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<h2>2005 Newport Regatta</h2>

The annual Newport Regatta, held on magnificent Narragansett Bay, is the biggest one-design regatta on the east coast. In 2003, I  made a requeste of the hosting organization, <a href=http://www.sailnewport.org>Sail Newport</a>, to have a Laser 2 class. They agreed to let us race with less than the minimum fleet size for two years. After that, we had to have meet the minimum fleet size like everyone else. For two years, we raced with six boats, and everyone had a blast. Now we have to step up to the plate and get 12 boats together.<p>

I specifically targeting this event towards Laser 2 owners and sailors who have either never raced, or who haven't raced in so long that they've forgotten how much fun it is. Competition will be easy going, with an attitude of and emphasis on helping each other out. If you're sold, please <a href="mailto:laser2@est.org">email</a> me with your contact info (includ phone and home location or "port").<p>

If you like Laser Twos, but don't think racing is for you, you are <i>so wrong</i> - and the whole purpose of this event is to show you that a regatta is fun in countless ways of which you have never even dreamt. I never even guessed myself, until I did it.<p>

I had so much fun, despite being an extremely amature racer, at both the 2002 Laser Two Europeans, and CORK 2002, that I've decided somebody needs to bring the world of racing to the recreational Laser 2 sailer. These days, most Laser 2 owners in the US don't see themselves as racers. They don't particularly care about winning some random competition, and they probably think they don't stand much of a chance at it anyway, so they figure there's no point. In some cases, they just never even thought about it (this was me back in '00). Here are just a few of the reasons it blew me away:<p>

<ul>
	<li>I never imagined how much better you get at sailing by doing it all day, for five days straight
	<li>I never imagined how much confidence you get by seeing 20 other boats do something you thought you couldn't do
	<li>You end up exceeding your own self-imposed boundaries because you're having so much fun, and in such good company, that you don't even realize you ever had those boundareis
	<li>Standing on land with hundreds of boats getting rigged in all directions, including more Laser 2's than you've ever seen in one place at one time, gives you a <i>rush</i> that I can't describe 
	<li>You just have to come, and feel that grin stretch from ear to ear that you coudn't wipe off if you wanted to, because you know that you're about to sail more than you did last <i>year</i> and nothing is going to stop you.
</ul>