The 2013 Laser US National Championships were held at Santa Cruz Yacht Club, on June 26-30. Due to a strange front that came through three days before the regatta started, our training days were all characterized by cold weather, rain, and no wind. After this system passed, however, we were greeted with the amazing sailing conditions that Santa Cruz is known for: thermal breezes of between 15-25 knots and massive swells between 5 and 7 feet. These conditions gave me valuable experience that we do not find in Southern California.
Every day we also experienced a strange easterly breeze that would fill in for the last race of the day at around 3:00. This allowed light air specialists (myself being one) to also jump into the fray and have a shot at gaining low scores. I later found out that this weather phenomenon is due to hot weather in the Salinas Valley together with the surrounding topography causes a back eddy effect with the prevailing winds. After a rough start, I consistently improved throughout the event to finish 10th place overall and the 3rd junior in the full rig fleet. Going into the event, my goal was to finish in the top 10 so at the end of the day the regatta was a great success. I would especially like to thank the San Diego Yacht Club for all the support in developing my sailing skills and I would like to thank the SDYC Competition Fund for helping to pay for my travel expenses and entry fee.
Thank you,
Richard Didham