LASERS SAIL ROB'S RADICAL ROUTE

Several weeks ago Rob put in two extra marks on our windward leeward course to give us some reaches and ponts of mandatory gybes.

On the diagram W is the windward mark.

1 is a beam reach.

A is a gybe mark.

2 is a broad reach.

B is a gybe mark.

3 is a broad reach

P is the pin mark of the starting line. Leave it to port.

4 is a run.

L is the leeward mark.

5 is the beat to the finish.

When the wind is up it is an exciting course.  Slide to the back of the cockpit to get the bow up and over the waves and then gybe at the gybe marks.  Then one more gybe before the leeward mark.

You might want to try it.  Yes, it may tend to be the parade of the old triangle course, but adds the excitement of the reaches.

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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.

LASERS TACKLE EXERCISE AND FUN

I love to tackle the fun question because you can read about sailing smart and fast in all the books--- but FUN is a different problem.

The January 2012 "Vitality Magazine" has an article "5 ways to have fun in Fitness".  ( Yes, it often is both Hard and Boring.)

1.  Let music move you.  Get the portable stuff and tune into something with the right rhythm.

2.  Get out in the cold.  Ice skate.  Winter walk.

3.  Get your game on.  Play tag with the kids.  Adult league sports.

4. Energize your environment.  Pictures in the stairwell and even music.  Skip the elevator.

5. Socialize as you exercise.  Nothing like working out with others.  Walking group.  Fitness class.


OK.  Now join the Laser Fleet and do 3 and 5.  If you are up North maybe add 2. and frostbite.
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LASERS SAIL WITH GOLDIE HAWN

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ove  ing

I love to send this sort of thing to you.

Goldie Hawn’s “10 Mindful Minutes”, a book written with Wendy Holden, is about Goldie’s “Hawn Foundation” promoting social and emotional learning programs in elementary schools called MindUP.

Goldie suggests this for children and adults. Let me greatly simplify it for you. For five minutes twice a day, close your eyes and think only of your breathing. You run the breathing. Abdominal and chest. In and Out. Don’t think of anything else. Usually your bottom brain does this, now you run it.

Do this just twice a day and “just as daily exercise leads to physical fitness, engaging in mindful exercise on a regular basis improves your mind fitness. Working memory is an important feature of mindfulness. Not only does it safe guard against emotional and mental reaction, but provides a mental workshop to ensure quick-and-considered decisions and action plans. Building mind fitness with mindful training may help anyone who must maintain peak performance in the face of extremely stressful circumstances.” THERE YOU ARE LASER SAILORS.

This reminds me of an interview I read of Robert Scheidt, who, before the race, after his boat was prepared for racing, he went off by himself to prepare mentally for the boat race.

In addition to the mindful breathing (meditation) 2X a day Goldie’s group of scientists suggest Optimism, Happiness, Gratitude, Ex- anger, Manage Sadness, Control Fear, Develop Empathy, Show Kindness, and do hree random acts of kindness daily.

OK Goldie—come and join our fleet. We will love it.



PS If you want to help yourself and your children with all these things – get the book—lots of games and details.

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LASERS LAST AND FIRST

 

Sorry that I have so much personal stuff in these last few days, but as long as I  mentioned below about our Last Day Sail on Decomber 31, 2011 and our First Day Sail on January 1, 2012, there was four of us that did it.  Here is a picture of three of us. The fourth, who also got a T-shirt, was out in the motor boat at picture time.

Left to right. Dave Johnson and Dave Moring sailed MC scows and Sam Chapin a Laser.  Dave Meaker who is not in the picture sailed a Laser.  So it was three Daves and Sam.  You can see the back of the shirt twice and the front once.

I am sure we have a lot more people that sailed both days and maybe someone who sailed at midnight -- 5 minutes in each year.  If you did, leave a comment so we can tell.  We may send you a T-shirt.

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LASERS IN "SAILING WORLD"

This is an e-mail that I sent out to friends that was enough fun that I will put it in here.  Some Laser stuff. plus.

Sailing World magazine. It came yesterday at my house. What a Surprise! Opened the cover to find a two page add from Sperry Topsider with pictures Of LASERS across the top and lesser boats across the bottom. Now the extra personal touch--- Paul Sperry who designed the first topsider (the first shoe with a thousand little cuts in the sole so won't slip on a wet deck) had a great grandfather Capt. Sereno Armstrong. My mother was an Armstrong, so I might be related to the Sperry Topsider. I have an Armstrong cousin working on the possible connection.

Then there is a few more pages into it a great picture of Fujimo (a "50 footer") from the first Key West race week. More on that at the end.

Then toward the back is a long article with pictures about the Park City, Utah Laser Fleet with a lot of unanswered question like how powerful is the air at 6,000 feet.

OK, back to FIRST Key West Race week. Sam had just bought a third ownership in a J-24 and John Smittle is going to show him how to sail the boat. So I am doing fore deck !!! Yes, yes, just follow the instructions given to you from the cockpit. So everything is going OK. We are in the last start and the smallest boat. Now this is the last race on Friday. Wind is up to twenty. Almost half of our fleet doesn't start. No problem on our boat-- John has never seen a wind he didn't like. This is triangle course day and around the gybe mark, Sam gybes the pole and the crew swings the spinnaker. (A little background-- the J-24 will surf down waves but not plane flat out. The J-22 which is 1,000 pounds lighter will just plane away in 20 knots wind.) Now the 50 footers who start first on the same course come sailing through our fleet. Fujimo sails by to leeward and John jumps on their quarter wave. Foredeck person on J-24 sits  just behind the mast after the spinnaker is up and holding the vang ready to release it if the boat starts to round up. We go bow down and stern up (It is a big quarter wave.) Our speed goes from hull speed of about 6.5 knots to the hull speed of the 50 footer (about 12 ). Fujimo is about 10 feet away and their crew is laughing and smiling at us. We hang on for about 1/2 mile and then round up and loose the wave because Sam doesn't ease the vang soon enough. No worry, here comes the next 50 footer, Abracadabra, John jumps on her quarter wave and we ride that through to the leeward mark. We win our class for that day with a tow from the 50 footers. Wondering about that oriental sounding name Fujimo? We understood that the owner was having trouble with his wife and it stood for F-- U Jane I'm Moving Out. I don't really know, but that is the story.

Take a look at the mag.
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LASERS SAIL INTO THE NEW YEAR

I will get sailing this afternoon on my first sail of the year and will let you know about that later.

This is a picture from 2009 Rule 2 Regatta.  Notice all the big smiles.  It was picked up by "Sailing Magazine" in a nice article.

Most of my posts have been about "practice".  I guess I do that most of the time, but I have 45 posts about FUN.

Now that is something that is NOT written about in the books or shown on the CDs.

So maybe I am the one with the biggest leg up on the FUN factor.

Paul Estrom touched on it, but had a hard time applying it when he was not winning.

In our little fleet in central Florida, I am usually in the middle of the group racing.  If I have a bad start or tack or capsize, then I am racing for last or next to last.  I am trying to get ahead of the boat just in front of me.  If I don't and they beat me, somehow I am happy for them. 
Going up those last few tacks to the finish I know I have that split.  I want to get ahead of them--

but will be happy if they sail well enough to be ahead of me.  Now everyone can't be in the fleet building business, so what makes you happy?  What is FUN about the sailing thing??   and we will try it again to tell you how to do it.
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LASERS END THE YEAR

Well, here we are backwards and rotated left and I don 't know how to straighten it out.  This is a drawing that we reversed to make a T shirt print, but if you tip your head and play with the reversed label I think you get the idea.  It has been that kind of year.  I lost my wife to smoking.  But she did pretty good--81 years.  Maybe more than a lot of others.   I can still sail the laser several times a week.  I live in Florida so that goes on 12 months a year.  I signed up to go to the gym and we will see how that turns out.  No New Years resolutions.  I will just follow my nose.

This afternoon and tomorrow afternoon we will have a "last day" sail in 2011 and  then tomorrow

a "first day"sail in 2012.  No big deal.
        
  I just checked and 120 people looked at this blog yesterday.  Hey, check in.  Just a hello in the comments!   Maybe I need a contest with prizes like Tillerman.
           I will make more posts, so just keep coming.  
          Thanks!
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LASER LIST NUMBER ONE FOR 2011

This is the picture that I used because of the big smile and it was the third World Championship or something like that.

The Number One pick was "Lasers Have Fun"  August 27, 2011.

We have a lot of talk about how to sail the boat faster.  How to be ahead at the finish.  How to be ahead at the start, but it really is all about having FUN -- not just about winners.

Yes, I think that was the best.  The others were a mix. You could take any of them.

Do you notice that I don't have many comments below these posts, but there is a spot where I can see how many people took a look.  Today 33 people looked and yesterday 102.

I am surprised and happy.

I will do more before the end of the year. 

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LASERS PRINT THE BLOG.

This is one of the first pictures that I put up to lead an entry. I lead all the entries with a picture now although the picture does not always go with the material. This our Fundamental Rule 2 Regatta picture with all three entries on a Wednesday evening sail.   I like the Fundamental Rule 2 monkey business because I really don’t know what that means, except maybe we are just supposed to have fun.


There is a lot of good stuff in the previous issues of this blog. I think we have gotten to saying the same things over. I printed out the whole works and I suggest you do the same. It is a lot nicer to have it in your hand so you can read it like a book. Turn the pages. Oh, yes it is all backwards with the early stuff at the end. Life is not always perfect you know.

I did the print out to be sure to know where it is. People act like this stuff will always be out there floating around in space. I don’t pay anybody for this and I have no idea who runs it. It does keep changing a little. Any minute it may all disappear.

If you are new to Laser sailing, find the Primary Laser Advice that is the first entry and then repeated at least once more.

If you do print it out, give me a comment. It would be fun to know if anybody does.

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LASERS HAVE FUN

LASERS HAVE FUN


The fellow above is having FUN because he just won this third world championship or something like that. Not many of us can do that, so here is my list of ways to help be “sure” that you have fun.

1. Smile

2. Expect it to be fun.

3. Dress right

4. Bring food and drink as appropriate.

5. Sunscreen- cloths, hat, sunglasses.

6. In adverse conditions, do what you are able and a little more (to expand your ability) then drop out if it is too much. Drop out happy. (Man, I don’t have to keep doing this.)

7. Say hello to friends.

8. Say hello to non-friends.

9. Give someone a little help.

10. Do a good deed that no one knows about.

11. Help others do the odd jobs.

12. Say hello to as many fleet members as you can.

13. Come early.

14. Stay late.

15. Leave any time you need to.

16. If there is someone that you don’t like, visit with him or her.

17. Show up. You can’t have fun sailing if you stay home.

18. If you have a “bad time”, start a sailing blog. It will be good material.

Now think about these things that light up the please centers in the brain. (“The Compass of Pleasure” David Linden)

Legal                                             Illegal

Caffeine                                         Cocaine

Alcohol                                          Morphine

Nicotine                                          Heroin

Food--- fatty, sweet, and salty

Actions                            Sex

                                       Gambling #

                                       Aerobic exercise #

                                       Relief of pain

                                       Meditation

                                       Prayer

                                       Anonymous charitable giving

                                       Positive social interaction. #

                                       Pleasure in new abstract ideas

                                      Maslow flow. #

# Perhaps present in sailing.
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LASERS DON'T NAVIGATE

This is Key West habor--- no Lasers in sight.

This is not a Laser – How to Sail story, but the Navigation thing (challenge) from Tillerman.


When I lived in Key West, we made little deal about sending messages in bottles carried by the nearby Gulf Stream to England and France. So I prepared the bottles and one summer when the Gulf Stream was 5 to 10 miles south of the Keys, I went out in my 14 foot Aluminum skiff with a 15 horse power outboard.

Problem #1. I am on my way and the battery in my GPS died.

Problem # 2 My hand held compass that usually in the tool box has been misplaced.

OK. In the keys, a line of clouds forms over the warm water of the Gulf Stream. Go south till you are under the clouds. To go south in the morning, keep the Sun on your left.

Now you get under the clouds. The water in warmer. Put your hand in to find out. The water looks different. Sargasso weeds flowing in it. The birds, Mother Caries Chickens, flitting over the wave tops. You don’t see them near shore. A couple of 30 foot type fishing boats go by trolling for big fish.

Get the “messages in the bottles” over the side and on their way to Europe.

Now turn to home… Problem # 3. The Sun in overhead. Neither right or left. I could wait till it moved west, but use the wave pattern to pick out north direction. Wind direction can change quickly, but the wave pattern hangs on for a while. Trust the waves.

Leaving the cloud bank behind and after a while I meet the west going freighters. (They run southwest several miles out from the reef to avoid the northeast flowing Gulf Stream.) Going fine and it will be hard to miss the Continent of North America.

Then I start to pick up a light house. Right on target –the Sand Key Light house. No. Problem #4 strange Light House. Sombrero Reef at Marathon. 50 miles up the Keys. I have hung out too long in the northeast flowing Gulf Stream current and/or bad angle coming in.

OK, when following a compass course in from the Ocean not a bad idea to head right or left and then when you get within sight of land you know whether to turn right or left.

So I turn left and head for home, in sight of land.



PS. If you send a message in a bottle to be carried by the current, weight the bottle till it almost sinks. Our bottles were all windblown back to Florida.

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LASERS STRETCH

This should be Lasers Stretch and have Fun..  Look at that smile..

Thank you, John Payne at JOHNPAYNEPHOTO.COM

I have finally found a topic to use with this picture.


If you have more flexibility, you will be able to move about in the boat better.


In Ben Tan’s “Complete Book of Laser Racing”, Michael Blackburn has a chapter on “ Sailing Fitness” with a section of Stretching. Basically he recommends “Static stretch” for sailors. That is a stretch of a muscle gently for at least 30 seconds. He recommends a stretch after a little warm up and then again after a work out and a third time in the evening.


Stretch should be gentle and depend on the time spent with a mild stretch and the repetition to produce more flexibility. You will be tempted to push hard and get it all done at once. That will only lead to sore muscles and delay of the whole process.

I pick out these stretches for you.

1. Hip bent with back straight . This pulls the “hamstring” or the muscle behind the thigh.

2. Then with the back bent, do the same. Now you are reaching for the toes and beyond.

This works the hamstrings and the back flexor.

3. Calf stretch. Pull the toes up with the leg straight.

4. If you don’t have two Lasers in the water like in the above picture, then the push up position on the floor and lower your body with your arms straight. This stretches the abdominals and hip flexors.

5. Elbow up with hand behind the head and reach down your back.

6. Hand behind your back low and reach up toward the
                                              other hand in 5.


Then a few that I add because I have trouble turning and looking behind.



7. Right and left body rotation

8. Right and left neck or head rotation.



Get Michael’s book and read more or go “on line” for a thousand stretches.

DO EASY . DO OFTEN.
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BEST LASER POSTS 4 AND 3.

The Lake Eustis Sailing Club RC signaling the "B"course.  They are the best.  In the far distance you can see the old man himself.

Most of our posts have been how to sail your boat better.  How to sail faster.  How to win more races and things like that.  We steal Ideas from other people.  Occasionally they get credit.  But there is not much out there about how to have fun. Now take a look at

Number 4  LASER SAILORS HAVE FUN, September 10, 2010  The link gadget didn't work, but this is the picture of Paul Elstrom sitting on his capsized boat (probably a Finn) and saying that "No mater what happens when you are racing, remember to have fun."  Paul was not always able to do that-- it is really hard sometimes.  He also said you should love sailing your boat, or get a different kind.

Number 3  LASER FUN TURNS TO EXCITEMENT AND TERROR, September 15, 2010.  I chose this post because it demonstrates and talks about the difference between fun and terror, or at least fun and not fun anymore.  And how one can change to another.

TOMORROW  I WILL TRY TO GET THE TOP TWO FOR YOU.
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LASERS HOLD THE TILLER

Another tip from Buddy.

In "Sailing Smart" Buddy Melges tells us to hold the tiller lightly.  A little weather helm and lightly so you can feel the right angle for the boat and not over steer.

If you are going to fall out of the Laser, drop the tiller extension and hold onto the sheet.

Smile, you are having fun.
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LASERS HAVE FLASHY PANTS

Sarah, Where can we get pants like that??????
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LASER SAILORS AND THE FUN PROBLEM

It would be fun to win the big trophy, but even Paul Elvstrom got “down” when he didn’t win. How do you handle the “not so good” racing finish??




The Rev. Robert Fulghum gave us some interesting thoughts.

“In an occasion in life, anything can happen. The great banana peel of existence is always on the floor somewhere.

Not only that, anything might go right.

Some times the unexpected is an unforgettable moment that transforms it to memorable.


The sweetest memories are seldom the result of planning.


Forget Fashion Shows! Forget performance!

Whatever happens gets acknowledge and included.

Whatever happens, we work it in!

Be there! Notice each other!

Sail through the day together.”



Thank you Robert!
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LASER SAILORS HAVE FUN.

NO MATER WHAT HAPPENS, WHEN YOU ARE RACING, REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN!
                                                                                               Paul Elvstrom

Maybe excitement--- or bored ---- but always FUN??

Can you help me out?   Any suggestions?
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LASERS GO DOUBLE

                                                                                                                                                                                  LASERS GO DOUBLE

If you want to take a friend sailing or to teach someone to sail, try to do it on your Laser.

Fairly easy if the primary skipper sits in the back and takes the sheet from the middle boom block (skip the rachet block), then the second person can sit with legs in the front of the cockpit. Primary skipper can control the whole thing. If you want to share, then it is easer to let a beginner start with steering and the experienced controls the sheet. Do it the other way around if you want.

If you want to have one of you steer and sheet through the rachet block like they were sailing alone, then the other can sit forward on the centerboard.

If the wind is light, then one sits on one side and one on the other. If you want to change sides when you tack or gybe then moving about gets a little more complicated.

If you turn the thing over, you have a lot of help to get it back up.
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LASERS HAVE FUN.

LASERS HAVE FUN. Comments on “ Be Your Own Sailing Coach”

A few weeks ago Tillerman had a note about life jackets and a picture of the RNLI crew with all his heavy weather gear and his inflatable life jacket. The note was from the book “Be Your Own Sailing Coach” by Jon Emmett, Copyright 2008. (The is a book written from England with the “kicker” and stuff like that.) Information from the Chapter on Starting was reprinted in the Laser Sailor, Summer 2009.

I have two earlier blog entries, a Long Coach and a Short Coach. I grew up sailing, when there wasn’t any coaches. Well, we had high school kids teaching grade school kids how to sail, and everybody else got in a boat and started learning more.

I got the “be your own coach book” to see if I was missing anything. Some Laser pictures and notes from Paul Goodison. Twenty chapters on things you need to know.

The first chapter is goal setting. Now that is pretty easy for Lasers and most of the rest of us. The goal is having FUN. That is not mentioned in the goal setting section. Nobody is sailing a Laser for a living, unless maybe they are a really good coach. The professional sailors, I bet, started out doing it for fun, and then turned it into money working on big boats.

Occasionaly I see our high school sailing team out sailing in circles and strange little short courses that don’t seem to be related to anything. When I ask, I am told they are just having FUN. We want to keep them happy.

Yes, when I started sailing, I just wanted to get the boat to do what I wanted it too. Have it under control. Sail to someplace and back. Make all the parts work. Take somebody out for a sail. When we first got Lasers and the wind was up, it was just reaching back and forth on that wild unstable ride. We weren’t racing just ripping back and forth.

So what can we do to have FUN when sailing? 1) Sail back and forth. 2) Sail backwards. 3) Turn over and then right the boat. 4) Sail fast. 5) Sail slow. 6) Sail to some place and back. 7) Race a little, like there is another sail boat and see if you can catch and pass them. 8) Join a Yacht Club, Sailing Club or Cruising Club for socializing. 9) Tired of just sailing across the harbor, then try sailing around the world.(I don’t think that will all be fun.)

Avoid too much wind and not enough wind Experience will widen that gap between too much and too little in which you can have FUN.

Maybe you want to sharpen your skills of boat handling. You might want to do some type of racing. That will work better in a one design class, where you can match your boat against one that is very similar. Do the Portsmouth or the PHRF thing, but you may get lost in all the rating questions.

One of the best things about racing is the schedule. You have a time to race and a place to go. You don’t go to the picnic because everyone knows you will be sailing. Then when you get out and sail with other boats you get a feel for what you might be able to do better. Because it is on a time and place situation, you will be sailing in lighter winds and in stronger winds than you would other otherwise. Your world expands.

Maybe you do just a little racing, expand your skills, and then go back to things that seem more fun to you.

Don’t forget. If you get into racing, that the primary goal is having FUN. Not fleet champ or that sort of thing. OK, win all the races, but don’t forget the goal.

THE LAST CHAPTER IN THE BOOK IS ABOUT MONEY.

So how much money are you going to spend to have fun.. How big is the boat. Where are you going to keep it. How often the haul out and how much does it cost. New Sails? New boat? Trips to regattas if you get into racing. Hire a coach.

So those are the best parts of the book.– Chapter 1 Goal Setting and Chapter 21 Money.

Now you judge of what you want. Spending money and time sailing, against the other things that you could be doing.

Will it “Save Sailing”?

It will, if sailing deserves it!