Moonlight Sail Friday - July 4th Sunday

Celebrate July 4th at LSC

Members and guests are invited to participate in a Moonlight Sail this coming Friday, July 2nd. Bring a dessert to share at 8:00 PM. There will be several pontoon boats and Lightning sailboats with plenty of room for everyone to go on the water and enjoy moonrise with a full moon shortly after 9 PM.

July Fourth is Sunday - and it will be a full day of fun and celebration at LSC. To start the day, join in boat building at 8 AM when we pick up materials (we don't know until then what materials are to be used). Then we design and build a boat to race on the sandbar at 1 PM. There are three races - kids, women and men. Come and join the spectator fleet - using the new LSC Committee Boat.

We will picnic at the Club at 5:00 PM. LSC will provide brats, hot dogs, fixins', soft drinks, paper and plastic. Bring a dish to pass. Then we'll decorate the Committee Boat in anticipation of the boat parade which begins at 7:45. The evening will be capped off with a big fireworks display centered just down the beach from the Club.

Laser-Sunfish Clinic

Derrick Fries (11070)

Last summer's Laser-Sunfish clinic put on by Mike Moody was such a success - it is being put on again. This time however, it is even better - with World Champion sailor Derrick Fries doing the coaching.

There will be a fee of $50 to participate. For this, sailors will get a full day (8:00 AM to 5:00 PM) of instruction - most of it on the water with lots of individual coaching while the participants are involved in drills. This is a terrific opportunity to learn the way a world champion sailor does it and practice under his guidance. At the end of the day, Derrick will spend individual time with each participant - offering additional suggestions on how to get to the next level.

More details are available on the Club web site at www.lansingsailing.org. Click the "Laser-Sunfish Clinic 7/24" button in the upper left corner.

Sunday Results

Sunday's Race Committee Making Plans

It was another great day to sail on Lake Lansing. Winds were in the 8 to 12 range and generally from the west, although there were significant shifts. Seven Lightnings showed up to race and there were some very close contests as well as some unusual events.

In terms of unusual events, race one was marked by three boats being on the course side of the start line and none returning to restart. In the third race, a protest by "Moody's Booty" against "Wind Dancer" is yet to be decided and could change the final result.

Ron, Diane and Blaine Get Boat Ready

Blaine Severin brought two new crew to sail with him on "UFP": Ron Watt and Diane Durfee.

Pending the result of the protest, "Wind Dancer", sailed by Susanna Tellschow, Gil Chesbro and Pat Dolan, was the winner of all three races. Terry Kleiman, although OCS in the first race, finished with a third and a second. Larry Koster sailed with Gary Marx for the first time and they recorded a third place finish in race three.

George Siegle got "Fins" going with the help of Ann Siegle and Laura Harvey to finish second in the second race. Merrick Hurlbutt, Scott Watkins and Adrianne Tuttle ended up second in the first race after all the OCS dust settled.

Results and standings will be available soon via links on the Racing page of the LSC web site at www.lansingsailing.org.

Junior Sailing Class a Hit

Austin Rosenbaum in his Optomist

The Junior Sailing Class at LSC has concluded its second of four Monday evening sessions and the junior sailors are learning very fast. With no prior sailing experience, they are already able to tack, gybe, sail to windward and safely use the launch area.

The Optimist Dinghys are proving to be just the right boat to use - very stable and just the right size for kids. LSC members with junior sailors that want to try one out should see Pat Dolan.

Michigan Lightning District Championship July 9-11

Attention LSC Lightning sailors: Don't forget the District Championship coming up soon at the Bay City Yacht Club. Registration, boat weigh-in and equipment check are on Friday July 9 beginning at 5 PM with a practice race at 7:00. The Championship races are on Saturday and Sunday, July 10 and 11, in Saginaw Bay. For more Information including housing: contact Chris Jacobson by phone at 989-667-1954 or by email at Fastidiot@chartermi.net.

No Fleet racing is scheduled during the weekend of July 10 and 11 so that LSC sailors can participate in the Championship.

LSC Board Approves Lift for Committee Boat, VHF Radios

Meeting on Sunday evening, the Lansing Sailing Club Board of Directors approved obtaining a lift for the Committee Boat. They also took action to purchase VHF radios for use at the Club House, on the Safety Boat and on the Committee Boat.

Mooring the Committee Boat has always been a challenge. The end of the pontoon where a mooring line is attached has been torn off in the past due to heavy wave action. In addition, not all those who use the boat are familiar with the special knots required - or the use of spring lines. With these and other stories in mind, the Board has approved obtaining a lift for the Committee Boat. This lift will operate slightly differently from the Safety Boat lift because it is a cantilever style - but the end result is the same: the boat is lifted out of the water where it is immune from the effects of storms.

VHF radios will provide clearer and more reliable communciation than the "walkie-talkies" we have been using for a number of years. These radios are the standard for boating and integrate with MSU's sailing center and other boats. Having one in the Club House will make it easy for those on shore to communicate with Race Committees on the water. All three will be the same portable sytle so they will be interchangable. When not in use, the plan is to store them in their chargers in the kitchen area.

America's Cup Tacticians Offer Short Course Suggestions

Even though the next America's Cup won't be sailed until 2007, the America's Cup management group has arranged a number of events leading up to the Cup. One such event, the UBS Trophy, has just been concluded in Rhode Island between Alingi and BMW Oracle. The courses in Rhode Island have been much shorter than the typical America's Cup course - some as short as 2.5 miles - and the strategies they employ probably apply to a lot of the short course racing we do at LSC.

Two of the men who decide on that strategy are Alinghi's Jochen Schuemann, and BMW Oracle Racing's John Kostecki. Both fill the tactician role for their teams and both have plenty of racing experience on all kinds of race courses. Both agree that the shorter courses put a much bigger premium on winning the start, and that's led to some exciting action in the pre-starts on the first couple of days.

And Schuemann notes that it is critical to be close at the start, especially if you're starting to leeward. "If you start to leeward, you have to be so tight to leeward that the windward boat has to peel off immediately. When there's a little separation and you can go for two minutes, you hit the shoreline, and then (you have to tack) and the other guy has you.

For more, check out the article on the UBS Trophy web site at www.ubstrophy.com/features/2004/06/21/03/index.html.

• July 1 (Thursday): John Fishbeck, Leslie Hagen, Dave Vietti.
• July 8 (Thursday): Dave Vietti, Steve Wagner, John Fishbeck.

• June 28, Junior Sailing Class
• June 29, Lightning Practice
• June 30, Wednesday Racing
• July 1, Lightning Fleet Racing
• July 2, Moonlight Cruise
• July 4, Holiday Celebration
• July 5, Junior Sailing Class
• July 6, Lightning Practice
• July 7, Wednesday Racing
• July 8, Lightning Fleet Racing
• July 9-11, Lightning Districts
• July 10-11, St. Joseph Laser Regatta
• July 12, Discover Racing Class
• July 13, Lightning Practice
• July 14, Wednesday Racing
• July 16, LLPOA TGIF Raft-Up
• July 18, Lightning Fleet Racing
• July 19, Junior Sailing Class
• July 20, Lightning Practice
• July 21, Wednesday Racing
• July 22, Crew Racing
• July 24, Laser-Sunfish Clinic
• July 25, Lightning Fleet Racing

• Wednesdays: Annapolis Yacht Club Wednesday Night Series. On the web at www.t2p.tv each evening after racing.