Laser Northern California Championship

The Laser Northern California Championship at The Santa Cruz Yacht Club produced exciting conditions for its competitors on May 8. The one-day event served as the Area G qualifier for the 2010 US Sailing Single-Handed Championships.

The low-key event held favorable winds for the sailboats as they fought for the number one spot.

10 boats competed in the men's standard laser class. The battle for the win from the Elvstrom Zellerback Regatta held the previous week continued between Stephen Bourdon, Tracy Usher, and Peter Vesella.

After five races the results turned out the exact same as the previous week. First place went to Bourdon, Sequoia Yacht Club, second place went to Usher, St. Francis Yacht Club, and third went to Vesella, St Francis Yacht Club.

The radial class had three boats compete first place went to Roger Herbst, Sunnyvale, Calif., second went to Christy Usher, St. Francis Yacht Club, and Jacques Kerrest, Palo Alto, Calif., in third.

The top male competitor in the laser standard fleet from this event qualifies for the men's U.S Single-Handed Sailing Championship and the top female competitor in the radial fleet qualifies for the female US Single-Handed Sailing Championship.

2010 US SAILING Youth World Qualifier

Eleven youth sailors have qualified for US SAILING's 2010 Youth World Team, and will receive invitations to represent the United States at the 40th Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship in Istanbul, Turkey, from 8-17 July 2010.

Nine of these athletes were selected based on first-place finishes in their respective classes at the 2010 US SAILING Youth World Qualifier in Clearwater, Florida, which concluded Monday after three days of racing. The multihull team was chosen by resume and did not compete at the Youth World Qualifier.

Ian Liberty, pictured left competing at the 2009 Youth Worlds, is
one of 11 US team members heading to Istanbul in 2010

©Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race

The members of US SAILING’s 2010 Youth World Team are:

Event	Equipment	Team Member
Boy’s One Person Dinghy	Laser Radial	Mateo Vargas
Girl’s One Person Dinghy	Laser Radial	Erika Reineke
Boy’s Windsurfer	RS:X with 8.5m2 sail & 60cm fin	Cullen Ahearn
Girl’s Windsurfer	RS:X with 8.5m2 sail & 60cm fin	-
Boy’s Two Person Dinghy	420	Ian Liberty and Colin Murphy
Girl’s Two Person Dinghy	420	Marlena Fauer and Christina Lewis
Open High Performance Dinghy	29er	Antoine Screve and James Moody
Open Multihull	Sirena SL16	Taylor Palmer and Mac Agnese

No RS:X girls registered to compete in the qualifier, so the U.S. will not send an athlete in that class to Turkey.

“We have a very strong team,” said High Performance Director Kenneth Andreasen. “This event was a true test of skill in heavy and medium air, and these sailors demonstrated they were the strongest in their fleets. We’re excited about the prospect of them winning the Volvo Trophy this summer.”

These young sailors are no strangers to trophies and top finishes: Last month at the Orange Bowl Regatta in Miami, Vargas won the Laser Radial class and Reineke was the top female, finishing fourth overall in a huge fleet of 135 boats. Last summer, Reineke also demonstrated she can compete against very tough international fleets: She finished an impressive second out of 75 boats at the European Laser Radial Youth Championship in Charlottenlund, Denmark, and 15th out of 75 boats at Kieler Woche, an ISAF Sailing World Cup event held in Kiel, Germany. This is the second year in a row Liberty has been named to the Youth World Team.

Vargas, Reineke, Liberty, Fauer, Lewis, Screve, Moody and Agnese are also members of the newly-launched 2010 US Sailing Development Team (USSDT), which includes young sailors identified as Olympic hopefuls in the Laser, Laser Radial, Finn, I420, 470, 29er and 49er classes.

Hosted by the Clearwater Yacht Club, the US SAILING ISAF Youth World Qualifier was a competitive regatta for 75 athletes in four events. Open to athletes born in 1992 or after, the event consisted of ten races over three days.

“Clearwater Yacht Club did a phenomenal job hosting the event,” said Andreasen. “They were so hospitable, and they organized a premiere and fair regatta on the water.”

For complete results from the Youth World Qualifier, please visit Clearwater Yacht Club’s website:

2010 Seiko 29er & 49er World Championship

Photos by Fried Elliott, www.friedbits.com

Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez of Spain have won their third 49er World Championship (’02, ’04, ’10) adding to their Olympic Gold medal from Athens in 2004 and Silver medal from Beijing in 2008. In true championship fashion, Martinez/Fernandez also won today’s medal race, held in 8-10 knots. Two-time defending champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen from Australia made a strong push by winning both the morning races moving them into 2nd which they held through the final results. Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello of Italy won the bronze.

The 25 boat gold fleet sailed two races in 16-23 knots which increased to 20-25 for the silver fleet’s two races amidst tropical showers. The medal race sailors anticipated the heavy breeze, but unexpectedly the wind dropped to a manageable 10 knots.

On the 29er course, French sailors Kevin Fisher and Glenn Gouron consolidated and won the Worlds by 28 points. Pepe Bettini and Fernando Gwozdz, the perpetual bridesmaid, sailed to 2nd overall with a 10-3-2 final day. Danish sailors Oscar Haumann and Taus Holtug who lead the majority of the event, tied for 3rd with Lorezo Franceschini and Riccardo Camin of Italy, losing and having to settle for 4th overall. However, Haumann and Holtug won the Highest Placing Youth Team award. Top placing women’s team was Ida Marie Baad Nielsen and Marie Thusgaard Olsen of Denmark who also won this trophy in 2009.

Young Bahamian sailors from the Grand Bahama Sailing Club Optimist and Laser program were able to view world class sailing up close and experience the camaraderie that international sailing affords.

For full results, go to www.29erworlds.org and www.49erworlds.org as well as the Facebook: 49er World Championship page and Twitter. Int49er. Channel 49er, the latest video link for the 49er Class has video and interviews.

Seiko is the official sponsor of the 49er Class and title sponsor of the 2010 World Championships.

Virgin Islands and France win the Open and Women’s Division of the 2nd Annual Carlos Aguilar Match Race

December 6, 2009 (Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, ISV) – Peter Holmberg, Maurice Kurg, Morgan Avery and Ben Beer (ISV) utilized years of experience to defeat Taylor Canfield, Max Nickbarg, Tyler Rice and Chris Rosenberg (ISV) in an all US Virgin Islands final at the 2nd Annual Carlos Aguilar Match Race. Holmberg took Canfield down with two straight wins in the best of three finals in the Grade 3 Match Race in which junior sailors and locals went head to head against America’s Cup skippers and sailors who have reached the top of the match race standings in their careers. In the Petite Finals, Jes Gram Hansen (DEN) defeated Colin Rathbun (IVB) 2-0. In the preceding Semi Finals, Holmberg defeated Gram Hansen 3-1 while Canfield topped Rathbun 3-1.

Racing in the beautiful natural amphitheater of St. Thomas’ harbor, the sailors enjoyed 4 perfect days of sailing in the double round-robin, semi and finals event. Consistent trade winds of 10-15 knots, sunshine and warm weather treated the racers to some of the best sailing in the world.

In the Women’s division, the #1 Women’s Match Racing team in the world, Claire Leroy, Eladie Bertrand, Clarie Pruvot, and Marie Riou (FRA) defeated the US Women’s Match Racing Champion and the defending Carlos Aguilar Match Race Champion, Genny Tulloch and her team, which included Sally Barkow, Alana O’Reilly and Amanda Callahan in two matches in the first to two wins final.

Leroy was enthusiastic about the experience her team gained during the past three weeks of practice and racing in the US Virgin Islands. “Peter Holmberg gave us some time and we practiced against him. The quality of the sailing and competition was excellent. We look forward to returning for next year’s event,” said Leroy.

Claire Leroy (FRA) and Genny Tulloch (USA) dispatched their Semi-Final opponents by winning three straight against Katy Pilley-Lovell (USA) and Julie Bossard (FRA), respectively.

Open Results:

1. Peter Holmberg (ISV)

2. Taylor Canfield (ISV)

3. Jes Gram Hansen (DEN)

4. Colin Rathbun (IVB

5. Dave Perry (USA)

6. Chris Haycraft (IVB)

7. Fritz Bus (AHO)

8. Mauicio Gallardo (ELS)

Women’s Results:

1. Claire LeRoy (FRA)

2. Genny Tulloch (USA)

3. Julie Bossard (FRA)

4. Katy Lovell (USA)

5. Liz Baylis (USA)

6. Renata Decnop (BRA)

7. Kelly Obrian Uzenski (ISV)

8. Maria Ramires (POR)
   

CoverItLive brings your event to life

We recently had the opportunity to test a new service on a couple of our regattas. The service is CoverItLive, which works a little like a moderated forum, and a little like the popular social networking sites (i.e. -- Facebook or Twitter).

Coveritlive lets you report live (on the web) the conditions, mark roundings, and other observations from your event. At the J/22 North Americans, we used it extensively from the water via laptop, and smart phones. You can set the CIL system to accept posts directly from a list of approved Twitter accounts and post photos or video directly from YouTube and other sources. Reader Comments are posted for you (or the moderator) to review and approve before posting, so it becomes a dialog between you and the followers of your event.

For the J/22 NA's we ended up with over 800 Readers, and all stayed with the site for more than 1 minute. For the 29er and 49er World championship, we ended up with almost 4500 followers, and 2887 followers respectively. If you'd like us to add CoverItLive to your next event just let us know, there is no cost for the service, and it's a great way to increase the reach of your event for your sponsors and the spouses/families of your paticipants.

You can review the coverage of the J/22 North Americans online here of visit the CoverItLive website for more information -- www.coveritlive.com

Shoe Regatta

(As reported by guidrynews.com)

Lakewood Yacht Club Race Committee Chairman Dwight Bengtson announced at the Sea Lake Yacht Sales Shoe Regatta awards ceremony that “Tejas”, a J-22 owned by Terry Flynn captured the first over-all winning position which awarded him the coveted Shoe Regatta Challenge Cup.

Held in the ballroom of Lakewood Yacht Club on Sun., May 17, approximately 200 racers were on hand for the ceremony which awarded 31 trophies to the winners. First place winners in all classes received gift cards for the skipper and crew to purchase in-stock shoes from Free-Ur-Feet shoe store in Seabrook. “This is why we call it the Shoe Regatta,” explained Bengtson. First place winners also received a gift certificate from Banks Sails worth $500.

An experienced racer and regatta winner, Flynn has placed first in the J-22 World Championship, earned four first place wins in the North American J-22 Championships, and has also won the J-22 Mid-Winter Championships four times.

When asked about his first place for the Shoe Regatta Challenge Cup, Flynn replied that although it was the first time that his crew of Even Smith and Larry Blankenhagen had raced together, they did a good job. “The wind conditions were unbelievably good on Saturday and even stronger on Sunday,” he related. There were six races total with one thrown out. Not only does Flynn sail for fun, he works for Quantum Sails in Seabrook and is a resident of League City since Hurricane Ike.

Hosted by Lakewood Yacht Club, the Shoe Regatta is presented by Bay Access, Inc., a not-for-profit charitable organization that sponsors amateur and youth sailing. In addition to the Title Sponsors as Sea Lake Yacht Sales, Gold Sponsors were Free-Ur-Feet Sandals & Boat Shoes and Bank Sales with Mount Gay Rum as the Silver Sponsor.

Lakewood racers earned a total of twelve awards. The five first place awards were the following: Bill Zartler on “Solaris, a J/105; Al Goethe on “Hamburg”, a J/109; Uzi Ozeri on “Infinity”, a J80; Ashley Walker on “Tenacity”, Cruising Non-Spinnaker; and Steve Rhyne on “Mojo”, PHRF Spinnaker A. Second place awards went to Tom Sutton on “Leading Edge”, a PHRF Spinnaker B. Third place awards were earned by Al Poindexter on “Andale”; Jack Seitzinger on “Asylum:, Cruising Non Spinnaker; John Barnett on “Sirly”, PHRF Non-Spinnaker A; Laird Cogburn on “Loopy”, PHRF Non-Spinnaker B and John Butler on Millennium Express, PHRF Spinnaker B. One fourth place award went to Tom Macaluso on “Pro-Re Nata”, Cruising Non-Spinnaker.

A special appreciation award was presented to Lakewood member Jack Tshupp who has reported weather conditions for the Lakewood racers for over ten years and who has written numerous weather related articles for Telltales magazine. He is moving to Tucson, AR to be closer to his daughter.

Complete Race Results

Dinghy Invitational 2009

(As reported by www.norcalsailing.com)

A haven for racing sailboats of all sizes and well set up for small boat racing, Richmond Yacht Club hosted yet another dinghy regatta this past Saturday. Race Committee Chair Tony Castruccio described the conditions: “The wind was predominately out of the south to south southwest, which made for ideal conditions on Keller Cove. Good wind pressure and flat water was helped by the flood tide. The wind range was between 6 to 10 knots with a brief period (half an hour) as the fog pushed into the Gate when readings reached 15-16 knots.

“A total of 27 boats, predominately Lasers and Bytes made it to the regatta,” said Tony. “We had two Snipes and three Weta trimarans. The developing Weta fleet is working to show more presence at more dinghy regattas.

“Most of the volunteer Race Committee was made up of the Wylie Wabbit Fleet. Kim Desenberg contacted me and said that the Wabbit fleet wanted to help out on this regatta and give some volunteer time to the club as a fleet. How we can pass that up? You watch them race and you begin to think, ‘They are going to make for a top notch Race Committee team.’ They provided good information on the race course and kept the races rolling on the Pelican. We were able to fire off multiple races as boats were finishing.”

Kevin Kuhn showed up Saturday morning, looked up Tony and offered to work race committee, or if there was a boat available he'd also like to sail.

Having all the committee he needed, Tony introduced Kevin to Gail Yando who set him up with the fleet's Charter Byte. Big Mistake. Kevin sorted things out in the reasonably sedate (8-10 knots of breeze) first race. He took a third. Then came second or as Kevin put it, "My speed and tacks got better." Last two races: two bullets. The last race was particularly difficult with lots of shifts and lulls as the cove started to ease down from the 15-knot wind. Not keeping the pedal off the metal was runner-up Trish Sudell who at least for today didn't have her mojo. But here's the best part. Kevin developed his talent through intercollegiate sailing at the Coast Guard Academy (class of 2008). He's currently the Damage Control Officer on the USCG Cutter Morganthau, and his next deployment is in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Dan Ouellet and Michele Logan tied for third.

No surprise in the 15 boat Laser fleet. Drake Jensen nabbed two bullets and did well enough for a three point win over Mike Bishop. Nick Burke took third.

Full Results Here