Laser - Midwinters West - The Old Man and the kids

The Laser Midwinters West regatta, hosted by Richmond Yacht Club, has a prominent course on the Berkeley Circle, where many important regattas have been fought. It also has a wily veteran among the contestants, the indestructible John Bertrand, who won a Laser World Championship 1977, long before most of his current competitors were born. There were three more races today and a discard is in play. Sean Kelly, a local, who’s been leading the 54-boat Laser fleet yesterday, survived in first with 12 points, because he could discard a fat 26th. Behind him are Kevin Taugher, Steven Bourdow and Bertrand on fourth. Here's a brief excerpt from his entertaining blog. ‘The third race was going to be a great start but in the last 10 seconds another competitor was ducking into my leeward side …,’ he writes about Day 1. ‘It was a black flag start and I was being extra careful not to be early but I also ended up stalling and blades which put me back in the third row (I was the only one in the third row by the way).’ In the Laser Radial class, Kieran Chung (10 pts.) replaced yesterday’s leader Michael Kiss (13) at the top. See all results. No race reports or photos were posted in time for our deadline.