Saturday, March 31, 2012

LASERS PRACTICE STARTS


This picture I stole from Proper Course.  I don’t know if it is Lao Tzu who is said to say “The journey of 1000 miles begins with one step.”  The race begins long before the start, but in one sense it begins with the START.

I sail quite a bit by myself – alone-  just to keep from getting too much slower.  In case you didn’t know it – as you get older, you get slower.  That’s what all that masters stuff is about.  Make an old slow person a winner.  That’s dumb, but it is also OK.  Remember, this is a “game” i.e. fun—not serious--- but we still like to do better.  To sail better.

When I sail by myself, I practice tacks, mark roundings, gybes, etc. and when I get tired of that stuff I do a couple of starts.    WOW—then a few weeks ago I had a couple of good races and realized they were when I had the good starts.

So now I am really practicing starts.  Starts by yourself---YES

1.      Stop by a buoy and hold position for 30 seconds.  Outhaul and Cunningham set for fast upwind.  Vang off.  Close reach position at full luff.

2.      10 to 7 seconds to go. Reach in and pull on the vang.

3.      “Jab” the tiller to windward with the tiller extension – hard – so the bow goes down.

4.      Lean in to heel the boat to lee.

5.      Trim in the sail

6.      And hike out to flatten and accelerate the boat.

7.      Trim in to close hauled

8.      And sail fast (bow down), windward and leeward tell tails flowing, boat flat for 30 seconds (maybe you will need tell tails at the front of the window so you can always see the leeward flow.)  No reaching in to make adjustments—those were to be set up before.

Now vang off and go back and do it again and again until it flows together without thinking about the parts.

I will let you know when I get it to “ flow”.
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Thursday, March 22, 2012

LASERS IN THE HIGHER WINDS

Sam has been too busy sailing and stuff to get much on the blog.  Sorry about that.  I think of a lot of things, but most of it is already up here some place.  Look down at the left -- pick out a category and go for it.  This is our Wednesday night report.

 Wednesday we had gusty winds and the Nagy Family spiced up the Wednesday night sailing.  Chris Nagy rigged a Radial as did Tom Jennings and Sam Chapin. Jackie Nagy rigged her Opti and with Monica Nagy in the committee boat with Dennis Oldham (the guy that hates Lasers and already spent too much time in the motor boat last week) we were off to short high wind races.  Dennis is calling times to the start.
If we have any advice it is the old stufff.  1. Take the long tack first. 2. When that approaches not being the long tack, think hard about an excuse to get back toward the middle.  3. Delay going to the lay line.  4.  When the wind is up in smooth water, the laser tacks in less than 90 degrees. 5. If you heel much, the bow will want to turn the boat up wind and you need to keep pulling on the rudder to go straight.  So stay pretty flat- hike and/or ease the sheet. 6. Downwind by the lee is a little more stable, but don't let the boom out to more than about 70 degrees. 7. Straight downwind will be slower and may rock you back and forth as wind tries to go right and then left around your sail. 8. When you gybe, roll a little to windward to help you turn, cross the boat quickly and turn back downwind -- the S turn.
Wednesday sailing from 5 to 7PM.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

LASER BLOGGER LOOKS AT THE NUMBERS

When the "blogger" goes in to add a post, there is a little spot that says  "STATS".    Surprise --- here is the STATS from a couple of weeks ago.

Views so far today      66
Views yesterday         100
Views last month         2,406
Views all time              50,180

From
USA      197
UK          56
France    28
Canada   20
Australia   19
Germany  16
Netherlands15
Russia       15
New Zealand 11
Mexico      10

What they look at...
LIFE COACH - chapter 3       17
LASER STUFF   6-5  2010      14
LASERS TAKE A DRINK       13
LASERS UPWIND IN WAVES   13
LASERS AND THE SCOWS       12
LASER SAIL THE WALLY          12
LASERS HAVE EXERCISE AND FUN  9

Source     Some from  Proper Course blog and most from Google.   Google  "Laser and some activity" and it may land you in an old post.