“Monday was a typical Lake Tahoe day,” said El Toro sailor Gordie Nash of the first day of racing in Lake Tahoe Race Week. “We were sitting on the beach, waiting, with not a breath of wind, and around 1:00 p.m. the leaves in the trees started to rustle. We got 6-8 knots of wind that day.”

By the end of the four-day Race Week, conditions had completely changed - so much that the El Toros and the Bytes didn’t go out at all on Thursday, leaving the Lake to five die-hard Laser sailors. On the light air day, the El Toros got in one race, won by Gordie, and the Bytes and Lasers each got in two. Tuesday’s 11 knots were ideal for most types of sailboats, and the Tahoe YC race committee got in the most races on this day - three for the Lasers and El Toros and two for the Bytes, and the courses varied between windward-leeward, triangle, and Olympic Circle. By the end of Tuesday, the eventual winner of the El Toro Nationals began to emerge: Art Lange recovered from a 14th and 10th to take a bullet in the third race, and never looked back.

The racing was held off the rocky beaches of Tahoe City, between the Tahoe YC and the Lake Forest launch ramp next to the Coast Guard station. The Race Week served as Nationals for the El Toros and North Americans for the Bytes. Nine Lasers accepted the invitation to join in the fun.

Things started to get crazy on Wednesday. The USCG station hoisted a red flag signaling a High Wind Advisory. The most dire range of the forecast (40 mph gusts) was never reached at Lake level, and the Lasers reveled in the windier conditions, getting in four races. One Byte sailor, Dan Ouellet, went out for two races, winning the series. The El Toro fleet got in two races. “Wednesday was high teens - the upper limit for El Toro racing,” said Gordie. Big wind waves got the little boats up and surfing, and swamped a few. Yal Lim came all the way from Kaneohe, on Oahu, to race in the Nationals. A professional boatbuilder, Yal borrowed a boat that he had built for Terry Schmidt of Santa Clara. “It’s a ‘sinker’, and it fills up with water in big waves.” Yal took a DNF for the last race on Wednesday. It would turn out to be the last race of the series for the El Toros.

Thursday started out with rain, which came and went all day. The wind at mid-day seemed stronger than it had on Wednesday, and the white caps more numerous.

Laser sailors Simon Bell and Danny Pavel started the day with a tie for first place. Of course, they were eager to race despite the foul appearance of the weather, but the weather turned out to be not such and issue, although it was quite cold (water temperature of 59, air temp of 55). “It wasn’t that windy; gusty though, blowing 15-30,” said Simon. The Lasers got in two races. That’s when the regatta had a bit of drama. It's not just the Finn sailors that get into on-the-water fights.

In race ten of the Lasers, Todd Jackson and Danny Pavel got into a squabble about inside rights. Simon Bell who saw it all. "It was amazing. After I rounded the leeward gate I turned around to see Danny and Todd in a fight. Todd just leapt aboard Danny's boat and they both capsized right there at the gate. I've never seen anything like it. I’m glad I chose the other side." The fight worked in Simon's favor allowing him the overall win, because Danny was so disgusted that he didn't start the last race. Danny ended up with a second overall finish. And Todd? He took an RAF (Retired After Finishing) in that race and a second in the last race, coming in third overall.

A prolonged discussion of the incident back at the club further delayed the awards ceremony. Since most of the dinghy sailors didn’t race at all on Thursday, and since the rain was messing up their campsites, not too many stuck around anyway.

Thanks to Simon Bell and Tony Dahlman for allowing us to attach cameras to their boats. “Electronics aren’t allowed on Lasers!” But the rest of the fleet agreed that they wouldn’t make the boats go any faster. See results at www.tahoeyc.com/sail/results.php.