We had arrived in Milwaukee in the late afternoon and it was hot out. We hailed a cab, checked into our hotel and headed down Milwaukee YC to look at the venue. From what I could tell this was going to be a light air regatta, I was correct… for the most part. That evening my father and I went out for dinner and when we arrived back at the hotel I found that several friends from Ventura and Santa Barbara were at this event.
So the next day we all decided to go out sailing and tune up our boats. When we had gone out the wind was very fluky and coming from the shore. This wind had blown all of the nasty biting flies’ straight to our boats and soon we were being eaten alive by these flies. Once the practice day had ended we all sailed in and went to dinner.
The next day the wind was relatively light as we were postponed on land for two hours. Once we were finally sent out the wind was coming from its normal westerly direction. This provided for some 6 knots. The fleet was very tough as it was a very small line for 60 boats. Also the courses were about a hour and half long. But by the end of 5 hours of sailing we had only gotten two races in.
The next day started out like the previous day except we were now postponed for the entire day due to thunderstorms that never came. On the third day we got right out onto the water and after having several races abandoned due to 80 degree wind shifts we finally got one off. This race had some wind in the beginning, however once we rounded the top mark the wind died. The race overall took two and a half hours and I was sad to find out afterwards that in my best race of the regatta I had been black flagged. After this race the R/C called it, and we all headed in.
Early in the morning of the last day there was already some breeze. By the first race the breeze was consistently blowing 15 knots, but it would build even more. By the third race the wind was at about 20 knots and still rising. And on the final race of the day the breeze was puffing 25 knots. It was so windy that the stitching in my sail began to come out. This day, although being very long and tiring, was quite a bit of fun, as on the reaches my centerboard sounded like a humming machine and I could not see half the time because there was so much water being sprayed into my face. Despite poor results in these windy conditions I still learned so much about the laser and how to keep it flatter while still moving and how crucial it is to be flat.
–Gregg Kent
Check out Gregg’s letter to the Foundation here.
Regatta Website: http://www.milwaukeeyc.com/index.php/laser-national-championship