2010 Laser Master's North Americans Re-cap

What a great event!! 10 races held in incredible conditions with great committee work and amazing competition. What more could you ask for??

I made a mini comeback with three 5th place finishes today to end up 7th overall. Considering the way I began the regatta, I was pretty pleased with the progress that I made as the event went on. I wished the regatta started tomorrow. I felt like I was definitely getting into the groove with my starts and upwind work and my downwind sailing was getting better as well. My body even felt better as the regatta went on.

The bottom line (once again) is that if you want to win one of these events, you have to put time in the boat. The Alamitos Bay sailors trained together for several weeks leading up to the event. I sailed a Laser about 2 hours since the Nationals in May. That type of preparation is just not going to get it done with this kind of competition. That is okay though because it just isn't possible for me to put that kind of energy into with all of the kid and family activities that I have going on.

The main take away is to have realistic expectations on how I expect to do. If I don't put in the preparation, and unless the venue is the type that I tend to prefer (lake sailing with a lot of wind shifts], I need to learn to not be disapointed with a less than stellar result.

My main goal for this regatta was to try and improve my open water sailing, especially downwind and to get some big fleet experience prior to going to the J-80 North Americans and Worlds coming up next month. My other goal was to try and get better as the regatta went on and improve my competitivenes. I would say mission accomplished on both fronts.

Kevin Taugher from the host yacht club sailed an amazing regatta. Not only was he fast upwind and down, he sailed incredibly smart. It was especially fun to get to know Vann Wilson and to watch him compete. Vann's mast broke before the start of the 9th race and he had to take a DNC. Having already wrapped up the regatta, Kevin gave Vann his boat and Vann went on to win the last race to wrap up 2nd. That story just exemplifies the commraderie and sportsmanship that you find at these master events. I think we all feel pretty blessed to be able to still be out there competing hard in a boat that is not that easy to sail well.

Andy Roy from Canda sailed great to finished 3rd and my old friend Greg Tawaststijerna just got better and better to finish a strong 4th.

Here is the top 15 and a link to the final results: There were a lot of really great sailors in this fleet:

1st: Kevin Taugher
2nd: Vann Wilson
3rd: Andy Roy
4th: Greg Tawaststijerna
5th: Peter Vessella
6th: Chuck Tripp
7th: Scott Young
8th: Connor Gallagher
9th: Bill Symes
10th: Peter Drasnin
11th: Tracy Usher
12th: Vlhelm Roberts
13th: Pat Toole
14th: David Lapier
15th: Mike Bishop

http://www.abyc.org/upload/laser15.htm