Canandaigua Lake RC Laser Sailing

After two weeks of racing in the Fall Series, Nate Heinzelman has the early lead having won more than 50% of the heats to date.

Nate Heinzelman

If he keeps this up he is going to be very hard to catch.  Gary Schmidt is holding on to second and Jay Niggli five boats back is third.  “RESULTS”

We had 9 boats on the water and were able to get in 7 heats before the time expired.

For those that are record keepers we have had 854 starts and 108 heats with another 4 weeks of racing to go.  The average number of competitors  108/854=12.6 boats per heat to date.

Next week (Sunday Sept. 17th) we will be moving the starting time up by 1 hour to accommodate the J-22 fleet party that is being held.  Racing hours will be 3:30-5:30 pm off the south dock CYC.

See you on the water!!!!!

The Admiral

And at the wire The Admiral (54) cruses to victory winning by a good 6 lengths, Jay (81) just holding on for second beating Gary (59) by a head who finishes in third.   “RESULTS”

Payout  (54)  $17.60   $8.60    $ 5.80

————(81)                   $6.20    $ 4.60

————(59)                                  $ 4.00

Next week will be the beginning of our 6 week Fall Series which will  be held Sunday 4:30 -6:30 pm off the south dock.

See you on the water!!!

The Admiral

Receiving assistance retrieving his keel

And it’s The Admiral(54) in front by five after throwing a shoe, followed by Jay(81), a gap of two back to Gary(59),and then Terry(71) close to overtaking Jonathan(62).

With just one week to go it is looking like The Admiral may take the win if his boat doesn’t throw another shoe (keel).

There were plenty of spectators on hand this day to observe this highly contested race.  Some wanting to cheer on there favorite boat and others just wanting to get out of the sun.

August 20th will be the finale of our Summer Series which will determine the payouts for this race.

Fear not though, we will begin our 6 week Fall series the following week (August 27th) at 4:30 pm off the south dock.

The Admiral

The Admiral (54), able to avoid most of the bumping  going on around the turn and hugging the rail, has opened up a comfortable 5 length lead coming into the stretch.   Jay (81) driving hard on the outside is second, and Jonathan, the 1-5 favorite who is just not firing today, has dropped back to 3rd and is being challenged by Gary (59) who is steadily gaining ground.  Then it is Terry (71) in fifth followed by Sean (16), Richard (78) and the rest of the field very far back. Gary (59) and Richard (78) had several occasions of crowding each other which cost them valuable real estate turning for home.

“COMPLETE RESULTS”

Next week we will be in deep stretch where we hope to run off another 7 heats to compliment this week.  There are only 2 weeks left in the summer series so it’s time to give your boat a little push and get it over the wire.    Post time will once again be 4:30 pm off the south dock CYC.

See you at the track!!!

“Pine Needles” by Talc

Down the backstretch we go.  Jonathan (62) has a stranglehold on his horse with the reins pulled in tight, Nelson (54) has moved up along side to challenge for that lead, a length back Jay (81) has moved into 3rd, Sean (16) has slid back to 4th, it’s a gap of two where Gary (59) remains in 5th followed by Terry (71) a half length back on the outside in 6th and further back is the rest of the field.

We were able to fit in 5 heats before time expired for the day. Neil Atkins surprised everyone when he took a bullet in the second heat. ( I think he has been sand bagging it for some time now.)  Richard finally went weedless in the last two heats to take bullets in each of them, and the Admiral was able to pull off a couple of his own.

After watching the wind pick up when we were putting our boats back in their stalls we decided to change the racing hours for the remainder of the year so as to get some of that more pleasant wind that fills in at the end of the day.  Our new racing times will be 4:30 pm till 6:30 pm. If there happens to be no wind I am sure someone will have a relevant topic for us to discuss.

“Sturdy and Bold” by Bold Laddie-Durendal, by Rameses

There was not much change coming off the turn.  Jonathan continues to lead with Sean second, and Nelson close on the outside. A length back is Jay, Gary Schmidt and then Terry.  And then the rest of the pack is jockeying for position.  At the start of the race the odds makers had:

Jonathan at  1-5, Sean at 16-1, Nelson at 8-1, Jay at 6-1, Gary at 4-1, and Terry at 30-1.

We were able to complete 5 races on an afternoon that was very pleasant. The wind was another matter though.  Up,down,north,south, and everything in between.  So, out of the five races we had four different winners.

It is a very long backstretch so there is still a long way to go.

Our next race date will be Sunday July 16th off the south dock CYC 4-6 pm.

See you at the races.

Pleasurable Buck!!!

Around the clubhouse turn we go, and it is Jonathan (62) maintaining a comfortable 1&1/2 length lead over Sean (16) who has a 2 length lead over Nelson (54) with Jay (81) a neck back on the outside and a gap of 2 to Jack (005), Terry (71) and the rest of the field. “RESULTS”

There was a lot of bumping and impeding other boats going into the turn but you wouldn’t expect anything else with Jack in the race.

The day was about as messy as the radar.  In the middle of the second race the course was shortened to one lap in order to get everyone’s boat to shore and pack up before the storms.  No more racing but an excellent opportunity to show our hospitality to Jack Ward (48) who was nice enough to bring his laser up from Florida to race with us and finishing second and third respectively .

With everyone chomping at the bit to get back out there we will not be racing July 2nd so that all can enjoy the holiday weekend, but will again be at the south dock 4-6pm on Sunday July 9th as we head for the backstretch.

Second Son by Talc!!!!

At 3:30 pm what wind there was came from the south. So, I set out marks that gave us a range of south east to south west.  At 3:50 pm the wind, light as it may be, came from the west.  I returned to the dingy and reset the marks for a west to east course.  At 4:15 pm the wind picked up, as it usually does, and we raced a north/south course which included a mooring ball as a windward mark.  (I was getting tired of rowing) 

Don’t let the photo fool you.  It may look like very light wind but if you look very carefully across the lake in the photo you can see that the wind is filling in from the east shore and soon to be upon us. Net effect was we were able to spin off five races before the clock struck 6pm.

If I were calling a horse race the call today would be Jonathan 62 takes the lead by a length, Sean 16 and Nate 73 are neck and neck in second followed by 54,005,and 68 fighting it out for forth, then a gap of four to Jay 81 then a gap of five to Neil 172 and the rest of the field.  Tune in next week as they go into the club house turn.

Post time will once again be 4pm off the south dock CYC.

Until then, charge your boats.

The Admiral

We had a late start this spring which shaved off the first couple of weeks and then came the last couple of weeks. Week 5 had plenty of 15-20 knot winds which were “C” sails.  All was going well with 5 races in when the scorekeeper decided to leave his post.  Yep, you guessed it, in the water went the score sheet.  Although it went in right next to the keel we were trying to recover our efforts were futile and the  total day became a day of throw outs. Or should I say “into the wind”.

Keel & Score Sheet Fishing

Then on week 6 the wind gods decided there would be no wind at all. So as the spring series comes to a close it was Jonathan Gorbold taking first with a net score of 33, Sean Quigley second with a net 48, Nelson Habecker third with a 50, and just shy in fouth with a net of 51 was Nate Heinzelman for the series.
Law of gravity — If the keel is not clipped in place it will fall to the bottom. Lesson to be learned!!!!!

Congratulations to Sean and Nate, new junior members to our fleet late last year. Only 4 boats separated the second, third, and forth place finishers.

“Complete Results”

Next “Sunday” we will begin our 9 week Summer Series.  Racing will be off the south dock 4-6pm.

See you on the water!!!!!

The Admiral

We did not have to worry about using suntan lotion on this May day.  Once again it felt like early November but 7 of us did show up to  race for a couple of hours.  There actually was a conversation as to whether or not you could get frostbite if the temperature was above 32 degrees.  I suggested that we not find out.

We started with downwind starts to the east and ended with Gary Schmidt moving the marks to race north and south for the final race of the day.  Most of the time the wind remained just off shore which made it difficult to keep our boats moving around the windward mark.  We did manage to get in 6 races that were very close due to the lack of wind when sailing the final leg.

Sean Quigley (one of our junior racers) captured the day by winning 3 of the races followed  by Nate Heinzelman with one and Jonathan Gorbold having one.

Next week (Mother’s Day) we will once again be racing from the south dock CYC 4-6pm hopefully with much better weather.

If you would like to know the specs of your laser check out this link:

http://lasersailingtips.com/sailing-blog/the-rc-laser-sailboat/

Tips on sailing your laser can be found here:

Welcome to Laser Sailing Tips