Flight of Lasers takes off in Newport Harbor

Ahoy.

Keep your eyes on the bay Sunday as Newport Harbor will be filled

with about 100 Lasers and Bytes.

The 70th Annual Flight of the Lasers is a five-mile race with the

start/finish line lying about halfway between channel markers 8 and

10. The starting gun will fire at 1 p.m., and the boats will first

sail up the harbor in a westerly direction before heading for the

finish line.

I hope the racers and those cruising the harbor will be courteous

to one and another. There usually is a very aggressive racer who

pushes his way through the harbor or a sailor who cuts off another

boater, only to tack on his bow. There are also clueless boaters who

head into a pack of racing boats when there are other options.

The race is free, thanks to numerous sponsors, and you still have

time to sign up by calling the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce at

(949) 729-4400 or the Newport Harbor Yacht Club at (949) 673-7730.

While we are on the topic of contests, racers are just completing

the Transpac Yacht Race. By the time you read this column, there

should be only one boat still out in the ocean. The Transpac is a

sailing race that starts just off Point Fermin, north of Long Beach

Harbor, and finishes near Diamond Head in Oahu, Hawaii.

A straight line from start to finish would be 2,200 nautical

miles. Most of the boats, however, will sail further as they drop

down in latitude to miss the Pacific high pressure that usually

resides halfway across the ocean. The challenge is to calculate just

what latitude to sail for the best wind.

Monohull sailboats in the race have to be more than 30 feet, and

the multihull boats must be more than 45 feet LOA (length over all),

so the race committee did not let me enter my Sabot. However, I want

to thank all of you who offered to be my crew.

The Newport Sea Base entered its newest addition, Scout Spirit ,

in the Transpac. The boat finished fourth in its division, only a few

hours behind Roy Disney’s Pyewacket.

Modern technology has made the race more of a thinking game, not a

sail-by-the-seat-of-your-pants event. The navigator’s position has

morphed into that of an advanced weather forecaster who is constantly

analyzing the northern seas coming down from the Gulf of Alaska and

the Bering Sea and southern systems created by hurricanes crossing

over from the Gulf of Mexico.

Also, technology has made communications easier from the middle of

the Pacific, with both Internet access and satellite phones. Newport

Beach sailor Chris Welsh called into my radio show by satellite phone

last Saturday when he was about 900 miles from the finish line. The

phone connection was not that bad, with some scratchiness but not too

much of a delay.

My tip of week is for every boater to read and learn the

navigational rules and take a boating safety class. Many states now

require boater licensing or completion of a class for those at the

helm. I think every state will eventually have some sort of boater

licensing, but why wait to learn? I instruct many people on how to

operate their vessels, because the insurance agencies are requiring

the skipper or owner to be proficient before a multimillion-dollar

yacht is insured. Taking an online class, picking up a pamphlet at

the harbor master’s office, or signing up for a class should be high

on your boating priority list.

Tune in to the No. 1 boating talk radio show in the nation, “Capt.

Mike Whitehead’s Boathouse Radio Show.” It airs every Saturday from

noon to 1 p.m. on KCBQ-AM (1170). You can join me, Chandler Bell, and

Eric Hovland by calling the listener line at (888) 344-1170.

Safe voyages.

* MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating and harbor columnist. Send

him your harbor and marine-related thoughts and story suggestions to

mike@boat

housetv.com or visit https://www.boathousetv.com.