Sarasota Yacht Club sailor Griffin Roberts pilots his laser boat in 2024. Photo by Wes Roberts.

Wind whips across the wave tops spraying surf into the faces of the sailors. No, this isn’t a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s a peek into the world of laser boat racing, the purest and most technically demanding form of sail boat racing there is. This past weekend, the Sarasota Yacht Club hosted the 2025 International Laser Class Association’s (ILCA) Gulf Coast Championships, one of the main regatta’s in the ILCA’s North American Grand Prix circuit.

The regatta was broken up into three tiers, based upon the size of the rig: ILCA 4, ILCA 6 and ILCA 7. While all laser boats are piloted by just one sailor and are the same dimensions, the size of the sail varies. ILCA 7 boats, for instance, are raced at the Olympic level and typically manned by adult sailors, while youth sailors such as members of the Sarasota Yacht Club’s Laser team race in the slightly smaller ILCA 6 class. Although the ILCA 6 class sports smaller rigs, the competition is just as intense.

“The laser is an extremely physical boat. Some boats aren’t that physical, they’re more about the rigging of the equipment and the tactics, but with the laser you really have to work the boat with your body more than the competition,” says Brett Putnam, Head Sailing and Laser coach at Sarasota Yacht Club. “Having that physical ability is extremely important to make the boat go fast. The second part of laser racing is strategy—which side of the race course are you going to go to?”

Laser races are around three and a half nautical miles long, taking approximately 50 minutes each. There are five races per regatta, working in a low point scoring system. The better a sailor does in each race, the lower their score will be. The sailor with the lowest total score at the end of the regatta is crowned victorious for the day.

With a total of 125 boats competing across the three classes, the ILCA Gulf Coast Championships at Sarasota Yacht Club was a rousing success. Not only did it represent Sarasota as a host city for a major stop on the international sailing circuit, but it also featured close competition.

“Each fleet pretty much came down to the last race,” says Putnam. “The difference between first and second place can be as little as five inches."

Sarasota Yacht Club, 941-365-4191, 1100 John Ringling Blvd, Sarasota.

Sarasota Yacht Club sailor Griffin Roberts pilots his laser boat in 2024. Photo by Wes Roberts.

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