Regattas in June and July
Wickford Regatta, June 3-4, Wickford, RI
IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER FOR WICKFORD. TRY ONLINE OR LATE REGISTRATION AVAILABLE ON SITE ACCORDING TO JUST RELEASED SAILING INSTRUCTIONS
Registration is open for the Wickford Regatta June 3-4. This one counts for the D7 Gran Prix. The only acceptable excuse not to be there is that you're obligated to one of those June wedding affairs. Get to Wickford!
Portland Pilot, Saturday June 17th, Portland, ME
The Portland Pilot is a fun one-day regatta and the third to count for the D7 Gran Prix. Join us on Sunday June 18th at the Portland YC. NOTE THE DATES HAS BEEN MOVED FROM THE 18TH IN HONOR OF FATHERS DAY.
NEW LISTING!! Salty Dog Regatta, Sunday June 18th, Hingham YC, Hingham, MA
Hingham Yacht Club is pleased to host the 2023 Spring Salty Dog Laser regatta. As soon as we say Salty Dog it seems to stir up the wind gods! We expect that there will be great competition. Please pass this email on to other laser owners/sailors within the region. The Notice of Race will be available by email and on the HYC website as soon as possible. Contact Dave Ryan with questions @ dryan02186@gmail.com
John Bentley Regatta, Saturday June 24th, New Bedford, MA
The John Bentley Regatta will be sailed on Saturday, June 24th at the New Bedford YC. All ages welcome. ILCA 6 and 7 rigs usually sail as one fleet for the championship but can be divided if numbers at pre-registration justify it.
True Blue Spencer Evans Regatta, Sunday July 16th, Kollegewidqwok YC, Bill Hill, Maine
Let's go downeast and join the fun for this one-day regatta. Contact Sean Guinness for more information at chris@happynomad.com.
Helley Hansen Regatta, July 29-30, Eastern YC, Marblehead, MA
It's Marblehead Race Week and ILCA's are the line. Registration is open for this Helley Hanson Sailing World event. Come see hundreds of boats from various one design fleets and join fun ILCA racing close to Marblehead Harbor.
Hyannis Regatta, July 29-30, Hyannis YC, Hyannis, MA
Oh yeah, let's have fun in the summer breezes on the Cape. Great racing, beautiful location. Registration is open.
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News from around the district
New Summer Sailing Opportunities
Greenwich Laser Sailing makes itself known!
Yippee! Another place to sail lasers. Greenwich Laser Sailing co-captains Steven Goode and Paul Dunay (glrfleetcaptain@gmail.com) want you to join them on the water.
Greenwich Laser Racing is a fleet of Laser sailboats that race on Sundays in the YRALIS Captain Harbor Series in Greenwich. The fleet also participates in area regattas including the Solstice, YRA Champs, and USS America regattas. The majority of the fleet launches from Riverside Yacht Club, with Laser sailors from Indian Harbor, Belle Haven, and Old Greenwich Yacht Clubs also joining. The series will start on June 11, 2023, and detailed information is available on the GLR website, https://www.greenwichlaserracing.com/.
New Bedford YC
Starting in early May there will be laser scrimmages every Monday from 4 to 6 PM at New Bedford Yacht Club. Rabbit starts, no scoring, just good fun and 2 hours of intensive sailing at one of the best venues in New England. Please contact Mark Bear for more information: mbear@mit.edu, 508-878-0664
Duxbury Bay Marine School & Duxbury YC
Things are getting going in the Duxbury area. Spring racing is on from May 6th to June 17th at Duxbury Bay Marine School Spring 2023. Racing will continue throughout the summer at Duxbury YC.Check out the links provided and contact Dave Ryan (dryan02186@gmail.com) for more information
Annisquam YC, Annisquam, MA
The Annisquam YC Race Sail committee is eager to grow the sport of sailing and engage the community for summer weekend laser racing. The Annisquam YC Laser Bay Series consists of One-Day series on most Sundays in July and August. Non members are welcome to put-in and haul-out from the AYC boatyard for purposes of racing in the Laser Bay Series. If you are interested in joining us on Sundays, please email AYC Laser Fleet Captain, Zaak Beekman (zbeekman@gmail.com), and he will work with you to try to find a way to help get you on the water–even try to find a place around town to help store your boat if needed.
Casco Bay Spring Series, Portland YC, Portland, ME
The Casco Bay Laser Fleet will be hosting our third annual Spring Laser Series at PYC on Sundays from 5/21 through 6/18. Skippers’ meetings will be at 1200, first starts at 1300, and no race will start after 1600. Please plan to have your boats rigged before the skippers’ meeting so we can launch afterwards. The cost will be $10 per day or $40 for the series. Guests are welcome to store Lasers at the club for the duration of the series, provided they do not leave trailers at the club and remove their boats after racing on 6/18.
Contact Justice Pollard (jbqpollard@gmail.com) for more information. American YC, Newburyport, MA
Come join the fleet on Joppa Flats in beautiful Newburyport for Sunday sailing from May 21st to October 1st. Check out the NOR for specific times. Contact Fleet Captain Nat Coughlin (natcoughlin98@gmail.com)for more details.
Hyannis Yacht Club Summer Sailing
The HYC fleet sails on Lewis Bay in beautiful Hyannis, MA from June through October. They typically launch from the HYC off Ocean Avenue (please observe town parking rules) or at the Yarmouth Sailing Center off New Hampshire Ave (signup required) and sail on the east side of Lewis Bay. Need more info? Email hyclaserfleet@gmail.com. To Register go to: https://theclubspot.com/regatta/uKaVzYZT9R. Cost is $115 for full season ($75 for under 21's).
Learn more about where to sail
You can find more information about where to sail from CT to ME on the D7 fleet page Want to list your club's summer racing schedule here? Let me know @ laserd7@gmail.com
Marblehead wraps up the spring series
The Marblehead fleet saw record a number of boats this spring, with up to 40 on the line. Fun! The season wrapped up on 5/21 with 28 boats battling a shifty NW/W breeze. The RC did a great job getting in 4 races before having to abandon the 5th when the breeze scrambled and died. Everyone headed in for pizza, beer and awards. There were no tears.
Patrick Andreasen took the series. Not his first rodeo or top finish! He was closely followed by local legend, Bill Lynn, who taught the fleet a thing or two in his fine vessel "Lola." Dave Crawley took 3rd in a highly competitive field that saw a record number of individual race winners across the series, the sign of a healthy fleet thanks to Tom Dailey, the fearless leader who never shows up without a pie to award to whoever does the most penalty turns. (The pies are so good, some folks just start spinning after the gun.)
Marblehead racing now moves to Tuesday evenings for the summer, gathering around 5, first gun at 6, race until the sun sets or folks get tired. This is chill summer fun. Contact ledyardmcfadden@gmail.com for more info if you want to join. Boat storage may be available. |
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Get More Out of Light Wind Downwind In the olden days Laser sailors thought of the downwind as a bit of by-the-lee hell. You’d shove yourself into the front of the cockpit trying to hold the boat in a windward heel, with the sail at 90 degrees angled up. Every muscle aching. Once in a while you got to jibe or go broad reaching back towards the mark. Thankfully those days are gone because by-the-lee sailing has transformed into a valuable means of generating power/load in the rig. So how does this all work? How do you take that power and turn it into speed? Here’s a few tips to get you going in the right direction: 1. Body position: Sit as far forward in the cockpit as possible—front knee up against the center board. Back leg across strap with knee down or up. I prefer knee up because it gives added mobility when you need to do a big flatten or role to windward. 2. Tiller: Avoid unnecessary movement in the rudder—lock the tiller down under your arm or flat on the leeward deck. Focus on steering with body movements and sail angle NOT rudder. 3. Mainsheet: Hold from the boom block as opposed to the main sheet block. This allows added feel for when pressure is on (tensioned sheet) vs. off (soft sheet). 4. Vang: Set to allow the top two battens to breath so leach will flick forward and back. 5. Sail trim: Except in extremely light conditions when the sail won’t stay eased, don’t go past 90 degrees. 6. Outhaul: As a general guideline, start by releasing the outhaul approximately 4-6 inches from the end of the boom (10-15 centimeters). 7. Centerboard: Pull up no more than 6 inches. 
Boathandling: 1. Start by sailing by-the-lee (BTL). Get the boat heeling to windward (not too much!) and the sail up in the air. You will feel the sail power up (sheet tension and boat wants to heel more). 2. Press upper body across to the leeward. Boat will start to round up. As boat rounds up trim in fast to the new angle and go back to original body position to flatten boat. 3. Press windward rail to go back to BTL. Drop sheet to BTL trim - it’s important to wait to drop sheet once you’ve reached the BTL angle. That will give a pump and the sail will load up again. 4. Quickly repeat the maneuver. 5. Get in the rhythm: In light winds you will be making small S turns. Basically going from BTL to wave angle. Once you get up to speed your goal is to maintain that speed. Think heat up and soak down - rinse and repeat. While more extreme S curves may feel good, in light wind, they are not helping your VMG. Drills: A fantastic drill to practice in light for is tillerless sailing. Head downwind and drop the tiller on the deck. Use your body weight/position and sail trim to move the boat from BTL to BR. I”ve attached a couple of videos here showing the technique - but try not to run into the coach boat! Happy sailing D7ers! Coach Judith Instructional video links: Tillerless Downwind sailing from ISA - the canadian sailing team - pay attention to how they drop sheet. ILCA Tillerless Saiing Downwind Drill - a good view of what is happening with the rudder. Downwind positioning and trim - a good overall instructional video. |
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Improving Your Results with Deliberate PracticeInternational Sailing Academy 
I assume you are reading this because you want to improve your Laser sailing skills. Maybe you want to go faster. Maybe you want to win more races. Whatever your motivation, to change your Laser sailing results, you’ll have to change your Laser sailing habits. And, to change your habits, you’ll have to follow the Cycle of Improvement.
 It The cycle starts with Awareness – identify what you need to improve.
Then execute Deliberate Practice – repeatedly focus your conscious effort on the specific area you want to improve. Convert to Habit – with practice, the effortful becomes automatic. Repeat – begin again… Your success or failure with the Cycle of Improvement hinges primarily on Deliberate Practice. What is Deliberate Practice? What is deliberate practice and how is it different from other forms of practice we have experienced? Specific Deliberate practice must be specific – often the more specific the better. For example, you may want to improve your tacks - that’s great - but we recommend an even more detailed level of specificity. For example, through video review, you determine that you’re having trouble crossing through the cockpit. Then you determine that the position of your feet during a tack is different than the Olympic medalists’ in a video you watched. Deliberate practice in this case would have you perform tacks with conscious effort focused on making sure your feet are in the correct position when you cross the cockpit. 
Tom Slingsby Tacking Footwork ISA’s Online Laser Course provides detailed video instruction, model behavior examples and checklists to help make your deliberate practice as effective as possible. Repetition Deliberate practice must include focused repetition. Use your on-the-water practice time very wisely to increase your learning rate. Each time you go sailing, execute as many repetitions of the new, specific behavior as possible. It’s common for sailors to put too much focus on racing and not enough on practice - a race is one of the worst times to begin learning a new skill, or changing an old one due to all the traffic and pressure. During practice be careful that you do not get overly fatigued to the point that you are practicing sloppy or wrong technique. Feedback Loop Deliberate practice must also contain assessment and feedback – a feedback loop. Without personal coaching, you’ll need to implement a feedback loop yourself. To do this, make sure you have a video of the model example of the Laser sailing skill or technique you’re trying to emulate. Next, make sure you can identify and list the key actions that make that model better than what you are currently doing. Lastly, use a mental, digital, or paper checklist of those key actions to assess your performance each time you practice. While on the water and after your session, ask yourself: Did I do those things on my list? If not, which one(s) did I miss? What caused me to miss them? What can I do in my next attempt to ensure that I do those things? 
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2023 District 7 Regattas | Date | Counts towards D7 Gran Prix? | Notes | Under the Rope | April 2 | | Eastern YC, Marblehead, MA | Pete Milnes Regatta | April 15 | Y | Fleet 413, Newport, RI | NH Seacoast Laser Spring Regatta | May 20 | Y | Dover, NH | Wickford Regatta | June 3-4 | Y | Wickford, RI | Portland Pilot | June 17 | Y | Portland YC, ME | Salty Dog Regatta | June 18 | | Hingham YC, Hingham MA See club site for more information | True Blue Spencer Evans Regatta | July 16 | | Kollegewidgwok YC, Blue Hill, ME | Helley Hansen | July 29-30 | | Marblehead, MA | Hyannis Regatta | July 29-30 | | Hyannis, MA | Squam Day | Aug 4 | | Annisquam YC | Buzzards Bay Masters | Aug 5-6 | | New Bedford YC, Dartmouth, MA | Malletts Bay Boat Club | Aug 5-6 | Y | Lake Champlain, VT | Ponce De Leon Regatta | Sept. 10 | | Eastern YC, Marblehead, MA | Atlantic Coast Championships (25 GP Points) | Sept 16-17 | Y | Hyannis Yacht Club (Hyannis, MA, USA) | New England Masters | TBD | | Wickford, RI | North American Masters | Sept 28-Oct 1 | | New York Yacht Club (Newport, RI, USA) | Fontelieu One Design Regatta | TBD | Y | Cedar Point YC, Westport, CT | Great Bay YC/PSA 2022 Fall Laser Regatta | TBD | | Dover, NH | Oktoberfest Laser Regatta | TBD | | Hyannis YC, Hyannis, MA | District Championship & final day of District Gran Prix, Eastern YC Marblehead, MA | Oct 21-22 | Y | Eastern YC, Marblehead MA | Fat Boyz Regatta | TBD | | Fleet 413, Newport, RI | Turkey Bowl | Nov 19 | | Eastern YC, Marblehead, MA | | | | | | D7 Gran Prix races in green. Sail as many as you can and win points for great prizes |
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