2010 Grand Prix

[impero]

Im 18 and have been sailing competitively for about 8 years now. im goin to college real shortly, but with no sailing team at my college and having to race the same people at my sailing club every weekend, im really craving some more competition.

im looking ahead to next summer and really would like to go around to a lot of different laser regattas, seeing as i focused this summer on lightnings (qualified for 2010 youth worlds woo!). i was just looking around on the ILCA-NA website for some regattas to go to and started reading about the Grand Prix. i was just wondering how competative this is? I havent traveled for many laser regattas, and as a result don't know how i would fair against the majority of the competition.

im not looking to be close to the lead right off the bat, but if im going to be spending a lot of time (and money) going to these events then i at least want to know if i can keep up and be competative.

anyone experienced with these events? any regattas i could go to before i get into it to see how i do? thanks for any help.

 

[SFBayLaser]

In a nutshell:

There are three levels to the Grand Prix:
1) Major events such as the NA's, US and Canadian Nationals, MWE, MWW, etc.
2) Regional championships such as the ACC's, GCC's, GLC's, NCC's and PCC's
3) District Championships

That is also roughly the order of the level of competition... so at the major events you are going to find the top sailors in North America, as well quite often some of the best from around the world. The Regional Championships also attract top level sailors but the depth is less. The District Championships will often have a few top sailors but tend to draw more locally.

You get Grand Prix points for all events, at the end of the year LP donates prizes for the winners of various categories and its also used as a ranking for qualification to world championships.

The current standings can be found here.