2024 Liberty RC Laser League Final Results and the Cooper River RC Laser Regatta Report

Submitted by Dave Branning, Region 2 Director on 11/26/24

The fifth and final leg of the 2023 Liberty RC Laser League concluded on Saturday, November 23rd at Cooper River YC in Collingswood, NJ. The 2024 “league” had 47 different skippers participating with twelve skippers qualifying having sailed the required three of five regattas to count for the series. Glenn Chalder, Region 1 AMYA Director, lives in Simsbury, CT, and is the only skipper to sail in all five league events. E-ZPass loves Glenn.

With four days to go before the regatta the weather gods decided to scare the 19 pre-registrants into taking a second look at the 20-30, puffs to 40 mph NNW wind forecast. Some decided to just stay home. By the time we entered the clubhouse Saturday morning it looked a tad better than that but we had word we were down to 14 skippers all rigged up for C-D Sail winds. Rob Seidelmann, regatta chairman, opted to not sail and just be buoy and chase boat operator. He would have been the 15th skipper. He stressed to me that the most important thing was a successful good-time event and wanted to be able to assist whenever possible. Robbie made the day hum, paying attention to details but I know he would have loved the action. The good news was the marks were placed perfectly once and Rob only had one boat rescue all day.

On the water it was a choice of sail dilemma: C-Sail or D-Sail all day! Of course, some made smart (lucky?) decisions, while others guessed wrong as the cat’s paw puffs came in waves and did not last throughout the whole course. Guessing the pressure on the course was tantamount to success. The top guys have a knack for this. The downwind run to the leeward mark was a contest to avoid submarining and spinning out of control. No one escaped the nose dive as it was a contest to minimize the inevitable. Welcome to Cooper River. She never disappoints. You ought to be here when there’s light wind.

Fortunately for Raritan’s Frank Scalisi, he had won three previous Liberty RC Laser League regattas: St. Patrick’s, Bunny Bowl and Dead Crab. No one could match that trifecta. But on this day, Metedeconk River’s, Stuart Challoner was in charge and won the Cooper River regatta by eight points over Frank Scalisi in second. Clubmate, Tom Sollas finished third in the regatta and seventh overall in the league. Glenn Chalder and Kevin LeCompte rounded out the top five for the regatta. Glenn would end up tied with Jim Flach, who was not here, for third in the league with Jim already garnering good scores in three previous regattas to break the tie with Glenn. There were some skippers who did not want to put up with the frustrations of heavy winds so there were dropouts during the course of the day. By race #11 we were down to 10 skippers standing to sail the last 4 races.

Certainly, a tip of the hat goes to Rob and Becky Seidelmann who kept the day moving smoothly and kept us warm in the clubhouse on breaks and fed us well all day. The post regatta cooler of beer and sodas helped us relax and enjoy the camaraderie. We’ll talk about this one for a while.

Summary of the 2024 West Jersey Regatta and the 2023 Liberty RC Laser League series finale.
Date: November 23, 2024
Location: Cooper River YC, Collingswood, NJ
Host Club: West Jersey MYC
Entries: 14
Winds: NNW 15-20+ mph
Heats Completed: 14
Scoring: Low point; two throw-outs
Race Committee: RD, Dave Branning; Finish line/electronic scoring/photography,
Judy Bonanno; Assistant to the Regatta Chairman: Becky Seidelmann

2024 Liberty RC Laser League Results Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16cauqiMVAKbZfZIFS-RPlqzOBXRk_SFA/view?ts=67462c09

Judy’s Picture Link:
https://judybonanno.smugmug.com/Sailing/LASER/2024-Cooper-River-Laser-Regatta/2024-Cooper-River-Laser-Regatta

Becky Seidelmann’s Picture Link:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOgzYkrFGVnHG6Kp-AmNTPQWuRsiEscOXoQAlOf5-17sTzC-6tt-KIfe14tkuwurg?key=Mi1fZUtvZGpzaWtHdEU1aGYzakRvSzV4VTlMamh3

RESULTS
Place Skipper Points
1 Stuart Challoner 25
2 Frank Scalisi 33
3 Tom Sollas 44
4 Glenn Chalder 46
5 Kevin LeCompte 50
6 Jamey Betz 58
7 Tom Bird 67
8 Domenick Bonanno 82
9 Cape May Ray 95
10 Bill Sysyn 107
11 John Parker 132
12 Rick Landell 170
13 Joe Paradine 170
14 Konrad Richter 179