She's a high speed lady Come down from astro city She's got a body like tarzan And a face like Lassie
She can do like Mick Jagger Yet her tail's a real wagon She's a lady with your mother But keep away from you brother
She's a laser gypsy (spin you round and round) She's a laser gypsy (lift you up and down) She's a laser gypsy (beat me to the ground) She's a laser gypsy
She's a high speed lady From astro city And when you wear that silk and leather Oh, I love ya, love ya, love ya so much better
Oh I knew you're mine now You make me feel so fine now, yeah Oh I know you're mine now Make me feel so alive now, yeah
She's got the groovies Ooh groovin a groovin Groovin and a groovin Got to groove in a groove
I could take her to the movies She's always got the groovies Keep away from the disco's Cause you always want to, aah
She's a laser gypsy (spin you round and round) She's a laser gypsy (lift you up and down) She's a laser gypsy (beat me to the ground) She's a laser na, na, na, na She's a laser gypsy She's a laser gypsy
This blog is about Lasers. Carol Anne in All these gypsies wants us to write about gypsies. There is a song by Pagliaro called Laser Gypsy. This is it.
Imagine you are one of the top Laser sailors in your country. You qualify for the World Championship and head off to the Worlds in Canada full of hope. After a week of all kinds of weather, some good days, some not-so-good days, the championship is over and it's time to head home. You did OK but perhaps not as well as you might have hoped. How do you feel? Let down? Disappointed? I guess so.
That's very much the feelings expressed by our four bloggers at the Laser Worlds today.
A few weeks ago Clay Johnson won the US National Championship. In his first three races at the Worlds he scored 2,3,3. But then the protest committee threw out that third race, he had a BFD in the resail, his request for redress was filed too late... and he eventually finished in 33rd place. In Last Day of Laser Worlds Clay admits to feeling "slightly disappointed" with his results. But hey, he's still US champion, he was the top USA sailor at the Worlds, and I'm sure he knows what he needs to work on to raise his game up to being among the leaders at future world championships and even the Olympics. Good luck Clay!
The title of Ashley Brunning's post sums it all up: Final Day, World Titles ‘20 place slide to finish! damn’. Sounds as if allowing a second discard score let a bunch of other sailors jump in front of Ash in the rankings. Even so, 36th place and second Aussie at the Worlds behind the legendary Tom Slingsby ain't too shabby. Training to sail a Laser at this level is pretty much a full-time job and, like many others, Ash is now thinking about how he is going to make the money to support his efforts. Right now he says he could do with a camping holiday up the coast with his girl. He's earned it. Well done Ash!
The top Laser sailor from the Dominican Republic, Raul Aguayo, sailed in the silver fleet and finished in the middle, so effectively half way down the whole championship fleet which is his best performance in a Worlds to date. As he says in PROGRESO..., "No está mal." Not bad indeed Raul.
Colin Cheng from Singaore says in honeymoon's over, "this laser worlds was one of the toughest things i've ever done." Colin, the only sailor from Singapore at the Worlds, finished a few places behind Raul in the silver fleet. I like Colin's blog; it has a different style from any other sailing blog I've followed and his personality shines through. I hope he continues to keep us informed via the blog of his future sailing adventures. Colin sums up his current feeling by saying, "i'm longing to get home and sink my fingers into the fretboard and drift into a minor-induced heaven."
Congratulations to Paul Goodison (GBR), the 2008 Olympic gold medalist in the Laser class, on winning the 2009 Nautel Laser World Championships today in Nova Scotia.
After the fog day and the hurricane day and the no wind day, order was finally restored at the Laser Worlds in Nova Scotia on Tuesday. A wind suitable for racing was served up for the first day of actual racing in the gold, silver and bronze fleets. At the end of the day two Brits, Paul Goodison and Nick Thompson, were leading the gold fleet as is only proper.
On the other hand, it sounds as if our two bloggers in the gold fleet are feeling the heat of the tougher competition now that the qualifiers are over. Clay Johnson was discovering that in the gold fleet at a Laser Worlds "everyone is super fast" as he tells us in Welcome to Gold Fleet. Ashley Brunning also had a Tough Day but is looking forward to finishing strong and then going home to make some money to pay for all this campaigning.
Raul Aguayo is finding that the silver fleet isn't exactly a pushover either in QUE DIFICIL. He also reports that our friend Ari Barshi has arrived for the Masters Worlds next week. Now my Spanish is very weak so I do use Google Translate to read Raul's posts. Even so I am somewhat mystified by the translation of Raul's last sentence which says that Ari is "doing a cold mother." Yikes.
Brian Raney had a "fun day on the water" racing in the bronze fleet and feels that this regatta has been Great Training for him. He also wrote a post Recovery about his routine off the water. I always appreciate it when a sailboat racing blogger thinks of something different to write about other than the usual "I went right. The breeze went left. Right was wrong. Left was right" kind of posts. Recovery is all about what Brian does after racing (apparently visiting a "lovely young lady named Susannah" who was excited to have Brian as a client); what he drinks before going to bed (much more healthy than my rum as painkiller routine); and how he prepares for racing by torturing himself with a "foam roller".
I'd never heard of this foam roller thing before. In case you are also puzzled by the reference, here is a video of a couple of ladies who are much more photogenic than Brian demonstrating the technique.
How often have you traveled to some place for a regatta or sailing vacation that promises perfect sailing winds every day... and then been disappointed?
How many places will tell you "we get a 15+ knot sea breeze from the SW every afternoon" or "thanks to the trade winds we get consistent winds of 15-20 knots from the NE every day"? And then when you spend a week there and the winds are way too light or way too strong for decent racing, the constant refrain from the locals is, "I don't understand. The weather isn't usually like this here."
It happens all the time.
It happened to me in Cabarete last year when we had rain and very light wind for much of the week.
It happened to me in Australia at the Masters Worlds last year when we had rain and light winds in the first half of the week.
It happens all the time.
It has happened at the Laser Worlds in Canada this week. Last year in Australia, the Canadians were talking up St. Margaret's Bay in Nova Scotia, the site of this year's Worlds. "Oh yeah, the winds are fantastic. 15-20 knots out of the south-west every afternoon. You have to come."
So let's see what weather our intrepid team of bloggers at the Laser Worlds have actually experienced. In the first five days they have had.....
two days when the wind was good for racing and two races were completed for each fleet on each day,
one day of dense fog and shifty winds in which only one race was sailed for each fleet (and one of those was subsequently tossed by the protest committee),
And you don't even need to know any Spanish to guess what Raul Aguayo was talking about in CALMA. Meanwhile Colin Cheng from Singapore seems to be more excited about being recognized by Proper Course as a member of Team Blogger than anything else. As he says, there's a first time for everything. On the other hand, Brent and Josh, the LaserPerformance charter boat guys at the the Worlds were most excited after the hurricane about the fact that their cabin was still there! I guess this is why major Laser regattas always stretch over a week. Chances are that you will get some days of the so-called "typical" weather in a whole week. Good news is that it does sound as if they are getting 12-14 knots of breeze today and may well complete three races. So I am looking forward to hearing this evening from our bloggers at the Worlds all about the racing in the gold, silver and bronze fleets ... watch this space.
Our team of bloggers had a very mixed day at the Laser World Championships in Canada on Saturday.
Best performance of the team came from Australian blogger Ashley Brunning who was charging to new heights. His dramatic account of the first race of the day tells us how he "exploded out to leeward of the fleet", "hiked like a demon to cross the fleet", and "made a huge gain downwind." He crossed the finish line 50 meters ahead of his nearest rival to score his first ever Laser World Championship win. Well done Ash!
In between races he munched on bananas and blueberry bread and then sailed another excellent race for a 4th place finish. Maybe if he had stuck to the Clif Bars from Day 2 he would have won the second race too?
In any case, Ashley's results were good enough to pull him up to 6th place overall, and tied on points with two other guys for 4th. Wow! These bloggers are getting damn good.
Dominican blogger Raul Aguayo tells us in AHI VIENE BILL! how he achieved two more solid finishes, but unfortunately not quite good enough to make the cut for the gold fleet. However Raul is still pleased with his progress and looking forward to some close competitive racing in the silver fleet.
American blogger Clay Johnson had the most disappointing day of all the members of Team Blogger, a Crazy Day Three indeed. He arrived at the yacht club on Saturday morning to discover that some members of his Blue fleet had filed for redress for the race committee's failure to abandon Friday's sole qualifying race, in which Clay came third. (I am assuming that the redress request was based on the foggy conditions.) The protest committee agreed that the Blue fleet race was indeed an unfair test of skill and called for it to be resailed on Saturday. In the resail Clay was black flagged so his score for the race went from 3 to BFD!
And then to make things worse Clay chose what turned out to be the wrong side of the first beat in the next race and scored a 32nd. He did a lot better in the final race with a 6th place but with only one discard allowed at this stage he has slipped a long way down the rankings.
After three tough races, finding his way back to the club in fog, helping to pack all the Lasers away in the clubhouse in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Bill, Clay and a few other bluefleeters filed for redress for the decision to throw out Friday's race. But then the protest committee refused to hear their protest because they were five minutes late turning in the form!
Geeze, what a day! Clay admits to being "really upset" but is trying to put what happened behind him and have a good Gold series.
Wait a minute. We haven't heard lately from Team Blogger member Colin Cheng. Has anyone seen him?
Oh there he is with the SIN letters on his sail. What the hell are you doing here Colin?
The second day of qualifying races at the Laser Worlds was a frustrating one for our team of Laser sailing bloggers. The race committee were hoping to run three races but, after a very long day on the water, only managed to achieve one race for each fleet.
Fog rolling over the course and very shifty winds were the culprits. All of our bloggers tell tales of multiple general recalls, abandoned races, marks invisible in the mist, overstanding marks etc. etc. Ugh!
The Australian blogger, Ashley Brunning, made the best of a bad job and scored a 7th place in his fleet, enough to make him top Aussie in the rankings right now. In his account of the day at In rolls the fog he waxes lyrical about what he calls "cliff bars". Maybe they don't have them in Australia because, as all readers of this blog know, they are really Clif Bars - with one F. Someone even wrote a poem about them: Clif Bars.
American blogger Clay Johnson had an even better day scoring a third in his fleet pulling him up to second place overall. In FOGGY Day Two he tells us how, even though he overstood the first mark in the fog, he pulled back from around 15th by sailing a smart second beat. Those compasses sure do help in the fog!
Dominican blogger Raul Aguayo tells us (in Spanish) at FOG-CANADA! how he spent seven hours on the water to complete one race. In spite of "mucha niebla" he finished in 20th which puts him within striking distance of qualifying for the gold fleet if he has another good day today. Animo Raul! A la flota Oro!
Our other Laser sailing bloggers from yesterday must have been too exhausted to post anything last night. I'm not surprised.
