Laser North Americans

The Laser North Americans were held at the Gorge  near Portland, Oregon. It was held from July 19th to 22nd. I finished 9th out of the 51 boats in the event. Full results can be found here.

I drove down about a week before the regatta with my boat on the roof. I was camping just off the regatta site at Cascade Locks.  It was an awesome spot. I picked up a BBQ for our campsite and we cooked on that almost every night. Because of the winds there was never any bugs at our site.

The team and I got a lot of training off before racing started. The first day was windy. It was 19 kts gusting up to the high 20s. However on the second day of training it got properly wind. It was steady 30kts gusting 36kts as measured by the weather station on the side of the river. Day three was a lot like the second with huge winds.

After that the the days of training started to blend together but most of them were really windy. We did a lot of training,  working hard on calling the lay lines in the current and finding the best way to take advantage of it up wind.

The day before the regatta started was my birthday so the team went Go Karting in Portland. It was a lot of fun and a great way to take our minds off sailing. That night the team got me an awesome birthday cake.

The first day of the regatta brought light wind and chaos at the regatta site. There were about 180 boats total in the event and all of them had to measure in their sails. The regatta organizers did a good job of sorting it all out. After an hour postponement to wait for wind we got the first race going. The wind built throughout the day however it never got that windy.

Day two started off light and again built throughout the day. Over the first two days I had some decent and some really bad races. Day three was a bit windier and it continued to build and build. By the end it was really windy. I won the last race having had a good start and getting to the right side. I was 2nd around the top mark and then the first boat and I ground it out on the right side. We had a big lead by the top mark. I did not look around on the down wind and by the time I got to the bottom I was winning. Then I just sailed a good reach and last up wind. I was pumped about this race.  It finally felt like my sailing was all starting to come together.

The last day was the windiest of them all. I was really pumped. I had an ok first race and then a horrible second. However in both of them I was top three the the top mark. The third and last race I was first to the top mark having started at the boat and been the first to tack off to the right. After the great rounding I sail a solid rest of the race. I lead the whole race winning the race. I was really happy with it. It felt great to end the regatta on a high note.

I am pleased with finishing in the top ten and know that my result could of been better with the level of sailing I was doing however rounding the top mark in the top three spot a lot of the time and my up wind speed, which I think was some of the best in the fleet, are big achievements.

I now have some time off before CORK so I will be doing some coaching.

-Kyle