The Laser Midwinters West Regatta was held at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach California from March 23rd to March 25th. I finished 7th out of the 44 boats entered. The full results can be found here.
I drove down from Vancouver with a coach and we pulled a second trailer. Our big trailer had been driven out straight from Florida. We left on Saturday morning and rolled into Long beach on Sunday night. We were staying at a nice hotel about as close to the Yacht Club as you can get although it was still a 10min drive. Our Royal Vancouver Yacht Club representation at this event was one of the biggest that we have had in years. There were fourteen sailors plus two coaches,six of us in full rig Lasers and eight in Radial.
We had four days before the event, spending the mornings making sure that all of the boats were set up correctly and then sailing in the afternoons as the winds started to build. There was hiking breeze for every day of training with clear blue skies. It could not have got much better.
As is so often the case the first day of the regatta brought light winds, overcast skies and smog. We did get the three races off that the race committee was trying for but after the first race there was no hiking to be done. The second race was my best of the day. After a good start at the pin I immediately tacked and got going on the lifted tack. I was third to the top mark passing both boats on the reach. One of them got past me as I protected the fleet on the second beat finishing the race in second and really happy with that.
Day two was a lot like day one with light wind and no hiking. The Race Committee was trying for four races but only managed to get three off. I had a solid day and was reasonably pleased with how I was sailing. It was nice for us to get some sailing in lighter winds as we have not had much of that over the winter.
On the third day of racing we arrived at the club to see sand blowing and the palm trees swaying. Most of the team was quite excited about this. However, shortly after arriving the Race Committee put up AP saying that it was too windy and and that they were going to wait for the front to go through. At 12:00 AP went down meaning a 1 o’clock start. We got out of the harbor and did a long upwind warm up before going and finding our committee boat. It turned out to still be windy with gusts up to 25kts and some nice big waves. The start line was really pin favored I started up the line abit but not in an ideal position. There were four of us from Royal Vancouver that were loving the winds! I got to the the first mark in third. After two more laps of the course and some rearranging of the fleet I ended up fourth behind three sailors from our team. We were hoping for more but there was only one race sailed that day. I finished the regatta in seventh and happy with that as it is a step up from my tenth last year at this event. Royal Vancouver Yacht Club ended up winning Laser full rigs with the boat in first and four boats in the top seven.
Up next for me is lots of gym work and training as I prepare for the Laser Worlds in Germany at the beginning of May.
-Kyle
