SAYRA One Design Fleet of the Month

Thirty-one years and counting the D12 Laser Championship Series has been going on making it the STRONGEST and LONGEST running championship series within SAYRA.  What has made this D12 laser class so popular so long? That is easy:  variety of ages, diversity (men and women), and variety of rigs for the boat, great venues and lifetime friendships! 

District 12 borders are actually defined by the Laser Class as North Carolina, South Carolina and the lower half of Georgia.  D12 is one of 26 Districts that make up the North American region and our membership in 2009 was 91 showing a steady increase in the last 5 years! We now have 4.7 members and radial memberships that have really increased our membership the last 2 years. 

D12 is well known for a long standing Championship series that started in 1978.  Looking back at those early days are names that are the legends of sailing within SAYRA and USSA – John Gervais, John McIntoch Jr., Stewart Walker Jr., Randall Swan, Patrick Kennedy, Robbie Wilkins and Chris Larson.

Robbie Wilkins remembers….” Laser sailing in the 70’s was wild. We had the Larry Laser Regatta on Sullivan’s Island at Walter Earhardt’s  and always had 30-40 boats launching in the ocean and staying at his house.   Someone nameless always brought a gallon of grain alcohol which was always consumed!  Some of the most fun racing was in Colonial Lake in Charleston, and Lake Mayer in Savannah.  You could not put your board all the way down or turn over because the water was only 3 feet deep.  Even Ed Beard, Laser sailor from St. Pete (now on Allinghi) made it up to several of the D12 events back then and we whipped up on him!” 

In the early 90’s, Laser sailing, D12 and the Championship series made a very strong come back when Savannah and the Laser were named for the 1996 Olympics.  A group of juniors out of Columbia Sailing Club (spear headed by my father Keith Rawlings) reinstituted the D12 Series making it very close to the version it is today. David Loring (‘92), Martine Rawlings (’93) were very active during their college years traveling all over the southeast as much as possible.  In 2000, the series was fully loaded with 5, sometimes 6 events, located all over the Carolinas and Georgia.  We had some events with as many as 70 sailors participating. The Radial Series was introduced in 1999 as a way for juniors and women to participate in a championship series.  Top Junior and Top Females were added along the way reflecting the changing fleet and the growth within our district.
 

 What makes this series and these sailors so special are the people.  We have sailors coming back to the Laser that were active in the 70’s to now race with their kids and some holding out to race with their grandkids!  Many of those racers – Randall Swan, Robbie Wilkins, Lee Estes, Keith Rawlings, Arland and Chip Whitesides, Carrie and Dan Rhode can tell you there is no great joy than to watch your kids pass you on the course or slam dunk you at the start -  you taught them well! 

Not a race weekend goes by that I don’t look around in awe of the friendships that have been created and survived this long!  From the early Laser lessons I got sailing on Charleston harbor with Randall Swan to the yearly race course battle I have with my good friend Charlie Usher, who I have been racing against for 23 years, I love it all!  But I especially want to thank my parents for getting me into the boat when I was 14.  Lasers, D12 and SAYRA have defined so much of what I do today with sailing that I am thankful everyday for the chance to race my Laser so…. A toast to D12 and hopefully for another 30+ great years of Championship Sailing!   

Snipes
D12 Lasers