How was your first Laser regatta/racing experience?

M

marmalade

New Member
Mine was terrible. I only had my laser for about 3 weeks and maybe sailed it 5 times total. There were 6 races in very light wind: finished last in two, finished 3rd last in one race, finished 8 minutes after the last guy in one so it was a DNS, and DNF the other 2.

Took a blow to my sailing ego.
 
My first Masters experience after a couple of years occasional club racing was becalmed first race and reached home to find everyone packed up and in the bar, last in second race but with the best broad reach ever after being in the right place at the right time, started feeling confident when finished third race in 25 knots but hit mark in next race and gave photographer 3 goes at at a great picture as I attempted penalty turns, retired from that and next two, finished last race.

Actually I had a ball and as the target was to finish at least half the races felt successful.

Someone's got to be last, but I aim to improve on that

Steve
 
I came second out of about thirty in my first regatta ever. I won a few races.

I missed winning by one point. Someone passed me with about twenty feet to go.
 
My first race in my laser was our club races at Oxford- laser fleet is quite good there so i got thrashed and came about 5th last! Anyway I've kept racing there and I've learnt loads...
 
Death roll on the start finish line before the 1st race even started..
1st beat to weather hiking hard I knew right away how bad out of shape I was, and thought "this is going to be a long regatta" as my abs burned like heck.

Finished 25th out of 41, good people
 
I was dead last in two races, the RC was kind enough to finish me in place. managed to be 3rd from last in another race...

Had one great start and subsequent upwind leg where I went around the windward mark in fifth... then was passed and maybe ended up 16th out of 25 boats.

What I remember most fondly is the cool people I met, the place for the tent, long BS sessions into the evening over cold beers and good food.
 
First race was in 1979 on Lake Erie. The race managers gave us a course fit for an IOR fleet. Standing in the boat, the windward mark was bellow the horizon. By timming my port and starboard tacks I managed to find the windward mark first. But not having a compass had to wait for the rest of the fleet to show up to give me an idea where to go next to find the reach mark. Same thing happened at the leward mark. Won the race and the regatta as it took us nearly four hours to complete the course! Went out the next day and purchased a compass. Never have had to use the thing again.
 
Very light air and I was the only guy over 21....by about 25 years! I was nervous at the start and the results were predictable. As was mentioned above - no place to go but up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top