It was pretty light air to sail out in and as I looked around at the competition I was feeling very old. The next oldest person was Angela Scheibner followed closely by another collegiate sailor named Anna Tunneclife (sp?). I think most of the rest were juniors or close to it. So I was old enough to be anyone's father and was anywhere from 15 to 50 lbs heavier.

The sea breeze (NE) came in for the first race at around 12kts. The big rigs had a general recall so we went off first. In that breeze I was very fast (remember the weight difference...). I was first at the weather mark and the wind held for the run so the lighter sailors were not grinding me down. It got light and lumpy at the leeward mark and I got a glimpse of how the rest of the regatta was going to go. The wind dropped to about 6kts and Anna got by me. The wind got back up to maybe 9kts but the lump was getting worse. On the last upwind Anna was covering me fairly close at the end and one of the light youngsters from New Jersey got by me so I ended up 3rd. In Race #2 the big rigs had another general recall so we went first again. The wind was about 6-7kts and the lump was getting bigger. I was last around the first mark and the wind shifted to make the legs all one tack beats or reaches. I ended up 6th but the race was eventually tossed. Race #3 was sailed in mostly 5kt winds. It was very painful. I ended up 4th and had to take some chances to do that. On Sunday race#4 had some breeze (8-9kts) but man these kids are fast. I learned a little late to just stay away from them and sail my own game. Ended up 4th. Race #5 had about the same wind with some 10-11kt steady puffs. I split with the other most of the time and just played the shift and kept the boat going fast. I led to the first mark, got passed by one NJ kid on the 2nd beat, passed by the other and Anna on the 2nd run but did my thing again on the last upwind (split and took a chance) and won the race by a boat length. The air died and no more races were held.

Anna and the kids from NJ were all very close in points for 1,2,3 and I was 4th. There was no results or awards. After packing up and having lunch (almost 2 hrs) we were told results would be ready in about another hour...nobody waited. Sandusky Sailing Club is a nice facility, has nice work boats and equipment, but were a tad overwhelmed for this kind of regatta. Some Olympic trainees from Canada put them under quite a bit of pressure. They tried hard and put on a good regatta overall.

All of the competitors in the radial fleet were very friendly and sailed very professionally. All in all I am glad I stuck with the radial. I learned more about boat speed and technique and feel more prepared for the worlds.

Maybe Rick can tell us some stories from the big rig fleet?

On Sunday it was blowing 12 - 18 with 3 to 5 ft swells from the North (on the Gulf). I had good starts and great upwind speed. In the first race I was 9th around the top mark but my downwind speed is a bit off pace. After that I was getting tired too quick from being sick and just couldn't hike hard enough and also it was tough to make good decisions. I was happy with Sunday's finishes considering the circumstances and it really helped my ego since I was feeling pretty wimpy after Saturday.

I will likely sail Radials at the Great Lakes in Sandusky and then the Worlds at Buffalo Canoe Club. This Spring I hope to go to Indy and maybe some other close weekend regattas. I really need to work on my downwind speed.

Full results and pictures at http://www.clwyc.org/LaserMidwintersEast02/home.htm

2001 Laser Radial Worlds - by Orkun Soyer
Great place bad organization...This is Laser Radial Worlds 2001 in a nutshell. With 235 boats from all over the world the organization failed quite badly by even not doing an opening ceremony and providing only one launch pad...Despite this the racing was great and Spain proved a great atmosphere for touristic sailors!

The fleet was split into 8 groups of ~30 boats each for the qualifications. On each start they let two groups race against each other and changed the order of starts so that everybody races against each other....

With two races scheduled for each day the whole regatta lasted 6 days and provided some exciting sailing. I started the first day with 1 and 2nd at 15 knots of wind and big waves, finishing the day with an overall 1st.!

Second day the weather suprised us all with rain and no wind, giving me the chance to enjoy my overall position for one more day. 3rd day the wind settled to 15-20 knots again, giving us some larger waves. I started with a 1st and got an 11 (thanks to a capsize on the last downwind while I was 4th) in the second one. Last day of the qualifications the wind was almost the same as the first day, allowing me another 1st and 3rd. 

From the initial 4, who were tied on the first place while going into finals, only one finished in top 5....The young star (only 17 years old!) from New Zealand won the title, while Brazil and Crotia settled for 2nd and 3rd places...My teammate got 4th place, replacing me and giving us some pride....

You can't regret it...

orkun.

2001 Laser Great Lakes - Rochester 
"Report from the middle of the pack"
Well it was a pretty un-eventful trip to Rochester on Friday evening. I caught some sleep on the drive thru Canada but woke up in time to cross the border (I was driving by myself...). Got to RYC at 9:50 and joined my hosts for a quick beer and then off to bed.

We got down to the club early Sat (7:30am) to start rigging. There were a bunch of boats at both launch sites. They have a Junior facility with a floating ramp and then they put in another ramp at one of the crane hoists. Launching all 90 boats went pretty quick. Yup 90 boats! 60 full rig, 29 radial rig. (actually 59 full rig since Rick R. never showed...hope it was nothing serious).

Saturday - winds 5-8 @310 going to 330 thru the day. Waves were about 1' and pretty far apart (not Lake St Clair!). Sunny...I wore a splash jacket, t-shirt, shorty hiking pants, and was comfy. Trapezoid course, .75 mile legs -upwind-reach-upwind-run-reach-upwind. Sunday was very light until a sea breeze filled in at around 30 and only 1 race was sailed so no throwout--bummer--

Does it appear as though I am avoiding talking about the races? OK...OK...Here we go...

Warning goes off, boat is favored by 5 degrees, time goes by... about 1:45 left...some boats are already setting up 2 boat lengths from the line... 1:30 left ... most everyone is set up about 1 boat length from the line ... got a small hole to fit in (whew) ... skull right ... skull left ... don't hit that guy! sneak closer to the line! still 30 seconds left! this is really stressfull! Anyway 5-4-3-2-1 go... wow that was amazing to watch from my viewpoint...now how the heck am I going to get clear air.

Well...that was the bad news for each race. The good news is my speed was very good and I was able to get into the middle of the pack by the weather mark (except in race#3 but I'd rather not think about that one).

Another high note of the weekend was how courteous all of the sailors are at that level. You could here people at port starboard crossings asking for and giving room to cross and overlaps at marks politely handled too. Everyone was keeping the war in mind over the battle (at least until that last short beat to the finish).

Great experience...glad I went...wished I could have had just 1 good start...Many thanks to my hosts and good friends the Angelidis's who treated me like a king! On to Lansing this weekend...

June 9 & 10, 2001

Laser Class Series Summary

All Boats

Pl Sail # Skipper Subgroup Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Tot

---- ---------- ----------------------- ----------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------

1 168564 Bernard Luttmer 1 4 4 2 11

2 POR Gustavo Lima 6 3 7 1 17

3 171030 Andrew Scrivan 4 2 11 3 20

4 170707 Zach Railey 2 14 1 4 21

5 170144 Clay Johnson Junior 7 6 3 9 25

6 164336 Matt Simpson 5 7 5 10 27

7 169813 Nathan Cowan 10 11 2 7 30

8 170819 Kurt Taulbee 16 9 8 6 39

9 170817 Andrew Campbell 3 10 17 11 41

10 170762 Mahaffey 11 5 10 17 43

11 166776 Tommy Wharton 12 1 6 37 56

12 170629 Vincent Porter 8 8 12 28 56

13 165981 Street Silvestri 9 12 27 8 56

14 158762 Jay Feaver 19 16 26 15 76

15 158915 Patrick Mulcahy Junior & O'Day 30 17 19 12 78

16 171218 Andrew Lea 14 18 14 35 81

17 166158 Pete Kane O'Day 25 26 9 24 84

18 23035 John Pearce 15 32 13 25 85

19 17 Mike Kalin 17 31 16 22 86

20 171156 Ian Hogan 13 20 25 31 89

21 166094 Philip Hood 32 24 18 18 92

22 1 Matt Johnston 22 13 37 26 98

23 145477 Brett Wright Apprentice 24 29 23 23 99

24 158689 Brian Raney 33 30 20 19 102

25 162009 Steve Brown 18 42 42 5 107

26 170044 Adam Bowen 28 23 15 42 108

27 171628 Ken Swetka Apprentice 21 25 44 20 110

28 165960 Chas Williamson Apprentice 40 28 28 21 117

29 8 Matt Shirilla 36 21 33 33 123

30 165898 George Panayides 26 39 31 27 123

31 80447 Mark Sertl Apprentice 31 27 24 44 126

32 164211 Kenneth Walton 27 36 34 30 127

33 165984 Michael Schreiber Apprentice 61\DNF 15 21 32 129

34 777 Bobby Bryant Master 34 37 47 14 132

35 170122 John Mulcahy 38 19 61\DSQ 16 134

36 167498 John Sharkey 29 34 32 43 138

37 170358 Michael Honey 45 33 22 39 139

38 222222 Jeremy Crowder 23 44 61\DNF 13 141

39 6778 Daniel Fien Master 43 40 29 29 141

40 171633 David Tunnicliffe Junior & O'Day 37 43 36 34 150

41 976 Reid VanGorder 41 35 39 38 153

42 168452 Francois Hebert 35 41 40 40 156

43 161993 Doug Feaver 39 47 35 36 157

44 7 Chase Coleman-Beckman 48 22 30 61\DNS 161

45 168445 Billy Farmer 20 50 41 51 162

46 137090 Kevin Doyle Apprentice 55 38 48 41 182

47 172070 Brian Swingly 46 49 45 45 185

48 153332 Matthew Disch 42 45 46 55 188

49 170364 John Schimert Apprentice 44 53 43 50 190

50 171664 David Waldron Apprentice 47 46 50 52 195

51 14761 Courtney Sullivan Female & Junior 53 52 38 56 199

52 162084 Paul Tunnicliffe Master 49 48 49 61\DNF 207

53 143390 Rich Wait Master 52 51 51 54 208

54 168216 Tom McGrath 50 55 56 49 210

55 145207 Jim Cuddihee Grand Master 54 57 55 46 212

56 148478 David Weglicki Master 57 54 54 47 212

57 16845 Jacob Doyle Junior 51 61\DNS 52 48 212

58 105322 Terry Bowdish Grand Master 56 56 53 53 218

59 82952 Bill Swingly Grand Master 61\DNF 61\DNF 57 57 236

60 1XXXXX Rick Rothenbuhler 61\DNS 61\DNS 61\DNS 61\DNS 244

Rochester Yacht Club

GREAT LAKES CHAMPIONSHIP

June 9 & 10, 2001

Radial Class Series Summary

All Boats

Pl Sail # Skipper Subgroup Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Tot

----------------- --------------- ----------------- ----------------- ----------------- ---------------

1 170338 Jeff Cruise Junior 1 8 1 1 11

2 169346 Paige Railey Female & Junior 5 1 2 4 12

3 132922 Alex Singer 2 3 3 6 14

4 165168 Chris Branning Junior 4 7 8 3 22

5 166045 Kyle Kovacs Junior 3 4 9 8 24

6 4 Christina Falcone Female & Junior 12 2 7 10 31

7 167246 Reed Johnson Junior 6 13 4 9 32

8 163766 Isabelle Garand Female 11 5 5 14 35

9 161117 Charles Fulmer 7 9 17 5 38

10 160991 Katie Behan Female 15 10 10 7 42

11 170673 James Liebl 30\DNS 6 6 2 44

12 22 Anna Tunnicliffe Female 8 14 12 12 46

13 170717 Tom Hart Junior 9 12 13 16 50

14 169348 Michael Curran Junior 14 18 14 11 57

15 158703 Christian Vorbeck 17 16 16 13 62

16 105937 Kathleen Tocke Female 10 21 15 17 63

17 133013 Caroline Kaarssijpesteijn Female 18 19 11 15 63

18 162403 Tom Allison 13 17 19 20 69

19 169367 Bobby Martin Junior 21 11 23 18 73

20 155631 Pieter-Jan Dehaeghere 22 15 21 23 81

21 167154 Ryan Eric Minth 16 20 18 30\DNS 84

22 164336 Ryan Kobrick 23 22 20 19 84

23 166938 Rob Crane Junior 19 25 24 21 89

24 170738 Meredith Pelton Female & Junior 20 27 27 22 96

25 168536 Coralee Skoch Female & Junior 25 24 25 24 98

26 165950 Rachel Moloney Female & Junior 24 23 22 30\DNS 99

27 169308 Debbie Koop Female & Master 27 28 26 26 107

28 90585 Michael Vorbeck Junior 28 29 28 25 110

29 152994 Erin Gregory Female & Junior 26 26 30\DNF 30\DNS 112