Fresno Yacht Club's High Sierra Regatta, located at stunning Huntington Lake some 7,200 ft up in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, was the stage for the first Viper regatta in the western US since 1998.

The fleet gathered from Santa Barbara and San Pedro California, and Ashland, Oregon for a fantastic two days of racing. Day one saw two races with variable winds of 5 - 17 knots of wind over an 8 mile course and a 9.5 mile course. On the second day,there was a consistent 12 - 14 knot breeze over another 9.5 mile course. The racing was exciting and the Vipers were a notable presence at the regatta, consistently overtaking the PHRF boats who owed us time!

The regatta was won by Nick Mockridge and "Hissy Fit" and the runner up was Loren Colahan and "Lost Boys", both from Santa Barbara.

We in the western region leave the 2006 High Sierra Regatta with the memory firmly etched in our minds of a wall of 111 spinnakers being funneled down the mile wide lake, lit up by glorious sunshine and framed by cloudless, azure blue skies, deep alpine-blue water and pine-covered mountains