Notice of Race: Squaw Island Race

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Bill Blevins

NOTICE OF RACE

Canandaigua, New York RC Laser Fleet 14

SQUAW ISLAND RACE

May 28, 2011

Rules: The regatta shall be governed by the rules as defined in The Racing Rules of Sailing as amended by Appendix E for RC sailing, prescriptions of US Sailing, class rules of the RC Laser Class of North America and further Sailing Instructions as mandated by the Race Director (RD) who also has the authority during the course of the event to make changes which will be announced to the competitors.

Eligibility: The regatta is open to all RC Lasers conforming to RC Laser Class Rules.

Race Summary:

Boats will remain out of the water between the Skippers Meeting and the Start
The south concrete dock is designated as the start and finish dock.
At the start, skippers on the starting dock will place their boats in the water and sail north on Canandaigua Lake towards Squaw Island, about 1 mile away.
Skippers will need to get in a chase boat, follow their RC Laser and sail it around Squaw Island (or based on the decision of the RD, a mark just south of the island at approximately Lat/Long N42.869918, W077.275702) and then back to the yacht club.
Boats will finish when the skipper is on the finish dock and then retrieves their RC Laser from the water after successfully completing the course.

Schedule:

1:00 – 1:45 PM Registration, boat set-up and practice sailing
1:45 Skippers Meeting (All boats must be out of the water.)
1:58 PM Two-minute countdown begins
2:00 PM Start
~ 5:00 PM Dock party begins with first finishing boat
~ 6:00 PM Awards presented after all boats return

Location: Canandaigua Yacht Club (CYC), 3524 West Lake Road, Canandaigua, NY 14424

Entry: Eligible boats may be entered by submitting the attached Entry Form prior to the Skippers Meeting on May 28, 2011, with an entry fee of $10.00 per boat.

Scoring: The race will be scored under the Low Point System described in The Racing Rules of Sailing Appendix A and the event will consist of only one race.

Prizes: A Crystal Head will be awarded to the skipper who completes the course in the fastest time. A dock party will follow racing for all skippers and crew.

Contact: Bill Blevins at [email protected] or 585-662-7638 if you need us to find a chase boat and driver or for any other information.

PDF File Download: NOR and Entry Form

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No Formal RC Laser Racing On Sunday, May 15

Posted on May 13, 2011 by Bill Blevins

As reflected on the racing calendar and due to the J/22 regatta at the yacht club this weekend, there will not be any formal RC Laser racing activities Sunday. The next group of races in the series will be on May 22 with starts at 4 p.m.

With that being said, we’re placing a pretty good bet that you’ll find several boats on the water on Sunday afternoon if the weather permits!

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged schedule | Comments Off

RC Laser Sailors Seek Power Boat Chauffeurs

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Bill Blevins

The Canandaigua RC Laser fleet has been warming up on Sunday afternoons since mid-March but the seven-week spring low point series beginning May 1 is the first official scoring series of the year.

Regular weekly racing for the RC Lasers begins this weekend and will be held at the south end of the CYC docks with starts at 4 p.m. after “big boat” racing is finished each Sunday.

Coming up Memorial Day weekend, on Saturday, May 28, the fleet will hold the Squaw Island Race with awards provided by Crystal Head Vodka. This unique and grueling 2.25 mile long distance offshore race promises to be entertaining for sailors and spectators alike with a dock party to follow so plan on coming out and enjoying the fun!

Here are a few details about the race:

Race is open to all boats as long as they are Radio Controlled Lasers and they have paid the $10 registration fee.
Skippers meeting & entry fee collection will begin at 1:45 p.m. on May 28 at the south end of the docks at CYC.
Boats will be rigged, out of the water and ready to start the race by 2 p.m.
After the start gun fires, skippers will launch their RC Lasers and begin racing North towards Squaw Island.
Each skipper will then board a waiting chase boat of some sort and follow their RC Laser while navigating it around Squaw Island and then back to the yacht club.
The first skipper to successfully complete the course and be back at CYC on the dock with boat in hand will be the winner.
Dock party and awards presentations begin around 5 p.m.

Skippers, start lining up your chase boat now and email us as soon as possible if you don’t have a ride for the race. If someone reading this has a powerboat and would be willing to chauffeur a RC Laser skipper on race day, send an email to [email protected] and let us know. We will connect skippers without boats to powerboats who can give rides.

Check out our “Calendar” of racing and special events, or click on “Buy Your RC Laser” to find out to purchase a boat or just visit our “Ship’s Store” to pick up one of our fancy new t-shirts!

Come join the fun!

Posted in Party, RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged crystal head vodka, party, race, sponsor, squaw island | Comments Off

Walkabout Races Included Exercise For Skippers

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Bill Blevins

We’re pretty sure that we walked at least 5 miles today.

Well… not each person individually, but if you added up the paces from each sailor, plus all of our fans and then those from the spectators, in total, the group probably walked at least 5 miles!

The first race started to windward (sort-of) in front of Anne and Nelson’s house and the fleet then rounded two marks located up the channel to the West and then took a long downwind run (sort-of) to the end of the channel past Jack’s place and then a long windward beat (sort-of) back up to the main channel where we headed South to a leeward mark, and after rounding ending up with a final starboard beat (sort-of) to the finish – right back where we started. Bill Blevins (#254) took the gun in the first race.

Whew!

Winds were heavy at times (top of the B sail) and then light (really needed the A sail) and steady and shifty – What else would you expect from Canandaigua Lake?

The second race repeated the course from the first race, but the sailors headed back in the opposite direction with port roundings, ending up finishing by crossing the starting line which was the finish line from the first race. The second race ended with a photo finish after 30 minutes of sailing. Jonathan Gorbold (# 62) crossed the line first, just after he misjudged the pin at the end of the line and then quickly circled around to squeeze in ahead of Bill.

Since we are still in the “warm-up” series, we didn’t calculate tie-breakers for the finishes, but it was interesting to see that out of the 11 RC Lasers that participated (with one new sailor – welcome Dave), that after the two races were completed, 8 sailors out of that group were tied for a position.

There are two more weeks of warm-ups and then the serious racing begins!

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged race, results, walkabout | Comments Off

Shirts, Speed Clips & RC Laser Sailing!

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Bill Blevins

We are getting ready to head out to set the marks for this afternoon’s “walkabout” races.

Admiral Nelson Habecker (# 54) has schemed up a race where we’ll start from our regular sailing location and then proceed to sail around marks (starboard roundings) set in each of the canals in Holiday Harbor, such that we’ll walk the boardwalk, following our boats all the way around the complex, and end by crossing the finish line where we started – we’ll just be on the other side of the canal!

After regrouping from the first race, we’ll start another race going in the opposite direction (port roundings) and will finish back where we started the day. It should be fun as it is a beautiful day with wind! Now the decision is which sail to use! See you for the start at 2 p.m.

IMPORTANT NEWS!!

Today, we are adding a link to the site that will take you to our new store!

After several trials and tests where we experimented with various designs, our first officially sanctioned T-shirt is available for purchase for $18.99.Throughout the year, we’ll add more designs and more products.

The back of the shirt has a QR Code that has a link to our website embedded in it. When someone who has a smartphone photographs the QR Code, they will be taken to our site in their web browser. Pretty high tech, huh?

Support the club and order a few shirts. They are marked up $1 and the profit from each shirt will go into the club account and be used for parties (or awards if there is any money left over after the parties.

SPEED CLIPS

Finally, I found 5- packs of speed clips online for sale for $3.15. One pack of 10 clips will probably last you a lifetime so maybe splitting the order with a fellow sailor would help cut the shipping down which I imagine is more than the item itself.

Speed clips make it convenient to quickly connect and disconnect your mainsheet to the boom clip or your outhaul.

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Burning of the Socks Kicks Off 2011 Sailing Season

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Bill Blevins

: As spectators and other sailors look on, George Walter (#47) throws his socks into the fire as part of the traditional Burning of the Socks ceremony which signals the beginning of the 2011 sailing season on Canandaigua Lake.

The Burning of the Socks is a tradition where Spring-fevered sailors throw their smelly old winter socks into a fire to signal the first day of sailing season. The festivities usually coincide with the Vernal Equinox. The event is the symbolic kick-off for sailboat racing on Canandaigua Lake and is hosted annually by sailors from Canandaigua RC Laser Fleet #14.

The sun came out and the weather warmed up quickly into the mid-40’s on Sunday, just enough to melt the ice skim on the water in Holiday Harbor, getting the five-week warm-up series underway for the Canandaigua RC Laser Fleet.

Nine boats participated in 6 races which were held in very light winds. Most sailors used their tall “A” rigs all day.

Over the Winter the Canandaigua fleet grew by 3 boats bringing the total number of RC Laser sailors here to 11. Bill Schmidt (#88), Dave Kelsey (#652) and David Turnbull (#17) are now fleet members and will be racing with the fleet.

These early season races are meant to help the new skippers get familiar with their boats and for the more experienced skippers to tune their rigs and get their fingers moving in the right direction on their transmitters again. As such, this series of races is not scored for the series low-point awards however the races do contribute towards the 60% participation requirement for the overall 2011 “Batting Average” awards.

Hank Buchanan (#732), a long-time RC Laser sailor and recent Marco Island Midwinter Championship participant who finished in 7th place in that regatta, drove over from New York City on Sunday morning to participate in the Burning of the Socks event and the first week of races in Canandaigua.

Hank’s boat set the pace for most of the races on Sunday but he was closely followed by Jonathan Gorbold (#62) and Bill Blevins (#254). Nelson Habecker (#54) sailed to his first “gun” in RC racing during the fourth race.

WEEK 1 of 5 Results for the Warm-up Series

In other news, the fleet has purchased a professional starting countdown timer. We are collecting $20 in the form of dues from each fleet member to help pay for the device. The timer has a large speaker and it counts the starting sequence out loud for 1 or 2 minute starting sequences.

Next week’s races on March 27th – Warm-up series Week 2 – will begin with the first start sequence going off at 2 p.m. in Holiday Harbor. Weather permitting, we’ll race until about 4 p.m..

Posted in Party, RC Laser Fleet 14, Results | Tagged burning of the socks, warm-up | Comments Off

Warm-up Series Starts on Sunday

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Bill Blevins

On Sunday, March 20th at 1 p.m. we’ll begin our five-week warm-up series. These races won’t be scored for low point awards but they will contribute to the overall “batting average” score for the year and the 60% participation requirement for that calculation.

As you can see from the picture taken last night and posted above, there is still an inch or so of ice on the water in Holiday Harbor but we think with the warm weather in the forecast for the next few days that it will be gone by Sunday.

The water in front of the yacht club is free of ice so we have a back-up location if necessary.

Remember to wear your smelly old winter socks on Sunday so that you can throw them in the fire for the traditional “Burning of the Socks” ceremony! We’ll aim to have the fire going by 12:30 so we can get the racing started promptly at 1 p.m.

The following week, March 27th, we’ll resume our normal 2 p.m. start time until “big boat” racing begins and we move to the docks at CYC.

Posted in Party, RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged burning of the socks, ice, warm-up | Comments Off

Burning of the Socks

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Bill Blevins

Photo by sarowen (CC By-NC-ND 2.0)

Around the world, people celebrate the beginning of Spring in a wide variety of ways. Here at the Canandaigua RC Laser Fleet we couldn’t think of a better way than to uphold the old tradition of the burning of the socks that we’ve worn inside of our boat shoes over the Winter months.

vernal equinox

–noun

1. the time at which racing sailors gather together to burn the socks they have worn on their feet since Winter began, signaling the beginning of Spring.

2. the time at which the sun crosses the plane of the equator towards the relevant hemisphere making day and night of equal length.

Join us prior to the start of the RC Sailing season (by the way, we are starting at 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 20) at Holiday Harbor to tilt a glass and throw your old smelly socks in the fire.

Posted in Party, RC Laser Fleet 14 | Tagged buring of the socks, party, spring, tradition, vernal equinox | Comments Off

Keep in touch

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Bill Blevins

Follow us when we aren’t near a computer on our Tumblr site at http://rcsailors.tumblr.com/ or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rcsailors. Oh! We also have a Facebook Groups site.

Come on! Keep up!

Posted in RC Laser Fleet 14 | Comments Off

Canandaigua Lake RC Laser Sailing

Notice of Race: Squaw Island Race

NOTICE OF RACE

SQUAW ISLAND RACE

No Formal RC Laser Racing On Sunday, May 15

Walkabout Races Included Exercise For Skippers

Shirts, Speed Clips & RC Laser Sailing!

IMPORTANT NEWS!!

SPEED CLIPS

Burning of the Socks Kicks Off 2011 Sailing Season

Warm-up Series Starts on Sunday

Burning of the Socks

Photo by sarowen (CC By-NC-ND 2.0)

vernal equinox

–noun

1. the time at which racing sailors gather together to burn the socks they have worn on their feet since Winter began, signaling the beginning of Spring.

2. the time at which the sun crosses the plane of the equator towards the relevant hemisphere making day and night of equal length.

Keep in touch

North American RC Lasers

Worldwide RC Lasers

Hosts of the 2012 RC Laser North American Championship
June 8-10, 2012

NOTICE OF RACE

SQUAW ISLAND RACE

IMPORTANT NEWS!!

SPEED CLIPS

Photo by sarowen (CC By-NC-ND 2.0)

vernal equinox

–noun

1. the time at which racing sailors gather together to burn the socks they have worn on their feet since Winter began, signaling the beginning of Spring.

2. the time at which the sun crosses the plane of the equator towards the relevant hemisphere making day and night of equal length.

North American RC Lasers

Worldwide RC Lasers

Hosts of the 2012 RC Laser North American Championship June 8-10, 2012

Hosts of the 2012 RC Laser North American Championship
June 8-10, 2012