It was the Laser Masters North American Championships in Long Beach, California. In the Laser class there is a whole separate series of regattas for sailors over the age of 35. One of my laser buddies, Jon Andron, has coined the phrase "Geezers" instead of Masters, hence Geezer North Americans. What does this have to do with me? Since I am not of age, i.e. lacking life experience... I was propositioned to coach/babysit a group of Masters from the bay area with whom I regularly race against. Jon set the whole thing up and put together an offer I could not refuse.
So there I was, 10 o'clock on a Thursday morning and I should have been at work hours ago. Instead, I was busy picking out my seat on a private jet with my wife Keely and several other Laser sailors bound for Long Beach. Yes, a private jet... piloted by none other than the main geezer himself, Jon. The bar has been raised when it comes to "Regatta Mobiles."
Details Details Details
Thursday we landed in Long Beach and drove to our home-base: the house of World Champion Sailor Howard Hamlin, just a few blocks from the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. Once the boat transport arrived (Mike Bishop and three Lasers) we rigged up for a late afternoon of tuning and boat prep. The highlight of the day happened early on during practice as I was following Lasers out of the harbor in the chase boat. Kurt Wessel's boat had a bad reaction to the cold water in combination with the warm air temperature... his boat attempted to implode! The hull sucked in about four to six inches in several places. Thankfully, after the the drain plug was removed, the boat took a deep breath of air and it popped back to normal. So what did we learn? Make sure your hull's breather hole is never plugged!
The 7 Amigos?
Not quite! During the event I was responsible for seven different sailors: Mike Bishop, Jon Andron, Nick Burke, Tracy Usher, Christy Usher, Kurt Wessel, and Peter Vesella. Luckily, Howard let me borrow his awesome chase boat for the weekend. This enabled me to tow the group to and from the race course, chase them around on the water, do wind checks across the course, keep them hydrated, store their spare clothing, and be there for anything else that they needed throughout the weekend.
SFB Fleet!
Over the course of the weekend the San Francisco Bay (SFB) Fleet established their presence. Tracy, as usual, showed his dominance in breeze. David "Mr Consistent" was always in the hunt in the top group. Kurt experienced the full spectrum of the fleet and finished the weekend with several strong results. Nick had a few finishes in the teens and occasionally mixed it up with the big dogs. Jon was finding his groove mid-fleet, occasionally venturing into the lead group to point out how much older he was than them. Mike was consistently hanging with the lead group of the fleet and had a couple strong finishes which landed him third for the weekend in the Apprentice fleet. Christy continually kept improving throughout the weekend to finish her last race in 5th place and securing the overall win in the Women's division. To round out the gang was Peter, whose consistency and sportsmanship earned him the victory in the Grand Masters Division.
Way to go Team!
Conclusion
Overall it was great weekend! I had a blast watching the group sail in some really challenging conditions, and learned a ton. We had a great time hanging out off the water, whether it was pounding Bud Lites, wandering Second Street, or inhaling some glorified cafeteria pasta. We all survived, slightly sun burned, bruised, and fatigued. Good times! Special thanks to my wife for allowing me to do this on our Anniversary Weekend. A special thanks to Howard for letting me borrow his boat, and giving my wife and I a place to stay. Oh yeah and another special thanks to Jon for organizing the whole production, and flying us all down there and back in the lap of luxury.
David Lapier pounding upwind!
Nick Burke doing his thing.
Christy crushing the Radials!
Nick Burke doing his thing.
Christy crushing the Radials!
Tracy getting ready to pounce!
Mike doing some pre-race tuning.
Kurt cruising to the finish.
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