Canandaigua Lake RC Laser Sailing

Wind Shifts, Current and Weeds Shake Up RC Results

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Bill Blevins

Do you think we could we could find any better weather for the RC Laser Frostbite Series than what we saw yesterday? Wow! Mid-November temperatures were in the low 60’s and we only felt a few sprinkles of rain during racing on Sunday.

Week 4 results are in the books (and posted on this site) and so now there are only three more weeks to go in the series and before we break for the Holidays.

Yesterday, six RC Laser sailors got off five two-lap windward leeward races in what turned out to be very light winds in Holiday Harbor although out on the lake we could see a stiff breeze blowing.

As it turns out, south-southwest winds are fairly well shielded by townhouses and trees and winds from the Southerly direction seem to create a fairly strong fluctuating current in the channels at Holiday Harbor. This current carried in a lot of floating weeds that tangled everyone’s keel or rudder at one point during the day.

Nelson Habecker sailed to three guns yesterday for the RC Lasers with Gary Schmidt taking the remaining two first places.

A seventh model remote control boat was on the starting line with the RC Lasers yesterday. Kirk, a fellow RC sailor from the Rochester Area Model Yachting Association saw the mention of our fleet frostbiting in Don Finkel’s RCR Yachts Racer’s News on November 3, 2010 and he came and participated in our races with his Soling One Meter remote control model boat. The jib sail on his Soiling proved to be a benefit over the uni rigged RC Lasers using only their “B” rigs in the light, shifty winds and fairly noticeable current in the channel. The Soling One Meter was right up at the front of the pack in four out of five of the races yesterday.

The RC season has ended in Rochester so there are several other Soling sailors who may visit next week. If so, we’ll give them their own start.

In other news, there is no word yet on the status of the “A” rigs and sails that are on backorder. The RC Laser National Class Mid-Atlantic fleet captain says that the sails were ordered and shipment was expected back in March of 2010. There are many fleet members across the country waiting on the sails, not just the new members in our fleet. We’ll post an update here as soon as there is any word or a more recent status report.

RC Laser racing on Sunday, Nov. 21 and on Dec. 5 will be held at Holiday Harbor. We’ll discuss the venue for November 28th next week and post on the site.

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14, Results | Tagged holiday harbor, Soling One Meter | Comments Off

New Race Venue for Frostbite Series

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Bill Blevins

The first RC Laser race on Sunday, Nov. 7 will start at 2 p.m. at Holiday Harbor on Canandaigua Lake instead of the docks at the Canandaigua Yacht Club.

To find the group, enter Holiday Harbor off of West Lake Road, turn right at the first road and follow that to the end where you will see the vehicles, sailboats and sailors. Park on the right.

Holiday Harbor has multiple benefits that include good options for setting courses in all wind conditions, docks along the waterfront and possibly best of all when it gets really cold… inside shelter with heat at Nelson’s house!

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged holiday harbor | Comments Off

Frostbite Week 2 Results Updated and A New Venue Announced

Posted on November 2, 2010 by Bill Blevins

On Sunday, Oct. 31, the fleet of seven RC Lasers sailed four “twice around” windward-leeward races in winds that were about 10 knots and, you guessed it… full of the normal Canandaigua shifts and puffs that came blowing out of the Northwest. Each race lasted about 15 minutes.

Gary Schmidt and Jonathan Gorbold traded firsts and seconds. Gary has pulled ahead to lead the Frostbite Low Point Series after the Week 2 results were calculated. George Walter has moved up and into third place behind Jonathan.

Frank Sacco and Larry Keefe helmed boats 54 and 254, respectively, for Nelson Habecker and Bill Blevins who could not attend on Sunday.

Emailed reports that came in from the skippers who were there said was that it “was cold today – no spectators watched,” so, in an effort to drive not only racing participation, but also to keep the crew members’ participation levels up, racing will move up Canandaigua Lake to Holiday Harbor for FBLP3 on November 7 where there will be the opportunity to step inside and warm up if the conditions are bad.

A trial run of the Holiday Harbor venue is going to be held at 4:30 on Thursday, Nov. 4th for racers (and their spectators) who can make it. Burgers and sausages will be on the grill at Anne and Nelson’s townhouse on the canal. Email Nelson or Anne for directions and further details if necessary.

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged cookout, FBLP, holiday harbor | Comments Off

Frostbite Series Starts the New RC Sailing Year

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Bill Blevins

2010 Frostbite Series sailors from Canandaigua RC Fleet 14, from left to right, Jonathan Gorbold, Bill Blevins, Gary Schmidt, Nelson Habecker, George Walter, Neil Atkins and Jack Bennett.

The seven-week Frostbite Series got underway in very light air on Sunday with all seven sailors from Fleet 14 at the helm of RC Lasers out on the starting line. Two races were completed and in each, there was wind at the start and almost no wind at the finish. A three-way tie for first place can be seen in the series low point scoring results (FBLP1) that have been posted.

Since the radio controlled fleet extends the sailing season, the 2010 Frostbite Series races are the first races to count for the 2011 overall high point “batting average” awards that will be handed out a Sailor’s Night at the Canandaigua Yacht Club next October.

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged bill, fblp1, frostbite, gary, george, group, jack, jonathan, neil, nelson | Comments Off

2010 Wrap-up and Fall Series Results

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Bill Blevins

The 2010 RC Laser sailing season wrapped up on Sunday with the races in the seventh and final week of the Fall Series.

Jonathan Gorbold crossed the line in first place four times out of the five races and Gary Schmidt picked up the remaining first in the other race.

Overall, for the Fall Series, based on Low Points scoring, Bill Blevins finished in first place with 15 points after 25 races over the seven week series.

Jonathan Gorbold finished in second place with 23 points and Gary Schmidt finished third with 37 points for the full series.

Jack Bennett and Nelson Habecker both tied in Nett points after all of the throw-outs were accounted for but the tiebreaker went to Jack who finished in 4th place because he had fewer total points before throw-outs.

George Walter finished in 6th place and the newest member of the fleet, Neil Atkins finished in 7th, but he just joined the fleet during the last week of the series and only race in 5 of the 25 races.

The 2010 series was also scored using a modification of high point scoring where competitors were measured only against boats they raced against. There was a participation requirement that mandated participating in 60% of the races in order for a boat to be qualified to be placed.

Bill Blevins finished in first using the high point scoring by obtaining 105 out of 130 possible points. Jonathan Gorbold finished in second place and Gary Schmidt finished in third. The full results are listed below:

81% Bill Blevins
77% Jonathan Gorbold
66% Gary Schmidt
49% George Walter
43% Nelson Habecker
40% Jack Bennett

The calculation and full details of the results that we are calling the “batting average” scoring can be found in the results section of this site.

For 2011, the same high points “batting average” method will be used to score the whole year of sailing for each competitor. The only requirement to qualify is that one sails in 60% of the starts.

Awards for each series will be handed out throughout the year but the overall high point awards will roll up all year long and be awarded at Sailor’s Night in October of 2011.

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14, Results | Comments Off

Seven Now Sailing In RC Laser Fleet #14

Posted on October 20, 2010 by Bill Blevins

Neil Atkins purchased an RC Laser and was on the starting line with the rest of the fleet for the final races of the Fall Series last Sunday afternoon.

Neil had a good showing in his first outing with the new boat but shortly after launching, he realized his rudder “stick” on the transmitter was responding opposite of how his brain thought that it “should” work and based on his experience at the helm of other tiller boats. Not wanting to risk losing control by flipping toggle switches mid-race to fix with his boat out on the water he decided to stick it out, racing 5 races with a backwards acting tiller.

The word on the street is that he has plans to adjust and do some testing and that he will have the bugs worked out prior to the start of the Frostbite Series at 2 p.m. on October 24.

Welcome to Fleet #14 Neil! With your addition we now have seven competitors!

Remember, if you’d like an RC Laser sailboat for yourself or would like to give one as a gift to a significant other, we can help you with your order or you can visit the RC Laser website and place your order online or just call Steve Lang directly and tell him what you are interested in doing and he’ll point you in the right direction!

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged atkins, neil, new member | Comments Off

Sail Numbers

Posted on October 17, 2010 by Bill Blevins

Each RC Laser is shipped with a card listing the 4-digit hull number. The sail number would be the last two digits of the hull number.

So, for instance, if you hull number is 3068 then your sail number would be 68.

You can use a stencil and black markers to color in the numbers on your sails with the correct font for the class or you can order stickers to place on the sails.

If you would like to order stickers, Windjammin Sails can cut out the country designation letters and the sail numbers and ship them to you quickly.

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged sail numbers, sails | Comments Off

Two Weeks Remaining in the RC Laser Fall Series

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Bill Blevins

Four RC Laser sailors raced in Week #5 of the seven-week Fall Series. Jackets, long pants (except for Jack Bennett) and socks were in order as a few of us thought that we were racing in the Frostbite series already!

Winds were strong and steady and blowing out of the North at 10-12 mph with some gusts above 15 mph and of course there were the normal 20 degree shifts to each side during the races. Everyone agreed to use the standard “B” sail since the other sails are still on backorder from the builder. There were a couple of moments when the “C” would have been nice, but almost everyone kept the bow on top of the water on all legs.

Steady winds allowed for five races to be run in a little over an hour.

The courses were a mix of two-lap windward – leewards with a reach leg thrown in every so often. The final race was a windy-lew with huge triangle out to the special mooring field warning buoy tacked on to the end. Even then, with great winds, it was still a quick race.

Everyone had at least one race where they did not finish (DNF). A couple of sailors were stopped dead in their tracks after finding a floating patch of really long strands of grass wrapped around their keels and rudders causing them to have to go rescue their boats with the dinghy. At collision at a mark rounding took out at least one competitor.

The “big boat” RC Volunteer party was being held at the club so we ended after 5 races and headed up to the clubhouse.

The race results have been posted showing Low Point standings for the Fall Series. The file showing the CHIPS3 High Point scoring has also been updated.

For the running 2010 Best RC Laser Sailor competition, the “Batting Averages” have been computed and there are no changes in ranking since last week.

0.867 Bill Blevins
0.662 Jonathan Gorbold
0.607 Gary Schmidt
0.465 Jack Bennett
0.456 Nelson Habecker
0.424 George Walter

Racing continues on next Sunday on the waterfront at CYC at 4 p.m. for week 6 of 7 in the Fall Series and then we will be moving to a 2 p.m. start time for the first race.

Remember, if you would like to come out and race with us for the FrostBite series starting on October 24 you need to get your boat ordered now! Just give the distributor Steve Lang a call at 615-773-2920 or visit his site to place your order for an RC Laser. Everything you need comes right in the bag, ready to sail with the addition of a few AA batteries and 5 minutes to put your sails on the boat.

See you on the water!

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14 | Comments Off

Canandaigua RC Laser Fleet #14

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Bill Blevins

It’s official, Canandaigua RC Laser Fleet is now “Fleet #14” as registered with the North American RC Laser Class Association.

Posted in North American Class News, RC Laser Fleet 14 | Comments Off