Three Laser Sailing Posts

And now for something completely different...

After a week of powerboat posts it's time to get back to the real subject of this blog which is... whatever I want it to be.

Seriously, I need a fix of Laser sailing reading. Maybe you do too. So for your reading pleasure, here are three recent posts about Laser sailing that piqued my interest in the last few days. Each, in their own way, reminds me of a period of my sailing history and holds a lesson for what I should be doing in the future...

Keeping the youth interested... Brent Burrows is pretty young himself - only 16 years old. He's an up-and-coming Laser sailor from the Bahamas. Most of his blog posts are about his own racing and his training sessions. But this post is about an even younger sailor, Pedro, who has been sailing Optimists for a year or so. Brent sees a lot of potential in Pedro and has volunteered to coach him all summer to develop that potential. What a guy!

In my last few years in New Jersey I spent quite a bit of time myself mentoring young sailors but I haven't done any of that since moving to Rhode Island. I should be more like Brent.

Practice Toward Perfection. Jay Livingston has written another classic in his series of posts on the Zen of sailing. His musings on the meditative nature of solo practice remind me of all the days I sailed my Laser alone in 2008. You can overdo this solo practice thing but it certainly has its place. I need to be more like Jay.

Laser Masters Nationals Wrap-Up. Scott Young is a very accomplished sailor. He is a four-time winner of the Mallory Cup and was tied for first place points at last year's Laser Masters North Americans. He recently sailed in the 2010 US Laser Masters in Charleston. Most people would be happy with fifth place at such a tough regatta. (I would be delirious. So delirious that I would probably retire from Laser sailing and take up power-boating.) But Scott sets high standards for himself, and in this post he analyzes what he should have done and what his competitors did to prepare for this championship.

Such things as...

• sail in a competitive home fleet
• do the midwinter Laser circuit in Florida
• experience the local conditions before the regatta
• sail a series of regattas before the championship to be sure of your fitness, equipment and race course management

Certainly in 2007 when I really hit the New England Laser circuit and sailed almost every major local regatta that summer, I saw the impact on my results at the Masters Worlds that October. I should listen to Scott more.


Hmmm. What just happened? I read a few blogs and all of a sudden I'm getting enthusiastic about Laser sailing again. My flirtation with power-boating is over... probably... for now... until the next time.