Laser Race

Our first race of 2013 finally went down after many failed attempts. Most of the other races ended up turning into social sails, which are fun also, but I really enjoy the technical challenges of racing. So, only three of us showed up on the dock on Saturday, which gave me the idea that it might finally be a good day to do some Laser racing. Only having two Laser sailboats, we had enough for a race committee and two racers. The wind was light, but that often just adds to the challenge of reading the wind.

I quickly made my way out of the marina with all the race markers in the RC boat. Once I got outside of the breakwater I could feel quite a bit more wind and there were even some swells that were causing my little boat to slam. I eased off the throttle a bit and started getting a bit nervous about actually getting on the Laser. They are definitely an unstable feeling boat, fun, but unstable. While I was distracted with the thoughts of sailing I accidentally set up the triangle backwards. Instead of fixing it, I decided just to make a few rule changes (round the marks on the starboard instead of port) and get back to the marina to see if the boats were ready.

Troy and Victor had just locked up the boat house and were on their way. We slowly made our way out to the start line, where I gave Victor the crash course on racing rules that I forgot to go over on the dock. We used a quicker three minute countdown to start and they were off. We raced a triangle/finish to keep the races short and fun. Trading off with RC every race so each of us got 4 races in.

While RCing for the second time, I learned the value of bringing our air horn with us. A sailboat under full sail heading my direction failed to see me in our little motor boat, and the entire race course behind me. I thought maybe they were just trying to make me nervous (which was working) but I eventually gave them a Toot Toot. I saw a head pop up quickly and they turned, narrowly missing hitting me. I then warned them about the rest of the race course that was dead ahead. They smiled, nodded, then proceeded to  run right over our start flag.

Oh and check out the cool rainbow halo around the sun that day. What does it mean?