Quannapowitt Yacht Club

The QYC Laser fleet added a number of new members this past year and we are planning activities for this winter and spring to draw additional attention to QYC and what a great venue it is for Laser sailing.

Participants at both our May Madness Regatta and the Last Blast Regatta in October have raved about our club and our lake, and each year we have attracted new members from the 15 to 20 entrants per regatta. The QYC Laser fleet is the only greater Boston summer Laser fleet (There is a frostbite fleet in Winthrop.), so we are in a great position to build a more robust fleet.

The Laser offers a couple of exciting advantage as a fleet building boat at QYC: there are more Lasers than any other sailboat in the world (over 190,000); there is an active Masters (over 35 years old) Racing schedule and roster; the smaller Radial Sail Laser is the Olympic woman’s single handed boat; and New England has the greatest concentration of Laser racers in the United States (over 300). A racing fleet of eight to 15 boats seems like a very realistic goal.

The QYC Laser Fleet has taken responsibility for QYC Laser maintenance, repair, upgrading and storage. Meetings are planned this winter to design a publicity campaign, plan training sessions in the spring, form regatta committees and prep boats for next season’s sailing.

All of this would be of little value if the racing weren’t close and competitive. This summer winners consistently changed and there were rarely less than three boats on the line on Sundays. On the beach, racers discussed sail and weight trim, strategy and tactics, and go-fast gear tweaks. We are also grateful to John Kerr for chasing our tail-enders around the course in his Daysailer and helping them keep their focus on improving.

And while it isn’t necessary in order to sail a Laser, most members of the Laser fleet also talk about how sailing an active boat encourages them to watch their weight and keep up with the exercise. After an end of season break many of us will quietly start our sit-up and endurance building regimes and increase our daily stretching moves again during January. After all, the May Madness Regatta will be upon us soon.