Quannapowitt Yacht Club

QYC's May Madness Laser regatta was held Saturday in variable winds and mostly sunny skies. 20 sailors from Mass, New Hampshire and Maine showed up for the season opener. The morning didn"t look very promising, but after a minor delay the winds became steady and never left us for the rest of the eight race series. As if choreographed for a bunch of sailors coming out of hibernation, the breeze let us get our boat-handling skills warmed up and our sailing instincts refocused and then it slowly built to keep our attention sharp.

Mike McCaffrey did his usual superior job of keeping things moving and reacting to wind shifts with aplomb. The QYC race committee was represented by Brian Wilson and Brian Campinell underlining how important racing is to QYC. What a pleasure to be a part of an organization that takes its fun so seriously.

Pictures of the regatta were taken by Deb McCaffrey and can be seen shortly at http://ddmm.smugmug.com choose the "Sailing" gallery then "May Madness 2009" password is "MayMad". Deb adds a benefit to the event that few other clubs offer " pictures of individuals in action.

Participants were generous in their spontaneous praise of QYC"s efforts:

• "The best regattas I attend all year."
• "You folks are great!"
• "Always a really well run regatta."
• "I love your club and how easy it is to race here."
• "What a spread (the food) you lay out."

The majority of the sailors were in the Laser-Masters category, but we had 2 under 18 year olds, three college students from Tufts and a few "adult" sailors.

If you"re a Laser sailor, I invite you to join us at QYC. If you"ve never sailed a Laser I invite you to call for information and a possible test sail.

Also check out www.Lasersailingnotes.com for more QYC information and Laser thoughts. See Laser District-7 web site for other regattas in the New England area.