2020 RC Laser National Championship Regatta

With the original date of October 2020 being postponed due to the situation in our country with Covid-19, it was important to the organizers to be able to host this event for a few reasons, even though it was January 2021. We had a couple goals when hosting this event, one to make everyone feel comfortable to attend by assuring skippers that we would do everything in our power to be safe and adhere to all CDC guidelines. A small part of this was instead of giving name tags, face masks were custom made with the names of skippers and sail #’s, and given to all skippers/staff. And second to be able to introduce this great new location of stadium style racing venue in Corpus Christi, TX to the RC skippers. This site has already been the site in previous years to the local RC Club’s Saltwater Challenge RC Laser Regatta, and also played host to an IOM and 10Rater Nationals in 2019. With the support of the Corpus Christi Yacht Club (AMYA #399), the Coastal Bend Model Yacht Club (AMYA #334) and the Woodlawn Sailing Club (AMYA #112) would have no problem hosting this RC Laser Nationals.

When registration opened last June, back at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in our country, we were pleased to still be able to get 22 skippers, including the 2019 RC Laser National Champion Jim Kaighin, Marsh Harbor, Bahamas and Al Ross of Louisiana as well as some of Texas’s top RC Laser skippers.

Saturday’s weather was not the typical Corpus Christi weather of bright sunshine and high winds, but rather light to moderate winds with a bit of haze in the air known as sea fog. With 10 races being held and the fog getting thicker by the hour, it was getting difficult to actually see the weather mark clearly at times. It was decided by our Internationally known Principal Race Officer, Mark Foster, to call it a day just shy of the of the 4:30pm cut-off time for the day with no complaints from skippers at all. At the end of Day 1, the top three were Barr Batzer (Florida), Jim Kaighin (Bahamas), and Chris Macaluso (Texas) and everyone knew that the forecast was for heavy high winds for Sunday.

Sunday came in just as planned in its Corpus Christi typical manner with A & B rigs packed away for the weekend and the C & D rigs were brought out. With the winds starting out at 15mph it wasn’t long before D-rigs were used while the steady winds were building up to 25mph. Some of the Florida skippers could be heard saying they have never even sailed with their D-rigs but knew you didn’t come to Texas without one. As the day went on the skippers soon learned that having control with a smaller rig would always outweigh more sail area anytime. As the day went on, the top 2 skippers at this point—Barr Batzer and Jim Kaighin—were literally swapping the lead for the event with every race. After 18 races the scores showed that Barr and Jim were actually tied in points and so we needed that 19th race to crown a Champion. With Jim getting a 4th in race 19 and Barr getting a 6th, we now had our Champion. Congratulations Jim Kaighin!

From a Race Management standpoint, having International Race Officer Mark Foster and his usual “on the water” crew, and National US Sailing Judge Shannon Bush, this event was brought to a higher standard than the Corpus Christ YC is used to. This was welcomed by our skippers. On the other hand, I would like to mention that my usual NCR standard of running on time and feeding everyone well was only a result of the great work done by my staff of members of the Coastal Bend MYC and the Woodlawn Sailing Club. Our hopes of bringing back high caliber RC Laser events, as well as other RC events is also welcomed by the City of Corpus Christi as shown by their presence all weekend. Please enjoy the YouTube videos produced by a Corpus Christi local and the Corpus Christi YC.

Special Note….I want to Thank all the Skippers and the CCYC’s members who participated in our raffle. This year I was able to purchase a brand-new RC Laser in a box complete with a B-rig and new FlySky Radio off of Ebay for the raffle. It was decided that instead of awarding the proceeds to the hosting Clubs, that the proceeds would be awarded to the Corpus Christi Youth/Junior Sailing Program. Not only did we award a total of $825.00 to the Program, the winner of the raffle and the RC Laser was skipper Al Ross (Sail #17) of Mandleville, LA. Al Ross made the unexpected gesture of immediately donating the brand-new boat to the Corpus Christi Yacht Club as a Thank you for their support and to add to their already owned (two) RC Lasers in order to help them build their Fleet in their club. Great gesture and Kudos to Al Ross!!!

YouTube Videos:
CCYC produced:
2020ne R C Laser Nationals in Corpus Christi. Texas – YouTube

Day 1:
2020 RC Laser National Championship hosted by CCMYC, WSC ,CCYC – YouTube

Day 2:
2020 RC Laser National Championship – Day 2 – YouTube

Summary of the 2020ne RC Laser NCR – Gold Chevron
Date: January 22-24, 2021
Location: Corpus Christi, TX
Host Clubs: Woodlawn Sailing Club – #112, Coastal Bend MYC – #334, Corpus Christi YC – #399
Entries: 20
Winds: Saturday 5-10mph, Sunday 15-25mph
Races Completed: 19
Scoring System: Heat Management System (HMS)- Low Points Scoring
Race Committee: Mark Foster (International PRO), Sylvia Dimayuga (RD), David & John Smedley (Assistants), Alan Dinn, Rick Carr, Ray Johnson, Robert Kelly, Kevin Dirksmeyer (Rescue Chase/Mark Boat Personel)
International Umpire: Shannon
Valuable Committee Members: Robin Dinn, Lauren Causey, John Kelsey
Corpus Christi YC Media: Larry Hass
Corpus Christi YC Manager: Craig Everly

RESULTS
Place	Skipper	Points
1	Jim Kaighin	36
2	Barr Batzer	37
3	Chris Macaluso	62
4	Mark Cooper	73
5	Al Ross	78
6	Todd Carrico	97
7	Greg Gust	101
8	Steve Tedeschi Jr	128
9	Scott Rice	130
10	Eric Gregory	147
11	Bill Bentz	148
12	Ray Seta	152
13	Bill Ross	158
14	Bob Piper	173
15	Mauricic Dantas	190
16	Bob Cummings	211
17	Barry Beuershausen	246
18	Mike Causey	261
19	Phillip Davis	299
20	Charlie West	300