The Laser Radial ACCs were held this past weekend at SSA in Annapolis. It was a fairly light air event with a total of 5 races held. Even though it was light it was a great regatta and I think everyone had a good time. The radial event was won by Christopher Stocke and the 4.7 winner was Mary Hall.

Here in the US the radial is primarily a junior and women’s boat so there were a lot of young sailors out for the event. Out of the 63 competing radials 32 were juniors including all of the top 5. There were also 8 4.7s racing, all of whom were juniors.

Standing around the keg Saturday night a number of us were lamenting how badly we were being beaten by kids from high school with our only consolation being that we were old enough to drink the beer. I certainly have a lot of admiration for all the younger sailors who were all very fast(more so than your author who finished in the back half).

Saturday we got in 2 races in super light conditions and both races saw big ups and downs as puffs filled in from different sides of the course. The second race was shortened at the 2nd weather mark after the breeze died and then filled in from the right side causing a bit of reversal in the middle of the fleet.

Sunday we had a bit of a sea breeze and got in 3 races in probably 6-10kts. There was a lot of mixed up chop on the course which made keeping the boat moving fast forward and finding clear air key. Overall youth clearly won out over experience – although the honest truth is that a lot of the younger sailors probably had both in their favor having sailed on high school or college teams.

Overall I think it was a great event and I had a lot of fun. I thought it was awesome how far people traveled to sail – I know there were people from Texas and Canada who made the trip. Even though the conditions were tough it was a great weekend to be out on the water.

Complete results can be found here.

This article by James McKenna.  Read more on James’ experience using New Blocks at the regatta and other posts at The Stern Scoop.