Last Laser Sail?

Got out on the laser on our home Lake.Little cool 9 degrees Celsius.Nice breeze,sailed to the end of the Lake and back,pretty cold at the end of a couple hrs.

Last Hobie Sail?

Sailed for a couple of Hrs today on the Hobie,got on the water early,9:30 and sailed in a nice breeze with some intermittent down pours.I actually like sailing in the rain.Water was smooth and the boat just scoots quietly across the Lake.Took the mast down,probably last time out on the Hobie for this season.

More Superior Sailing

Spent about 3hrs on Lake Superior Yesterday on the Laser.Wind's ranged from 12-25 knts in the gusts.Did some fast reaching on the leeward side of the break wall,big winds combined with flat water makes for a great ride.A Lightening was out practicing for the World's.They only sailed for about 30 mins.
Back at camp today,Lake looked pretty small compared to Superior.Did some coaching from the Hobie while my Kid's sailed the Laser.The 16 actually makes a nice platform to coach from.You can catch up at any time.

Superior Sailing

Spent the last two days doing some Laser sailing on Lake Superior.Yesterday My wife had her Kayak out and was going faster then me.Sail boats are all slow in 5 knts of wind.Today 12-14 knts and rain.Did some windward leeward stuff.Fun to surf the 2-3 ft waves,but going upwind was a grind.Could not stop thinking I wish I had the Hobie out.

CYA Article

2009 Hobie 16 North American Championships - Kingston, ON Wednesday, July 22, 2009
54 Hobie 16 teams from 5 countries are approaching the mid-way point of the North American Championships taking placing in Kingston, Ontario. The fleet is dotted with regional champions and solid world performers. After six races Jason Hess (Silver Medallist from the 2007 Hobie 16 Youth Worlds) with crew Hugo Guzman of Guatemala lead the way counting 3 bullets over the course of the first 6 races. Only one point behind is Enrique Figueroa and Victor Aponte of Puerto Rico.

The Canadian contingent is lead by Mike Madge and Carly Madge of Thunder Bay Ontario sitting 12th overall, hot on their heels is 2008 Canadian Olympic Tornado representative Kevin Stittle sailing with his cousin Marshall Champ sitting 15th, with two time Canadian Olympic Tornado representative (1988, 1992) Kevin Smith teamed with Keri Romanufa sitting 18th overall.
Racing continues through Friday so plenty of racing lays ahead. To follow this event go to www.cork.org for full results and details.
Photo: Kevin Stittle and Marshall Champ round leeward gate 4th overall in race 4.(That is Carly and I right behind Kevin in 5th place.We finished 8th in this race)


Funny story,the press boat came out to talk to us on the water Wedensday before the races's started.They knew we were the top Canadian team,but they never heard of us.So they wanted to do an interview with us after the racing.Well we stink it out Wedensday in the only race of the day.Never heard from the press guy again.

Camp Sailing

Just got back from camp.Had a chance to get out on the Hobie Friday and the Laser Saturday.Kind of nice to do some no pressure, fun type sailing.the boat always seems to go faster when you are just sailing like that.

North American's

Just got back from the N.A.'s.we had a great time with a week filled with lot's of memories.We finished tied for 14th but on a count back we dropped to 16th.Little dissappointing as we lost about 6 boats in the last half of the final leg down wind.Overall I feel pretty good about our speed and fleet management,and are start's .We only had one incident all week when after a great start we tried to cross the majority of the fleet and a boat came up and clipped our rudder,the 360 rattled us a bit and we had our worst result.High lites where being 3rd to A mark,rolling Enrique Figurioa upwind,finishing top 10 in one race,meeting a whole bunch of great people.
The final day was just a hoot to be on the water 12-15 knts,with sun and waves,champian sailing.A lot of people complained about the wind but we were happy we raced every day and there was only one day where there was no trap work.
Always learn something new.We seemed to rig a little tighter then most other boats.A lot of the boats straiten up there mast down wind.We had an interesting start on the last day,we were about 2/3rd's of the way down the line toward's the pin with about a min. to go.Then a little lefty came thru and a couple boats got over top of us.So we tacked out and crossed on port at the committee boat after the last boat had crossed.We had Pedro Colon just ahead and to leeward.We sailed on his hip all the way out to the lay line and ended up rounding top 10.Kind of a nice tactic to have.We had clean air,no worries of being over early,and you could tack back into the middle at any times with right's,
Overall places where I could improve is I think I could sail a little more aggressively.We tended to stay more in the middle as opposed to committing to one side.Also we ducked a lot of boats we could have crossed,especially at A mark.Having the experience from last years North American's helped a lot.Doing this with my Daughter and having my Wife there made it special.

Division 7 Chapionship

Twenty one Hobie 16's on the line.Great fleet included guest expert Wally Myers.Six races total.Satuurday the wind was up and down very shifty,poor start line's(two races the start was so port favored you had to cross on port).First race,poor start did a nice job of recovering to 4th.Wally started way back and came from nowhere to pass us at the line.Top four boats crossed the line within 20 seconds.Third race of the day had a great start looked like we where going to blow every one away but slowly lost ground(got outside on a few lifts)and settled for 4th.Last race was delayed with some shifty winds.Race commitee decided to run a really short course(weather mark was only about 500m out.Made for a very tight pack.Had a good race going but ended up double tacking at A mark the second time around and lost about 4 boats,lost another boat at the finish(went to wrong end)ended up 9th our worst result.Sunday the wind was a little steadier.First race we got rolled at the start,hit the back of a boat that had stalled,did a 360 then worked up the middle and started picking off boats.Recovered to a very satisfying 4th.Last race had a great start went out about 500m got a nice header and port tacked the fleet(sweet).We where getting a nice lift up to A mark then the wind started to die a head us a little.We hung on to round second right behind Wally.We had a great downwind duel,we let him off the hook on one port starboard crossing.Wally used a real questionable tactic at the gate where he had to jibe and left a nice opening for us to go inside.He jammed his rudders over to stall his boat head to wind,we had to do a quick stop to avoid hitting him.We ended up bearing off and getting even and to leeward as the two of us raced off to the port lay line.When we both tacked over we sailed into light winds and a header.Slim came from the right and crossed us.On the last weather leg we all went right we tacked off a little early up the middle and passed Wally.Slim held on to first we held Wally off to finish 3rd.6th place overall not real happy with the result as I felt we had the best boat speed in the fleet(considering I was sailing with my son so our total weight was 330lbs.My Daughter finished 3rd with Slim.Sohn won and Wally second.
A bonus to the Regatta was I got a Wed. night Laser race in with the local fleet.I sailed a 1976 old vintage boat to first for the night over 15 other local Laser guys.

Fathers Day Sail

Spent about 3 hrs out on the Hobie today. Beautfull warm summer day with nice breeze.My daughter came out for about an hr of practice.Practiced some starting and stopping boat,backing up and did some 360,s.Hopefully I won,t have to do any 360,s but it is a good boat handling practice.

Muddy Waters Regatta

Race Day 1
There was a good breeze(mostly single trap all day) and it was cool and raining(raining hard).Managed to get in three races before hypo-thermia set in.The day was dominated by Jim Sohn with three solid 1st's.We had three secounds,the highlite was one race started in last and worked the middle of the course to catch up with the fleet.Moved into first at the gate mark then had a nice drag race with Sohn out to the right.He managed to pass us going down wind.
Interesting situation in the first race we were ahead and to leeward coming into A mark for the first time.There was a slight header at A mark enough so that we could not lay the mark.Tacking back across the starboard parade looked really risky so we ended up jibing around and finding a hole.We lost three boats but saved some gelcoat work.

Day 2
Still cool and breezy but no rain(single with a little twin trapping in the puffs).We got in three more races.In the secound race we did a horizon job on the fleet.We went right early then dug back in in the middle(seemed to be good wind thru the middle).We finished with about a 2 min. advantage over the fleet.We finished3,1,3 for the day.Final results Sohn first ,my daughter Carly and I secound and Slim Johnston and Ben Wells third.

Warm and Windy

A nice summer type day here in Thunder Bay.Put about 3 hrs on the Laser.Sailed to the far end of the Lake with my wife kayaking.Had to sail thru a very narrow section of the lake,lots of tacking.Warm winds over cold water does some strange things.Big puffs and shifts and lulls.Made for a good practice in changing gears.

Weekend Sailing

Spent the weekend at camp.Had the laser out for a total of about 4hrs.Wind ranged from light to strong and puffy.Lake is about 1km long and the wind was down the length of the lake so it made for a nice windward leeward practice course.Hands are sore,not in sailing condition yet.

Another Nice Sail

Sailed yesterday after work for about 2.5 hrs.Stating to get comfortable with the hobie again.Regatta schedule this year includes the following events
June 6-7,Muddy Waters Regatta on Lake Pepin,division 7 points regatta
June 21-22 district 21 Laser Regatta on Bald Eagle lake
July 11-12 Bald Eagle Regatta,Divisionals on Green Lake in Spicier Mn.(GEP by Wally Myers)
July 20-24 N.A. hobie 16 Championship,Kingston ON
Aug.?,Barnum Lake invitational Laser Regatta

Hobie sail

Sailed for about 2hrs on the Hobie today,shifty North West winds.Sailing a cat on a small lake in shifty winds is challenging,but when you piece the shifts together and get on a couple successive lifts you get upwind in a hurry.Great way to practice reading shifts.

Laser sail

Sailed for about an hour on the laser after work tonight.Strong puffy east winds,temp 10 Celsius.

First Sail 2009

First sail of the year, took the Hobie out in 10 - 14 knts, flat water sunny warm day,water temp probably about 40 farenhiet.Sailed solo and pretty cautiously,no trap work.Felt great to be on the boat again.

Hobie 16 North Americans

http://www.hobieclass.com/?Page=8013