Laser US Nats 2010

After the youth champs was finished, we packed up the trailer in a massive thunderstorm and got everything ready to head down to Milwaukee for the US Nationals. After the 16 hour drive to get there we were all ready for a day off.

The rest of the team started arriving in Milwaukee on Aug 6th. 11 sailors competed in the US Nationals; Becky Power, Isabella Bertold, Natalia Montemayor, Alex K, Alex H, Tom Roehrl, Kyle Martin, Dom Fritz, Gabe Frame and Cameron Ho.

The conditions in Milwaukee for the regatta were really tricky. The first couple days of the regatta the mornings were foggy and really humid with hardly any wind on the water. The first day of racing, the full rigs got 3 races off in really light tricky conditions and the radials sailed 2 races.

Friday, the second day of racing, there was lots of fog and no wind. The sailors were postponed ashore due to threat of thunderstorms and limited visibility on the water. It was a long day of waiting, and at 3 pm they blew racing off for the day.

On Saturday the races were set to start one hour earlier at 10am. It was another really light day; there was a postponement on water well we waited for the wind to fill in. The wind started off offshore, but half way through the first radial race, it died and did a 180 to the seabreeze direction. That race was abandoned and more waiting was done while the race committee reset the course. Only one race was sailed on Saturday.

On Sunday, there was no fog on the lake, which was a good sign. The day started with a 12- 15 knots offshore breeze and steadily picked up from there. Four good races were sailed on Sunday. It was a long day and was a definite test of fitness for the sailors. Isabella dominated in the Radial fleet, winning 3 of the 4 races by a ways. Which also moved her up to finish 1st overall.
Becky was up and down on Sunday but had a couple great results and finished 12th overall. Natalia also had a great day on Sunday, but unfortunately she was black flagged in the last race and ended up 20th. Cameron had some really good moments, especially in the lighter races and finished 33rd. Alex K was 36th, Gabe was also unfortunately black flagged in the last race and ended up 39th.

In the full rigs, Alex H finished 5th, Kyle was 15th, Tom was 26th, and Dom was 27th.

Congratulations to all the sailors on some exceptional results at these events!