Laser 2 Helm Position

P

pirouette

Member
Any advice on my position as the helmsman in a Laser w/18-22 knots of breeze? I am sailing in Bonaire and we were screaming upwind and reaching. I was hiking w/feet in straps and the other guy was on the wire. The problem was that the spray was such that it was as though I was on the wrong end of an open fire hydrant; it was so bad I could not see and ended up spending most of the time sailing blind and by feel with my head eventually turned back to watch our wake.

I have only ever sailed a regular Laser and am wondering if I should hike less and the forward person hike/lean out more?

I was also considering wearing prescription diving mask but that seemed absurd (and very gooney given my coke bottle like prescription)
 
Re: Laser 2 Hellm Position

ha ha ha...

A long long time ago I sailed Laser IIs at school and can relate to your experience....

Screaming reaches are wet.... very wet.... The way I got around it was to pretty much have the crew tell me where to point and then do as much as possible by feel... Every now and then try to see what's going on but I don't think there's a way to avoid it.

Close fitting sunglasses and a baseball cap do work pretty well though?!
 
Re: Laser 2 Hellm Position

Sorry to pain you Al. This place would be a great place for a Laser school save for the problem of getting boats on the island and dealing with the Dutch bureaucray. Their sailing school has a raft of Sunfish that appear to get zero use.

I tried the baseball cap for a while - till our 2nd crash and burn in the gusts at which point I tucked it into my rashguard for another day.

Thanks for the confirmation that there's not much I can do other than enjoy the warm air and water and look like a goony bird :rolleyes:
 
Re: Laser 2 Hellm Position

I've had my laser 2 for a few weeks now, only been out in wind high enough for trap twice (i was skippering the second time). I did soaked, but I was wearing my "waveshields watersport" glasses (http://intensitysails.com/wawasu.html) which kept my vision pretty good, i could see blurrily enough.

supposed to be over 20 knts tomorrow, should be awesome...

:)
 
in that case, dump that main. I've found that a flogging main is faster then heeling the boat over, plus the spray isn't that bad. in waves, i move up to where the spinnaker eyes are, and position myself there. the crew is right next to me, so the weight is more centeralized. i also will hide behind the crews leg if i need to.

A good guide for when i "dump" the main is i wait til the water starts getting on the top of the gunwale.

any more laser 2 questions, let me know, or check out this page: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~phsbm/laser2/tipsintro.htm

oh, and if you feel like some OD racing is your thing, check out cleveland race week. we're having a laser 2 one design weekend and you can get all the info here: http://www.lakeboats.com/CRW2007/ we have 7 boats registered already, should be fun.
 
Hiding behind the crew always works well in heavy air. Let their body/legs take the brunt of the spray. Their head is above most of it anyway while they are out on the wire.

Danny has some good places to look for info in his post above, also check the NAlaser2 group on yahoo groups and the North American Laser 2 site at http://laser2.est.org/.

If anyone is on,or near the east coast this summer there is the regatta that Danny mentioned and there is also the Newport Regatta in Newport, RI. Should be at least 12 L2's there and hopefully a lot more.
 
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