Lay Day

Spent the day with Judy wandering around Halifax.

Learned a few things about Halifax during a ride around the city and the port in an amphibious LARK (the amphibious landing ships we built for the Viet Nam war to ferry cargo ashore -- at least something good came out of it) called the Harbor Hopper:

• Halifax is the 2nd deepest port in North America
• Halifax was the center of the the search and resue effort when the Titaanic sank. Over 200 victims are buried here and the whole town turned out for the funerals
• The British used Halifax as a base of operations for the War of 1812 and brought many captured ships, including one called the The Chesapeake to Halifax.
• Downtown Halifax was obliterated in 1917 in the worst man-made explosion in the world (before Hiroshima) when a French ship carrying explosives for the war collided with another ship in the fog. When the French ship caught fire, lots of people came out to watch it burn. It did more than burn! It exploded with a fury that was heard 200 miles away. Over 4000 people died, and countless were injured. All the buildings in the city were flattened!

The Maritime Museum was worth a lot more time than we could give it. Great displays on Tugboats, the Titanic, and the explosion of 1917.

In the evening, we drove south to Lunenberg, the center of the Fishing Schooner operations in the late 1800s and the Balsam Fir Christmas Tree Capital of the world. Bluenose 2 was built here, a World Heritage Site. A must see, if you ever get up this way.

Third Day

Better late than never.

The day dawned bright and cool as a cold front moved throught the area bringing a brisk and gusty northerly breeze to the bay.

The RC set up shop as far away from the north shore as they could get and still anchor their boats. St. Margarets Bay is pretty deep. The wind was pretty shifty so our the very particular PRO waited for the breeze to settle in while we got colder and colder.

He finally got the AMs off and abandoned their race at the weather mark when the wind went left 20 degrees.

About an hour later we got going. I got a pretty good boat end start and went right, expecting the ficle breeze to go back right. Wrong. Almost everyone else got a big lefty late in the leg. Had to fight back for my 20th place.

Determined to get some of the big lefty near the shore (if it was still there) I go a mediocre pin end start in bad air, but hung in there for a while until a lane opened up to tack. A bad pin end start is about the worst. There is nowhere to go as you are trapped by the fleet above you with no escape routes.

I managed to get to the left side of the course again and lo and behold, as soon as I got to the layline, a blast from the left came in and planed into the mark, passing gobs of boats.

Did the same thing again the second time up and again planed to the mark. Despite the poor start managed a 13th, best finish so far. Maybe I can reach my goal of a top ten finish!

Great reach back to the harbor. Lasers are such cool boats!

Second Day

Seven hours is a long time to spend on a Laser!

When we left the club at 11:40 it looked promising. A little breeze out of the SW which could turn into a real sea breeze. The cloud cover was not encouraging. Turns out the cloud cover hung around until mid-afternoon and the breeze wouldn't settle down long enough to get the racing going. When the clouds went away and the sea finally settled in, it was about 3:30.

The frustrated RC got the AM, M, and GM fleets off with only one general recall. We had to suffer through 2 general recalls and a postponement for a 20 degree lefty. We finally got a start off. I had a clean start on boat late at the boat end in 12-15knots. To my amazement, I was sailing high and fast and blew by the 2 boats immediately ahead. When Peter Seidenberg just barely crossed me by inches halfway up the beat, I was pumped!

It all went down hill after that. I dropped half the fleet on the upper part of the long beat, heald my own downwind, sailed OK on the second beat, made a couple of nice mark roundings, and sailed a good final beat to finish 22nd.

When I asked Peter if he was confident of his crossing, he said "I knew I could cross you". How did he know? I couldn't tell! He went on to win his third straight race. If you are looking at the results, he withdrew from the first race because he didn't honor the offet mark. What an amazing sailor!

Lessons learned-- check for weeds often, and work really hard, all the time.

First Day of Racing

Finally got on the water today. A 10-15 knot westerly tried to get going put poope out on the way to the race course. We finally got to the starting area under postponment and waited for some wind. Finalyy the seabreeze made its appearance from the south and built to 15-18. We got our scheduled 2 races in in sparkling conditions.

I had a mediocre first race but made no major mistakes. Wound up 19th. The second race I nailed the pin and led the fleet to the favored left. Unfortunately I went a little to far and overstood. Still rounded in top 10. Sweet. Held it around the downwind, next upwind, and fist reach. Then, a puff caught me napping on the short downwind leg, and I wound up upside down. Wound up with another 19th. Currently standing 16th but ahead of Seidengerg and Tillman. Sweet.

Ready to Race

We spent the morning yesterday getting registered and measured. After a successful Senior Worlds last week, St. Margerets Sailing Club has everything down pat and running like clockwork. It took about 5 minutes to measure in my boat. Another great thing about Lasers. If you don't scew it up yourself, there isn't much that can go wrong.

Danny came through Saturday afternoon. lots of rain and some wind, but it was pretty much out of gas by the time it got to Halifax. He did wash out the opening ceremonies and dinner which was to feature the RCMP band. The dinner is rescheduled for Tuesday, but the RCMP are riding off to save the day somewhere else and won't be able to play for us.

We had to turn our boats upside down in preparation for Danny. Strange site to see 300 Lasers upside down on the grass. They looked dead.

We old guys got the primo parking spots down by the water and launching areas thanks to David Hartman who told me he threatened to have a heart attack and others might as well if they made him haul his boat up and down the hill every day. I guess they listened. Thanks David.

The GGMs have a very tough 42 boat fleet with lots and lots of experience and skill represented. As a relative newbie to the Laser, I am looking forward to learning a lot.

On to Halifax!

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted. My only excuse is that have been working on "fleshing out" my couch potato fitness program in preparation for the upcoming Laser Masters Worlds in Halifax.

See http://can09.laserinternational.org/

I got out the bike, and bought 15 feet of heavy shock cord. So after several months of neighborhood bike rides, shock cord stretching (they now sell this stuff on TV as the the new way to get fit at home!) and the old standby, crunches on the couch during commercials, I feel fitter and stronger and ready for Halifax.

My wife and I are in Maine visiting friends and will arrive in Halifax tonight. Measure the boat in tomorrow and be ready for action just as Danny arrives on Sunday.

Hard to believe that bothe Masters and the Open World's (held in the same place last week) will have been affected by hurricanes.

Congratulations to Paul Goodison on his win in the Senior Worlds. He sailed really consistently with no finish lower than 7th and 2 bullets.

My New Hero

Marcy Kaptur, democratic congresswoman from Ohio, understands exactly how the people of this country are feeling about the bailout legislation that was defeated yesterday. She bucked her own party and voted no on the proposed plan.

She also has what I think is a better solution to the problem. Here is a link to her short speech in which she explains the problem and her solution in terms anyone, even aging laser sailors, can understand. I urge everyone to take a few minutes to watch and listen...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S27yitK32ds&eurl=http://redstaterebels.org/2008/09/wall-streets-greed-game/