May 19, 2025
by Earl Thomas #5121
Commodore & Fleet 62 Captain
Commodore & Fleet 62 Captain
Sunday brought us good wind of 3 to 10 mph and clear blue skies. A little gusty and headers in the middle of the lake. Definitely we were both hiking on the rail today. Not much muggle traffic and the sailing classes were going on as well. It was a good showing for our club.
We had 3 El Toros; Steve, Tony and Paul, 3 Lidos; Stephen, Richard and myself, 1 Sunfish; Roy, 1 Hobie Island; Adrian, 1 Capri; Yossi. It was a good turn out for the El toros, next time maybe one more ‘hint, hint’. It was a good competition with 3 Lidos. Could have been more but maybe next races it could be 5 plus LIdos if everyone is there. We missed the Ho’s due to illness.
The crews today included Suli with me, Ping with Stephen and Ann returned with Richard.
John and Jill Christman were on RC duty today, Thank you. They used the numbered pennants for course numbers today. People got the hang of it after a few trys. We tried our newish RC boat today. AIt’s a used rowboat bought from Shoreline. Worked pretty well. It needs some oar adjustments and a better flag holder system.
Suli and Richard brought snacks today, Thank you. Also Steve brought donut holes for the morning pick me up, thanks. From charcuterie to cookies we had more then enough good choices for our apres-sail session.
The wind direction was more toward the north today so the windward mark was way to the left of the normal position. And the reaching mark was really just another closehauled leg up toward the dam. We did 4 races today, reaching course plus W/L #4 and double windward-leeward #2. We all started together. And mostly we played nice. I got a horrible start in the first race as I got my mainsheet wrapped around my tiller and couldn’t turn. You couldn’t go too far to the left part of the lake on the unwind leg or you ran out of wind and ran into the island. Staying center was better. Yossi did well in the Capri, better than last time. We need to get him a crew next time. Any crew want to let me know they can make it on June 8th, our next race day?
There was a crash with Stephen and Richard. It was almost a near miss but, shifting winds, less than ideal handling and surprise resulted in a thud and Dick’s Lido climbed up and over the aft starboard gunwale of Stephen’s Lido. Everyone was okay and they did their turns and said there “Sorry's”. The only detectable damage was a gelcoat exchange on the Stephen’s gunwale. We all need to remember "Heads out of the boat”. Be on the look out for other traffic. Today was a challenge for me trying to keep up with Stephen and Dick. We would meet and be close at marks and then they would bolt away with better speed either out of the turn or just not loose speed during the turns. I got 2 ea third places and 2 seconds. One 3rd was due to one stupid bad start and one 2nd was due to a port start that proved to be much faster. So I’m still learning.
We have amongst us a new member who is a great photographer, Don Jedlovec. He was there on Sunday and captured some great photos of us sailing. He has shared them here. https://donaldjedlovecphotography.zenfolio.com/p796286664.
Our next races are on June 8th. We are now accepting names for crew positions, snack volunteers and Race Committee.
We had 3 El Toros; Steve, Tony and Paul, 3 Lidos; Stephen, Richard and myself, 1 Sunfish; Roy, 1 Hobie Island; Adrian, 1 Capri; Yossi. It was a good turn out for the El toros, next time maybe one more ‘hint, hint’. It was a good competition with 3 Lidos. Could have been more but maybe next races it could be 5 plus LIdos if everyone is there. We missed the Ho’s due to illness.
The crews today included Suli with me, Ping with Stephen and Ann returned with Richard.
John and Jill Christman were on RC duty today, Thank you. They used the numbered pennants for course numbers today. People got the hang of it after a few trys. We tried our newish RC boat today. AIt’s a used rowboat bought from Shoreline. Worked pretty well. It needs some oar adjustments and a better flag holder system.
Suli and Richard brought snacks today, Thank you. Also Steve brought donut holes for the morning pick me up, thanks. From charcuterie to cookies we had more then enough good choices for our apres-sail session.
The wind direction was more toward the north today so the windward mark was way to the left of the normal position. And the reaching mark was really just another closehauled leg up toward the dam. We did 4 races today, reaching course plus W/L #4 and double windward-leeward #2. We all started together. And mostly we played nice. I got a horrible start in the first race as I got my mainsheet wrapped around my tiller and couldn’t turn. You couldn’t go too far to the left part of the lake on the unwind leg or you ran out of wind and ran into the island. Staying center was better. Yossi did well in the Capri, better than last time. We need to get him a crew next time. Any crew want to let me know they can make it on June 8th, our next race day?
There was a crash with Stephen and Richard. It was almost a near miss but, shifting winds, less than ideal handling and surprise resulted in a thud and Dick’s Lido climbed up and over the aft starboard gunwale of Stephen’s Lido. Everyone was okay and they did their turns and said there “Sorry's”. The only detectable damage was a gelcoat exchange on the Stephen’s gunwale. We all need to remember "Heads out of the boat”. Be on the look out for other traffic. Today was a challenge for me trying to keep up with Stephen and Dick. We would meet and be close at marks and then they would bolt away with better speed either out of the turn or just not loose speed during the turns. I got 2 ea third places and 2 seconds. One 3rd was due to one stupid bad start and one 2nd was due to a port start that proved to be much faster. So I’m still learning.
We have amongst us a new member who is a great photographer, Don Jedlovec. He was there on Sunday and captured some great photos of us sailing. He has shared them here. https://donaldjedlovecphotography.zenfolio.com/p796286664.
Our next races are on June 8th. We are now accepting names for crew positions, snack volunteers and Race Committee.