LFSC Laser Regatta- EJ O'Mara Sailing Fundraiser

The first Lake Fenton Laser Regatta and EJ O'Mara Fundraiser was a great success! The support I received from the LFSC club members, friends, and family was amazing!

The number of boats that showed up to sail was a little on the light side but,those that made it had a great day of sailing and enjoyed a wonderful homemade breakfast thanks to my mother's excellent cooking. A delicious lunch served on the water, which made it possible for Dave Nickels to get off six solid races. They were efficient and very well run. The weather cooperated very nicely with sunny skies and an 8-12 knot North-Westerly. At the end of the day I had the honor of handing out some beautiful pictures, compliments of my sister, as competitor's trophies. Speaking of my sister, Ariel, she made my day when I happened to look back just in time to see her tack, and get hit with some extra wind just at that moment. With her considerable athleticism she jumped to the high side to flatten out the tipping boat. However in her excitement, she forgot to put her feet under the hiking strap and with the force of her jump, not stopped with her feet being secured under the hiking strap she sailed right off the side of the boat straight into the water! The spectators were very entertained that she got right back up on her boat and continued sailing. However for me it was simply one of the funniest things to date I have seen on the water.

Special thanks go out to my family, the Olsund family, Dave Nickels, and the Beckmans without their help this event would not have been possible! And again thank you to each person that came out to support me and my dream of going to the Olympics in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! And for all of you who missed out and would still like to participate in the fundraiser please contact me at ejomara@gmail.com. And I do plan on scheduling another one of these regattas so you can also just come to the next one!

LFSC Laser Regatta- EJ O'Mara Sailing Fundraiser

The past couple weeks I have been preparing to host a Laser regatta at Lake Fenton on May 15! I am doing it as a fundraiser for my training, travel, coaching, and equipment fees for the 2010 sailing year. I am very excited to host this regatta and I hope everyone reading this can come! For more information and the NOR(notice of race) visit http://www.d19laser.org/. Also if you can not be there but would still like to participate in the fundraiser you can send a check made out to Lake Fenton Sailing School to 3130 Eugene St. Burton, MI! Any support is greatly appreciated and I will be keeping everyone up to date on the regatta!

Sailing :D

The last couple days have been a blast! Friday I went out for the first time in my brand new laser on Lake Fenton!(couldn't have happened with out the support of Avon Sailboats) It was blowing around 16 to 18 knots and I just went out and had fun. I could feel the difference in the way the boat handled and how easily it came onto a plane. And to make it even better Urs, a fellow laser sailor, happened to be out there to race around with.

Today I traveled down to Lake St Claire to go sailing with Tom Labelle. I met him around one at a boat launch, rigged up, and went out. It started off slow, but after about half an hour we were glad we had went with the radial rigs. It picked up to around 18knots and we sailed straight up wind. We worked on our endurance and wave technique until our legs gave out. After sailing upwind that far we had a nice long run downwind. We both worked on big turns while surfing the waves and jumping over them when we could. It was a blast and we both benefited I believe, thanks Tom!

CISA Regatta

The last day of the CISA clinic was a day of racing. It was light in the morning but picked up to around 12knots by the time we got the first race off. This was the time to put the three days of training to the test and to work on what I had learned in a racing situation.

The first race I had a good start but let two people get leveraged out to the right side of me. I came to the windward mark in third place and proceded to pass one of the two on the downwind and kept my position for the rest of the race. The second race did not start out so well, having weeds on my centerboard for the first half of the upwind. That put me in 7th at the windward mark, however I was able to stay attatched to the main pack and on the next downwind I went to work. With my newly aquired skills for sailing downwind I was able to keep the boat moving and worked my way past three boats by the bottom mark. That was a great accomplishment for me and I ended up in fourth in that race overall. There were three races to follow, one of which I fouled into a bad postion, and my scores were 6-2-1 which was enough for second place.

The CISA clinic is an overall great experience and I suggest it to anyone looking to improve their laser skills!

CISA Day Three

After three days of morning work outs, two sessions of intense training on the water, and debriefs after every one I feel like I have gotten lots of somethings accomplished. A couple things that stuck out to me was the improvement on my starting ability, a change in my downwind technique, and the ability to handle mark rounding both tactically and from a boat handling perspective. Zach and Brett have been great coaches each bringing something different to the table.

Zach has driven in the importance of goal setting for everything in sailing and also outside of sailing. Once I get on board with writing my long term, short term, and sub goals I believe it will help drive me to my destination. This along with the coaching, the sailing, and the great enjoyment I have gotten out of this grueling schedule tells me that I am ready to commit to full time training when the time comes.

CISA- Training in Long Beach

Exhausted is an understatement. After waking up at 6:30, arriving at the club at 8, doing a morning work out, sailing for 6 hours, debriefing, and listening to a speaker it is now 9pm and I am finally back to the house. It was a productive day however, the coaches (Brett Davis and Zach Riley) are amazing, both having great sailing careers with Zach having got a silver medal at the last Olympic games. This is a great oppurtunity and I look forward to the three days I have left here!