greater Detroit 2023 Sunfish race schedule

the Greater Detroit Sunfish Club (GDSC) has released their 2023 Sunfish race schedule. you can check them out on their Facebook page.

• May 7th – Baseline Lake (with the Michigan Sailing Club)
• May 21st – Watkins Lake
• June 4th – Baseline Lake (with the Michigan Sailing Club)
• June 11th – Watkins Lake
• June 24th & 25th – Summer Regatta (Independence Day) camping weekend at Muskegon Lake State Park
• September 2nd & 3rd – Labor Day camping weekend at Higgins Lake State Park
• September 16th & 17th – Devils Lake Yacht Club
• October 8th – Baseline Lake (with the Michigan Sailing Club)

all Sunday races typically start at 12:30pm [uno], with the camping/racing weekends starting earlier in the day to get extra races in over the weekend.

I said this last year (and the year before… and the year before… and the year before), and didn’t get a chance to sail with this group, but I’m again going to do my best to meet up with them for some sailing races this year.

I want to go sailing meow

I could write a long blog post about cats on ships, but that’s already been covered in other places.

but truth be told, I really just am getting spring fever and want to go sailing right meow.

west coast sailing: 15% off rigging sale

west coast sailing is having a sale on rigging for the month of February (2023) – you have a week and half left to jump on this sale to get upgraded rigging for your sailboat. they have a custom rigging shop for specific line and length and end conditions, or they have a lot of one-design rigging already pre-made. for the Sunfish rigging, it looks like they have the mainsheet and halyard, and 3-loop or 2-loop bridles.

they also have full line kits for the Sunfish… but the kits don’t appear to be on sale (might be worth a call to see if you can get the discount on the kit?).

either way, spring isn’t too far around the corner, and a new set of rigging would be a great way to start off your 2023 sailing season!

simplified racing rules of Sunfish sailing (video)

Lee Montes keeps putting out great Sunfish sailing videos, and this time he’s helping to explain the racing rules of sailing. honestly – this is probably the biggest thing holding me back from racing with the GDSC or any Sunfish Class event — my lack of understanding of the racing rules of sailing, and worrying that I’d foul another racer and piss them off.

I’ve tried to summarize his main points, but watch the video yourself and see if you catch any other key points I might have missed:

the most important rule: don’t hit any other boats!

1. port (wind goes over the left, sail is on the right) vs starboard tack (wind goes over the right, sail is on the left)… the starboard tack boat USUALLY has right of way, so avoid them, or give them right of way.

2. if overlapped on the same tack, windward vs leeward boat – the leeward boat has right of way (avoid any boat on your sail side of the boat)

3. clear ahead AND on the same tack – the boat overtaking the boat ahead must give way

4. while tacking or jibing, stay clear of other boats

sunfish worlds day 1 video

Lake Garda in Italy is a beautiful venue for sailing!

LaserPerformance is posting video and picture updates on Instagram.

sailing log: 2022-08-02

Tuesday afternoon’s are never ending?

we vacationed for another family vacation week up at Camp Arcadia and the weather cooperated nicely on Tuesday afternoon – with smaller rolling waves and decent winds to take advantage of out on the waters of Lake Michigan.

after sailing solo for a bit, I swung back towards shore and picked up our youngest son Iggy, but my pics of him were taken through a dry bag for my iPhone and ended up super blurry.

it also was a big day for our 14-yr old son – he took sailing lessons in Opti’s ( more than a couple years ago), but time/circumstance/weather hadn’t ever given him a chance yet to solo sail our Minifish or Sunfish. but this afternoon, he got some last-minute tips from T2 (our oldest), and just jumped right in the Minifish and started sailing.

I tried to stay at least in his general area (me sailing on the Sunfish), but I shouldn’t have worried about it – he did great, didn’t tip over or sail into anything, and got some great solo sailing experience. after a while, I let T2 sail the Sunfish – here he is on the Sunfish w/ Luke on the Minifish.

I’m really pleased with using my Garmin watch to track the sailing activities – just a couple clicks on the watch and it’s ready to track the sailing, and after I upload the activity to Garmin Connect, then I can change the “activity” to “sailing” and it changes to nautical miles and knots.

and here’s a blow-up view of the tracking route

it was a great afternoon on the beautiful waters of Lake Michigan!