Activate Your Laser Fleet Day at Keyhaven Yacht Club

by Mark Jardine 6 May 2011 21:53 NZST 1 May 2011

Activate Your Laser Fleet Day at Keyhaven © Brett Cokayne

The Activate Your Laser Fleet team’s latest trip was to Keyhaven Yacht Club, at the western tip of the Solent. The club has had a small Laser fleet for a number of years and is now looking to increase the fleet size for their regular Sunday racing. The Activate Day consisted of everyone taking part in the regular race in the morning, followed by video de-brief by Brett Cokayne and Chris Tooley to look at our technique and then some simple ways to ‘pimp’ some of the old Lasers.

A breezy easterly, hitting 25 knots at times, was the order of the day, which had kicked up quite a swell by the time it reached our little enclave beside Hurst Castle and the racing was challenging to say the least. We had an extra five new boats on the water, courtesy of LaserPerformance, which were used by those who were wanting to give Laser sailing a try, or who used to sail Lasers and were wanting to get back in to racing. This boosted the fleet size to 15 boats which made for a great sight and showed everyone just how good the racing could be if this was a regular occurrence. It was a great credit to all these sailors as to how they handled the conditions – while nearly everyone took a swim at some point, they persisted and mostly got round the course in one piece, with the odd cut and bruise!

Once ashore, Brett and Chris set up their projector in the clubhouse and showed us some clips from the racing. Emphasis was put on keeping the boat flat upwind, technique on the bear away and how to avoid the dreaded ‘mainsheet snag’ during gybes. The Laser has undoubtedly become easier and nicer boats to sail since the XD kits were introduced, but changing the kicking strap on an old Laser can be expensive. Brett and Chris outlined how, with a couple of blocks, the purchase can be increased on an old kicker – a cost effective half-way house. Really useful PDF’s have been circulated which breakdown exactly what is needed to Activate the kicker, downhaul and outhaul systems.

Everyone came away from the day feeling really positive about the season ahead. Those who borrowed the new Lasers are now looking for boats to buy and join in the regular racing and many more who couldn’t make the day are doing similar. Signs are really good for reaching the target of having 20 Lasers out on the water this season.

There are a few key people who I must give a huge thank-you for making this day possible; Steve Hopkins for bringing the six Activate Lasers down on Saturday morning, Brett Cokayne and Chris Tooley for running the Activate session (and acting as Rescue Boat crew) and the Keyhaven Race Officers, Darcy Harmer-Manning and Ian Pople, Bob Bishop and their Rescue Boat teams, who were certainly kept busy on the day!

The Activate Your Laser Fleet scheme is exactly what sailing needs – our sport is based on grass-roots clubs who have people regularly out on the water and this is exactly the way to encourage that to happen.

Video of the Day: (by Brett Cokayne)