The 2012 US Sailing Youth Championship was held by the Columbia Gorge Racing Association (CGRA) in Cascade Locks, Oregon from Tuesday August 14th, to Saturday August 18th. On Monday the 13th, I (Richard Didham) flew to Portland International Airport from San Diego and spent the night with a family friend who lived in the area.
The next day (Tuesday 14th) I was dropped off at the CGRA and ready to start the regatta. After checking in and unloading my laser radial from the San Diego trailer I rigged up my boat and went out for the practice race. I decided to go out a little early in order to get some practice in before the race started. It was blowing around 20 knots out of the west and I hadn't had the opportunity to sail my laser in decent breeze in quite a while. With the usual breeze direction coming out of the west and the current flowing from the east, it was very important to have your downwind boat speed perfected because of how much more time you spent on the downwind legs. For the practice race the race committee set the pin very favored, I almost had a perfect start being the closest boat to the pin, but I just barely wasn't able to clear it and I had to do a 360 in order to clear myself. I was still very fast upwind however and I rounded the windward mark in 6th. After that I was able to pass I or two people on the downwind and by the next windward mark rounding, I was in 3rd. after this point, the two leaders decided to turn back and go in because of the superstition that winning the practice race is bad luck and I also decided to follow them.
The first day of racing (Wednesday 15th) witnessed a rare occurrence for the gorge, a strong Easterly breeze of about 25 knots. It slowly died as the day went on however and by the time we started racing at 12:30 it was only about IS gusting 18. With the current going the same direction as the wind, upwind legs became much more important compared to the downwind legs. Due to the fact that the laser doesn't have a very good VMG upwind, we spent roughly 70% of our time upwind and 30% of our time downwind. The first race, I got caught up in a pile up at the boat and had a pretty poor start. As soon as I could though, I tacked out and headed right to the shore in order to get current relief. Everyone made huge gains if they were the first people to get to that side. Throughout the race, I continued to pass people and I finished 6th. The next race was almost a complete repeat of the first other than the fact that I got a better start and I finished 5th. For the last race, the wind died a little to about 10 knots. I tried starting in the middle this time because the race committee made the start really pin favored but I still needed to get to the right side of the course. I finished 9th but I was confident that that could be my throw out. After the first day of racing I was in 6th place, but just 2 points behind 5th. My goal was to finish in the top five but I knew that we had plenty of races ahead
The second day of racing (Thursday 16th) also happened to be my Birthday and I ready to move up the leader board. The weather pattern was the exact same as yesterday but was slightly windier for the first race because we started 1 hour earlier. The first race was pretty average and I finished 6th. The second race, I was able to win the boat and was the first to get to the right side of the course. I rounded the windward mark in second but was passed by 2 people on the down wind. I was almost able to pass one person on the final leg, but I had to settle for 4th.
After that race, I made one of my worst mistakes of my sailing career. I was luffing but trying to get just a few feet downwind so I could talk to the coach and as I was turning downwind on port; my bow hit the transom of his coach boat. Since it was blowing roughly 20 knots, my boat instantly loaded up and death-rolled. I was thrown out of my boat toward the coach boat and my elbow collided with either his transom or his outboard engine. After I resurfaced, my it was really hard to move my left arm and it started to throb very painfully. Knowing that I needed to do well and not knowing I hurt myself very much I decided to sail the next race. About 3 minutes before tile start, I started to notice some blood tric1dng out of the wetsuit I was wearing, but I just ignored it and kept trying to move my arm and keep mobility since I could feel it swelling up. I did ok in the next race; my boat speed was fine as long as I ignored the pain, but my boat handling suffered greatly because I couldn't completely extend or retract my forearm. I rounded the leeward mark for the last leg in 8th but just before the top boat finished; a ferry went through the course and interfered with the boats still on the previous reach leg. Because of this, the race committee decided to sail 1 more race to make up for the fact that we were now 2 races behind the rest of the fleets. during the last race I started to really become fatigued. I rounded the leeward mark on the second leg in roughly 12th and knew that I needed to do something to make up ground especially if wouldn't be able to sail the next couple days because of my arm. Luckily I was able to break away from the large group of boats in front of me and I was able to catch a big rightly near the end of that leg. I rounded the windward mark in 8th and was able to hold my position until the finish.
As soon as I got in and had someone look at my arm, one of the volunteers for the CGRA took me to the emergency room in Hood River which was about 20 minutes away. By that time, I had lost so much blood that right as I got up out of the car and walked in the ER, I got really light headed and nearly passed out on the floor. Fortunately, this let me skip to the front of the line and not have to wait long to see the doctor. I had to get 4 stitches in my arm and was told that I couldn't sail for another week until they came out. After calling my mom to let her know what happened a family friend who lives in the area picked me up and I spent the night at her house.
The next day I flew back to San Diego and nervously checked the results page any time I could on my Smart phone. The forecast for the next couple days called for really light wind so I was hoping that no more races would be completed. I was tied for 5th at that point but was losing the tie breaker because the other sailor had gotten a bullet one race and my highest score had been a 4th. I figured out that they could sail 1 race and no matter what, I would stay in 6th, but if they did more than that then I would start losing boats. The forecasts were right in the end and over the course of 2 whole days; only 2 races were completed for the radial fleet. Sadly we only were given one throw out for the regatta so I had to keep a letter score which dropped me from 6th place to 8th place. Even so, 8th place isn't that bad when you are comparing yourself to the 26 best radial sailors in the country! I would like to thank the San Diego Yacht Club Junior program for all their support and the san Diego Yacht Club Competitors fund for making it possible for my boat and I to get to the event. The regatta was an amazing experience for me and I can't wait to go to youth champs next year.