" There is a new Lawman in town"

Justin "Lawman" Law

The year was 1997 I was 35 years old and weighed about 200 pounds and was sailing in a sabot during the BYC Macho Mens regatta. The class I was in was called “Super Sized” or something like that. I had knee pads on and could not figure out just how to position myself in the boat to make it go any faster, so I just stayed on my knees in the middle of the boat. While rounding K mark and heading towards the finish a wide-eyed 12-year-old kid, with the gleam in his eye of a young white shark, who had started ten minutes behind me in the “Bitesize” fleet. Rolled jibed his boat perfectly and jumped from rail to rail in his sabot then streaked by me as if I was a speed bump on 16th street. The thought of luffing him was fleeting to no avail and I did get a quick glimpse of the boat name has he flew by “Lawman” was on the side of his boat. The Lawman never looked back as he won the event that day and I don’t think he has looked back since.

Justin “Lawman” Law was born in 1985 and started sailing at the age of 3. “When we moved to Corona del Mar we lived across the street from Ed Carpenter. He bought my first sabot and together with my father, Larry, we refinished a 1970s Holder sabot in the garage and then I started sailing.” Law recalled. As a junior sailor, he finished second in two different sabot nationals then attend Newport Harbor High School where he teamed up with his long-time crew and good friend Adrienne Patterson. During the early years and winning many High School regattas the team of Law and Patterson became F.J. National Champions and still sail FJ’s 19 years latter together. Law then packed his seabag and headed to St. Mary’s College of Maryland. During his four years of college, Law was an Honorable Mention sailor his freshman year and All American sailor the next three years while becoming a finalist for “Sailor of the year” his senior year. There is only three finalists noticed each year so it’s very close to being an award it’s self. During his last year in college, he started a 470 Olympic Campaign 

“Today this not the best time to start an Olympic Campaign, I had never learned more about sailing than I did at this time of my life,” Law said.

On his return home from college he became the head coach at NHYC and Newport Harbor High sailing teams. During his first year as coach at Newport Harbor High School, his Alma mater, the team won the High School National Championships. “ Which was one of the coolest things ever,” Law said with pride in his voice. 

I already knew the answer to this question when I asked him what type of sailing event does he prefer to compete in? “ Team racing, it is like chess on the water. You have to be fast and know what to do next. I really enjoy the aggressiveness and tempo of team racing along with having teammates.” Law said. The “Lawman” has been on the winning team of the Baldwin Cup which is our harbor’s most prestigious team racing event five times to my count. His most memorable win was the 2015 ISAF Team Racing World Championships in Rutland Great Britain.

My next question was, What personal characteristics keeps you on the top of most of the sailing events you enter? “ I have put a lot of time on the water, be it Catalina 37’s, Harbor 20’s, Sonars. I really love being competitive, obviously, I am way too competitive, I would not have been so successful without that competitive drive.” That drive was a big part of the NHYC winning this year Lipton Cup with Law on the helm for the first time. He had been apart of two other Lipton Cup teams in the past sailed in J 105’s. The Lipton Cub has a long and distinguished history in California for skippers and crews which including the names of many world’s best sailors. “ This year Lipton Cup, SDYC does a great job at this event and the boats are all very well matched. Many of the team had done the Lipton Cup before and did an outstanding job which allowed me to concentrate on the tel tails and the J-105 heel angle, the boats get overpowered pretty quick and there is only so much you can do, so if you can drive to a certain heel angle you are going to be pretty fast. Over the regatta, we focused on our starts and improved them over the regatta. Being aware of having space and speed on the starting line.

Some of our success was due to that three members of our crew had sailed Catalina 37’s all summer together were aware of our heel angle, wheel time, down-wind lanes” Law said.

While I had Justin on the phone I took this opportunity to try to increase my sailing performance on our harbor and asked him what to focus on while racing and how to sail better in our harbor? “ One needs to focus on controllable’s, there are many variables in sailing some are controllable. For example what you are doing before and during and after the race, preparing your boat equipment, how are you preparing yourself mentally and physically. Being dressed appropriately, eating and drinking enough. It really all comes down to thinking about the things that you can control”. “When sailing in Newport Harbor it is very wind-driven, I like to watch the progression of the day, watching the flags. Over the years the harbor does come to be predictable so it’s trying to remember what works and what does not. Then making sure that you do just that and not get distracted from what works. Remembering the Lido Lift, remembering not to go deep right in the Lido corner, Looking for the lefty just below the NHYC moorings. Newport is an amazing place to sail,  it is a very predictable and easy place to sail” Law said.

 I took this last tidbit of information onto the racecourse last weekend I did rather well with it.  “If you were to draw a line from the tip of Lido straight towards Bay-Island and you are on port tack and below that line, you will probably get headed down into Lido. Where one will run into the Lido Lift, but if you are above that line sometimes you will get that little lefty twist, so you do not have to own the right” Law explained.

So what’s next for the Lawman? I would like to do more keelboat invitational yacht club events like the NYYC Resolute Cup. With a win there one receives an invite to the NYYC Invitational which is the largest Corinthian event for yacht clubs. “That’s the one I want next”

I’ve been very fortunate to sail with Law to Hawaii, twice down Baja and one extremely challenging and memorable run down the coast of California aboard the Santa Cruz 50 Horizon. Just so happens we won all four events and I continuously remind him that he makes sailing fun.

Sea ya