Lightnings Enjoy a Beautiful Sunday

"Sail Fevre" crew hard at work Picture by Stephen Wagner

Sunday brought a beautiful day to sail. Although the sailors might have wanted a little more wind, there was plenty to move the boats along nicely - and it was very nice on the water.

Pat Dolan with crew Nancy Lewis and Susanna Wagner took the first two races - the second by only a narrow margin as "Pigs", "Bananas" and "Sail Fevre" all finished within a couple of seconds. This was Nancy's first dose of Lightning Racing - and she was impressed by how close the racing is. Not only at the finish, but how narrow the margins are for error in port-starboard crossings.

Jonathan Ahlbrand and Nikiforos Delatolas were sailing "Bananas". They were close with "Wind Dancer" throughout the first two races, exchanging the lead several times, and finished second in race one. In race two, they were the victims of Blaine Severin's rush to the finish on a wind of his own.

Julie Pierce was the driver of "Flying Pigasus" in race one. She got the boat off to a fast start, but was unlucky to pick the left side of the course. When the wind shifted right, "Wind Dancer" and "Bananas" took advantate and pushed "Pigs" to the third spot.

Susanna Wagner took the helm of "Wind Dancer" for the final race of the day, but Blaine Severin and crew were going left at full speed - and this time the left paid off. "Pigs" won the final race, with Susanna and her crew second. John LeFevre, Neil Harrison and John Kolstoe were third.

Complete results and standings can be found on the Lansing Sailing Club website at www.lansingsailing.org. Click on "Racing" then on the fleet symbol.

Stephen Wagner has posted some great pictures of last Sunday's racing at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12233491@N02/sets/72157606317958874/

Fidler Wins Michigan District Laser Championship

Laser Winners in Leland

Editor's Note: Mike Moody provides this report on the Michigan District Laser Championship held last weekend.

July 19th and 20th was the weekend of the annual Laser regatta at the Leland Yacht Club in Leland, Michigan. This two day event was also the Michigan Laser District Championships. Fair weather and good winds made the event a fun one for all. On Saturday, with the wind from the North about 10-12 mph, saw local racer Sean Fidler from Pontiac post five bullets in five races. Craig Pearson, of Barton Boat Club in Ann Arbor, held down the second spot for the day with his usual consistent and solid day of racing. Mike Moody from Lansing Sailing Club, checked up with close third place for the day.

To the delight of the lighter racers, Sunday brought lighter winds from the SW about 6 building to 10 mph as the morning went on. First place finishes got passed around as Jim Meyers from Portage posted a first, along with Craig Pearson. Sean Fidler regained his form and closed out the last race of the weekend with another win. Not much changed in the overall standings as the order of the top three to take home the hardware remained the same as day one. (Fidler, Pearson, and Moody).

This is always a fun event and the host club really puts on a "team effort" to make sure a good time is had by all. A bonus of this year's event was the Chicago to MAC boats were sailing through the Manitou Straits with the first boats coming through about 5:30 PM. Sunday evening. With the Laser racing finished, those with energy still left were treated to a power boat ride into the Straits to chase race leaders "Ultimate Risk" and the eventual overall winner "Wind Quest" for about 10 miles. These boats are amazing at 90 feet long and 120 foot masts under massive spinnakers. In a 10 mph breeze, these boats can go 16-17 mph in the standard Lake Michigan light chop. Being out there and seeing these boats under sail was a perfect ending to an all too short a weekend.

Picnic at LSC this Sunday - 3:30

At the suggestion of Jim Fletcher, everyone is invited to picnic at the Club this Sunday. Racing will be over about 3:30 - so we are targeting that time to start the shindig.

LSC will provide paper and plastic - otherwise bring your own stuff and we'll fire up the grills.

The weather guru is saying mostly sunny with temps in the upper 70s for Sunday. Sounds like a great day. If you're not racing, come out early and sail.

Tuesday Junior Sailing

With thunder and lightning in the area, many people made the decision early to stay off the lake. Those that stuck it out were rewarded with beautiful cool evening of sailing.

John LeFevre came out to train new crew in his Lightning and got some nice spinnaker runs. In Lasers, Olaf, Susanna and Brad got in about 20 starts and 50 mark roundings as Mike Moody ran them through a 2 hour "mini boot camp" of racing drills, games and races. It was a good warm up for the Wednesday night series this week.

Junior Sailing continues on Tuesday evenings from 6 pm to dusk through mid-August. All Junior sailors are welcome to participate.

Olympic Sailing to be Shown On-line

Anna Tunnicliffe is the US Women's Laser Sailor Photo from NBC Olympic website

There are just a little over two weeks before the 2008 Olympic Games kick off in China.

While most events will be in Beijing, the sailing will take place more than 300 miles away at Qingdao.

For the first time, It looks like there will be lots of Olympic sailing coverage - but most of it will be on-line.

NBC plans to have about 90 minutes of sailing coverage available on-line each day. There may be some TV coverage - but probably only for medal winners. Follow Olympic Sailing at www.nbcolympics.com/sailing/index.html.

Details as to scheduling are yet to be posted.