By Duncan Shea

Three High School teams from the Santa Barbara area competed in last weekend's Rose Bowl regatta, hosted by the USC Sailing team and by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. Twenty-seven colleges from the East Coast to Hawaii, as well as 54 high school teams from all over California participated in the country's largest combined scholastic sailing competition, with more than 300 sailors rotating off the beach for the A and B fleet races.

Santa Barbara, Dos Pueblos and Laguna Blanca High Schools were all represented at the regatta. The weather was sunny all weekend, but wind was hard to find. Only two rotations were completed on Saturday (eight races total, four each for each team's A and B boats), and just one on Sunday. High School regattas usually try for three rotations per day, so it was unfortunate that the wind didn't cooperate.
The races were held in the small, crowded inside bays, where boats and houses make for shifty breeze. Since the wind was light and the courses short, the game plan for the weekend was to find the pressure and sail in it. Easier said than done, especially on such a crowded course!

Santa Barbara High School was our top local team, placing 5th overall at the end of the weekend. Dos Pueblos and Laguna finished the event in 20th and 23rd, respectively. This regatta marked the midpoint of the High School sailing season, and is the last one scheduled in a light-wind venue. Our local teams are looking forward to heading up to the Bay Area and sailing in breeze at the end of February, and also to the final "regular-season" event of the year, the Gaucho Regatta held here in Santa Barbara in March.