Small boats, big tradition

Scores of tiny sailboats piloted by children as young as 8, as well as men in their 70s, will take over Newport Harbor for the 74th annual Flight of the Lasers on Sunday.

The race has been an annual summer tradition in Newport Beach since 1936 when a flock of 52 tiny 12-foot wooden boats set sail on the bay in the first Flight of the Snowbirds.

A young sailor named Dick McKibben won the race that year with a boat called the Wa Wa, according to historical archives from the Los Angeles Times.

The wooden Snowbird sailboats have long since been abandoned for 14-foot Olympic-class boats called Lasers.

The boats are prized for their low-profile, which makes them fast as they skim along waters of the Newport Harbor.

“If you flip over, you don’t have to bail it out; you just tip it out and keep going,” said Newport Beach resident Brett Hemphill, who plans on racing for the first time with his 5-year-old son Pierce.

Many children wear pirate costumes and carry squirt guns during the race.

“He’s excited,” Hemphill said. “I showed him a course chart and he has it all figured out. He wants to bring his squirt gun along too — it’s kind of a fun race,” Hemphill said.

Lifelong Newport Beach resident Seymour Beek has chaired the annual race for the past 15 years. He also sailed in the race as a child in the 1940s and ’50s, taking second place twice.

“It was very frustrating because I never won it,” Beek said. “It was a more of a standout event in those days that got a lot of publicity. People came from all over to see it.”

Beek remembers the race had more than 100 entrants in its heyday, but he expects about 50 boats to race this year.

With awards given out in categories ranging from best costume, first married couple, first parent and child team, as well as for the youngest and oldest sailors, the race attracts a diverse group of entrants each year.

“Sailing does not have to be an expensive hobby — you can store a Laser in the garage and get a perfectly good used one for less than a thousand dollars,” said Newport Beach resident Carter Ford, who won the race in 2001 at the age of 60.

Ford plans to race again on Sunday in his Laser dubbed “On Top.”

“I think that to me, it’s a carry-over sport,” he said. “You can be 90 years old, or 8 or 9.”