u/RoyalRenn

I'd love your thoughts on this. Basically if you were taking an older (but well cared for) Laser on, what would you check and replace if necessary? I'm ignoring the obvious stuff like hull repair and would like input on the things that may "age out" over time. It could be either parts or even leakage from old silicone. What should be replaced for safety reasons, and what for competitiveness reasons (club racing)?

Reason I'm asking: I've been racing on a borrowed fleet boat recently and have had a lot of things break! As I just purchased a 1994 Vanguard Laser in good shape, I need to know what the "fluid and tire changes" are. I already know to swap out the hiking strap, Gudgeons, and faded main sheets, as I've had failures in all of these!

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Dzierwa, 22, was also in the 2025 draft, selected by the Orioles in the second round. He split this year between High A (eight starts) and Double A (16 starts), posting a 2.27 ERA thanks in part to his above-average command and control. It’s a funky look for hitters, especially left-handed ones, and Dzierwa relies on locating and changing speeds and angles more than pure velocity. It worked at both spots, as he walked just 5.6 percent of Double-A batters he faced and struck out 27.9 percent.

He ranked second in ERA in the minors among pitchers with 100 innings pitched, and fifth if we lower the threshold to 80 innings, at which point he’s behind Anderson, Tampa Bay’s Jacob Kisting, and two of his teammates in Double-A Chesapeake: Caden Hunter and Anthony Eyanson. The Orioles’ system has a lot of pitching coming, and when was the last time anyone could say that?

Pretty much what the post says: my wife and I are in La Jolla on vacation though the end of the week and would love to sail with someone locally. Our club is a dinghy racing club (I race Laser weekdays and Snipes on Sunday) but our club is not "reciprocal" as we are a racing club rather than a full yacht club. If anyone is up for it, we'd love to sail with y'all on a bigger boat if you need crew. Just meeting up and talking sailing and how awesome San Diego is would be fun too!

An interesting article on The Athletic about Freddy Peralta's changes since coming over. Lots of content, but this also caught my attention:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7579113/2026/09/10/tampa-bay-rays-freddy-peralta-changeup-usage/

The Rays picked up Bryan Baker from the Orioles for a draft pick in 2025. At the time, he was a good setup man but was struggling a little against righties because he was allowing a ton of home runs off his breaking ball. After joining the Rays, he immediately turned down the slider usage and ramped up the changeup usage against righties. He’s continued that usage to the point that this year, his slider is an afterthought. Now, he’s a top-shelf right-handed closer throwing a changeup 40 percent of the time against righties. This year, the Rays have already thrown 1,000 more same-handed changeups than the Orioles.

Why is this a big deal? It’s worth highlighting because changeups traditionally have reverse platoon splits. That means that they function better against opposite-handed hitters, so generally righties like Baker and Peralta would save them for lefties in a traditional usage pattern

Sure enough, Baker has been a stud this year! So what do the Rays know about pitching that we seemingly miss?

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I was out today in really light winds (just enough to get a bit of leeward heel at the top end, all the way down to glassy water "coasting"). I tied the tiller in place and sailed for about an hour by moving my weight around (windward heel to bear away, leeward heel to point). It was pretty fun and I had the boat moving where I wanted it. I could even tack provided that I had enough speed (leeward heel, point up, big thrust back towards the transom, onto the other side).

It got me thinking: moving the rudder obviously produces drag. For those better sailors out there, do you find that you use the rudder only when absolutely necessary in very light winds; mostly steering with your body? Or is it still faster to point and bear away with the rudder becuase it's more responsive than steering by weight shifts (adding windward or leeward heel as needed)? People always say that leeward heel is slow (and that's how you point upwind without a rudder) but in this case, is it slower than using a rudder to point?

If nothing else, I learned a lot about what my boat can do and how moving around affects point of sail. Maybe it wouldn't be fun in 15 knots but I'm sure I could sail this way in up to 10 knots.

Something I'm really strugging with is upwind sailing. My boat takes on extreme weather heel in anything above around 13 knots. Every book i've read says "keep the boat flat" and I'm trying, hiking out as hard as I can. I'm not even close to flat. But I'm 5 foot 8, 170lbs, and might not have the leverage some heavier folks have.

I can never seem to get the windward telltale flying back in conjunction with the leeward telltales as it always seems to flop despite my best efforts, and often, as soon as I get the weather heel, the sail starts luffing and I stall. I have to sheet out to get the boat flat and get moving again.

What am I doing wrong? Are my vang/cunningham/outhaul settings off? What should they be for, say 10 knots sustained/16 knot puffs? And what's the technique to get more out of hiking, outside of "grow 6 inches"?

I recently joined a sailing club and it's not fancy. Roughly $60/month to moor my Laser and belong to the club. No real facilities outside of docks and a bathroom. But as I've gotten to know members, I've found them to be pretty interesting folks.

In talking to people, you get the sense that there are a lot of very successful folks. They might race a sailboat that cost less than a rusted out Yugo and drive a beater Tundra to the club, but they also fly over to Germany to take delivery of their $275K Porsche. Lots of successful professionals for sure, but it wouldn't be obvious unless you really got to know them. Certainly not from the condition of their sailboats!

This is not what I'm used to in the golf world. People love to brag about which $200K initiation club they belong to and where they've played. A lot of people don't love golf for just the game of golf: it's the status associated with certain parts of the sport for the very wealthy. But is sailing more of a "community" than other sports that tend to have a wider status-driven component to them?

Also, in your opinion, does sailing attract a certain type of person; personality, ethnicity, and intellect wise? Again, I'm talking about cheap club racing, not buying some sort of $500K Farr, of course.

I'm racing a Laser with my local fleet: I'm mid-pack but unlike a lot of others, I didn't have the benefit of a race program as a kid. So I've got to figure it out solo. The last time I raced, I absolutely got schooled by a kid who raced in college. He'd just put 2-3 seconds on me on every tack. And a 13 year old kid in a radial rig wasn't far behind me.

1. sailing downwind: do you to go from steep lee to shallow lee? Say sail from 110 degrees to 95 degrees (90 degrees being a run)? Or do you sail BTL to broad reach (say 100 to 80)? Do you heel to windward or leward, and in what wind? I often see more experienced Laser sailors in light wind sitting hard to windward, creating a strong windward heel. But I'm assuming sailing BTL, if a strong gust comes up, that takes you over? It did when I tried it!

2. roll tacking: how steep do you let the boat get on the "roll" before you level it out for the next tack? Best way to practice

3. Sheet management: downwind in light wind days, after I manage the sheet above the main block and get ready to head upwind, I can't find the right end of the sheet to pull because I've got so much at my feet. How do I keep track of that? It almost seems like a 2-colored sheet would be good: one that is out for upwind and reaching, and the rest that you would let out and keep track of downwind. That way, if there is confusion on a jibe and a lot of sheet pooled, you can quickly see what is what.

4. good ideas for training (focused techniques?). Also, how to practice starts on my own? I'm losing a few seconds there. How do I know if I'm sailing well? It's not like running where I can see my interval times improve as I get more fit.

The good news: I'm pretty competitive already with guys who've been sailing Lasers for 30+ years consistently, so I think some refinement in technique and wind-management will go a long way.

I'm literally starting from scratch here. I've rented a few keelboats but never even considered owning one. But my wife hates dinghys. I get several hours/week in my Laser and race 1-2X/week; been racing a dinghy since I was old enough to. I've tried to get her out to learn the ropes, to no avail. So if we want to hang out on the weekends, we'll have to make the jump to keelboat at some point.

First off, what is a decent budget? We live inland but some big lakes are nearby. She's thinking something that is comfortable, around 32 feet (before we met, she spent a lot of time on a nice 32 footer in Kansas; her idea of sailing is a comfortable boat, drink in hand, nice breeze). But 32 could be 25 for all I know. That's her frame of reference.

What is cruising like: just a lazy day on the lake or is it legit sailing but more downtempo than racing? Do people find themselves racing their cruising keelboats, or that more of a thing for faster purpose-built classes like the J/24 and J/105?

What's the size limit to transport a boat yourself (assuming you have a tow vehicle rated to up to 7,500 lbs?)

Ideas for a sporty yet comfortable boat? I love nothing more in life than loading up my laser in a puff, planing out on a reach.

My keelboat rentals have all been out of California, which is a hell of a lot more interesting sailing than in the plains, unfortunately.

The latest rankings for pitchers (underpinned by stuff +, health, and other factors) are out in The Athletic today. From my cursory view, we have the 2nd or 3rd worst staff in the bigs right now in terms of predictive analytics. Only 3 guys in the the top 125 (average would obviously be 4, given 125/30 is just over 4). A couple of #3s in Cameron and Wacha, and an innings-eater #4 in Lugo, with 2 of those guys on the wrong side of the hill.

From a cursory view, only the Athletics have a worse predicted staff than we do in MLB, and perhaps the Rockies (they aren't in the table at all; either forgotten or they don't have anyone who is a top 125 guy). And we don't want to be lumped in with either of those dog crap teams.

Pitching is expensive: even a #3 probably costs you $15/20M a year, and to compete in the division, assuming no huge offensive improvements, we'll need to get better starter innings. I've posted the Guardians' starters' ratings for reference; all but the White Sox (4) have 5 guys in the top 125.

1. we clearly don't have an ace or even a reliable #2

2. we don't have any depth.

Is this a 2-3 year project to develop reliable starting pitching, or will we be able to get guys coming up through AAA sooner, operating like the Guardians?

Disclaimer: yes, I know Eno Sarris' models are predictive and there are people who will jump all over him or me for using analytics, but everything shown is directionally correct. Baseball is random and people will over or under perform in smaller samples. But over time, the guys who have movement, velocity, location, and know how to get guys out, as the metrics can show, will be better. So will those that are healthy. Ragans was highly rated here 2-3 years ago but injuries caught up with him. And the list is generally accurate: we all wish that we hadn't passed on that guy playing in our backyard, Jacob Misiorowski, or had traded for Luzaro when we had the chance.

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I'm volunteering with a club to increase their youth engagmenet. The club is cheap, less than $500/year, and youth classes are very affordable (and free if you say that you can't pay). I also happen to be a market/demographics consultant, so my career is all around helping companies understand who their customers are, where they live/work/play, and what customers expect from their products. I want to leverage that thinking to get more people here out on the water, and beyond the "I grew up sailing and I want to get back into it and get my kids sailing" crowd.

Just starting out, I had some theories about why our youth engagmenet hasn't been stronger.

1. cost: this turns out not to be a factor. You don't have to be a club member to join, and you can do an entire 3-month session for $85 (roughly the same cost as eating at a Tex-Mex restaurant for 2, with 2 margaritas). As mentioned, it's free for those who can't pay. As the scholarship request rate is less than 1%, this hasn't been a barrier to entry. Even $500 to join later on is dirt cheap when you compare it to the popular sports around here (roughly 15 country clubs with initiations starting at $50K up to $325K, all with multi-year waiting lists, or $85 plus $15 for green fees/bucket of balls at most of the public courses). Even running will get you to $500 by your 3rd pair of shoes, and a full frisbee golf setup is $250. So again, it's not a cost thing. It isn't like the people who join a $200K initiation and $1,200/month are joining our sailing club, even though they are 3 miles apart.
2. convenience: this might be more of a factor, but their is no more of a time commitment than most any other after-school activity, whether it is band or sports. Plus, sailing is 1-2X a week, vs. many sports which have 4-6 practices/week and plenty of weekend travel. So if people were to say "convenience" and then I find out they are on a regional baseball team or watch TV/play video games for 5 hours/day, what they are really saying is "I'd rather not prioritize my time with sailing".

That being said, I think there is something to this when it comes to low income kids that may have parents (or single parent) working at odd hours and no transport. It was no big deal for people like me, who had a mom for a teacher, as her day at school ends at 4:15 and she can grade papers on the docks. So that may be something to look into.

3. sense of camraderie. Now we are onto something. Most of the people we get here in the youth program come with friends. Rarely to people just "stumble in" looking for something to do. It happens, but usually that's a case of a parent who sailed, just like it's often that kids in junior summer golf camps have parents that are golfers. So growing the sailing community at schools, and getting kids interested so that they bring their friends out, is a potential way to grow.

4. introduction to the sport: sailing isn't a sport that you accidentally fall into. If you didn't grow up around sailing, it can feel as foreign as piloting a plane. I often mention to people that I sail and they step back and say "you SAIL?" Where did you learn that? But when I talk to people from the upper Midwest, a very high % (comparitavely) grew up sailing or know how to sail. Same with people in parts of the NE and mid-Atlantic. It's a normal thing elsewhere, so why can't it be here?

If you're new to the sport, it can feel very intimidating, in the same way that tracking a car or joining a race-pace group bicycle ride can. Riding a bike solo at 18mph is one thing; jumping into a peloton where suddenly you're doing 24mph and a crash could send you and others to the hospital, are 6" from another wheel, and expected to pull through and move seamlessly, is very intimidating. Randos just don't show up without being introduced and shown the ropes.

I think somehow, getting over that intimidation hurdle is key, and that can start at a young age. A boat is like a car with no brakes. But you can see just how well small kids sail once they become comfortable with the gear, the technique, as we have the brainpower to adapt very quickly.

I'd also like to be able to work with boys and girls clubs and whatnot to get more low-income kids out here. Sailing, like rowing, comes across as a "rich kids" sport, even though it's not. My grandfather and his buddies founded their yacht club during the Great Depression and built all of the fleet boats in his basement on his woodworking equipment, with wood salvaged from the lumber yard scrap pile. That's also how they built the docks. Anyone can sail, and anyone can have a boat. I think to do that, we need to work to get people here, get them interested, make sure it's viewed as a fun thing to do, rather than just assuming they'll want to sail because they can for no charge.

Anyways, I'd love your thoughts on what has/hasn't worked for you or any other ideas. (and sorry for the weird spacing: Reddit formatted everything automatically)

I'm going to be spending some time on the west coast next month and I'd like to sail (I'll borrow a boat). I'm an experienced dinghy racer and have been skippering since I was old enough to handle an El Toro. But this vacation sailing will be very close to the ocean, and it will be my first time sailing in anything but a keelboat in tidal waters.

What's the best way to learn about how things like tides affect smaller boats, and how to read tides to avoid issues? I never really worried about it in a keelboat (good weather obviously) because if the wind dies or there is a gear mishap, there is a motor backup to get you home. But sailing a dinghy requires more caution as if you lose sail power, things could get dangerous quickly, right? unlike in an inland lake where you'll just sit in place until someone tows you in. Not that this has ever happened to me, as I'm quite good at self rescuing. Just recently I blew up my Laser downwind on the lee and had to de-rig and re-rig the boat in the water due to a rotated mast. But there's always something that could go wrong!

Where I'll likely be sailing has a diurnal of between 1.5 feet (lower high/higher low) and 6 feet (higher high, lower low). The 1.5 difference doesn't seem particularly concerning but relatively speaking, how big is a diurnal that goes from 7 feet to 1 foot in 6 hours?

Hi everyone,

I'd like to do the Birkie this winter! And I live in Dallas (Texas), which means no snow training. Just rollerskiing.

I bought rollerskis 6 months ago and was horrible at first, struggling to average 7mph. But I've figured it out and my technique is much stronger now; I'm skiing 9-10 miles at almost 10mph moving average. I can cruise on good pavement faster than that, but we have a lot of gibbled-up concrete here where it's almost impossible to get any bite with ski poles. I haven't tried to push past 160 BPM for HR as my technique will break down and the consequences for a fall aren't pleasant.

As for cross training, I'll get 70-100 miles a week on my road bike and I sail a physical boat 1-2X a week. Sailing is by the far the most intense workout if the wind is up.

Questions: how does rollerskiing translate to on-snow skiing in terms of fitness? It's going to be a change, sure, but I want to ensure I have the fitness necessary to comfortably ski the entire distance. It's tough to go more than 10 miles right now due to the heat index; hydration requirements are insane. I need 80-100 ounces of hydration for a one-hour ski in 90 degree heat index.

I can ski longer once "fall" hits (fall really being only 90 degrees with 58% humidity until about November). Do I ramp it up to 15, 20, 25, 30 miles eventually? Or do I need more or less, as there isn't a 1:1 conversion ratio for snow skiing to roller skiing?

He hasn't been as productive at the plate this year (114 OPS+ vs. 134 last year), but this massive difference doesn't explain the drop-off. Becuase the OPS+ difference, for 450 at bats, according to the Simple WAR Calculator (https://simplewar.lewispoll.is/) for 114 vs. 134 OPS+ is 1.1 WAR. In other words, if he was hitting like last year at 134 OPS+, he'd still only be at 3 WAR with 41 games left (1/4 of the season), putting him on pace for only 4 WAR, so -2.1 for everything besides hitting.

In fact, according to Savant, he's been unlucking and should be OPS'ing around .820. That doesn't factor into WAR, I know....just stating that he doesn't suck.

What's the story here? Has he just been grounding into a ton of double plays and running into dumb outs, plus suddenly not fielding? I don't watch every game but I don't recall too many "oof" moments out there.

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Hi all,

I need some ideas for a good Laser shoe that will protect the tops of my feet. I did a couple of hours of racing recently and the tops of my feet were rubbed raw. Obviously I could wear a pair of tennis shoes but they hold a lot of water. I want to avoid spending $150 on a "hiking shoe". I'm not that advanced and even the fast sailors aren't kitted out in expensive gear.

When I was a kid and raced Laser, I had a pair of Nike AquaSox. I don't think they are made anymore but actually they worked quite well for protecting my feet.

What other specialized gear would you recommend for a Laser? I could probably use some hiking shorts. I sail in warmer water and conditions so a wetsuit isn't a need. Anything else?

Stop the gloom! We have a real shot at making the playoffs! Folks, there is a reason we were 15-8 in July and it wasn't primarily Adley, Wells, and Ward doing the heavy lifting. They are subtractions, sure, but we are anything but tanking.

The negative case for our season:

We lost 2 WAR at the deadline for the reaminder of the season. The most valuable guy we lost at the deadline was Taylor Ward, and that's roughly a 1 loss value for the rest of the season. Tyler Wells adds another 0.5 WAR loss. Adley? He keeps getting hurt so the range of loss is 0-1 WAR.

The bullpen is a big concern.

I see an awful lot of BoSox/Yankees/Rays/Brewers on the schedule; 20 of our 51 remaining games are against MLB top 6 clubs. Damn loaded AL East.

The positive case for our season:

We are tied for 3rd highest WC slot odds with Detroit right now (14%).

We just finished 15-8 in July with Adley either on the IL or playing poorly for the month.

Polar Bear continues to be a stud and a rock.

Jackson is heating up (although his metrics don't support his recent hot streak)

Mayo and Beavers are both hitting better and potentially turning a corner.

SP has improved: Rogers and Bradish have looked impressive, and Baz is a league average 3/4 guy right now.

Basallo should be off the IL soon and Blaze (our 2nd best hitter) hopefully not far behind.

Gunnar still has superstar talent and if he gets hot, watch out.

We're still in this thing!