5-20-2007 - Practice - I ignored the gloomy clouds and scattered showers and headed out the lake Sunday morning. Played around with the rigging for a bit (added carabiners to the mast tiedown, cunningham, and outhaul), then hit the water for about two hours. Actually very decent wind - when I arrived, there were a ton of sailboats with their spinnakers out finishing a race. Got closer to the dam and Mansfield park than I ever have before, then sailed up and around the last of the Sometimes Islands. Occasional heavy chop from speedboats, but I've seen worse. Zipped around on a beam reach for a bit, then headed in and did more rigging stuff (removed the hiking strap, made the triangle that the traveler forms smaller).

5-16-2007 - Race: Wednesday Night - Well, I ended up posting all the rigging photos online here. Then, I posted the link over at The Laser Forum and got some great suggestions. Stopped by the Home Depot at lunch to get a rivet gun, and at long last I finally replaced the broken mainsheet loop on the boom. I also added the clew sleeve. Oh, and I found a very nice new rash guard at West Marine, which was right next to Home Depot. Got out to the lake a bit early to rig the boat and fixed a few other small things (like adding an extra block to the outhaul). I'm writing this over a week later, so I don't remember exactly how the races went, other than I completed them all and didn't capsize. At one point during the downwind leg of one race, I turned around and there were four or five boats behind me! That was a great moment.

5-14-2007 - Practice - Practiced for just over 90 minutes after work on Monday. Wind was blowing around 10 knots, so not horrible. Lots of tacks, lots of mini LW courses around a bouy, and some staring at the sail shape and telltales as I adjusted different controls. Lots of stuff in the water - twigs, hunks of bark, leaves. Hardly any boats out. Took pictures as I rigged - will post them online soon. Fixed the outhaul rigging in the process (block was reversed). Took the boom with me when I left - I really need to fix the mainsheet loop and install the clew sleeve.

5-9-2007 - Race: Wednesday Night - Got a shipment from APS earlier in the week - both Boat Whisperer DVDs, telltales, and (very surprising, I'm sure) the new metal clew sleeve from Harken. Watched most of both DVDs - he pretty much just throws a lot of random stuff at you, not the best production values, but good nuggets of info, so worth the purchase. Got a new Sunfish neighbor on the dock. Rigged everything up and headed out. The RC folks took a little while getting the course set up, but it gave me a chance to warm up a bit, which was nice. The first two races went great - I beat three Lasers (two standard, one radial) both times. At one point I successfully heeled the boat to windward to get it to point a bit higher and was able to clear the windward buoy! On the downwind legs I was trying to keep the rudder still and steer by shifting my weight around - it sort of worked, but needs more practice. Got some bad starts on the last two races, and at one point got the mainsheet wrapped around the end of the boom after a jibe at the leeward mark which cost be several boatlengths. Not sure how many people I beat in the third, but in the fourth I only beat one, and only because he capsized. Oh well. Overall a great night of sailing!

5-2-2007 - Race Committee - Got to AYC very early (right around 5pm), so I actually had time to chat with a few people and discuss rigging, notably the cool new metal clew sleeve that recently got approved. In fact, several boats already had it installed. Turns out that four people were scheduled for RC duty (instead of the usual three), two Sunfish and two Laser. The other Laser guy was brand new and I was pretty useless, but neither of us brought our blades, so all four of us went out. After two trips back to the dock (once for a plug for one of the inflatable buoys and once for the boat anchor), we got everything set up and started the races. As we set up the course, we eyed a very large bank of storm clouds nervously. We all agreed that at the first flicker of lightning we would cancel all races and immediately head in. Strangely, the dark clouds seemed to slowly wrap around the lake, leaving only slightly grey clouds overhead. Meanwhile, we were able to run five Sunfish and four Laser races. It looked like everyone was having a good time out there, and I was surprised at how quickly all the RC stuff came back to me. The Sunfish guys were very cool and didn't seem to mind answering all of my questions about reading the wind. Right at the end of the fifth Sunfish race (we were about to start the fifth Laser race) we spotted some lightning. We scribbled down the Sunfish finishers, cancelled the Laser race, and srambled to gather up all the bouys as it started to drizzle. Right as we pulled into the slip, the storm hit. Lots of wind and sheets of rain. Brian and I jumped onto the dock and ran over to help a Laser sailor whose boat had capsized, with the mast sliding under the dock. After struggling for a few minutes, we had the clew unhooked and the boat up on the dock. We got the mast down and the sail off the mast, then made sure the sailor was ok and took off. I was completely soaked, which made for a chilly ride home. Still, I'm glad I went out - who knows, maybe one day I will have my act together enough that I can actually run the races.

4-25-2007 - Race: Wednesday Night - Made it out to the first official Wednesday night race of the year. Strangely, the wind was blowing the opposite direction, so I ended up walking the boat around to the other side of the dock and rigged it up pointing the other way. Naturally, this confused my wee brain and I made several very interesting rigging mistakes (rather amusing in hindsight, given that I rigged with zero mistakes a few days ago). By the time I got out, the first race was under way, but there were four more after that, so not a bad evening of racing at all. At one point in my second or third race, I was about halfway to the downwind mark and looked back - there were four or five people behind me (out of 12-13 racing)! No idea how that happened. By the end of the race, I was second or third from the back. The wind died completely on the way back and I ended up sculling a bit. It was really great that several people remembered me, despite the fact that I hardly raced last year. Completed all races, no collisions, no capsizes.

4-22-2007 - Fun - Roy graciously agreed to help me install a new bailer on my boat. It only took about 5 minutes. We decided to head out on our Lasers, but there was no wind, so we just floated around for a while and chatted, which was cool. It is so incredibly nice not to have an inch or two of water in the cockpit! I was pretty amazed that I didn't make any horrible rigging mistakes. The outhaul is WAY easier with the hook.

Late 2005 - Early 2007 - Well, hello there! Yeah, it's been a while since I updated this thing. To get you caught up, I went to Sunsail - Club Colonna in Antigua for about 10 days in November 2005 and had a blast. Then, during spring and summer 2006 I raced a handful of Wednesday night Laser races and went out for fun a few times. Roy and I also got to sail a tricked out Hobie catamaran a few times before the owner sold it (we only got stranded in the middle of the lake for a few hours with zero wind once). Somewhere in there I ponied up for a brand new set of rigging for my Laser, plus a few fancy bits (like a sail hook for the outhaul). The new mainsheet and traveler line are particularly nice. In the last few weeks, I have made reservations for my upcoming honeymoon at the Bitter End Yacht Club. I am fairly excited about it, and as a result am going to try to sail more frequently over the next 8 weeks so that my sailing chops will be in somewhat decent shape for the honeymoon.

[ More sailing pictures ]

Right of way:
- Starbord over Port.
- Overtaking Steer Clear.
- Leeward over Windward.

Race Start Sequence (Laser/Sunfish):
3 Minutes - 3 long whistles, Class Flag up, Course Marker up
2 Minutes - 2 long whistles
1.5 Minutes - 1 long whistle, 3 short whistles
1 Minute - 1 long whistle
30 Seconds - 3 short whistles

Race Start Sequence (Standard):
5 Minutes - Class Flag up, One sound signal.
4 Minutes - Prep Flag up, One sound signal.
1 Minute - Prep Flag down, One sound signal.
Go - Class Flag down, One sound signal.

1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour = 6076 feet per hour
1 mph =1 mile per hour = 5280 feet per hour

5 Knots = 5.8 MPH
10 Knots = 11.5 MPH
15 Knots = 17.3 MPH
20 Knots = 23.0 MPH
25 Knots = 28.8 MPH
30 Knots = 34.6 MPH
35 Knots = 40.3 MPH

• Austin Yacht Club
• AYC Lasers
• The Sailboat Shop
• Sailing Texas
• Austin Windsurf Club
• Lake Travis Map

Weather

• Lake Travis Weather (AYC)
• Lake Travis Weather (UT)
• Surface Winds (KXAN)
• Doppler (KXAN)
• Austin Weather (weather.com)
• Austin Weather (Weather Underground)
• Central Texas Radar (Weather Underground)
• Texas Infrared Satellite Image (unisys)
• Windfinder
• Beaufort Scale

Lasers

• Vanguard Sailboats: Lasers
• Laser Forum
• Laser Wiki
• Laser Sailing
• International Laser Class Association
• Official ILCA Rules
• Luther's Laser Corner
• Proper Course
• Campbell Sailing - Monday Morning Tactician

Vendors

• Annapolis Performance Sailing
• Rooster Sailing

Miscellaneous

• Bitter End Yacht Club - British Virgin Islands
• Sunsail - Club Colonna, Antigua
• Bruce McDonald Sailing Photos
• Sailing Anarchy
• Sailing Videos
• Real Knots
• Animated Knots!
• Tacticat
• International Marine Signal Flags

Interesting Stuff

• Vanguard has a lengthy and very informative Laser Tuning Manual. They also have a PDF about Laser Rigging and a new rigging FAQ.
• The University of Iowa Sailing Club has a fantastic page on Racing Basics. They also have several pages with Racing Drills, Hiking Excercises, and Laser Clinic Notes.
• Rooster Sailing has a bunch of hints and tips.
• Mark Spicknall put together a nice presentation on Winning On Lakes.
• LaserSailboat.com has page on Rigging The Laser.
• US Sailing has a summary of racing rules.
• Here are the complete ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing.