2023 Cinco De Mayo Regatta Report

After a 9 year absence, LLSC's Cinco De Mayo Regatta was held last weekend - May 6/7.

It takes a cast of thousands to run a regatta, so I'll start by thanking all of the volunteers.

Race Committee - Randy Baker, Rebecca Krantz, Linda Hoopes, jimmy Chambers, Knox Rogers, Randy Mulligan, Chris Voith, Steve Sudderth, Michael and Malakai Siau

Sat night dinner - Richard and Jen Stevens

Sat night margaritas - Bailey and Cher!

Race Report:

Several racers showed up a couple of days early to camp out and take advantage of the perfect spring weather - 70+ days, 60's at night, 10-15 knot breezes

But it seems they were greedy and used up a lot of allocated wind for the weekend.

Sat morning came and it was not looking good. 14 boats sailed out into a 5 knot easterly breeze. In Race 1 there was some upwind trapping in the puffs, but not enough for the foilers to work their magic.

Mike K and Bailey had a duel around the 2-lap course with Mike K crossing the line on his classic just yards ahead of Bailey to take the classic and overall divisions win on Race 1.

Race 2 was sailed in a dying breeze with huge holes all over the course. Mike K was once again putting on a classic demonstration, first at the top mark, first at the leeward gate, and then found one of those holes I just mentioned, and watched 5 boats sail by while he sat there.

Meanwhile David Bradley found some pressure on his foiler to take over the lead and was the first boat to finish in foiler and overall divisions.

The wiley old south african Barry Stevens also found some pressure to take the lead and finish first in the classic division.

At this point the wind was continuing to fade away. RC put up a short postponement, and then after some discussions with the sailors, made the welcome decision to abandon racing for the day.

The evening was a lovely combination of dinner, libations, visiting friends and conversations held at the picnic area on the LLSC beach.

On Sunday morning, everyone met, looked at the forecast, stood around, and watched the breeze fill and die away. By 10:00 the fleet had made the decision to call it a regatta and have a quick awards ceremony.

In the foiling division - Mike Christensen was Mr Consistancy with 2 x 2nds to take the win, and David Bradley won the tiebreaker with Bailey White to finish 2nd and 3rd.

In the Classic division - Mike Krantz won his tiebreaker with Jose Barbosa to take 1st and 2nd, and Todd Wilson racing his first A-Class regatta on Mike's "loaner" boat finished 3rd.

In the Overall division - it was Mike Christensen, David Bradley, and Mike Krantz capturing the 3 top spots.

Thanks again to everyone that came out for this regatta, and plan on coming back for next years Cinco De Mayo Regatta.

Cheers, Mike Krantz