Top competitors at Marco Laser Regatta

Photo by ROGER LALONDE

Sailors take their RC Laser sialboats out of the water as other captains put them in at the RC Laser Regatta Miid-Winter Chanpionship at Mackle Park Lake in 2008. The racers will be back in action on March 21-22.

Commodore George Domenech tells me entries continue to increase for the 5th Annual Marco Island RC Laser Regatta, March 21-22.

Presently we have 28 skippers and expecting a total of 30. Among them will be Hank Buchanan, 2007 and 2008 winner, who is returning to defend his title.

He is expected to have tough competition from experienced skippers like the Kaighin brothers, Jim, from the Bahamas and Mike from Sarasota and Steve Lang (Laser national distributor) from Tennessee. Our local, seasoned sailors, like Jim Danbom, Nic Nicolson, Dave Haggart, Don Harthorn, Carl Hansen and Bob McNeil are ready to claim and be in the winner’s circle and in the top five finishers.

At the present time 11 out-of-town skippers are registered. They consider the conditions of Mackle Park Lake not only ideal for RC model sailing, but also one of the best venues for model sailing regattas.

This year, for the first time, we will have a computerized scoring system, designed by one of our Marco Island Model Yacht Club member Carl Hansen from New Jersey. The system is designed for use on site, with finishes posted immediately after each race.

The system then automatically updates the next race’s form to identify which boats are in which heats. Thus, the odd/even list for each race is automatically generated from the results of the previous race. It also allows all competitors with immediate status on where they are in the standings.

The RC Lasers are interesting, exciting, challenging, and just plain fun. You may not need the physical skills of regular sailing, but you still need the strategy and know how. Anybody can enjoy sailing this great Laser model, even if you are 8 or 80.

Racing begins at 10 a.m., March 21. Final race of the day is 4 p.m. Racing resumes at 10 a.m., March 22, with the final race at 3 p.m. and awards presented at 4 p.m.