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Did you bring your bathing suit? This was the night for all our cute bikini-wearing sailors to strut their stuff. The most common sight this evening was all the people in the water floating behind their boats. Life jackets have a variety of uses.
I brought foul weather gear but no bathing suit (ha, what was I thinking!). Race committee of Mike Iuvone, Paul Stouffer, Pat Finnick and Daniel Postel searched diligently for the wind. I even thought I heard some change being thrown into the water in eager hopes of appeasing the wind gods this evening. It was fortunate that most of the bad weather associated with Hurricane Fred had quickly traveled past us Wednesday morning. But all that it left was no wind and hot, humid temperatures. We all gave our motors a workout this evening, waiting for something to happen. But we were disappointed again this week. Two more races to go and next week we will have dinner. Our culinary specialist, Will Brown, will be preparing tacos and fixings for dinner with a pan of chicken tetrazzini for those that loved the last dinner. Upcoming events: Last Moonlight race Sat, Aug 21 Series 1 and 2 awards dinner/party at LLSC clubhouse Wed, Sept 8 at 6pm. LARC fall series begins on Sun, Sept 12 with skipper’s meeting at 11am at Aqualand. Encore race #1 starts on Wed, Sept 15 with a 6:15 start for cruisers 6:30 begins fleet 1 See you on the race course, Dana _____________________________________________________________________________ I think the boy scout motto “Be prepared!” applies to our race this week. Many people were congregating on the point, wondering about the weather and what the race committee was going to do when we saw the RC barge leave the dock. We then began to see a trickle of competitors following behind them. It became obvious that we were going to have a race. It stopped thundering about 6:20 and though there was not much wind, it is always best to “be prepared”. So those of us who don’t mind sailing in the rain started heading for their boats.
Often, after a rain the wind dwindles to nothing. This evening began that way but in typical Lake Lanier style, the wind picked up and of course shifted dramatically after the start of the Mid PHRF fleet to give us a great ride for the remainder of the evening. Thanks to the intrepid race committee of Jeff and Cathy Freeman, David Wright, David Schenck, Rob Jones, Tom Graham, Eugene O’Donald, and Mike Tataris. They came, they saw and they conquered. This was a tough call by RC and I thought they did an exceptional job of pulling off a race when very few thought it would happen. I hope everyone enjoyed the homemade chicken tetrazzini that Will Brown cooked and served this week. This was an exceptional meal made by our master culinary specialist. We will have our last meal in two weeks after race #9 and then we can look forward to the scrumptious meal being planned by Greg Cash and Darryl Lanier for the awards party. With 2 tropical systems bearing down on us the next week, make sure you bring your foulies and “be prepared” for anything. See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________ Happy Windsday (compliments of Strega’s crew). I hope everyone enjoyed this incredible evening of racing, this is what we love about Wednesday nights.
It was an exciting night of wind and what a pleasant surprise after the last 2 races. Because of the dramatic wind shift and the feeling that a storm was gathering after the Low PHRF fleet started, the other fleets had totally new sailing conditions. We all had to shift gears from our light air race tactics to this shifty, gusty and a wild ride we were experiencing. You had to use all the tools in your box to keep the boat under control while still trying to pass your competitors. Crew weight can often hurt you in light air, but it significantly helped in races like tonight. Just a reminder that we need more volunteers for race committee, go to website LLSCKeelboat.com or contact Jonathan Stewart at (770-598-4346) or jstewart1224@gmail.com. Excellent job by race committee members; Linda Webster, Brent McKenzie, Reid Collins, Sean, Lisa and Muriel A big thanks goes to our commentator tonight, Linda Webster. Great job on keeping everyone informed. Scoring: Just a reminder that once we have completed 4 races we will get a throw-out. Next week is an odd number race and we will have a home cooked meal prepared by our culinary specialist, Will Brown. He will be making chicken tetrazzini, so I hope everyone joins us at the clubhouse after the next race for this fabulous meal. Make sure you put Wed, Sept 8 on your calendar because we will have an awards banquet for Wed Series 1 & 2 races, starting at 6pm at the LLSC clubhouse. We will have live entertainment, excellent trophies, and a meal prepared by our Cruiser fleet members of Greg Cash (Impetuous) and Darryl Lanier (Old Gator) of pulled pork and ribs. Just a reminder that the last LARC Moonlight race will be on Sat, August 21. You will get an email reminder the week before. See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________ Happy Wild Weather Wednesday! The only thing predictable in the last month was that it was going to rain. If you made it a whole day without rain, then that was a great day. I thought this was going to be one of those days, but I was sadly disappointed.
If someone up there didn’t want us to race this night he/she did a good job of discouraging us. First, it starts to rain as we motor/sail to the starting area. Then the rain quits and it looks like we are going to have some wind and they start the cruisers. The cruisers make it halfway to the windward mark when the Melges 24’s start and then Wild Weather Wednesday showed its ugly face with a 60+ degree windshift followed by a complete shut down of the wind. The RC abandoned the race at this juncture and I appreciate their announcement over the radio. Thank you to the RC committee volunteers, Jim Chambers, Randy Baker, Ken Blankenship, Bob Bumgarden, Linda Hoopes and John McCarthy. They did a great job in recognizing that this evening was going to be painful, if allowed to continue. I want to remind everyone that we will have dinner served at LLSC clubhouse after the next race. If you are docked at another marina, we invite you to park your boat at our ramp/guest docks and walk to the clubhouse for dinner. Will Brown will be serving burgers and brats after this next race.. Another reminder that we need more race committee volunteers and we would be also happy to accept volunteers to make a Wednesday dinner. For RC, please contact Jonathan Stewart (770-598-4346), jstewart1224@gmail.com or sign up on the website https://www.llsckeelboat.com/rcinfo.html. See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________ We sailors or should I say some sailors are made of very tough stuff. The predictions for race time were not looking good and because we have had thunder/lightning every day for the last week, I was not sure how this evening would go. But as I looked out over the water at 5-6 pm, conditions looked like they were going to be good this night.
So I set a long course hoping the wind that was present at 6 pm would continue during the race. It looked pretty good until the beginning of the pursuit starting sequence at 8pm and then it began to rain. The wind started to fail as the night crawled on and the boats ended up short finishing at H. Here is the order of the finishers:
The next and last Moonlight race will be on Saturday, Aug 21 with a 98% full moon with moonrise at 8:14pm. I will send a reminder email the week before this last Summer race. See you on the race course, Dana ________________________________________________________________________________ One of the best ways to understand all the signals and horns you hear on a race course is to volunteer to do race committee. We had great weather conditions to train RC members on this evening and many of the volunteers had not seen a race from this perspective. I would like to thank my crew, Heather Temske, Terra Bowers, Ann Howard, and Neil Harris. I would also like to thank Leigh Ann Collier, Connor Flannagan, Greg Manning, Noah, Kathy, Maya, and Kelly for all their hard work.
I want to give a special thanks to our culinary specialist, Will Brown and his able UGA assistant, Rose Mazzotta. They had the dubious pleasure of cooking the first meal in the kitchen in almost 1 ½ years. They had to prewash everything, cook and then wash everything again. They served a fabulous meal of spaghetti with meat sauce, penne pasta with alfredo sauce, salad, garlic bread and cookies. I was very excited to see all the visitors at the guest docks that came to share the meal. I enjoyed seeing the many new faces. We will have brats and burgers in 2 weeks after race #5 on Wednesday, Aug 4. I think most people were as surprised as me that we had such nice conditions this evening. I felt like Mother Nature gave us a nice present. As we approached sunset the wind velocity increased, but then as soon as I began a starting sequence the wind direction began to clock in an easterly direction, turning my beautiful windward /leeward race course into a reach/ reach. I think the big decision of the night was whether and how long to put up the spinnaker. As so often happens, the wind conditions changed dramatically from the cruiser start to the start of fleet 4. But I was quite happy that rain or storms did not mar our enjoyable evening. See you next week, Dana ________________________________________________________________________________ RC committee of Gary Umberger and Mark Turner did a good job of watching the weather and making the appropriate call of cancelling the race on this night. It was exceptional that we have had 11 races without any serious weather issues until this last race before the break. Though we all have to make our own decisions about whether to race, it helps when RC keeps our safety at the top of their list.
Once again, please contact Jonathan Stewart (jstewart1224@gmail.com) if you would like to be primary or secondary race committee. We have 8 more races to conduct. If you are not experienced, Jonathan can pair you with someone who can take the lead. I look forward to seeing everyone at the next race and looking forward to the delicious dinner Will Brown will prepare for us after the race. Dana _________________________________________________________________________________ Special thanks to our race committee of Mike Stewart, Rachael Green, Jeff Lehman, Doug Early, Mike Wroblewski, Mike Krantz and Rebecca Barkley. They had a very easy time on the barge tonight (if you call finishing 40 boats easy) with winds the stayed a pretty steady 6-8 knots and if you were lucky you found the couple of spots that had a little more pressure (they were few and far between).
We had a strong east wind that sent us to “T” mark and we needed to use all of our knowledge of the cove to make to the windward mark in front of our competitors. Though we still had quite a few motorboats and a couple of monster boats fly through our course on the way to “D”, we had enough wind to push through their wakes. Just a reminder to please limit radio calls to RC during the race except for notifying them of your retirement or if you need assistance. Please familiarize yourself with RC flags and their meaning. It would also help RC keep track of finishers if you do not cross the start/finish line after you have finished. I would like to congratulate Captain Dangerous for staying on the boat this week and I would also like to congratulate the winners of series 1. Low Cruiser- Bailey White Greg Cash Spencer Gay High Cruiser- Kurt Schurenberg Alex Mazurek Norman Plotkin Small sport- Brent McKenzie Davis Macleod Gary Umberger Tony Cellamare/Ben Harbin Low PHRF- John Guy/Jonathan Stewart John McCarthy Jeff Freeman Mid PHRF- Jim Kingery David Jackson Chris Webster High PHRF- Kyle Meyhoefer Dana Stewart Mark Turner LLSC Jrs/Damien Beisner Trophies will be given for Series 1 and 2 on Wed. September 8, 2021. We will have food and music at the LLSC Clubhouse that evening. Look forward to seeing you on the race course, Dana _________________________________________________________________________________ A big thanks to race committee members Mike and April Macleod, Davis Macleod, Melissa Meyhoefer, Brad Busker, Dave Lewis, Dan Dashell, and Tina for all the hard work needed to complete this last race of Series 1.
This night was all about paying attention to the details. Every square foot of every leg had dozens of shifts. When you are the last fleet to start, you get to watch all the other fleets start and watch their tactics going upwind. You could tell that this was a challenging evening for racers when you see 3 boats on the same tack but all pointing at extremely different compass headings. You hope you pick the line that gives you the most favorable shifts (if there was one). Take a look at the final scores for Series 1 and answer the following questions:
I look forward to seeing everyone next week for the first race of series 2. Dana __________________________________________________________________________________ What a splendid day it was. 8 to 10 from the West and perfect temperature. Congratulations to the winners and make sure you set your calendars for the 3rd race day October 23. Sail Fast and hope to see you next Wednesday Night for the 10th race in that series. Randy Phillips _______________________________________________________________________________
Thanks to the race committee team of Darryl Lanier , Tom Graham and company for finding a way to complete a race this night. This was a difficult night for RC, storms all week, inconsistent winds, and a difficult wind direction. These are all challenging factors for any race committee team.
This race committee team sent us to B, which seldom is used. It made for an interesting race and despite the short distance of .38 nm, you still had to deal with tricky wind and the usual Lake Lanier shifts. But it seemed like one of the most important factors in winning this race was being able to navigate through all the traffic on this short course. It was unfortunate that the Melges 24’s rounded the leeward gate just as the High PHRF was about to start. Those that started at the pin end of the starting line had to compete with the boats who were rounding the leeward gate. And then once you made it past the starting line, then you had to deal with the oncoming Low PHRF fleet. In the end, we all needed to brush up on our Rules of the Road. The race to be the fleet champion has been heating up and it looks like we will have some new faces on the podium at the Series I and II awards ceremony on Wed. Sept. 8 at 7pm at the LLSC clubhouse. Next week will be the last race of Series 1 and Series 2 will begin the next week. We will have the first and second races of Series 2 and then we will have a break on July 7th and will resume racing with race #3 on Wed July 14. See you next week, Dana __________________________________________________________________________________ We needed a traffic cop out on the race course this night. Mother Nature really made it hard for RC by shifting direction just before the start of the race to make this evening into a drag race. There was a slim corridor from A to E and whether we were going upwind or downwind, we got many chances to wave to our friends on other boats as we passed each other on this narrow SE corridor.
A big thanks to Rick Proffitt and fellow sailors of Bill McGeehee, Todd, Chris Belk and our announcer and chief petty officer of RC, Tom Graham. We now have only 2 races left in Series 1 and then we begin Series 2 the next Wednesday, June 23. Our first break in this Wed. series will be July 7, with a resumption of racing on Wed, July 14. We also have the PHRF Championship Race day #2 on Sat, June 12 and the next Moonlight race will be Sat, June 19. An email about registering for these races will be sent the week before the race. Look forward to seeing everyone at the famous (or is it infamous) Reggae Regatta this weekend. Dana ____________________________________________________________________________________ Thanks to Race Committee Warren Collier, David Jackson, Will Brown, and Connor Flannigan for making this an exciting and for some boats a nail-biting experience. One of the greatest shots of this race was the spinnaker run between Iniki (white w/red hurricane symbol) and the Renegade (red, white and blue). This was the first bullet of the season for Iniki in this fleet dominated by Hot Toddy and Renegade.
This race rates as one of the most surprising courses we have been given so far on a Wednesday night. Warren was listening to the Call of the Wild when he dreamed up this course. Actually, I think he was responding to the requests from many boats for longer races. The fleet that had the closest race this week was in the in the High PHRF fleet. The J-22 Highlander corrected over the J-24 by a mere 11 seconds. That downwind run from “H” was quite a nerve-wracking experience as we watched the wind fill in and die unexpectantly on this 1.87 nm leg on the way back to “X”. The conversations with other boats about downwind tactics during this long leg were very interesting in their diversity. I hope everyone is planning to attend the Reggae Regatta on June 5-6. We will be serving traditional Caribbean food, as well as T-shirts may be available. We have a great registration fee of $10 for PHRF and Cruisers. Come help us celebrate the beginning of the summer at one of the longest running and most popular open regattas of the year. See you on the race course, Dana ______________________________________________________________________ In my own defense, at 6pm the wind came from the NW (A mark) and there was no indication that there would be an 180 degree shift in the wind. What a surprise when I arrived at X mark 2 hours later to find we were going to start downwind. I wondered if anyone was thinking dark thoughts about whoever (me) set up this racecourse.
Even though we had little wind all day, as the sun started to set we finally started to have a little breeze, just enough to tease us into thinking we had a race going. But once again, Lake Lanier in its usual fashion, played a trick on us. We had just enough wind to make it to A mark and then the wind shut off. Fortunately for Davis Macleod, he had managed to slip around the mark before the wind completely died and took off for F. While the rest of us struggled to get around the first mark. I would have paid money to see a recording of the encounter of the BIG red boat, Breakaway, and the little J-24. A lot of “no steerage”, “starboard”, “no room at the mark” and anything else we could think of was bandied about between these and other boats during this very slow mark rounding. I hope everyone enjoyed the gorgeous red sunset as we drifted to the first mark. And those that were drifting back to F, were rewarded with the exciting fireworks display by Margaritaville. Thanks to everyone that shared this wonderful moonlit evening. Next race will be Sat June 19. I will send a reminder early in the week and ask for info for those interested in racing. See you on the race course, Dana The order of the finishes were: Davis Macleod Lee Estes Norman Plotkin ______________________________________________________________________________________ Thanks to Race Committee Chris Webster, Tom Graham, David Pope, Bill Boetcher, Kyle Weamley, Karen Christy, Reilly Christy, and Cyndi Stirne. We once again topped new records of attendance with 45 boats racing this night. With that many boats circling the race committee for the course and other boats taking measure of the starting line, it really helped when Tom Graham made the announcements over the radio. But generally RC does not answer questions from competitors, especially once the sequence has started for the first fleet. Please familiarize yourself with all the visual signals that RC can possibly use. I had an interesting conversation with Chris Webster tonight before the race. He was bemoaning the fact he was going to have to use “E” as his windward mark. He really wanted to give us a fun race and that wasn’t going to help. But we were lucky this time because in the usual Lake Lanier style the wind had shifted almost 90 degrees since our discussion and now we were going to “F”. We had great (though gusty) wind all evening and great racing conditions. Now that we have completed 6 races, the races are heating up and I noticed that the starts are getting much more aggressive. Good luck everyone. Don’t forget the LARC after Dark, Moonlight race on Saturday. Summer is creeping up on us. Dana Thanks to Paul Stouffer, Mike Iuvone, Hudson and Bridget Brock for the great job of doing race committee this week. I was transported back to February as I experienced the cooler temperatures and crazy wind we had this evening. Everyone reached back into their closets and grabbed their winter foul weather gear, gloves and hat. It was an evening full of wild shifts and puffs coming out of nowhere, often happening so fast that you didn’t have time to deal with them unless you had someone reading a crystal ball (which I keep in the sink of my boat). Race committee gave us a great course and ended the race at a perfect time. We are halfway through this series and it has been full of surprises and lots of wind (often more than I want). We have had some surprises this series, but the biggest has been the incredible growth of the Cruiser fleet. This fleet has grown from 7 boats on the racecourse last year to 16 registered boats this year. It has grown so large that we had to split the fleet. Great job in getting out the word, what a great time we have on Wednesday nights. See you on the race course, Dana The crews got their workout this night with the many sail changes that were necessary. We had 40 boats out on this Wednesday which started with a lot of dark clouds and very gusty wind, but gradually changed to a beautiful sunset. It has been a challenging Spring for our boats (maybe the crew too). In this 4th race of the series, one boat finished with no mainsail and another lost their spinnaker.
Just a reminder of upcoming weekend events: Sat, May 15 Joan Holcomb Womens race sponsored by BFSC Sat, May 22 Moonlight race by LARC Sat/Sun, June 5-6 Reggae Regatta (we’re BACK) sponsored by LLSC Sat, June 12 PHRF Championship race #2 sponsored by LLSC I hope everyone has the opportunity to spend time with their Mother this coming Sunday. See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________________ Mother Nature took a break this week and if your boat didn’t break in the last 2 races, you were extremely lucky. This series so far has been a challenge to racers and Race Committee alike.
Race Committee members Heather Tempske, Terra Bowers, Neil Harris, Alan Hudon, Maggie Royal and John Fredrico did an excellent job of getting 45 boats started, giving participants a square starting line, and a great course to sail (if I do say so myself). You will have to excuse the 3 horns that went off about 6:30, we were trying to change the setting on the Istart system and hit the wrong button. Looking at a race from the RC’s perspective is quite an awe-inspiring sight, especially for RC members that are new to racing. My favorite picture was watching 15 cruisers cross the starting line. It would have been scary watching those huge 30 footers coming at you, if you were in something less than our sturdy LLSC barge (courtesy of Randy Baker and friends). I am sure this race was a different challenge to everyone with the wind appearing at different times all over the race course. My biggest concern was D mark because it looked like everyone was going very slowly in that vicinity, but my chase boat reported that many of the cruisers and the Melges 24’s said “hello” to each other (politely) as these 2 fleets rounded the weather mark at the same time. I want to give a “shout out” to everyone that thanked us for doing this task which keeps us from sailing. We tried to make it the best possible race for everyone. So gather together your crew and some of your friends to experience this job which gives you a different perspective of the complexities of running this race. See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________________ Somebody threw too much money into the wind bank for this race. Last night had to be a challenge for Race Committee of Tony Cellamare, Stefan Schulze, Ben Harbin and their crew. Because RC had the most difficult of racing conditions and probably 30+ boats to watch, there may have been some confusion about starters and finishes. So please look at results and if you think they are in error, please email me with your sail # and who finished in front and behind you.
See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________________ We were off to a shaky start for this first day of the Championship series with rain in the forecast for Saturday and light winds predicted, but I had high hopes for this 2021 sailing season. The plan was to complete multiple races and RC did an excellent job in getting in 3 races. The wind shifted all day, but RC changed the course as needed between each race during the day to give us great racing conditions. The day started by going to D and back. But as the day progressed the wind started to spread and pick up in velocity and we went to X and back to A twice for the second race. With increased wind velocity we had a nice 5.1 nm race to H mark and back for our last race.
Thanks to race committee, Warren Collier, Kyle Wheatley, Jim Chambers, Ansel Parker, and Mary Lyons for an excellent race day. The next PHRF Championship race will be on Sat. June 12, weekend after the Reggae Regatta on June 5-6. See you on the race course, Dana _______________________________________________________________________________________ |
Results by Month
February 2023
Results by YearScorekeeperDana Stewart | She Devil |
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