781-0939, Theboathse@aol.com
Kamloops Invitational
7/17
7/18
QSC
Nicola Lake
BC
Trevor Owen, 250-372-9272, dtowen@telus.net
D1 Grand Prix
7/17
7/18
St. Margarets Bay
Halifax
NS
Andrew Childs, andrewchilds@yahoo.com
South Sound Regatta
7/17
7/18
TYC
Tacoma
WA
Craig Rone, craigroner@aol.com
D23 Grand Prix
7/17
7/18
Aspen Yacht Club
Basalt
CO
Jim Richmond, jerichmond@earthlink.net
Canadian Nationals
7/22
7/25
Royal Vancouver YC
Squamish
BC
Fraser Pearce, 604-224-1344, sail_dir@royalvan.com
Canadian Laser Champs
7/22
7/25
RVYC
Squamish
BC
Fraser Pearce, 604-224-1344, sail_dir@royalvan.com
Sail East
7/22
7/25
RNSYS
Halifax
NS
Barbara Pike, bpike@cnsopb.ns.ca, www.rnsys.com
Masters PCCs
7/24
7/25
Disctict 24
Huntington Lake
CA
Chris boome, 650-373-0595, boomeins@aol.com
Empire State Games
7/29
7/31
Ithaca YC
Ithaca
NY
Allan Miller, 518-885-5510
Centerville
63rd Annual
7/31
8/1
Corsica River Yacht Club
LRYC One Design Regatta
7/31
8/1
LaHave River Yacht Club
20
Md
Fitz Turner, fitzhugh@crosslink.net, www.cryc.org
NS
Kyle Hubley, seathroughsails@hotmail.com
SPRING 2004
Regatta
Start
End
Host
City
State
Contact Info
Gorge Regatta
8/7
8/8
CGRA
Cascade Locks
OR
Kerry Poe, 503-282-4282, kerry@gorgesailing.org
Ron Runyan, 503-293-5100, wsc@ronrunyan.com
Al Morris Regatta
8/7
8/8
WSC
Yale Lake
WA
D12 Grand Prix
8/7
8/8
Carolina Yacht Club
Wrightsville Bch
NC
John Overton, 910-509-0196
Laser Regatta
8/7
8/7
HI
Scott Melander, jrsail@pixi.com
Championship Regatta
8/7
8/7
Santa Clara Racing Association
San Diego
CA
Patrick Thompson, patrickthompson@san.rr.com
CYC Open
8/7
8/8
CYC-NC
Wrightsville Bch
NC
http://d12.laserforum.org/
US Laser Masters
8/13
8/15
CGRA
Cascade Locks
OR
Kerry Poe, 503-282-4282, kerry@gorgesailing.org
SOSA Invitational
8/14
8/15
SOSA
Summerland
BC
Barry Cowan, 250-494-8257, cowangraph@telus.net
Great Lakes Championships
8/14
8/15
Rochester YC
Rochester
NY
Steve Wilde, 585-544-5898
Oxford Regatta
8/14
8/15
Tred Avon Yacht Club
Oxford
Md
David Cox, dayday@shore.intercom.net, www.tayc.com
District 19 Championships
8/14
8/15
Grand Travers Yacht Club
Traverse City
Mi
Mike Moody, MichaelCMoody@cs.com, www.gtyc.com
Junior Olympics
8/21
8/22
SYC
Seattle
WA
Doug Gordon, 206-328-7009
Saskatoon
SK
Mark Barclay, 306 446-3860, m.barclay@sasktel.net
District 5 Championships
8/21
8/22
Battlefords SC
D22 Grand Prix
8/21
8/22
Glacier National Park
CORK
8/21
8/25
Portsmouth Olympic Harbour
Kingston
ON
CORK Office, 613-545-1322, sail@cork.org
D5 Grand Prix
8/21
8/22
Battlefords Sailing Club
Saskatchewan
SK
John Dawson-Edwards, 780-429-4849
Orin Webber, 406-755-1200
D21 Grand Prix
8/28
8/29
White Bear Yacht Club
White Bear Lake
MN
Johannes Aubrecht, 651-695-3157, www.wbycsail.org
Lake Naomi Annual Regatta
8/29
8/29
Lake Naomi Club
Pocono Pines
PA
Chris Daggett, 570 646 6341, www.lnsa.org
Labor Day Regatta
9/4
9/5
West River Sailing Club
Galesville
MD
Carl Berninger, 301-530-4218
Redwood Regatta
9/4
9/5
Humboldt Yacht Club
Eureka
CA
Richard Whitehead, 707 444 9360
Back to School Regatta
9/4
9/4
Santa Clara Racing Association
San Diego
CA
Patrick Thompson, patrickthompson@san.rr.com
CSA Laser Regatta
9/5
9/6
Carlyle Sailing Assoc.
Carlyle
IL
Paul Hanson, 618-288-5840, sail1667@yahoo.com
Johnny Adams Memorial
9/11
9/12
PMYC
Port Madison
WA
Dan Taylor, 206-842-6376, sailpmyc@earthlink.net
Konigsberg Regatta
9/18
9/19
West River Sailing Club
Galesville
MD
Carl Berninger, 301-530-4218
BBOD
9/18
9/19
BYC
Bellingham
WA
Marlene Bolster, 360-773-7390, info@byc.org
The Border Challange
9/18
9/19
La Crosse Sailing Club
La Crosse
WI
Mark Kastel, 608-625-2042, kastek@mwt.net
BYC Sunday Fall Series
9/19
10/10
Beachwood Yacht Club
Beachwood
NJ
William Wiencke, 732-349-9604, wdwinknj@aol.com
2004 No Coast Championships
9/25
9/26
Johnson Lake
Lexington
NE
Noah French, 402-981-3871, laser_2004@yahoo.com
District 11 Grand Prix
9/25
9/26
Severn Sailling Association
Annapolis
Md
Luke Shingledecker, 410 507 2052
Seitech New England Masters
9/25
9/26
Point Bay Marina
Charlotte
VT
John Beal, 802-425-4796, vbb@together.net
D14 Grand Prix
9/25
9/26
Pensacola Beach Yacht Club
Pensacola Beach
FL
Callender R. Herman
Lotsa Laser
9/25
9/26
HIYC
Nashville
TN
www.hiyc.org
Fall Dinghy Champs
10/2
10/3
RVicYC
Victoria
BC
Leslie Fraser, 250-592-6113, sailing@rvyc.bc.ca
Octoberfest
10/2
10/3
CYC
Seattle
WA
Jim Lyle, jim@lyle.com, www.cycseattle.com
Octoberfest Regatta
10/2
10/2
Santa Clara Racing Association
San Diego
CA
Patrick Thompson, patrickthompson@san.rr.com
SC State Champs
10/2
10/3
WCSC
Lake Hartwell
SC
http://d12.laserforum.org/
Seattle Fleet Champs
10/9
10/10
CYC
Seattle
WA
Jay Winberg, 206-523-3370, winbergeng@comcast.net
D17 Grand Prix, GA Champs
10/16
10/17
LLSC
Flowery Branch
GA
www.llsc.com
Pumpkin Regatta
10/23
10/24
WVYC
West Vancouver
BC
Kevin Black, 604-921-7575, info@wvyc.bc.ca
Fall Dinghy & Olympic Classes
10/29
10/31
StFYC
San Francisco
CA
Peter Phelan, 831-761-4164, peterp@portsupply.com
Bluenose Regatta
11/6
11/7
KYC
Vancouver
BC
Charles Hansen, 604-730-1646, hansech@telus.net
South Bay Regatta
11/7
11/7
SCRA / Navy Yacht Club
San Diego
CA
Patrick Thompson, patrickthompson@san.rr.com
No More Turkey
11/13
11/14
AYC
Atlanta
GA
www.atlantayachtclub.org
LWSC Turkey Shoot
11/14
11/14
Lake Washington Sailing Club
Sacramento
CA
Ken Crawford, 916-374-0433, turkeyshoot@lwsailing.org
Turkey Bowl
11/20
11/21
CYC
Seattle
WA
Jay Winberg, 206-523-3370, winbergeng@comcast.net
D13 Grand Prix
11/27
11/28
Davis Island YC
Clearwater
FL
Tim Landt, timc3@gte.net
Holiday Regatta
12/5
12/5
Santa Clara Racing Association
San Diego
CA
Patrick Thompson, patrickthompson@san.rr.com
This calendar was taken from the website. If you are hosting an event and would like it to appear in the next issue of The Laser Sailor,
be sure to post it in the calendar section of www.Laser.org
Bold Italic denotes World Championship
Bold Type denotes Major Championships (Regional, National or Continental)
Italics denotes District Championships
www.laser.org
21
2004 NORTH
AMERICAN GRAND
PRIX RULES
1. Preamble
The intent of the North American
Grand Prix is to promote participation
in Laser Class events at the District,
Regional and Continental levels.
Except
where explicitly stated, the following
rules apply equally to the 2004 Laser,
Radial, 4.7 and Laser>> Grand Prix.
2. Eligibility
a. All members, in good standing, of
the North American Region of the
International Laser Class Association
(ILCA-NA) are eligible to participate in
any and all official Grand Prix events.
b. Competitors who join ILCA-NA before
the start of the first race of a Grand Prix
event shall be considered to be members in good standing for the purposes
of receiving a regatta score for that event
(deemed eligible competitors).
3. Regatta Categories and
2004 Grand Prix Regattas
a. Continental Championship Total Regatta Points: 40
b. Major Continental Regattas Total Regatta Points: 30
i. The US Nationals
ii. The Canadian Nationals
iii. CORK
iv. Midwinters East
v. Midwinters West
c. Regional Regattas - Total
Regatta Points: 25
i. The Atlantic Coast Championship
ii. The Gulf Coast Championship
iii. The Great Lakes Championship
iv. The "No Coast" Championship
v. The Pacific Coast Championship
d. District Championship Regattas
for each North American Region Total Regatta Points: 20
4. Regatta Requirements
a. The 2004 Grand Prix is for
regattas which are sailed between
January 1, 2004 and December
15, 2004.
22
b. Contact information and the official NOR must be posted on
www.Laser.org at least four weeks
prior to the event or it will not qualify as a GrandPrix event and no
GrandPrix points will be awarded.
c. The current Grand Prix standings will be published monthly on
the ILCA-NA website at
www.laser.org
c. For the purposes of awarding
Grand Prix points:
a. For the 2004 Laser Grand Prix
prizes will be awarded in the following categories:
i. A regatta consists of an event
scheduled to be sailed over consecutive days
ii. There must be a minimum of three
races completed
iii. A minimum number of eligible
competitors must be in attendance:
1. Laser: 10
2. Radial: 7
3. 4.7: 5
4. Laser>>: 5
iv. Events can only be re-sailed with
permission of the ILCA-NA
Secretary.
d. Regatta results should be sent
by the event chair or district secretary to the ILCA-NA office within
30 days of completion of the
event.
6. Prizes
i. Top three overall
ii. Top finisher counting only district
events
iii. Top finisher counting only regional
and district events
iv. Competitor finishing exactly in the
middle
v. Iron Man: person competing in the
most Grand Prix events (and, in the
case of more than one competitor
with the same number of events,
with the highest total point count).
vi. Competitors cannot win in more
than one category. Top three takes
precedence over the other categories.
b. For the 2004 Radial Grand Prix
prizes will be awarded in the following categories:
5. Scoring
i. Top three overall
a. Regatta Score
ii. Top finisher counting only district
events
i. The score for eligible competitors
will be calculated as Total Regatta
Points less the sailors finish position
plus one (e.g. the regatta winner will
receive a score equal to the Total
Regatta Points) down to a minimum
of one point.
ii. The finish positions of ineligible
competitors will not be removed.
b. Grand Prix Rankings Score
i. The Grand Prix ranking will be
based on each eligible competitor's
sum of their top five Regatta Scores.
ii. For the purposes of awarding
prizes only, ties will be broken by
removing points first from district
events, if the tie remains then
removing points from regional
events, etc. If a tie remains, the competitor who finished ahead in the
highest graded, and most recent,
mutually attended Grand Prix regatta
shall be the winner, unless neither
competitor faced each other, in
which case the tie shall be broken
by the ILCA-NA Executive Director
by coin flip.
iii. Top finisher counting only regional
and district events
iv. Competitor finishing exactly in the
middle
v. Iron Man: person competing in the
most Grand Prix events (and, in the
case of more than one competitor
with the same number of events,
with the highest total point count).
vi. Competitors cannot win in more
than one category. Top three takes
precedence over the other categories.
c. For the 2004 4.7 Grand Prix
prizes will be awarded in the following categories:
i. One prize per fifty competitors
d. For the 2004 Laser>> Grand
Prix prizes will be awarded in the
following categories:
i. One prize per fifty competitors
SPRING 2004
Grand Prix
Laser
Pos.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
First Name
Michael
John
Emery
Chris
Parker
Brad
Bryan
Zach
Doug
Andrew
B.
Andrew
Carlos
Luke
Rory
Andrew
Ryan
Reed
Trevor
Ned
Conner
Zach
Mike
Kurt
John
Dave
Robert
Jeff
Tracy
Ryan
Scott
R.
Tim
Last Name
Leigh
Romanko
Wager
Raab
Shinn
Funk
Buffaloe
Railey
Hart
Lewis
Fahey
Childs
Roberts
Ramsay
Fitzpatrick
Lea
Minth
Johnson
Hamilton
Jones
Higgins
Brown
Wilde
Taulbee
Haverstock
Leuck
Noonan
Sharp
Usher
Karnes
Ferguson
Lorence
Pitts
Total
60
29
29
28
28
27
26
26
26
25
25
24
24
23
22
21
21
20
19
19
18
18
17
16
15
15
14
14
13
13
12
12
11
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
Bill
Van
Joey
Chris
K.
Brendan
Abe
Michael
Ian
Ari
Matt
Harry
Jeffrey
Horia
John
Symes
Wilson
Hill
Wenner
Grierson
Shattuck
Torchinsky
Todd
Wtorer
Barshi
Sterett
Weyher
Olson
Ispas
Shedel
11
10
9
9
8
7
7
6
6
5
4
4
3
3
1
Last Name
Hall
Hoepfner
Curran
Bastet
Sloan
Railey
Goetting
Gaudio
Fulmer
Liebl
Kelly
Thompson
Tullo
Weber
Holtzer
Beck
Swetka
Total
45
41
33
31
31
30
29
29
28
27
27
26
26
25
24
24
23
Radials
Pos.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
First Name
Mitch
Leah
Michael
Nicole
Jeff
Paige
Matthew
Mark
Charles
J.
Sean
Cy
Tom
Royce
Ethan
Geoff
Ken
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
Allie
Kyle
Case
Chris
Brian
Brian
Nicole
Jeff
Brandon
Tedd
Edward
Tinja
Charlotte
TJ
Paige
Eric
Blake
Brian
Travis
Baker
Charles
Alex
Max
Alex
Jonathan
Mike
William
Andy
Fred
Ian
Kaytlin
Blecher
Rogachenko
23
22
Hathaway-Zepeda 22
Alexander
21
Vanderspek
21
Raney
20
Blunt
20
Sharp
19
Freeland
18
Himler
18
Conrad
17
Anderson-Mitterling 17
Hill
16
Tullo
16
Johnston
15
Horrocks
14
Warner
14
Peterson
13
Cottrell
12
Rigby
11
LeConey
9
Potts
9
Sorosky
9
Natvig
8
Ill
7
Chamberlain
6
Gouverne
6
Ravelo
5
Craig
5
O’Bryan
4
dePauw
4
Brown
3
Wong
3
Strammer
2
Sutherland
1
Hall
1
PHOTO BY SEAN KELLY
www.laser.org
23
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19
We get a lot of calls from Laser
sailors who are looking to join a club
so that they can get involved in regular
series racing, as well as the local
regattas. Two of New Jersey’s associations are Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing
Association, and Mid Atlantic Yacht
Racing Association. Following is a list
of members of both organizations and
their websites, if available:
BBYRA Members: (bbyra.org)
Bay Head YC - bayheadyachtclub.org
Beachwood Yacht Club - bycnj.net
Island Heights Yacht Club - ihyc.com
Lavallette Yacht Club - lavalletteyc.org
Manasquan River YC - mryc.org
Mantoloking Yacht Club mantolokingyachtclub.com
Metedeconk River YC - mrycsail.org
Normandy Beach YC - nbycnj.com
Ocean Gate Yacht Club - ogyc.net
Pine Beach Yacht Club - pbycnj.com
Seaside Park YC- seasideparkyc.com
Shore Acres Yacht Clubshoreacresyachtclub.com
Toms River Yacht Club- tryc.com
MAYRA Members: (mayra.org)
Avalon YC - avalonyachtclub.com
Brigantine YC - ussailing.net/byc
Cooper River Yacht Club users.erols.com/wolf6001/
cryc/cryc.html
Corinthian YC, Cape May - cycm.com
Corinthian Yacht Club of Philadelphia cycop.com
Deleware River Yacht Club
Greater Wildwood YC - gwyc.org
Marsh Creek Sailing Club ussailing.net/mcsc
Ocean City Yacht Club - ocyc.org
Red Dragon Canoe Club - reddragoncanoeclub.org
Riverton YC - rivertonyachtclub.org
Union Lake Sailing and Tennis Club
Yacht Club of Pleasantville
Yacht Club of Sea Isle City - ycsic.com
Yacht Club of Stone Harbor - ycsh.org
District 11 - JR Futcher
The racing season promises to be
busy and again competitive and a
good racing time for all levels.
I want to thank area laser fleet
captains for their replies about racing
news and schedules. Another big
thanks goes to Ted Morgan for all of
his terrific work as the previous secretary. He handed over the “tiller”
24
with the district in terrific shape. I
want to reinforce, that I welcome any
news, ideas, reports, announcements, suggestions and pictures for
laser racing in ALL of district 11. I
promise to make them known in
Laser Sailor/ websites.
Several area clubs have racing
underway and incredibly many lasers
are showing up at Rock Hall Yacht
Club and Severn Sailing Association
despite frigid temps and ice floes. After
several weeks of total winter, the thawing continues; spring is upon us and its
time to think about circulating the district for spring series and regattas.
RHYC Sunday racing continues until
late April. SSA frostbite racing concludes early April.
Meanwhile other clubs are set and
confirming schedules. Variety of racing
guarantees competition and more
good times...
Fishing Bay Yacht Club, Deltaville,
Virginia, Saturday, 1 May- One Design
Spring series.
Miles River Yacht Club, St. Michaels;
Maryland-Eastern Shore, see their
website...Mike Keene;
mjkeene@toad.net
Rock Hall Yacht Club, MarylandEastern Shore near the Chester River
on Langford Bay, Series racing continues to late April, Opening Day Laser
Regatta, 1 May Nicholas Place;
nplace@healex.com
Severn Sailing Association, Annapolis
MD, Frostbiting wraps up mid-April,
Tuesdays series to follow. Luke
Shingledecker; luke@farrdesign.com
West River Sailing Club, Friday night
racing begins 7 May, $20 series fee to
August Crystal Bowl Regatta, 22 May
with professional coaching during the
racing. Carl Berninger; 301-530-4218
cberninger@mindspring.com
Potomac River Sailing Association,
Alexandria, Virginia, Spring Regatta,
29 May Mike Dabulo;
mdabulo@hotmail.com
Hampton Yacht Club, Hampton,
Virginia, on going one design racing
great effort with top laser sailors. Rock
Hall folks did the same trek to the Midwinters East laser racing. With numerous North American regatta venues a
laser road trip simply makes laser racing more interesting. Its one way to
measure up and get better.
Two racing venues are opening up
in the Delaware area. Lewes Yacht
Club; Delaware Bay and Rehoboth
Sailing Association, Rehoboth Bay is
eager to expand their racing fleets and
are welcoming the laser class. The
Atlantic side of district 11 serves up a
reliable summer easterly sea breeze,
averaging about 12-15;the ideal laser
experience... even better following the
sweeping cold fronts, the northerly
winds treat sailors to much more.
(I do apologize that some information
is not quite thorough, as I settle in this
role I expect to have the routine down
for listings and news.) Please visit their
websites for more items.
Other news to share are the regatta travelers- Luke reports that SSA’s
Bob, Ted, Ali and himself made the
long trek to the Olympic Classes
Regatta in Miami; they report it was a
successful experience and made a
Spring has finally arrived in D12, and
Laser sailing is getting in full gear. By
the time this article reaches your mailbox, two D12 events will be in the
books: The NC State Champs and The
Charleston Championship. Upcoming
events during the summer months
include The Savannah Championship
in early June and the D12 Grand Prix
in early August that will once again be
held in Wrightsville Beach. Check our-
Masters racing
The laser masters Atlantic coast
championships is to be hosted by
Rehoboth Bay Sailing Association,
Rehoboth Bay, Delaware; 17-19
September 2004. Regatta Chairman,
JR Futcher. The Notice of Regattawill
be available on the Laser website.
Recently I had the timing and
opportunity to attend a laser training
clinic at Seabrook Sailing Club in
Texas following on the heels of beginner clinics I set up at SSC; the laser
fleet is continuing the clinic agenda.
John Kolius stepped in and offered his
world class racing experience with
extremely beneficial ideas and instruction. Some tips were efforts on controlling tiller, leeward rounding and driving
off for speed, the “laser flick” on the
gybe and starting coaching skills. It
was money well spent. Some 20 master sailors got their chance to practice
hard in perfect wind and skies.
For the woman laser sailor, please
consider attending a beginning womens laser clinic round-up; Diane Burton
coaching. Contact me for further
details and look for publicity about the
event to be set-up in the later spring
season in the Chesapeake Bay area.
District 12 – John Overton
CONTINUED ON PAGE 26
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25
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24
district website at d12.laserforum.org
for complete racing schedule, NORs,
and results.
From the 2003 D12 season, there are
several winners to announce:
D12 Overall Full Rig Champion:
Martin Willard
D12 Masters Champion: Martin Willard
D12 Junior Full Rig Champion:
Nicholas Ellyn
D12 Overall Radial Champion:
Emily Aspland
D12 Female Champion:
Martine Zurinskas
Congratulations to all these sailors.
See you out on the water!
District 13 – Tim Landt
We kicked off the start of the sailing
season with the Florida Masters-Jack
Swenson at the Palm Beach Sailing
Club. I’d like to thank Carl Schellbach
and his committee for a fabulous
event. Peter Seidenberg won on a tie
breaker with D-13’s Buzzy Heausler
second, age has it’s advantage. They
were followed by Tim Landt 5th,Dick
Tillman 6th, Dave Hartman 7th,
Gonzo Diaz 12th, Michele Davis 20th
and top woman master.
The next weekend we all traveled
over to Clearwater for Masters
Midwinter’s. ILCA-NA chairman Peter
John’s volunteered to be the PRO for
the event and did an outstanding job.
Peter showed true leadership in running
the event and choosing not to sail so
the members would be afforded the
best sailing possible, other ILCA officers
could learn a lot from this example.
We had 6 good races in light conditions, the top D-13 member was James
Liebl in 6th followed by Andy Culver
8th,Kurt Taulbee 10th, 2003 Rolex
sailor of the year Augie Diaz 11th.
On Saturday night we all travel
down to the SPYC for dinner and a
presentation by the Laser class representative Mark Mendelblatt, Mark
will represent USA at the 2004
Olympics. I want to thank everyone
who attend and made a pledge and
donation to Mark.
The next week all the big dogs
showed up for the annual Midwinter’s
East. With grade 1 status this event is
drawing competitors from around the
world. They had 4 days of very trying
conditions. Top D-13 sailor was Brad
Funk 4th and Zach Railey 5th. In the
Radials D13 sailor Paige Railey put on
a clinic and won, home for a break
26
from Navy, Charles Fulmer was 3rd
and James Liebl in 4th. Please check
Laser website for full report. Hope to
see everyone on the water soon.
District 14 – Cal Herman
District 15 – Bruce Moore
District 16 - Katy Towles
By now, I hope you all have defrosted
your boats, and stated to think about
sailing again, it is definitely that time.
Over the past few months, I have
been putting together a schedule of
future events. We have several in the
area, and quite a few in the surrounding districts that look quite appealing.
You should be receiving a hard copy
of that schedule in the mail soon, if
not already. If there are any changes
or additions, let me know as soon as
possible.
District 17 – Martine
Rawlings Zurninskas
We have a new district secretary, John
Coolidge. His contact information is
listed in the districts section on page
6. Please drop him a note and help
him get started.
D17 Regatta Schedule for 2004.
AYC Open Atlanta YC, April 24-25,
www.atlantayachtclub.com
LLSC Reggae Regatta, June 19-20,
www.llsc.com
LLSC One Design Regatta, Aug. 7-8,
www.llsc.com
Lotsa Laser, Harbor Island YC, Sept.
25-26, www.hiyc.org
GA State Champs, Lake Lanier SC,
Oct. 16-17, www.llsc.com ** Grand
Prix**
NO More Turkey, Atlanta YC, Nov.1314, www.atlantayachtclub.com
Hot sailing going on at the Laser
Frostbite Series in Atlanta Georgia...
44 boats registered and weekends
with 25+ sailors was very common!
Congrats to A fleet winners Robert
Burke 1st, Mark Reddaway 2nd, Bryce
Dryden 3rd, Bailey White 4th, Martine
Zurinskas 5th, Warner Guedry 6th.
Congrats to B fleet winners 1st David
DeLorme, 2nd Robert Martin, 3rd
Chris Jackson, 4th Ashley Saylor, and
5th Tim Schneider.
District 18 –
We still need a District Secretary, if
you are interested or know someone,
please let me know. Thanks James.
District 19 – Michael Moody
Besides the districts in Traverse City,
the highlight of the season will be
“Spartan Singles” in September at
Lake Lansing. This is cooperative
event between the Lansing Sailing
Club and co-sponsored by the MSU
Sailing Team. It’s a fun opportunity to
race against top regional collegiate
talent. Last year was the first for this
event, and was such a success; the
format was picked up and used at
other Midwest colleges and clubs. You
won’t want to miss this one!
District 19 Regatta Schedule
June 12 - Lansing
July 10 - St. Joseph - racing on Lake
Michigan
July 24 & 25 Leland
August 14 Traverse City (districts)
Sept. 11 Fenton at Lake Fenton
Sept. 11& 12 “No Sweat” at Portage
Lake near A2
Sept. 18 & 19 “Spartan Singles” at
Lake Lansing in cooperation with MSU
Sailing Team
Oct. 23 “Pumpkin Head” at Reeds
Lake in Grand Rapids
District 20 – Dave Abbott
It was a tough winter for folks into iceboating – just a couple of good weekends. That makes us even more eager
for sailing down south, frostbiting, and
the start of the season!
For those of you who called or
emailed me about my back injury –
thanks a ton for the good wishes and I
am healing ahead of schedule.
We have assembled a busy schedule of regattas to encourage you to
travel and have more fun! To highlight
a few old/new events:
Frostbiting
Chicago YC Belmont is undergoing
major reconstruction and the club will
be moving (it’s on a barge) so this
spring’s sailing activities have been
relocated to the Monroe Street location. Many thanks to Scott Diamond (a
new laser sailor!) for all the work he
has done to make this move work and
allow uninterrupted sailing.
Stephen Dolan at Milwaukee YC is
also rumored to be starting a frostbite
program so he won’t have to drive to
Chicago for spring racing. Contact
Stephen if you’re interested in joining
this growing program:
sdolan@wi.rr.com
CONTINUED ON PAGE 30
SPRING 2004
www.laser.org
27
Sailing Fit
Recently I have had some questions
about Yoga and how it may help or hinder your sailing ability. In my opinion it
is a great option or addition to any
exercise program. Yoga can help
increase your core strength, increase
flexibility and balance and tone your
body. This is not to mention the positive effects on your mindset. I know
that Yoga may not be everybody's cup
of tea, but I wanted to at least give
everyone some more information.
While I am not an expert on Yoga, I am
providing an article that I believe will
be more helpful to you. I am always
happy to answer any questions or help
you find the answer. Just contact me at
www.sailfit.com or meka@sailfit.com.
Is Yoga for You?
Considering it's thousands of years
old, it might seem silly to say that yoga
has come a long way in recent years.
But as mind/body exercise continues
to take hold in the '90s, the practice of
yoga has moved from the alternative
to the mainstream.
Today's hectic lifestyle has left
many of us wondering how to manage
the stress that comes along with it.
While regular aerobic exercise and
strength training can help, it isn't the
complete answer. Some believe yoga
is the piece you need to complete the
puzzle of keeping both the body and
the mind fit.
A trend worth following
Now, before you start conjuring up
images of zoned-out new-agers in
pretzel-like positions chanting mantras,
consider this: Yoga is an ancient practice that can help you deal with the
stress of modern life. And, more and
more people, stressed out or not, are
28
discovering the benefits of yoga.
In fact, it has been reported that
more than six million Americans are
now practicing some form of yoga.
Yoga, which means to yoke or
unite, is the practice of uniting all
aspects of a person - body, mind and
spirit - through physical postures,
breathing exercises and meditation.
Flexibility, strength and muscle tone
improve quickly as the mind and body
work together in harmony and unison.
Choose your yoga
There are several different branches of
yoga, each with its own unique focus.
Hatha yoga, the most widely practiced
form, emphasizes concentration and
consists of gentle stretching and
strengthening exercises.
Because prana, or life force, is
thought to originate in the breath,
Pranayama yoga uses breathing exercises and breath control to enhance
vitality and energy. Mantra yoga uses
the concentrated repetition of a word
or phrase to aid in the control of the
mind.
A time to relax
For some, yoga is a primary means of
relaxation, something that is often difficult to achieve in the high-stress, highspeed world we live in. Regardless of
which type you choose, yoga is an
excellent way to stretch and strengthen the body, focus the mind and relax
the spirit. In fact, most modern stressreduction techniques are based on the
principles of yoga.
Dr. Dean Ornish, in his work with
heart patients, utilizes yoga exercises,
breathing and relaxation techniques to
reverse symptoms of heart disease.
Current research indicates that stressrelated diseases respond favorably to
this type of approach.
Easing into it
The best way to get started in yoga is
to find a class that appeals to you.
Find out where yoga classes are being
held in your area and stop by to see
how you like it. There are many different approaches to yoga - some focus
on breathing, others focus on holding
specific postures - and it's important to
find the one that appeals to you the
most.
A yoga workout
One type of yoga that has recently
jumped in popularity is astanga, or
power yoga. This type involves a
series of very intense yoga postures
done in succession. This class, which
is a vigorous workout, can help develop strength as well as flexibility.
Yoga is a great way not only to
relax, but also to improve your performance in other activities. Once you
have learned a few yoga moves and
breathing tech-niques, they can easily
be integrated into your regular fitness
routine.
So don't let any preconceived
notions of yoga keep you from enjoying the benefits of this dynamic
mind/body exercise.
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM
THE AMERICAN COUNCIL ON
EXERCISE.(WWW.ACEFITNESS.ORG)
COMPLIMENTS OF:
MEKA A TAULBEE
SPRING 2004
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29
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26
Lake Springfield – Island Bay YC.
Pete Wise and others have rebuilt the
laser fleet at Lake Springfield. This
club is a strong, long established club
featuring scows, stars, and now lasers
again. They hosted many memorable
regattas over the years – typically us
lasers would race there in the early
spring and late fall when the warmer
air and water and fun parties made for
a great weekend. April 24 and 25 Pete
has invited us down for their IBYC
Spring Opener. It should be good!
Chicago Corinthian YC – Laser
Clinic. On Saturday, June 5 Chicago
Corinthian YC (Montrose) will be
hosting a laser clinic coached by
John Vandemoer. John is the super
sailing coach who has put Chicago
high school sailing on the map. This
will be a super day of coaching with
video taping for both on and off the
water sessions. This is an excellent
opportunity for those who want to
improve their game – or just get up to
speed in a hurry!
Milwaukee YC, Great Lake
Masters. Steve Dolan has demonstrated his desire to make lasering a mainstay at MYC by hosting this year’s GL
Masters on July 17 and 18. This
should be a super event with a lot of
good planning already underway. Note
that this event is open to ALL sailors
but will have separate scoring for masters and all divisions of masters.
District 20 Schedule
March 14 – April 25 Frostbite CYC
Monroe
April 24-25, IBYC Spring Opener
May 1-2, Hank Davies – Columbia
May 8, Mother’s Day – Lake Geneva
May 15-16, Vlad Cup and Area K
O’day Elims – CYC Monroe
May 23, Puddlefest – Des Plaines
May 27, 1st Thursday night at
Corinthian
June 5, Dist. 20 Laser Clinic –
Corinthian
June 26-27, Badger State Games –
Madison, WI
July 10-11, SuperSail – Winnetka
July 17-18, GL Masters – Milwaukee
Sept. 5-6, Lake Carlyle
Sept. 18-19, Border Challenge –
LaCrosse
Oct. 2-3, Talbot – CYC
Oct. 9, Wandering Moose – Milwaukee
Oct. 10, Frostbiting starts – CYC
Oct. 16-17, Dist. 20 Champs, Lake
Geneva
Oct. 30-31, Springfield Fall regatta?
30
District 21 - Johannes
Aubrecht
The calendar for District 21 in the
upcoming year appears below. Note
that the first regatta in District 21, as it
was last year, will be the Heckl invitational on White Bear Lake on May 15.
Contact Andy Heckl for information on
this regatta at 651-429-4935. Also
note that a couple of regattas in
District 20 also occur in May – specifically, the Mothers Day regatta on Lake
Geneva on May 8 and the Vlad Cup
(O’Day qualifier) in Chicago on
May15-16. The first major regatta in
District 21 will be the D-21
Championship on June 12.
Schedule
May 15, Heckl Invitational, WBYC
June 12, D-21 Champs, UMYC
July 24-25, Aquatennial Regatta, CYC
Aug 7, Northstar Games, CYC
Aug 28-29, D-21 Grand Prix, WBYC
Sept 25-26, No Coast Champs,
Johnson Lake, NE
Oct 10, NUMB Regatta, WYC
We now have 4 options for fleet sailing
in District 21. For the hardcore sailors,
there will be fleet sailing at the
Calhoun Yacht Club, the Wayzata
Yacht Club, and (NEW) the White
Bear Yacht Club. The calendar for the
fleet racing at these clubs is as follows: Calhoun Yacht Club, Wed. nights
from 06/02/04—09/29/04; Wayzata
Yacht Club, Wed. nights from
04/27/04—05/26/04 and Tues. nights
from 06/01/04—08/31/04; White Bear
Yacht Club, Thurs. nights from
06/03/04—08/19/04. Finally, there is
beer can fleet racing at Bald Eagle
Lake on Wed. nights. Contact me
(651-695-3157) for any information on
fleet racing at these locations.
Please contact me if you would
like to be placed on the District 21
Email list (jasa2@linux1.mmm.com).
And check out the District 21 website
for the latest information and an electronic copy of the D21 newsletter
cerebus.winsite.com/districts/d21/inde
x.html.
District 22 – Orin Webber
District 23 – Jim Richmond
Special thanks to volunteer Eric
Simon info@sailtherockies.com for
developing an all-new District 23 website at www.sailtherockies.com. Eric’s
website is a cool addition to District
communications and a harbinger of
new interest and growth of Laser sailing in the Rockies. We also owe our
gratitude to Larry Arbuthnot cornwall@solucian.com for continuing to
coordinate the District email list. In
Arizona, Mark Deardorff
md@pvpeds.com has volunteered to
be District 23’s Arizona liaison. Don’t
forget to thank these volunteers this
season! We’re bound to have more
fun with their help.
Aspen Yacht Club www.aspenyachtclub.com will host the District 23
Laser Championships in conjunction
with their Aspen Open Regatta on July
17-18. Up to 20 NA Laser Grand Prix
points will be available (ILCA membership required for eligibility). The site is
Reudi Reservoir, a beautiful mountain
lake located 17 miles up the Frying
Pan River from Basalt, CO. Tent-city
style camping is permitted on the
Yacht Club lawn. Dinner is served
Saturday night. Bring enough bottled
drinking water for the weekend. This
Club throws a great party + fun for all
ages. Don’t miss it.
The summer regatta schedule is
posted and updated at www.sailtherockies.com and the highlights are
listed here: May, Every Saturday,
Arizona Spring Series, Tempe Town
Lake, Tempe, AZ; May-June, Every
Thursday Evening, Spring Series,
Cherry Creek Res., Denver, CO; May
15-16, Hornblower Regatta, Denver
Sailing Assn., Cherry Creek Res.,
Denver, CO; July 3, Firecracker
Regatta, Denver Sailing Assn., Union
Res., Denver, CO; July 17-18, Aspen
Open & District 23 Grand Prix, Reudi
Reservoir, 17 miles east of Basalt,
CO; August 7-8, Dillon Open, Dillon
Res., Dillon, CO; August TBA (tentative), Bow Mar YC, Littleton, CO;
August 21-22, Colorado Laser
Championships, Grand Lake Yacht
Club, Grand Lake, CO; Sept. TBA
(tentative), Commodores Cup (DSA
members only), Denver Sailing Assn.,
Cherry Creek Res., Denver, CO;
Sept. 18-19, Frostbite Regatta,
Denver Sailing Assn., Cherry Creek
Res., Denver, CO; Sept 25-26, Laser
No Coast Championships, Johnson
Lake, Nebraska.
CONTINUED ON PAE 33
SPRING 2004
KITTY HAWK
The Stainless Steel Kitty Hawk is truly beautiful. Always staying shiny never rusts or oxidizes as all other materials do. At 98 lbs, it’s the lightest
available by far and you will appreciate this when using your Kitty Hawk as
a launching dolly. When you get to the regatta you save time and are the
quickest from road to water by simply disattaching from your vehicle and start
rigging. When the regatta is over you are the quickest from the water to road.
Even quicker by placing your spars on Spar Partners® and securing them with
super shock cords.
STANDARD FEATURES
Lightest Weight • Welded Construction • Fewer Parts • Fewer Fasteners
Pivot Bow Support • Molded Polymer at Boat Contact Points
Stainless Steel Axle • Galvanized Rims
SPAR PARTNERS®
Spar Partners® carry your spars on the
Laser® deck. They are the quickest
on/off to get you on the water and on
the road fast. Made from durable foam
rubber. Spars fasten on with shock
cords. Your deck cover fits over your
spars.
Now the new Spar Partners® are available that fit over the cam cleat system on
the forcedeck for the outstanding new cunningham / outhaul performance upgrade.
And, we also have super shock cords available with Spar Partners®
PRICES
Start Sailing faster,
with
.
Seitech dollies are lightweight, durable, and easy to
handle. That means you get into the water sooner and
start sailing faster. Seitech also offers boat storage racks
that can be built in a variety of configurations making
your boat even easier to access and store. For more
Trailers:
information on Seitech’s line of dollies and racks, contact
Kitty Hawk 1, Stainless Steel
$655
Kitty Hawk 1, Galvanized
$560
Kitty Hawk 2 (fits Laser II®) galvanized
$560
®
Spar Partners (pair)
$ 22
Spar Partners® (pair for cunn/ohaul upgrade)
$ 24
Spar Partners® packed with a pair of supper shock cords
us or visit our website.
add $5.50
Mast Stepper - standard or for cunn/ohaul upgrade
$ 29
Two-Boat Adapter (you glue together)
$130
(The TWO-BOAT ADAPTER lets you carry two Lasers®
on one trailer. There is room for seven spars (extra upper
mast section) between the two boats.)
From your local dealer or from the manufacturer
Nautical America
604C4 Foxcroft Terrace • Statesville, NC 28677
(704) 878-6823
www.seitech.com • 401-683-6898
®
Spar Partners is a registered trademark of Kenneth N. Hopkins.
Laser® and Laser II® are registered trademarks of Vanguard Sailboats
www.laser.org
31
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
Magic Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Annapolis Performance Sailing . . . .35
Melges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Castle Craft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Murray’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Cat’s Paw Boats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
New England Ropes . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
Colie Pro Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2-3
On-Line Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Fogh Marine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Posey’s Yachts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Glenmore Sailboats . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Sail Coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Gulfstream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Seitech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Harken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Svendsens Boat Works . . . . . . . . . .33
Kitty Hawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31
Tackle Shack . . . . . . . . . . .Back Cover
Layline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
Trailex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Vanguard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Name ____________________________________________________________________________________________
Address _________________________________________________________________________________________
City ____________________________________State / Prov. _______________Zip / postal code ________________
Phone_____________________________________ E-mail ________________________________________________
Sail # _________________________________DOB (month/day/year) ____________________________________Sex __________
Boat sailed ______________ Laser _________ Radial ____________________ Laser 4.7 _________________ Laser 2 ______________
Membership fees
Regular member, $40 USD - US and CAN residents
Junior member (can not turn 18 in the calendar year), $35 USD - US and CAN residents
Family member (first member), $40 USD - US and CAN residents
Each additional member, $25 USD - US and CAN residents
For each family member, please provide DOB, class sailed, and sail number.
Each family member will receive a membership card.
Only one issue of Laser sailor will be mailed per household.
International member, $50 USD - any member living outside the USA or CAN.
Amount enclosed __________________ US$
Please make checks payable in US funds to ILCA of NA. Thank you for joining the Laser Class.
James Appel, Executive Director
ILCA of NA
Box 6120
Annapolis, MD 21401
32
SPRING 2004
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30
District 24 – Peter Phalen
Laser Nationals and PCCs
The Santa Cruz Yacht Club and Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club
extend an invitation to Laser Sailors to join us in Monterey Bay,
California during July 2004 for the Laser & Radial 2004 Nationals
and the Laser & Radial Pacific Coast Championships.
Racing will take place in the premier sailing waters, only a
short sailing distance from each club. The fleets will be based
at the Santa Cruz Yacht Club for the Laser Nationals and
Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club for the PCC's.
Santa Cruz harbor is situated on the Northern end of
Monterey Bay with the backdrop of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The event will follow the Laser Pacific Coast Championships
(PCC's) which is to held at MPYC less then 30 miles south of
Santa Cruz which will allow competing sailors to tune up for
the event. Also been able to book housing for the whole week
as the Laser PCC's will be starting on Saturday and going on
to Monday giving you a two day break before the Nationals.
Santa Cruz Yacht Club has been home to many major
one-design fleet championships, which have include the Laser
North America's, Laser PCC's , The Finn's and Europe's
Nationals. The 505's have held there Worlds at Santa Cruz
and will be again this year in August and also the Melges 24
Nationals with be held this May.
We look forward to this tradition continuing with the Laser
& Radial and providing you with keen racing and a social program ashore at both events do check out each yacht club's
web pages for more details www.scyc.org & www.mpyc.org.
District 25 –Nils Andersson
District 26 – Guy Flemming
www.Laser.org
The Laser Forum www.LaserForum.org
The Place Laser Sailors Talk Online
The Laser Forum signed onto the internet in September
2002 as a new and intuitive way for laser sailors across the
United States and the world to communicate online without
clogging up an email account. After nearly a year and a half
The Laser Forum has changed a lot. The site has been
updated to the latest forum technology and has also adopted some of the internet ethic standards in a new term of
service that was released early this year. The Laser Forum
is now dedicated to free speech and has made a vow not to
moderate posts made on the site. On The Laser Forum you
will have to register to post on the site, but anyone is welcome to stop by and browse the "Laser Talk", "Laser Class
& Politics", and "Classified Ads" sections. Registration is
completely free and the forum will not sell or rent your personal information to anyone. Currently, The Laser Forum
has about 70 new posts a week loaded with information to
help you become a better laser sailor. At the forum you will
find discussion on the ILCA Interpretations, mainsheet block
preferences, car topping, hull separation, mainsheets, vang
upgrades, and much more. Plus, The Laser Forum has a
powerful search feature on every page that can bring back
any discussion that's taken place since the forum signed on
in 2002. Please stop by The Laser Forum next time you are
online, you can find us at www.LaserForum.org.
33
34
SPRING 2004
PRSRT STANDARD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT #41
ALBANY, GA
We’re here to make
sure you have
fun.
When it all comes together,
there’s nothing like it. But when
something’s not right, it can be a
drag. For the past 15 years,
Tackle Shack has been the
South’s major supporter and
dealer for Laser Class Sailing.
We’re here to make sure you get
what you need, when you need itat the best price. New & Used
Lasers *Expert Service *Parts &
Accessories*Wetsuits, Dry suits &
Wet wear *PFD’s *Thule Car
Racks *Custom Trailers *Hard to
find items… everything for the
Laser Sailor. If we don’t have it
you don’t need it! We charter
Laser’s for all Florida Events.call
us at 727-546-5080 or 1-800-5376099 or stop by the store at 7801
66th Street N., Pinellas Park, FL
33781
Plus check out our web page
www.tshack.com