Six of our less camera shy Laser sailors agreed to be recorded on video last Saturday afternoon. It was sunny, hot, and humid with light wind, at times to the point where sailors and even our PRO, Laura Hackell, abandoned their boats for a swim. Laura looked very content treading water wearing her sun hat. The wind really died as we had a final race back to shore. Dan Abram and Ryan Werden decided to finish the race by swimming the last 50 yards or so to shore. They later swam back to retrieve their boats which hadn't drifted very far.
After racing, we met at Gary Werden's home at the north end of the lake for a cookout (thank you again Annie and Gary) and to watch the video recordings. Some of us more mature Laser sailors marveled at the agility of the younger members of the fleet performing roll tacks and roll jibes which looked pretty good. However, after watching ourselves, we then viewed Olympic class Laser sailors in an instructional video recorded at the Cabarete Laser Training Center in the Dominican Republic. Wow! What an eye-opener! None of us had anything close to the graceful and efficient boat handling form demonstrated by these world class athletes in all sorts of conditions. I guess I don't have to worry about getting to the top of the Laser learning curve anytime soon.
By the way, if you are interested in a sailing vacation, I understand that the Cabarete Laser Training Center (http://www.blogger.com/) is excellent. One member of our fleet, Judy Krimski, attended a masters clinic and regatta there last January. She came back exhausted, but very enthusiastic. Many Olympic Laser sailors have trained there, but they have programs for all levels. It's definitely on my future vacation spot list.
The weather forecast is looking great for our next Laser/Sunfish outing on Thursday at 6:30 PM with clear skies and a west wind at 10 mph. I think I'd better get in some practice time on the water before then.
Eric
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment