The Harbor Report: Tales of the Lasers zooming through Newport Harbor

July 17 is the start of the 81st Flight of the Lasers, and when people like Brett Hemphill, David Beek and Gator Cook call me up to ask me to write a column about the race, I am all over it.

The Flight, as we like to call it, was first was known as the Flight of the Snowbirds because of the wooden boats used at the time, according to the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce, whose Commodore’s Club organizes the event. It was renamed after the wooden boats were replaced with sleek fiberglass boats, known as Lasers. They’re Olympic-class vessels.

Seymour Beek has been racing in the Flight since he was 7.

Beek’s best finishes where in 1948 and ‘49, with two second places to Gil Kraemer and Dick Deaver, respectively. These were the years when as many as 160 boats would be on the starting line at the same time. To finish in the top 50 would be quite the accomplishment, but to finish second during this time, with all the past Olympians on those boats, deserves some serious respect and acknowledgment.

In the race’s earliest days, Beek recalls, the Flight was raced in Snowbirds, then Kites and, since 1975, in lasers.

In 1954 Tom O’Keefe won the Flight. I had a chance to talk with him over the phone.

“At that time the Flight was the largest one-design race in the world,” he told me. “Once I got into the lead, there was a newsreel boat filming the race. They later played the newsreel in the theaters.”

O’Keefe also remembered seeing “the powerboats in the bay blowing their horns at the finish line when I won the race. It was a big deal at that time.”

He recalled a story about a competitor whose boat did not measure in to the rules. This person had won a number of different regattas that summer.

There was another racer who took offense at this. He swam from Balboa Island and tipped over the competitor’s boat just before the start of the race. O’Keefe says the harbor department followed the swimmer back to the beach.

“I still have the silver plated bowl I won as the take-home trophy that year. I will always remember all those boats,” O’Keefe said.

Next I checked in with Chris Raab, who won the Flight in 1999, 2002 and 2003.

“This race meant everything,” Raab said. “I needed a new sail really badly, and the winner received a new sail. My father was at work and he did not have time to trailer my laser down from Long Beach, so I remember sailing my boat from Long Beach to Newport, at the age of 15, so that I could practice a couple of days before the event.”

With seven wins, Jon Pinckney has won the Flight more than anyone else. Like all the past winners, the first thing he told me was, “It was the big event, the biggest race on the bay at the time, and I wanted that new sail. Out of the 100 boats that started, the winner was the king.”

Pinckney remembers the 1990 Flight, which was one of the windiest, as the one that got away from him.

“Phil Ramming and I came off the starting line ahead of the fleet,” Pinckney said. “Ramming had just tacked off of O mark to starboard and lee bowed me back to the right side of the course. Ramming then made it in front of the ferry that was headed into Balboa Island, and I had to sail around it. I was never able to catch him after that.”

Pinckney’s story happened some 25 years ago, but he tells the tale as if it were yesterday.

When I told Pinckney and Raab about the winner of this year’s Flight receiving a new sail, they both got rather quiet.

I’ll let you know if I see Raab on his laser this week before the start. Sailing Pro Shop on West 16th Street is donating the new sail, along with some gift certificates.

The entry is free, thanks to the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce. There are several categories that people can enter, such as the youngest skipper, parent-child, couple, oldest skipper and bragging rights.

Entry and information can be found on flightofthelasers.org.

Sea ya.

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LEN BOSE is an experienced boater, yacht broker and boating columnist for the Daily Pilot.