Regatta Report: 2026 Lake Yosemite Spring Regatta
Al Sargent
May 16-17, 2026
Lake Yosemite, Merced, California
The 2026 Lake Yosemite Spring Regatta was, in a word, a nuke fest. Incredibly windy, puffy, and genuinely challenging. Nine sailors registered for the event — and only four of us completed every race. That alone tells you what kind of day it was on the water.
The Venue
Lake Yosemite is a small reservoir tucked right next to the UC Merced campus in the Central Valley, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the Bay Area. The hosting club is small, but the welcome could not have been warmer. When we arrived, they asked us what kinds of courses we wanted to sail and whether we’d prefer to break for lunch or push straight through. That kind of inclusivity — letting the visiting fleet shape the day — sets the tone for a great weekend on the water.
A Course Built on Zigzags
Here’s the quirk of racing at Lake Yosemite: the lake is so small that an upwind leg takes maybe five minutes. To make the racing meaningful, the race committee strings together complex courses that zigzag through eight fixed buoys scattered around the lake.
Once you understand the numbering scheme, it gets a lot easier. The buoy numbers go up in a clockwise direction and are set in a box, with these in the corners:
1 — northwest corner
4 — northeast corner
5 — southeast corner
8 — southwest corner
With that mental map, when the RC calls a course, you can quickly trace the route in your head before the start.
Pro tip: Keep your course straight
With so many marks and so much zigzagging, course confusion is very real — and very costly. Here’s the system that worked for me:
Print out the course sheet and slip it into a Ziploc bag.
Stash the bag inside your life jacket so it’s always within reach.
Use a pencil to jot the current race’s course directly onto your deck before each start.
Bring an eraser so the previous race’s scribbles don’t bleed into the next one and confuse you mid-leg.
Simple, low-tech, and it kept me out of trouble all weekend.
Day 1: Lessons and Mistakes
The opening race was equal parts sailing and orienteering. James Baurley and I were both up front off the line, and both of us were equally unsure where we were actually going. Picture it: sailing downwind in a building breeze, steering with one hand, holding the course sheet in the other, trying to shade the puffs while simultaneously decoding which buoy comes next.
Thankfully, the committee was kind on race one — they handed us a course that essentially toured every buoy on the lake. By the end of five or six upwind laps, everyone had a (somewhat) working mental map of where the marks were set.
The racing itself was a leaderboard shuffle. Mid-race I worked past Emilio, and as the leaders rounded the leeward mark the order was Al, Julian, Emilio, with Chris in close pursuit. Then I made the mistake of the race: I momentarily got confused, thinking that the right end of the finish line was actually the left end, and overstood. It was so windy I couldn't bear away, so I had to tack and jibe around to finish. This let Julian and Emilio slip in for first and second, and I only just barely nudged out Chris for third.
A humbling start — but a useful one. The lesson from race one: in a venue this tight, navigation mistakes cost as much as boat-handling mistakes.
The rest of Saturday continued in a similar fashion, with conditions that turned the regatta into primarily a battle between Al and Julian for first and second place across multiple races. The winds proved exceptionally challenging, with very shifty puffs that would easily shift through 40 degrees on the compass. Sailors frequently found themselves having to ease their sheets out three or four feet just to keep their boats from tipping over in the sudden gusts.
Saturday Evening - Hospitality and Planning
The competitive intensity gave way to warm hospitality Saturday evening at the Lake Yosemite Sailing Association clubhouse. The dinner featured excellent steak and amazing chicken, showcasing the great food and hospitality that made the regatta's social aspects as memorable as the racing. Emilio took charge of pouring wine while Chris crafted cocktails, creating the perfect atmosphere for sharing great stories and making plans for future regattas.
Sunday - Diablo Winds and Early Start
Sunday brought forecasts of very strong katabatic winds - the notorious Diablo winds that blow hard from the north. Anticipating these conditions, the race committee moved the start time an hour earlier to 10 o’clock, hoping to complete racing before conditions became too extreme.
The challenging forecast convinced some sailors they’d had enough, with Marcel and Schmitty deciding to sit out Sunday’s racing. However, a dedicated group, including David Strube, Julian, Al, Chris, and James committed to going out for another day of competition.
The reduced but determined fleet battled through three races in increasingly challenging conditions. The decision to start early proved prescient - after packing up their boats, the sailors watched as conditions escalated dramatically around 2 o’clock. What had been puffy 15- to 20-knot winds transformed into a solid 30 knots across the lake, conditions that would have been pretty crazy to race in.
The weekend concluded with sailors driving home after a great evening and an excellent weekend on the lake, with memories of both the competitive racing and the strong sense of community that made the Lake Yosemite Spring Regatta 2026 truly memorable.
Planning for next year
We always try to minimize scheduling conflicts, and for years, the Lake Yosemite Regatta has been held on the same weekend as the Elvstrom/Zellerbach Regatta at St. Francis YC. When speaking with regatta organizers at Lake Yosemite, we learned that it would be to their advantage to shift the regatta by one weekend.
First, the regatta would not conflict with the UC Merced graduation weekend. This means fewer potential traffic jams and lower hotel prices for regatta entrants. Second, water levels would be more predictable; as recently as a couple of weeks before this year's regatta, it wasn't clear that there would be enough water in the lake to sail. And third, reducing a conflict with the Elvstrom means more sailors could come enjoy Lake Yosemite's great hospitality and challenging conditions.
– Al Sargent, USA 158976
Al Sargent (158976) leading Chris Simenstad (207118), Emilio Castelli (210652), and Julian (red cap) just before the finish. To illustrate "it ain't over till it's over", the finish order a couple of minutes later shifted to Julian 1st, Emilio 2nd, Al 3rd, and Chris 4th.
Here's a ride-along video of a battle between Al and Julian in the last race:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYiPJEUSTtV/
Photos on LYSA's Facebook page:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/142702595754952/permalink/36511122691819483/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Al Sargent
- Download Granola.ai to your phone. It's an AI notetaker. iOS app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/granola-ai-meeting-notes/id6739429409
- When you're driving home after the regatta, create a new Granola note and dictate your ramblings into the phone. Don't worry about polishing; raw recollections are fine.
- Once you're done recording (and parked), tell Granola to reformat the note as a blog post. Ask it to aim for 500 to 1000 words. Add in links to results and photos, send to the group, and you're good to go!
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