The 27th Annual Easter Laser Regatta was held last weekend here in Austin on beautiful Lake Travis with nearly perfect sailing conditions. The winter and spring rains have re-filled Lake Travis and life is good here in Austin!
The event attracted nearly 50 Standard Laser, Radial and 4.7 sailors from all over Texas and with some from neighboring states. The most noticeable evolution of this event is the influx of incredibly talented youth sailors from all over Texas.
Houston Yacht Club, Lakewood Yacht Club, Texas Corinthian Yacht Club, the Gulf Coast Youth Sailing Association and our own Austin Yacht Club are starting to harvest the fruits of several years of excellent coaching and commitment to a very competitive Texas Youth Racing Circuit.
We are starting to see 16 year old's Trey Hartman and Greg Martinez make the transition from Radials to Standard Rigs and they are really, really good! Trey finished 4th and Greg 5th in the Easter Regatta and they showed great boat handling and speed around the course. Greg recently finished 10th in the Laser Midwinter's West held in San Francisco Bay and last year was the #1 ranked Radial Grand Prix sailor in the country.
In the Radial Division, Chase Shaw, Carson Crain and Reed Baldridge finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Easter Regatta and Chase, Carson and Reed were ranked 3rd, 4th and 12th nationally in the Grand Prix points for 2009. Chase's younger brother Bradley (weighing in at 125 lbs) won two races in the Standard division in impressive fashion leading all the way around race course on the first two races on Sunday morning.
Austin Yacht Club's Alan Rochard finished 4th in Radial Division and has placed in the top 3 in several events already this year as he continues the transition from competing internationally in Opti's to Laser Radials.
Not only are these kids great sailors but they are even better people. They are respectful, friendly, humble and eager to learn....a tribute to their parents and to the great coaching they are receiving from Mattia De'Enriquo, Scott Lindley, Alan Coutts and Ryan Minth. The future of Laser sailing in Texas has never looked so bright!
As for the regatta, on Saturday we had very puffy and shifty conditions with the winds from South. The wind ranged from 3-4 knots all the way up to 20 with one freak puff that hit the fleet on a downwind leg in the last race of the day. There were several "auto tackers" so you really had to be quick on your feet and sail the shift you had and be patient.
Doug Peckover had a great day finishing with a 1-2-2-3. Doug is 60 years old and doesn't look a day over 40 when he is on the water. He is a former two-time World Laser Master Champion and always has consistently good boat speed.
I ended the day with a 3-5-4-1 followed closely by Brad Winslett, Trey Hartman, Greg Martinez and Eric Faust.
Sunday dawned overcast with a light southerly. 16 year-old Bradley Shaw stole the show in the first two races with two, start to finish bullets. He obviously took advantage of the light conditions with his 125 lb. weight but the fact was he sailed two flawless races.
I manged two seconds in the first two races of the day to pull ahead of Peckover who was 8th and OCS in the first two races of the day. The 3rd and 4th races of the day were held in much stronger breeze and I had two really close and fun races with heavy air specialist Mark Eldred with Mark edging me out in both to give me two more seconds for the day. By getting in the 8th race of the series, the Laser Standard division was able to get one throw-out race which put Doug Peckover back into a well deserved 2nd overall.
Here are the final results:
Laser Standard:
1st Scott Young 3-(5)-4-1-2-2-2-2----------16
2nd Doug Peckover 1-2-2-3-8-(OCS)-7-6-------29
3rd Brad Winslett 6-3-5-4-5-4-(6)-4----------31
4th Trey Hartman 4-7-1-5-3-(9)-4-5----------32
5th Greg Martinez 8-1-13-2-(14)-8-5-3-------40
6th Mark Eldred 12-(13)-12-7-4-5-1-1------42
7th Eric Faust 2-6-7-9-10-(11)-3-8-------45
8th Frank Beling 7-10-3-6-7-14-13-(DNS)---60
9th Bradley Shaw 5-8-16-20-1-1-24-(DNS)---75
10th Jon Larson 15-4-25-14-13-6-15-13----80
Laser Radial:
1st Chase Shaw (9)-2-6-5-1-1-2-2----------19
2nd Carson Crain 5-3-1-3-6-(7)-1-3----------22
3rd Reed Baldridge 3-1-2-2-8-(8)-4-1----------22
4th Alan Rochard 1-5-2-4-3-4-5-(6)----------24
5th Leoni Schuurmans 2-6-4-6-(9)-3-3-6----------32
Laser 4.7:
1st Howdy Hughes 2-2-3-3-1-1-2-2-----------16
2nd Hannah Goethe 3-1-1-2-2-2-1-5-----------17
3rd Erin Hawk 5-3-2-4-4-3-3-1------------25
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