LASERS, PLAN AHEAD AT THE LEEWARD MARK

For the "Laser Sailing Songs" check out propercorse.blogspot.com. Tillerman has that really going and I can't touch it. That will really increase fleet attendence. Who will not want to join the SINGING LASERS?

This past weekend we had some more trouble at the leeward mark. So let us go through the plan ahead stuff.

1) Before you get to the big fight at the zone, set up the outhaul and Cunny for up wind. then set up a little vang. (As you round up for closehauled you will be reaching and the vang will make that all faster.) Leave the full vang till you are going up wind. When you practice leeward mark roundings put that into your program so it is automatic, other wise you will find yourself trying the go up wind with the down wind settings and reaching in to try and fix things when you should flat out for speed.

Who is practicing mark roundings? Do baseball players take batting practice? How about the pros? How can I practice when I live so far away and can only come on race days? Sail before the races or after or have lunch and go back out.

OK, that is the automatic part-- now the plan ahead. (Maybe check back and find Short Beat to the Finish) but first if the wind shifts to the your right as you are approaching the zone then you will be wanting to hang onto port tack (assuming a leave the marks to port rounding) as you round the mark. Also try to get a feel for what direction you will be headed on port and how much of a turn you will need to be on it. If the wind has shifted to your left as you approach the mark then be thinking you need to tack quickly onto starboard after rounding. You will have the right of way on starboard tack close hauled, but be careful of the group that may be following you. You will not be faster if they wrap a sheet around you. You don't need to give them 720s, you are already ahead of them. Use some judgement but get sheeted in and ready for the tack.

More about THE ZONE tomorrow. Three boat lengths for a Laser is 42 feet or 14 paces. Mark is off on shore and have a look at how far it is. It will be more of an argument than two lengths.

SOME REALLY LIGHT WIND LASER STUFF

This Saturday the wind was light and I had a chance to try this stuff again.

When it is really light wind going down wind, get the boom out a good bit ahead of 90 degrees so when you heel the boat to weather the boom will stay forward from the pull of gravity. The sail will be high and steady. Now it seems that sail trim is not that important at this time.

How much to heel to weather (away from the boom)? I would say that get the edge of the deck in the water. Really good sailors may not agree with me. Putting that cupped rail of the laser in the water and dragging it along should make you go slow, but when I have been sailing along with others it seems faster to get the rail in. Maybe it gets the sail higher, etc.

Looking down wind the folks ahead seem to be heeled more. On a beat the folks ahead seem to be flatter. What is that message?

The reasons for the heeling are 1) It gets the sail up higher where the wind is stronger. 2) To balance the push of the sail on one side to turn the boat in the other direction. With a good heel actually you need a little rudder to help the sail keep the boat going straight. 3) Wetted surface is reduced and that is the biggest drag factor till you go faster and start making waves. Then it major drag is wave making.

Now sail by the lee if you can or straight down wind. Maybe you want to go by the lee the other direction. GOOD LUCK. If you get a good pump by pulling the aft sheets, you will produce an apparent wind from ahead and be trying to push the boom out against that wind on the other tack.

Give it a try. Practice makes perfect. Sail in the magic of a day when you are the only one that believes the wind is blowing.

Tomorrow, more about the sailing Saturday.

A FEW MORE LASER FLEET IDEAS

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and then back to some stuff about sailing the little boat.

1) Bring a friend to Sail a Laser Day.
2) Write a Laser sailing song.
3) A Laser Hat.
4) Celebrate "National Laser Day"
5) Make a Laser T shirt contest.
6) WOW (Words Of Wisdom) e-mail from the days winner.
7) Speed Circle -- invite everyone to sail it. A spectator event.
8) Slalom Course -- better spectator event.
9) Laser free style contest-- best spectator event.
10) Ladies Laser Sail.

I put in two entries today because I will be sailing tomorrow and then back to HTSTL stuff.

We will come back to fleet stuff later.
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LASER FOLKS COME TO HELP

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TILLERMAN stopped by yesterday with a suggestion on Fleet building. He is telling us how he had contests with the Sunfish Fleet. First sailing Sunfish and then Lasers. Engage the other fleets and see what shakes out.

Actually we don't want to be in open competition with the other fleets. The more sailors, the more times a few of them, will want to sail single on a small boat. Also the Laser is a good second boat to hang in garage for those days the big boat racing is not happening.

This week I wrote this report on our Wednesday evening Sail About (not really racing.).

"I don't know what is happening to this crazy Portsmouth thing. Ray Laguna wants to form a Portsmouth Fleet. Like we don't have one. Hey, what has Sam been doing for the past 3 years??

Then it looks like the Carlton and Aggie Brown with the San Juan 21 are the only ones really interested. They have the boat is the water and ready to go but not wind and no RC. Then they are off to check on grand babies-- that's OK, there is no wind and no RC anyway.

Ray knows that the wind will be bad so he is off firing his pistol with gun group.

Now Jim Orth with the Lido wants to sail P. Ron Stevenot (new member), the granddaughter and the Omega want to sail P. Charles Mancino and the Precision 15 think that racing P would be a step up from single cruising. Steve Hayden (the lightening guy) will send the little fellow out in the Sunfish with the Lasers.

Now Wednesday evening, the folks that started all this, Carlton and Aggie Brown show up with Kevin Somebody that wants to join LESC and race his Oday Day Sailor. That is another P boat.

Now that is great, right. New members, growing new fleet-- but then they all get in Lasers. Carleton Brown, Aggie Brown, Kevin got emergency call and couldn't stay, Kim Kelley (full rig is a fair amount of wind), DENNIS OLDHAM, (RETIRED AND RUNNING OUT OF THINGS TO DO-- ask him about the wind, Darcy Jensen (one of our regulars and has to go home to study CALCULUS. I am glade I don't go to high school these days.) Luke Yates in Laser and part of time with the neighbor kid on the bow. Sasha had the Opti out. Craig Yates brought his new/old Phantom (like a biggish Sunfish)out and Darcy sailed it some.

Gosh, if those P guys would just sail Lasers it would save a lot of fuss.

The Pizza Lady came through.

We saw the rest of the "Morning Light". They made it to Hawaii, but didn't win. Sam is glad he doesn't have a 52 foot boat and can sail and then go home for dinner and TV. Luke want to do the Morning Light trip and be the guy they hoist to the top of the mast to see if they can see Hawaii yet.

Next week it is back to North U and we will try to get the marks out earlier to have some race starts if any of the P fleet guys want to sail Lasers again.

Any way it was a lot of fun and sunset is about 7:28 now."

SO MAYBE, SUPPORT THE P FLEET AND PICK UP SOME LASER SAILORS.

Now that is the last idea I have to help build a fleet. Do you think so?? When is he going to get back to "howtosailthe laser"?
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SO FAR YOU LASER FOLKS ARE NO HELP

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I thought by now I would have some crazy ideas added on to help build up the fleet number. Maybe no one is reading this stuff, maybe not.
What happens to all this electronic stuff 10 years from now. Will it all be out there where Goggle can find it?

I still have a list, so the next on it is:

SAIL DOUBLE. Do the sail with a kid thing. Sail with a friend. Sail with the other sex.
Race that way-- we did it in Sunfish years ago. You can use the same boats, just change crews around. Youth alone. Father and son. Mother and daughter. Mixed doubles-- I think that is what we called the boy- girl thing. The Sunfish sailed so much better with just one on board, that stuff got dropped. Maybe that was a mistake?

When all else fails-- use food.

Have a picnic.

Do you think that is all the suggestions that I have?
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THE MOST IMPORTANT LASER SAILOR

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The easy answer for me to the question of "who is the most important" , IT IS THE LAST PLACE GUY/GAL.

Remember that would be you if each last place disappeared until it was you.
He is the middle fleet fellow next year.
In three years he may be top dog and taking in the big regattas.
Let's figure out how to give him/her a trophy- most improved, last place that sailed all the races, the fellow that traveled to furthest to get to the water, maybe the oldest.

When I think about it a little more, nobody is more important than anyone else.
We need the whole bunch--even you guys that quite sailing and sell your boat to the next fellow.

I think about it a little more and maybe the most important one is YOU. and what can you do to help the cause.
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EXPERIMENT IN LASER FLEET BUILDING

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Where is all the help??

Don't any of you folks have some nutty idea about how to find more Laser sailors?

Here is one idea I have not tried yet. Let us have, say, two AMBASSADORS. What is an ambassador? OK, he or she is a person that will go to each person in the fleet, maybe after the race, call them by name, thank them for coming, say something nice to them about what they did, how their boat is rigged, is there anything I can do to help, etc., etc.

Do you get the idea? We want to make everybody that came happy about the action. You want them to have had a good time, feel wanted, feel appreciated, even if they spent most of the afternoon turned over and swimming.

We need to have boats in the fleet but we also need to get the fleet members to come to the races. Yes, we know about the soccer and volley ball and the grandchildren, but if everybody has more fun, won't they come more often..

Just an idea anyway!!

Tomorrow maybe about the most important person in your fleet. Can you guess who that is??
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