38 Lasers sailed in the CPYC Spring Laser regatta on May 12.  The crack race committee led by PRO Halsey Bullen ran 8 long races in near perfect conditions for the Standard and Radial fleets.

The Cedar Point Laser fleet made a strong showing w/ Marc Jacobi 2nd in Standard rigs and Jay Lurie first in Radials.  A terrific day was made even more memorable by the presence of legendary Laser designer Bruce Kirby and his wife Margot pictured here w/ top junior sailors: L-R Richie Gordon, Colin Kennedy, Emma Davis, Nick Mears and Isabelle Gordon. 

The regatta was also an Area B qualifier for the Men's and Women's US Singlehanded Championship to be sailed later this summer in Sheboygan, WI.  Big THANKS to co-fleet captains Joe and Jenny for a terrific season!

Results:
Standard: http://www.cedarpointyc.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=XH6oc4nWpi0%3d&tabid=101&mid=762
Radial: http://www.cedarpointyc.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=SfuTwqjmjsM%3d&tabid=101&mid=762

Afterglow started her season strong with a tough-fought battle for second at AYC. "We had four great days of sailing, which is almost unheard of at American, and Team Afterglow rallied hard the last race of the series to come away with a bullet. It was a nice way to go home as we turned and ran to make it back in time for the  fantastic Commissioning ceremonies." said Bill Walker.

Cedar Point's Ann and George Wilbanks on Revelation took a fifth in the tightly sailed J105 class.

There was good turnout with thirteen boats and hopefully we will be seeing most of them at the CPYC One Design Regatta in a couple weeks.

For complete AYC Spring results, see http://bit.ly/ILJyJV

Michael Gavin, Rick Lyall and Ansgar Chorhummel represented Cedar Point YC at the Annapolis NOOD, May 4-6. The three-day regatta was bookended by doldrums more typical of an Annapolis summer than spring, but reasonable breeze from Friday afternoon through Sunday morning allowed the fleets to complete 4-6 races. Michael Gavin sailed his Etchells  'Clean Execution', Rick Lyall sailed his J109 'Storm', and Ansgar Chorhummel took on a competitive fleet of 32 J80s in 'KiaOra'.
 
Winds were from the NE the entire weekend, and a strong ebb tide was flowing right down the race course for all but the end of the second day of racing. The Etchells sailed near the western shore, where the strategic imperative in every race but Saturday's last (when the wind had freshened to 11-12 kts and the tide subsided) was to get to the flats on the left side of the first beat, and out of the current before the competition. A clean lane on the left side of the starting line and good boat speed to the port-tack layline was generally all it took to round the first mark near the top.  Despite a race-6 bobble created by a close encounter of the wrong kind with a J22 that underestimated the tide and snagged its rudder on the windward mark, Gavin managed to hang onto his lead in the 11-boat Etchells fleet.

The J80s sailed in one of the most competitive fleets since the Worlds in 2010. Thirty-two boats including Olympic medalists, multiple world and national champions as well as parts of the current US Olympic team (Storck/Moore) on the line. The first day was called off after three attempts to get a race going were either interrupted by total lack of wind or a threatening storm cloud that brought 40 kts of wind to Washington DC but dissolved after it hit the Chesapeake Bay. On day two local knowledge to go left inside the 30 feet depth line paid off and everybody who stayed on that side came out on top at the windward mark. At the leeward gate during the second race the tide line went right through the gate and a freshening wind against tide suddenly created ~4ft waves right at the gate which caused total mayhem, collisions a lot of confusion. Day three brought one light air race which KiaOra finished in 14th place but got scored as DSQ after a close call with a J-World boat.

You can see complete NOOD results here: http://bit.ly/IyPxjT

Member turnout for the two weekends of spring cleanup was tremendous, and so was the amount of work that was done to get Cedar Point ready for the May 5 commissioning and the 2012 racing season.

We weeded, planted, swept, bolted, cleaned, shoveled, toted, seeded, and then some.

But since a picture's worth at least 1,000 words, here are some pictures - and a video (thanks to Ansgar Chorhummel) to show what we all did.

And even more photos can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hasykes/sets/72157629557818466/

Mark your calendars and get your crews together and your applications in for Cedar Point Yacht Club's 10th annual One Design Regatta, scheduled for June 2-3. While other events have dwindled over time, the CPYC organizers are expecting a record number - more than 50 boats - to compete. The weekend will include the J105 North East championships.

The regatta weekend will include breakfast for all competitors, an after-race party on Saturday with a band, and a wrap-up on Sunday with more food and drink, and awards. And of course, great racing. Sponsors include North Sails, Fairfield County Bank, West Marine and Gowrie Insurance.

Don't be left out, go to yachtscoring.com and check out the NOR/scratch sheet. For more information, check out the event website at www.tinyurl.com/cpodr2012, or talk to regatta organizer and Cruising Class fleet Captain Bill Walker.

Excitement is in the air with December’s announcement that CPYC will host the 75th anniversary of the Lighting North American Championships (NAs), August 17 – 23, 2013.  The event continues to be listed in the top three, in terms of attendance, for all one design class championships in North America and is often #1 for crewed centerboard classes.  Upwards of 300 competitors are expected.  We will also be teaming up with Nyack Boat Club in Nyack, NY for the Women’s, Junior’s, and Master’s (WJM’s) portion of the event, August 14 – 17, and qualifier for the 2014 Youth Worlds in Ontario, Canada.

By Ched Proctor

Steve Girling and I joined Miami local Jeff Dever to sail the Etchells Nationals March 23-25. The weather was pretty terrific. Steve and I agreed as we tuned up Sunday morning that it was nice to have a full on hiking breeze while sailing comfortably in short sleeves. That doesn't happen too often on LIS! This winter it has been a pretty common occurrence during the Miami regattas. The weather the first two days was equally warm but somewhat lighter. Biscayne Bay is a really pristine spot to sail small boats. No big boats as the water is pretty thin for anything over a  5' draft. The current is quite a challenge as there are very few marks to show what is happening. And it tends to be quite different between the top and bottom of the course.

The Etchells racing is extremely challenging in itself as most of the 40-boat fleet arrives at the weather mark virtually overlapped and sometimes three deep after a 1.4- to 2.0-mile first beat. The port tack layline is quite an adventure. The wind seems to come in lanes, so positioning to be able to tack in those lanes is key to successful beats. Downwind, the closely packed fleet makes finding clear air key. The favored side varies considerably depending on current, wind direction and the shifts on that particular leg. BTW, we finished 4th in this one.

The Nationals was the final regatta of five held in Miami over the winter. The 37-boat fleet was smaller than the other regattas this winter but still plenty competitive. I sailed the first two with Jose Fuentes of Annapolis. The weekend regattas are three races on Saturday, two on Sunday. Boats are put away early enough Sunday afternoon to catch an early evening flight back to New York or wherever to make it to the office first thing Monday morning. Does the tan give any hint as to where you spent your winter weekend? This season we had some 65 different teams from all over North American and even a few European teams competing. Many teams show up for Friday informal practice races too. The boats are all stored at local clubs, mast up for the entire series. This winter all but one of the scheduled race days came off as scheduled. We lost only one day to light air.

Photo Credit: Marco Oquendo, Photos by Marco

Here's a look at the first week of Spring Laser frostbiting - mid-50s, 10-18 knots on a short course with big directional and velocity shifts. Read winner Andrew Scrivan's report on the day on the Laser News page.