By Richard Didham
The 2012 Laser North American Championship was held in Cascade Locks Oregon in the infamous Columbia River Gorge. After driving a total of 22 hours and catching the flu on the first day of driving I was relieved to have finally made it to the event site. Even though I got there a day early in order to practice and familiarize myself with the very strange venue, I decided to use the entire day to rest in the hotel room because I was still feeling very sick and knew I was going to need to recover by the next day.
Day 1 of the regatta was marked by a very strange occurrence that the gorge rarely sees, postponement on land due too little wind, with a consistent current of about 4 knots in some regions, the race committee needed at least 8 knots of breeze in order to race us! This Lack of wind was due to a thunderstorm that was far west of us, but was not allowing the usual thermal to develop. Later on in the day the breeze did fill in a little but nothing compared to what the gorge usually sees. We sailed 3 races in about 12 to 15 knots and although I had recovered significantly from the days earlier, by the end I had a horrible head ache and sore throat and knew that my scores had suffered as a result of that. I posted a 34, a 28 and a 41, and was in 35th over all but knew that I could do much better
On day 2 of the regatta the thunder storm finally reached us and we woke up to moderate rain and no wind. Eventually, the storm did pass us and the race committee was able to complete 4 races in winds between 10 knots at the beginning of the day which built to roughly 17 by the start of the last race. I sailed a much better than I had the day before and with a 22, 26, 13, 19; I was able to discard the 41 from yesterdays racing and move up 10 places to sit at 25th at the end of the day. By this point in time, the entire fleet had figured out how favored the right side of the course was because of the better current and geographic shift on that side. Getting a good start off the line became more critical than ever and it became very apparent to me than I needed work in this area of my sailing. I was able to get off the line with a good lane on the race that I got 13th in but I needed to get off the line better in my other races tomorrow.
Day 3 was much more normal for the gorge, waking up to sunny skies with warmer weather I was ready to sail and improve my scores. The race committee completed 4 more races in winds that built from 12 knots the first race to about 20 knots for the first race. I got a 16, 14, 28, 26 and now was able to also drop the 34th from the first day which moved me up to 22nd overall. Again, my greatest frustration that day was my starts and I was only really satisfied with my 14th finish. I had excellent boat speed and was even able to recover in the first race and fight my way back to 16th. Going Into the last day I was ready to keep improving and moving up the leader board.
Day 4 was the final day of racing for the gorge and locals were saying it was going to be the windiest day so far. I left the beach wondering if I would be regretting my decision to sail a full rig instead of the smaller radial rig. We sailed 3 races to end the regatta in much cooler conditions than we had had earlier although it never reached the 25-30 knots that some people told me would happen, it was the windiest day so far with a consistent breeze of around 23 knots gusting to the upper 20's. By this point, I was extremely over powered on the up wind legs and was struggling to keep the boat upright on the down wind legs. This is also a reflection of the simple truth that San Diego doesn't offer very many heavy air days to train in. I scored 30, 33, 31 and walked away knowing I needed to improve my heavy weather sailing and gain some weight while I was at it! I still had a great regatta however despite being one of the youngest full rig sailors. I would like to thank the San Diego Yacht Club's junior program and the SDYC competition fund for all their support and I can’t wait to go back to the gorge in a couple weeks for US Sailing's Youth Champs.
By Paul Didham
Laser North American championship was a great experience. Just being able to go to the Colombia River Gorge was, well amazing. For me being new to the laser class and being able to go to such am important big regatta was a lot of fun. Overall the regatta was a big learning experience. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity and now I am better prepared for the next event.
The regatta was four days and split into two sections, the qualification races and gold, silver fleet races. The qualification races took up the first two day's. Depending on how you did it determined if you would go into gold or silver fleet. Top 50 go to gold lower 50 go to silver. Being from San Diego the Columbian River Gorge had two things that san Diego did not, wind and current. If I had to say what was the hardest part sailing in the gorge was it would be the wind and the current. This was my fist time sailing in a river so I didn't know what to expect but after the first day I knew exactly what I was up against.
After the qualification days the fleets were split into gold and silver, I made silver. I was not doing to bad either considering this was my first major regatta I was five from the bottom, but I wasn't expecting to do well, it was just a learning experience.
In conclusion Laser North Americans was a great experience and I learned a lot that will help me become a better laser sailor. I cant wait for next year when I can put what I learned to good use. Thank you for sponsoring me for the event , your generous donation is greatly appreciated.