Local sailors defended the state title for the Gorge Sailing Team, last weekend, once again taking first place in the Oregon High School Sailing state regatta, held Sunday near the Hood River Marina.
The Gorge Sailing Team’s fourth season is underway and the team had their first of two home races this season last week with a great showing at a regatta down at the Hood River Waterfront.
There’s been a lot of good wind days this summer on the Columbia River and competitive windsurfers in the Gorge have been taking advantage of the situation, getting in a lot of laps during this year’s Gorge Cup series.
Last Saturday and Sunday, Cascade Locks held the third annual state championship regatta. HRV, Lincoln, and Oregon Episcopal High school were contending for the championship previously held by HRV.
National Boating Safety Week is May 16 to 22, and Columbia Hills State Park is partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to promote safe and responsible boating by launching the park’s first ever cardboard boat race at Horsethief Lake just east of Dallesport Saturday.
Sunday saw the beginning of what many hope will become an annual event in Hood River. Supported by the Port of Hood River and Zepher Inc., the Commissioner’s Cup Regatta was the first local youth sailing race to be held in Hood River.
Columbia Gorge Racing Association started in the 1990s as a group of friends who came to Cascade Locks in the summer to sail dinghies and hold impromptu races they dubbed “bush regattas.”
Doug Archbald, commodore of Hood River Yacht Club, writes that Double Damned 2012 went off with great success in the face of “challenging, very un-Gorge-like conditions.”
