Regattas in May and June
Great Bay Yacht Club\ PSA Spring 2023 Laser Regatta, May 20th, Dover, NH
The PSA 2023 Laser Regatta will be sailed on Saturday, May 20th at the beautiful Hilton State Park in Dover, NH. This is the second 2023 regatta to count towards the D7 Gran Prix. Don't miss it. Find the NOR here.
Wickford Regatta, June 3-4, Wickford, RI
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, Sunday June 18th, 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.
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.
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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 for the Captain Harbor Sunday Series.
ILCA 6 and & racing on Sundays in Greenwich, CT. Series from June 11 - August 27, 2023.
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.
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
Peter Milnes Regatta a big success
 (Based on Christine Shope's Fleet 413 write up. Photo by Joe Berkley)
Sailing requires wind, water, and boats, but more essential are the people who organize, cajole, mentor, and promote. The annual Peter Milnes Regatta is about celebrating Peter Milnes's legacy and reflecting on the fact that a tremendous amount of leadership, good will, and volunteerism make magic on the water.
Thirty nine sailors enjoyed a shifty day and good fun both on and off the water. Steve Kirkpatrick won the day. As luck would have it, Steve shares some of his secret sauce in the skills section below! Read on and learn from one of the top D7 sailors.
The Peter Milnes Regatta was also the first regatta of the D7 Gran Prix. The Gran prix's top prize is a free tuition to the International Sailing Academy in Mexico. All registered participants from the Peter Milnes Regatta who sailed at least one race will be added to the Gran Prix scoring sheet. The next opportunity to earn D7 Gran Prix points is at the Great Bay Yacht Club\ PSA Spring 2023 Laser Regatta, May 20th, at the beautiful Hilton State Park in Dover, NH. Don't miss the second Gran Prix regatta of the season. Find the NOR here.
About the D7 Gran Prix:
This year, you can win fortune and fame by hitting the road and visiting other great fleets in D7. Eight regattas covering all six D7 states have been selected to be a part of this informal Gran Prix. For each regatta sailed, you gain points toward the District Gran Prix, which will culminate with the D7 Championships in Marblehead, October 21-22. You do not need to sail all 8 regattas, but the more you sail, the more points you get. Attend all of the regattas and win the Mad Max Road Warrior prize! (We're not sure what that is yet, but it will be great.) There is no fee to participate and no sign-up. We'll automatically pull scores from the following regattas:
Peter Milnes (RI)
New Hampshire Spring Regatta (NH)
Wickford Regatta (RI)
Portland Pilot (ME)
Mallets Bay Boat Club, (VT)
Atlantic Coast Championship (MA)
Fontelieu One Design (CT)
District 7 Championship (MA)
You can find information about all the regattas at the D7 website
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A top sailor's thoughts on Accelerating off the line
Last newsletter, Coach Judy provided a great article on starting. If you missed it, go to the the D7 Blog. All past newsletters are posted there. We are continuing the theme this month with a tighter focus on accelerating off the line. Steve Kirkpatrick, winner of this year's Peter Milnes Regatta, was kind enough to share his wisdom in response to a few questions. If you see Steve, tell him thanks for sharing the secret sauce!
In the last 20 seconds, what's the sequence of actions to accelerate off the line?
In the last 20 seconds, it is key to focus on positioning so you can stay bow out on the boat to leeward at the gun and immediately after. How to accomplish this varies depending on the wind velocity,
In moderate air (7-11), the trick is to be sailing at an upwind angle at full speed before the boats around you. Having a line sight to make sure you are correctly positioned to do this without going OCS is very helpful.
In heavy air, this takes less time, and you can use a combination of trimming and easing to hold your spot easily, but you need to be mindful of sliding to leeward or getting stuck in irons. For this reason, the vang and cunningham should not be pulled in super tight until you are sheeted in and at a full hike heading for the line.
In light air, the situation is reversed, getting slow is death and you are a sitting duck for people coming in with speed, who will poach your hole to leeward either with a port approach or a "hook" from behind. The preferred mode here is to be the boat that comes in with speed on port or from behind. Also, in light air (under 6-7 knots) it is really beneficial to get away from packs of boats due to the wall of sails in the middle of the line creating what I call "wind reverberation." This is analogous to water going around a rock in a stream. Well in front of the rock, the flow detaches and goes to the sides. I think the same happens with wind on a congested line, so starting at the ends and getting clear of this bad air bubble can help. That said, if everyone goes to the ends, I try to find a "low compression zone" in the middle and start to leeward of boats around me so I can bear off and accelerate during wind velocity declines that present themselves as a header.
The control settings are almost always under done in the prestart, with the exception of the outhaul which is set to the upwind setting. The cunningham is lighter in case you need to point or power up, and the vang is looser in every condition except super light air where you need to induce prebend to make the mast fit the luff curve of the sail. In this condition, if you have a vertical wrinkle at the luff with your cunningham eased you need more vang. You will know it is okay when the vertical wrinkle disappears. Upwind in under 5 knots, your vang needs to be on much harder than you think, such that you can ease the sail without the boom coming up. For starters, trim to two blocked and take the slack out. This will get you in the ballpark but don't be afraid to go a bit harder if the sail still looks bad when you ease your sheet.
During the prestart, it is also critical to have "your head on a swivel" looking out for boats trying to take your hole. If they are trying to pick you off coming in on a port approach aim directly at them with your sail eased so you don't close the gap to leeward. Do this as soon as you see the situation developing. Do not turn up until they have started their tack or are clearly going past your transom. If someone is threatening to scoop you from behind, ease your boom well in advance of their arrival so there is less room between you and the boat to leeward. This makes "your hole" less attractive to them. Bear in mind that if they do hook you, you need to respond promptly if they luff, so you cannot just sit there with your boom out, but doing this early often convinces the poacher to find someone else to scoop.
To gauge how far you need to be from the line in various conditions in order to hit the line at full speed, it is helpful to get a line sight early and take practice runs. If you have a good handle on where the line is (thanks to your line sight) you can pick another site that is further back from the line so you know it will take you to sail at full speed to the actual line sight. This "time and distance" understanding pays big dividends in every class in which I have ever sailed, not just the ILCA.
Moose McClintock runs specific drills called "send it" to get teams he is coaching to get out of the blocks faster than the boats around them. ILCAs speed up pretty quickly, but the ability to sail a little lower allows you to accelerate whereas maintaining a "thin lane" on the boat to leeward can keep you higher and slower than the boats around you. If you want to "send it" rather than "stuff it," a reasonable hole to leeward is critical.
In the final seconds, how do you get the boat moving? What do you physically do to make this happen?
Acceleration techniques vary according to the wind strength. In moderate air, a slight heel to leeward while sailing lower than upwind followed by a flattening as you head up is enough to get the job done. In light air, you need to be able to sail lower and heel and flatten with more enthusiasm. In heavy air, I prefer to heel slightly to windward while trimming in as heeling to leeward will generally cost you a lot of weather distance on the boat to leeward. Throughout this process you are constantly trimming and easing to maintain your spot and also keeping your head on a swivel to keep from getting poached.
How did you learn to do this? Any drills that you recommend?
Some particularly helpful drills are learning how to hold your position in a spot for a long time, time and distance drills, and match racing. To practice holding your spot just line up next to a mark and try to hold your spot at a relatively upwind angle for 30 seconds. Then build up to longer periods. Do this in all conditions and intentionally do the wrong things to learn how to do the right things. See what happens when you put too much vang on, bone your cunningham, etc. and then back off to settings that work. This will give you a sense of how far you need to "back off" from your upwind settings to keep the boat under control in down speed boathandling situations. Once you have confidence in holding your spot, work on accelerating from this mode into full speed. This will help you get a sense of how long you need to get to full speed across the range of conditions. Match racing is helpful because it gives you and appreciation of how to defend against poachers without fouling or coming undone in the heat of battle. |
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