Laser Snow Sailing

tural

New Member
Just thought Id share my first two races ever in a Laser, in a blizzard.

After much discussion in the club house looking at the snow hitting the window from the gusts, and unsettling white crests on the waves created from water bouncing off the dam wall, four of us launched in Laser'. Never seen boats rigged so quickly as the race was on before hands numbed.

Pre-start "warm up" saw the minimum of jibes with all of us concentrating on not falling in before the five minutes as that just would of been too demoralising. One fleet member sailed to the start and hovered for ten minutes waving circulation back into his hands threatening to go in. Wind was perfect- steady with a few gust not going over 25. All of us took standard rigs so caution not complete priority.

The countdown to start saw a lot of interboat communications between ourselves/committee and safety trying to actually make the windward mark through the fall. Upwind keeping a bead on where we were going was a constant theme. It was replaced in urgency in later laps, as we race before GP's, as our little glorified-windsurf-board fleet trying to spot the clump of heavy spinaker-laden tanks bearing down on us on the cross.

Brilliant racing and very exciting. Downwind the obvious advantage to the conditions was very acurate wind indication. Snow and ice gathering on the boom and sail made it feel like we'd done something on a Saturday "and those in bed shall think themsleves acursed and hold their manhood cheap..".

Days like this make Laser sailing an activity I don't think can be bettered. Golf in the snow? I think not.
 
Great story. I try to only go out when the sun is shining in the winter. My id photo was taken in December. Last week I was out sailing but came in when a heavy hail storm brought me to my senses and I brought my boat to shore! I told my wife there were limits to my sailing obsession.
 
i remember being out on pyramid lake in, i think, alberta and getting hit by a gale force hale storm within less than ten minutes of seeing the dark clouds approach. nice picture and due respect to canadian lakes. our wives all thought we had lost our minds as well.
 
Sailing in snow is fine as long as you have good kit and a RO who understands the importance of quick race turnarounds. Hate it when RO decides to hang around for ages when its that cold. So long as you are working you keep warm.

Thankfully haven't had too many snowy sails this year (pic is rigging up last year on day 2 of a winter handicap).
 

Attachments

  • snow laser.jpg
    snow laser.jpg
    51.6 KB · Views: 85
on the second race we petioned the ood to start our sequence early and show some pity. i see you are soton, at least in london the biggest thing we have to worry about is a gp looming out of the snow. nothing like watching valdese sister ship moving in and out of fawley to concentrate the observation.
 
I've done a bit of snow sailing before on the East Coast (UK), it's great fun but you certainly need a RO who understands that races must be short and happen almost back to back - plus rescue boats on hand!
 

Attachments

  • 20122009180.jpg
    20122009180.jpg
    522.2 KB · Views: 71
  • 20122009181.jpg
    20122009181.jpg
    492 KB · Views: 73
Sheesh, from now on I go out in 30+ kts. I mean, as an Aussie I can at least imagine what 30kts is like. I can't imagine a blzzard. Bloody fantastic and I dips me lid to ya.
 
I went out sailing the other day - About 4 degC but great fun!
 

Attachments

  • Laser14.jpg
    Laser14.jpg
    1 MB · Views: 53
  • Laser15.jpg
    Laser15.jpg
    875.8 KB · Views: 58
  • Laser16.jpg
    Laser16.jpg
    1,006 KB · Views: 68

Back
Top