Laser Master Worlds; Tillerman's lament

Tillerman returned from the Laser Master Worlds in a funk. With most races of the Laser Master Worlds at Hayling Island, UK held in very extreme conditions, Tillerman completed about half the races; a result that, for Type A-Tillerman, has him retreating into self recrimination and navel gazing.

Whoa... Tillerman, quit the self blame! Are we going to blame a grandfather for not handling the extreme conditions designed to test Olympic athletes (because of logistics, the Laser Master Worlds follows the Laser Open Worlds.....locations are chosen to test the Olympic guys, the grandfathers get to brutally experience the same waters a week or so later). Maybe the Grand Masters (those over 55) and the Great Grandmasters (those over 65) need to make a break from the Laser Worlds circus and schedule a Worlds event someplace warm with moderate winds (maybe Cabarete with racing in the morning). And while we're changing the location, how about scheduling just one race a day (let's aim for max 3 hours out on the race course).

Tillerman, if it is any consolation, I'm not sure that I, when I was sailing Lasers back in my 20's, would have done any better at Hayling Island.

Perhaps the Laser Grandfather Worlds should take a page from the Italian International 12 foot class "Dinghy Classico" wooden boat championship.

How to run a Grandfather championship....lets see; start with wine....lots of wine, food......lots of food, a green apertif, dancing.... oh, you want sailboat racing....... some sailboat racing in moderate winds followed by wine.... lots of wine, food....lots of food.......

Let's go to the videotape...........



Let's see, if we get a syndicate of four.... We buy one of these absurdly expensive wooden International 12's and every four years I would get to race this regatta. Wow! Who's in?