2008 Laser Master's North Americans

2008 Laser Master's NA's

Recently, I had the opportunity to compete in the Laser Master’s North American Championship. The Columbia River Gorge is one of the most amazing places I have ever sailed. It has long been known as a windsurfing mecca due to the strong, reliable, westerly thermal winds in the summer when the land heats up in the desert east of the Gorge and pulls in the cool, moist Pacific air from the Oregon coast. The reliably strong wind, coupled with a strong river flow that runs from east to west (against the normal wind direction which will keep a stranded windsurfer moving upwind) usually results in great high-speed racing conditions in the summer.

Cascade Locks is the sailboat racing venue on the Columbia River and is just upstream from the Bridge of the Gods, which connects Oregon and Washington, and is about 20 miles west of the well known Hood River community. It is remarkably easy to get to from Portland and the scenery is amazing.

I approached the North American’s this year with much less preparation than the year before when it was held in Austin. For me, it was a relatively last minute decision and I was able to get a few Wednesday night races in beforehand, but nothing like the preparation I usually like to have going into a big Laser regatta. Due to the large number of competitors from the Pacific Northwest that I knew would be racing, I really didn’t have a good feeling as to how I would stack up against the competition.

I was able to charter a relatively new boat from the local Laser dealer and I arrived the day before the event. I managed to get out and practice for a couple of hours and did not feel especially fast. In the Laser, little things like not having your hiking strap the correct length can really affect your comfort in the boat.

Fortunately, I was able to get a few things sorted out and began to feel more comfortable as the day went on. The other notable item of interest was that the wind was blowing pretty hard from totally the wrong direction. According to the locals, this was a pretty rare phenomenon triggered by unusually hot temperatures in Portland relative to the desert to the East. This caused the thermal effect to work in reverse. According to the forecast, the wind direction was likely to blow from this same direction for the first day of the regatta.

Friday dawned with a strong Easterly breeze just like the day before. The practice on the prior day really helped me in terms of feeling more comfortable in the boat and I was ready to do battle. I got a decent start in the first race but didn’t have a clue as to how to play the current or which side of the course would be favored. Early in the race, it looked like the boats that were working the right shoreline were at a slight advantage, probably due to less current. It looked to me as if several of the leaders were potentially at risk of over standing the weather mark from the right. I decided to work the middle-right of the course, played a few shifts and set up below the lead back as we approached the weather mark from the starboard lay-line. Surprisingly, we were not being set by the current as much as I anticipated and I hit the lay-line perfectly and managed to round the first weather mark in second. On the run, I got in a good rhythm with waves and rounded the leeward gate in first and held my place to the finish. I was just ahead of Tracy Usher from San Francisco who is one of the top rated Master’s sailors in the world, especially in heavy air. Winning that first race really helped my confidence a lot.

Gradually, the Easterly started to die and get a bit shiftier. I focused on getting pretty conservative starts and just tried to play the shifts. I finished the first day with 3, 3, 2 to go with the 1st in the first race. I was kicking myself for getting a little sloppy (greedy) in the last race of the day. I had managed to work my way into 1st and had the second place boat pinned beneath me on starboard. All I had to do was keep him pinned until there was no question we could lay the finish line, and I would have a sure 1st place. Instead, I thought I saw a right shift I could play that would increase my lead. I tacked off to go for it and, sure enough, a bigger left shift came in and the boat that I had covered easily crossed me to win the race. It was really a dumb move on my part and I should have just stuck with him and won the race. I was determined to get that point back!

The next day, the breeze had shifted back to the prevailing Westerly direction but it was clear that it was not going to have the strength of the typical Gorge conditions. The dilemma now was how to get a good start at the pin end of the line with about 1.5 knots of current trying to push me over the starting line early. Normally, the wind is strong enough to allow one to luff to slow the progress towards the line which almost cancels out the current. With the wind at only about 8 knots, the current was a major factor. This, coupled with a pretty strong tactical reason to play the left shoreline, meant that I really needed to fight for the leeward end of the line but couldn’t risk being over early. After several general recalls, the race committee put up the black flag, which meant that if competitors were called over early, they were DSQ’d for the race and could not participate in any subsequent restarts of that race, even if there were additional general recalls.

With this in mind, I had to set up almost 100 yards below the starting line with about 45 seconds to go. It seemed like I was a mile away from the line but as the starting gun approached, I was doing everything to try and burn off speed and slow my progress towards the line. My start in the first race of the day was pretty abysmal. I had a boat pinch me up above close hauled and was almost dead in the water at the gun. It took me about 3 or 4 tacks to get a little bit of clear air and I managed to work my way up the left side of the course. Half way up the first beat, I was worried that I was as far back as the mid-20’s. Somehow, I got around the weather mark in the top 5 and was able to pass the boats ahead of me on the long, slow, downwind leg against the current, and ended up opening up a pretty big lead to win the race. Fortunately for me, a lot of the guys that did well in the strong breeze the previous day were having more difficulties in the lighter winds.

The next two races were similar and I had made the decision not to risk a premature start because I felt like I could rally back from an average start with my speed. I sailed pretty conservatively and finished the day with a 5th and a 4th. With the first two days combined, I had a pretty comfortable lead. The problem was that if we got 4 races in on the last day, the fleet would be given two throw-out races as opposed to just one. The math can get pretty tricky with two throw-outs. Competitors that you would ordinarily not have to worry about due to a bad race or two can suddenly get back in contention with multiple throw-outs.

The last day started foggy and overcast and with very little wind. The locals said that the overcast conditions would not bode well for wind and sure enough, after about 3 hours of nervously sitting on shore, the race committee decided to abandon the remaining races and the regatta was mine. Naturally, ten minutes later, the breeze filled in and we could easily have gotten off a few more races. I took this opportunity to take my girlfriend Amy for her first sail on a Laser on the Columbia River.

It was very cool to sail in a completely new place for me and also really fun to race against and get to know a number of really good Pacific Northwest sailors that I might not have ever crossed paths with if I hadn’t travelled to the North Americans. I will definitely plan on going back to the Gorge soon.