The 2013 Laser Pacific Coast Championship was held in the Columbia River Gorge, July 12-14. Famous for its extreme thermal breezes, "The Gorge" is a fantastic big breeze venue to practice and race in. As expected there were sailors from Canada and the US but most were from the West Coast. I was the only sailor from SDYC but there were also three from MBYC.
I was sailing the full rig configuration and got to practice in the venue for a couple of days before hadn the first day started with relatively light wind strength of 18 knots. Because we are sailing on a river, there is a constant current running against the wind, making for short upwind legs and long downwind legs. This put much more emphasis on the downwind legs than on the upwind legs and allowed much more room to pass boats on the downwind. The first and last races of the day were almost replicas of each other. I had a conservative start in the middle of the line and after rounding the windward mark in roughly 10th place I consistently passed boats downwind in order to finish 4th. Unfortunately on the second race of the day the rivet hodling my mainsheet block onto the boom broke and I was forced to retire and buy a new boom. After the first day of racing I finished with a 4, DNF, 4.
The second day was much lighter than the day before. Due to a strange frontal system that was passing through that day only a weak thermal of between 5 and 8 knots was able to develop. This was the first time most of us sailing had raced in light breezes at the gorge. Playing the current and the shifts was really hard this day and the fleet constantly inverted over itself. Huge lead changes were the norm and I ended the day with a 17, 1 15, 10, moving myself into 10th place overall after dropping my DNF.
Day three started out really light, only five knots but gradually built to eighteen for the last race; I placed 22nd, 4th, and 2nd. So I finished the regatta in 6th plce but felt it could have been better if I had not suffered the gear failure, but there is always another regatta down the road where I can redeem myself. I would like to thank San Diego Yacht Club for their financial support in helping me make it to the beautiful and exciting Columbia River Gorge.
Richard Didham