WEST JERSY FLEET #23
COOPER RIVER & RIVERTON, NJ

FLEET CAPTAIN, TERRY RAPP

  

West Jersey RC Laser Fleet Members

Terry Rapp, Fleet Captain,  Nick Mortgu, Regional Secretary, Skip Lippincott, Ryan Lippincott, Matt Lippincott, Dan Walsh, Jamie Betz, Dan Curran, Dave Cherubini, Rob Seidelmann, Mike Hecky, Rich Hendrickson, Rich Hendrickson Jr., Art Littleton,  Tammy Brunker, Rosemary McMullen, Jim Irwin, Victor Oberg, Dave Mays,  Lance Oberg, Mickey Walsh, Joe Pelosi, Dave Brawner, AMYA Regional Secretary

West Jersey RC Laser Fleet #23

 

 

It started with two sailors at Riverton Yacht Club’s Wednesday night racing.  One brought up the subject of RC Laser sailing and the other said “hey, I have one of those”.   For two years, Nick and Mickey tried to start a fleet racing at Riverton.  Sometimes just the two would show up, then the next week there might be four boats.  The Delaware River tides and late summer grass seemed to slow down the fleet growth. 

 

2009 brought the North American RC Laser Championship to Oxford, MD.  This regatta was geographically desirable enough for a group from Riverton to go south and give it a try.  Terry and Dan Curran made the gold fleet, while Ryan, Nick, Dan Walsh and Skip sailed in the Silver fleet.  Ryan won the silver fleet buy a point.  That regatta was the turning point for RC Laser sailing in the Mid-Atlantic area.   

After word made it back to Jersey about how great the regatta was, the fleet was well on its’ way to becming one of the largest and most active fleets in the area.  Terry and Nick talked Rob Seidelmann from Cooper River Yacht Club into holding an RC Laser regatta, appropriately called The Leftover Bowl, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  The Leftover Bowl had it’s first Champion, Jamey Betz.  A new fleet was born consisting of sailors from both Riverton and Cooper River Yacht clubs, which held its’ first series; a frostbite series that ran till March.  Dave Brawner, AMYA Regional Secretary showed up one day with an automatic starter and came back every week to help us start races and help our fleet grow.

 

March sailing included the Mid-Winter Championship at Marco Island, FL, which proved to be a needed respite from the northeast winter!  West Jersey was represented by Gold fleet sailors Dan Curran and Nick.  Dan Walsh and Victor held up the silver fleet.  Everyone had a fun time with great southern hospitality.  March was also the first Shamrock Cup Regatta, which was held at Laurel Acres Park in Mt. Laurel, NJ and put on by the Mid-Atlantic Model Boat Club who race EC12 meter RC boats.

It’s Summer now and the fleet is growing with 23 very active members sailing every other Tuesday night on the Cooper River, with a change to Riverton once in a while just to keep everyone in practice on tidal sailing.  If you take a look at the fleet members you’ll see boat builders, sail makers,  national champions in both “real” boats and RC boats.  But when the gun goes off we’re just a bunch of friends having a good time.

 
*The Cooper River is a tributary of the Delaware River in southwestern New Jersey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARSH HARBOUR SAILING CLUB FLEET #6

Marsh Harbour, Bahamas

Fleet Captain , North American and Mid Winter Champion Jim Kaighin

The Marsh Harbour Sailing Club, Abaco, Bahamas RC Laser Fleet #6 actually got its start in Sarasota, Florida when the Kaighins received 4 Lasers as a family Christmas present in 1998.  Jim, Mike, Dave, and Lorri Kaighin enjoyed racing together in Sarasota Bay.  In 2001, the Key-Stratton-Kaighin families in Marsh Harbour bought 8 boats as an activity that we could all do together as a family, no matter what the age or skill level.

By letting other friends outside the family sail our fleet of boats, a few new members bought boats and our fleet began to grow.  As of 2010, there are about 25 boats around Abaco.  We have sailed at many different locations depending on the venue and wind direction.  Although we don’t have a dedicated location, we can always find a good spot on the water and a little wind.  We usually set buoys with a kayak, and sometimes we are lucky enough to have race committee.

We get the best turnout when the winter residents are in town, which is from December thru May.  The summer is very hot and people are traveling, so it is difficult to get enough boats together to do some racing.  If you happen to be passing thru Abaco, send me an email jimkaighin@batelnet.bs and we’ll throw a race together.  

Most of our sailors have some sort of boating experience, whether it be racing or cruising, and some others have no big boat racing experience. This year, we decided to do sort of a “tour” and have received a good response from spectators, and we have added some new sailors to the mix.  We hope those spectators will be next year’s sailors.

Fleet members:  Jim Kaighin, Randy Key, Anders Ljungholm, Dwayne Wallace, Roger Hedge, Loren Hall, Jay Manni, Dave and Duran Lowe, Jeff Gale, David Muloch, Charlie and Shane Cooke, and others around Abaco.

 

Marsh Harbour, Abaco - Great Abaco Club




Sailing off of "Snappas" Restaurant in the Harbour at Marsh Harbour



Another sailing day at "Snappas" In Marsh Harbour




Sailing in Man-O-War Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas 

 

 

 

NANAIMO RC LASER FLEET #17
Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

 

Fleet Captain and Western and Western Canada Regional Secretary Bruce McQuade

 

 

 

Nanaimo RC Laser fleet #17 started quietly in the winter of 2008.The crew of a Cal 25 race boat bought four, just to mix it up a little, and to tune up our racing skills. Well the word got out, and soon there were 12 boats racing in Nanaimo harbour, on Vancouver Island, in beautiful   British Columbia, Canada.  After  14 months, we now have 17 RC Lasers in our fleet.

We started a website, www.nanaimorclaser.com, to post results, tell stories, and to try to promote a fantastic one-design RC boat. This has led to meeting some very interesting RC Laser sailors from around the world.

We sail mostly off the waterfront walkway at Stones Marina, but often go to Protection Island, and other locations like the floating pub, who sponsors our RC OCEAN RACE, a 3 mile “distance “ race around Protection Island complete with chase boats and shore side festivities. Our second annual race is April 24 2010, and is open to all RC classes.

Most of the sailors in our fleet have big boat experience, with a few being quite successful at full size racing. We race year round with ongoing series races, one on one match racing, and numerous weekend regattas. Some of us think that this is more fun than big boat racing, especially in the winter. It certainly is warmer and drier, and where else can you get so many races sailed in such a short period of time, standing shoulder to shoulder with your competition.

 We are a relaxed yet competitive bunch.  We have a lot of laughs, but we play by the rules.  We’re all   looking  forward to meeting and racing with others from the RC Laser world. So if you’r ever in the neighbourhood, be sure to look us up.

Fleet 17 sailors:  02 Keith Climenhaga, 03 Bob Serenius, 04 Doug Compton, 39 Patrick Backhouse, 40&41 Ken Serenius, 62 John Vallis, 66 Ron Pitman, 67 Aaron Paugh, 68 Arne Hensen, 69 Debbie Crowe, 70 Bruce McQuade, 80 Tim Daniels, 90 Graham Millington, 91 Bill Smith, 92 Linda Holland, 93 Ken Holland, 94 Rob.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fleet  Racing January 2010 on the walkway at Stones Marina
     Living life on the edge.



Some sailors commute with their big boat to race on Protection Island



Nanaimo Harbour September 2009

 

Marco Island Model Yacht Club, in Marco Island, Florida, was founded in 2003 by series of Marco Island Racquet Center players. One day after playing tennis John Moulton, Tom Schwartzburg and George Domenech got into a discussion about Model Sailing and how much fun they were having sailing there Victoria's on John’s canal. George did not know they were model sailors in Marco as a result he never had taken his Skandia model he had built while living in Boca Raton. So he decided to join them on a Saturday afternoon with his Skandia. Naturally the newer Victoria's technology was too much for George's old Skandia. Needless to say he could not win a race. George told the guys I will be back with a new boat.

 

Several weeks later I received the November issue of the AMYA (American Model Yachting Magazine) that featured the RC Laser. He decided this would be the boat that would run circles around Tom and John's Victoria. So he joined them on a Saturday at the canal as expected the Laser was too much for the Victoria's.

Shortly afterwards Tom ordered one then John and soon we had 6 Laser in our group fiercely competing with each other. George figure that the perfect place to sail the Laser was at the Mackle Park pond. He ordered three inflatable buoys and the group began meeting at the Tiki Hut of Balboa street on Sundays. The only problem was that these buoys had to be thrown out in the pond with a weight and they could only put 2 out and very close to the shoreline. So he met with the Dana Souza Director of Recreation for the –City of Marco Island and requested permission to place several fixed buoys, after several weeks Dana called George and told him he could go ahead and place the buoys he had built. After installing the buoys we also got permission build a small platform dock so we could launch our boats.

 

So that was the beginning of the MIMYC and we decided to start a club and we incorporated as a not for profit organization. We now have 15 members and growing fast. The original founders were, Tom Schwartzburg, John Moulten, Jim Karter, Nic Nicolson, John Gerig, and Mark Crooks.

Currently, in 2010, the MIMYC will have a new pavilion with electricity and water. The newly installed floating dock and cement steps will now accommodate more bodies launching and retrieving boats and the lake has multiple buoys allowing for a variety of choices for true upwind courses. This is a terrific venue for model boat racing.

This coming March 5-7, 2010 the MIMYC will be holding its Sixth Annual Marco Island Mid-Winter R/C Laser Championship Regatta at Mackle Park and expects skippers from all over the US/UK/Bahamas. This regatta could break the North American record for attendance.

Fleet Members

George Domenech, Rocky Cale, Norman Borgo, Jim Danbom, Dave Haggart, Nic Nicolson, Bill Cook, Steve Moyer, Bob Walker, Dan Harvey, Herb Glessman, Jim Schudel, Tom Volpe, Carl Hansen, Rick Hillyer, Tom Wald, Joe Civello, Jim Karter, Curt Hathaway, Russ Colombo, Linda Colombo, Bob MacNeil, Sandy MacNeil, Mike Willms, Chappy Thiel

The above is the brand new steps, ramp and floating dock installed recently to accomodate more skippers launching and retreiving their yachts. This dock will greatly speed up the transition from heat to heat in large regattas

 

Below is a fleet start during one of the many afternoon RC Laser racing days at Marco's Mackle Park. This fleet sails twice a week in the winter months when all the resident snowbirds decend on the island.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fleet members include:

Bob and Sandy MacNeill, Dean and Sue Neely, John Wipple (2 boats), Andy Montano, Brian Drum, Joe Stanton (2 boats), Jimmy Waygood, Jim Allen, Dave Barnett (2 boats)

 

 

 

Winter sailing is held on Sunday mornings at the Lake Naomi Club.  The breeze is provided by 10 very large fans.  There are no wind shifts to worry about on the inside man made lake.

 

Lake Naomi has a long and storied legacy of sailing starting back in the 50s as the LNSA. In the 60s a benevolent developer bought up all of the surrounding land, including the lake, and proceeded to sell vacation lots and formed the Lake Naomi Club. The LNSA became the LNCSA as a result.

For many years we have had a successful adult racing program (Dusters, Lasers, and Sunfish) as well as a popular junior sailing/racing program. The MacNeill's introduced us to the RCLaser in 2008 and our first shipment of seven boats came in October of that year. We have added a few since them as well for a total of 15 local members.

During the regular season, we of course sail on Lake Naomi (typically the latter part of the afternoon on Thursdays and Sundays). Last winter we had four Sunday morning trials of sailing in the indoor pool at our recently built Community Center. This winter season (November through March) we have official pool time from 8-10AM on Sunday mornings. The pictures are from Sunday, 11/13. I wish I had a fan picture -- it takes a lot of fan power to cover a pool. We hope to get a few YouTube videos of both our summer and winter venues.

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