This year, Brook Wood and I had the privilege of traveling to Mentor, Ohio for the 2018 US Sailing Junior Women’s Doublehanded Championship, otherwise known as Ida Lewis. This regatta is in memoriam of Thomas Clagett’s late wife, named after a women who had bravery like no other, Ida Lewis. She was known for saving the lives of many people who would pass by her father’s lighthouse in distress. The US Sailing Women's Doublehanded Championship featured 80 girls (40 teams) which was the highest participation number in years! There were teams from California, New York, New Jersey and Alabama, just to name a few. Getting to know the girls from across the country was one of Brook’s and my favorite parts!
To begin the month of August Jack Plavan and I (Jack Egan), boarded a JetBlue flight out to Boston, where we would then drive from to arrive at New Bedford, on the cape of Massachusetts where the C420 North American Championship would be held in the coming days. We were very excited to experience Buzzards Bay, which is notorious for its great wind. At the venue, we were greeted by an old military fort dating back to the Civil War, and a brand new Zim charter boat. The next four days had a range of conditions, with 20+ knots on the first day and then a little less wind each coming day getting to as low as 6 knots on the last day with a day of no racing in between for rain and wind. It was a new experience for Jack and I to sail in a 180 boat fleet with a middle start boat and to have that windy of conditions but still get 30°+ wind shifts and 10 knot wind differences on the course. By the end of our regatta, we found ourselves in sixth place. There was not much time to rest as we flew out the next morning to Detroit to head to the CHUBB Junior Championship (Bemis).
Ida Lewis was one of our first regattas outside of California without parents, so we weren’t sure what to expect. I traveled along side SDYC coach Beka Schiff and my teammate Sammie Gardner. Sammie and I have just recently entered the world of double handed sailing, experimenting in C420s, 29ers CFJs and most recently I420s. We took off Tuesday July 24, very early in the morning and after 5 hours in the air we arrived in Cleveland, Ohio.
The 2018 Junior Sabot Nationals at Long Beach Yacht Club wrapped up a great season for SDYC. The week was very tricky with some extreme currents and fog during the start of the second and third days causing some crazy wind shifts. First, second, and fifth in gold fleet, Team SDYC put in a ton of effort this year leading up to the event. Practice every day during the summer and a clinic with other clubs from our area ensured we were prepared.
This year the Youth Champs Regatta was located in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. It was four days with many kinds of boats including the Laser Full Rig, Laser Radial, i420, 29ner, Nacra, and windsurfers. I was sailing Laser Radials, but it was great seeing friends from all of the other fleets as well as mine. It made it difficult though when we started because of how the Radials needed to wait for the i420s and the Full Rigs to start before us.
Last week (July 16 thru 21), my crew comprised of Johannes McElvain, Wade Waddell, and I traveled to Balboa Yacht Club to race in the 52nd Annual Governors Cup regatta. The regatta attracted twelve of the top youth match racers from around the world to compete for the prestigious Governor's Cup trophy. This year's event was heralded by many of the organizers as "the toughest" Governors Cup in history, as well as the top youth match race regatta in the world. The invitational regatta featured multiple top 50 ranked sailors, as well as the current #1 ranked match racer in the world. With such a competitive fleet, my team and I were excited to match up against the world’s best. The regatta was comprised of a practice day and opening ceremony followed by five long days of racing sailed off of the Newport pier. It was our teams first match race regatta sailed together, and my third Governors Cup as a competitor.
On Friday, July 20, over 150 sailors, both junior and senior, from several Southern California clubs celebrated the 46th annual Dutch Shoe Marathon with a long, fun race from San Diego Yacht Club to Coronado Yacht Club in sabots.
On June 22-24, 5-time U.S. Match Racing National Champion Dave Perry led an advanced S.O.D.A. youth match racing clinic, sponsored by North U, at the San Diego Yacht Club. Nine of the top teams in the U.S. trained hard for two and a half days in the Club’s J/22’s.
I recently travelled to Hong Kong for the 2018 29er World Championships. I had the privilege of being selected for the US Sailing Travel Team for the event. The regatta proved to be very action-packed at times and not so much at others. For the six day event, we had two days of racing when the Race Committee did not allow sailing due to too much breeze, with gusts into the forties as recorded by the race committee on those days. The other four days included one very light and three very windy days. Two of the very windy days were gusting into the thirties while the other only included only one race because it got so windy while we were out on the water that they had to send us in. The race committee recorded a gust of fifty knots on that day. It was complete carnage! I did not achieve the result I was hoping for at this event, however, the extreme conditions and world class competition allowed me to gain so much experience and knowledge. The experience of travelling to another country and competing against the world’s best was amazing and is something I will never forget. I’d like to thank the SDYC Competition Fund for the continued support in my quest for excellence.
San Diego Yacht Club will host the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association's (PCISA) Girls Invitational from October 21-22, 2017. This regatta is an all-girls event that draws high school teams from all across the country to participate. There will be 21 teams participating in the 2017 running of the event, with 15 of those teams traveling to San Diego from out of town.
The only one of its kind in the country, the Girls Invitational was first held in the spring of 2010. Race organizers held it again in October 2010, and it has been held in the fall every year since. This event was founded by SDYC member and former College All-American Sailor for the United States Naval Academy, Mary Brigden Snow.
For the past two weeks, we've been training at Oakcliff in Long Island, NY. During this focussed time in the 49er, we've had the chance to practice by ourselves, practice with other 49er Olympic hopefuls, and compete. We've sailed two regattas since being here and have performed well. You can find results here.
Looking forward into the next few weeks, we'll be doing a bit of training in Southern California and Miami in October, followed by a month long training trip to Australia in November. We're really excited for the opportunity to travel to Australia, where we'll be spending time in Sydney and Melbourne training and competing. Keep reading to see how you can help support us in the coming weeks.
This August I sailed three regattas in a row in Kingston, Ontario. The three regattas being: Laser Canadian Championships, CORK Internationals, and CORK Olympic Classes Regatta. The Olympic Classes Regatta was the longest with 5 days of racing, but had the smallest radial fleet with only 6 boats. The second largest regatta was the Laser Canadian Championships with about 68 boats and 3 days of racing. Finally, the largest regatta was the CORK Internationals with a total of 135 boats. To get to the regatta we drove 40 hours across the United States, and when we got there we were greeted by an attractive city next to the water. The launch site was a beautiful place with Queen’s College right beside it.
The 2017 Zhik 29er World Championships were held very close to home this year in Long Beach. Alamitos Bay Yacht Club hosted sailors from 16 countries and 130 boats gathered on the beach. Close to the event, I was presented with an opportunity to sail with a girl from New Zealand named Greta Stewart.
After getting all of the last minute logistics organized in order to sail with Greta, the boat measured in and we were ready to go for the event. Greta arrived the night of the Opening Ceremony and just before the first day of racing. Greta and I had the chance to sail for for just a bit inside the harbor that evening.
On August 7th, Jack Plavan and I had the opportunity to travel to Toms River, New Jersey to compete in Bemis, the U.S Sailing Junior Doublehanded Championship. To get to this point, Jack and I had to get top two in the Area Qualifier, the Junior Olympics hosted by San Diego Yacht Club in July. We were able to place second after the three day event and we were excited to be on our way to New Jersey.
This was our first time going to this regatta and we were very excited for the unique aspects of this race. What makes this regatta unique is that everyone is provided a new C420 charter for the week, evening out the playing field. Also, since this was an event you have to qualify for, they limit the registration to only twenty teams. When we arrived, we quickly learned that we were the SoCal kids that the East coast kids had not seen before, but they knew that we came from a great program and had great sailors compete in this event from our yacht club before. Although seeing other sailors in their “Opti National Team” jackets was intimidating, we were confident in the training we had done at home.
The 2017 C420 National Championship was hosted by Wianno YC all the way out in Cape Cod. For the first time in a while, this event was to be the last event in the Triple Crown and the last regatta of the summer. Knowing that all of the top people could be tired after two weeks of nonstop sailing helped our mindset before the event.
On August 8th, my mom and I flew out of San Diego to Boston Logan and met up with my crew Tanner. We then drove 1 hour and a half to a little town on the Cape called Barnstable. I have previously been to this part of the Cape to visit my brother who has taught sailing there for the past two years. We got to our hotel late into the night and were able to fall asleep peacefully. The next day we drove twenty minutes to Wianno YC and set up our charter boat as well as a small practice built in.
A few weeks ago, we competed in the 29er World Championships at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach. The conditions were all over the place. We got everything from 20+ knots and large chop to days with only 3-5 knots and flat water.
During the Worlds, we had 3 days of qualifiers and 3 days of final races. In the qualifiers, we got one windy day where it got a little too much for us being the youngest and most likely the lightest team out there, so we had to head in early. The next two days, fortunately for us, were lighter with the wind not exceeding 10 knots. In those two days of lighter winds, we excelled and got a couple of top 20 finishes. With that we worked our way into the Silver fleet, which to us was a huge accomplishment.
I would like to thank the SDYC Competition Fund for allowing me to go to two of the best regattas. Although I didn't do as well as I had hoped, these regattas were focused around another theme this year. We focused on the sailing sisterhood. Part of the reason why I love going to Ida Lewis and Leiter is because it is a group of girls. These are not just any girls, they are friends. With light racing and hot temperatures it was certainly an experience.
The 2017 Laser Nationals was held in Lake Tahoe and was hosted by the Lake Tahoe Yacht Club in Tahoe City, CA. It is a place that is known to have very light and shifty wind. The regatta was 4 days long with 2 practice days. The first practice day was very windy, with winds anywhere from 12 to 22 knots. It was the complete opposite of the typical Lake Tahoe conditions that I had been hearing about. The next day was similar with a bit lighter winds at only around maximum 16 knots. After the practice days I felt prepared for a windy regatta.
The first day of the regatta had a lot less wind than the practice days. The first race started with moderate breeze, and then a huge puff rolled down the right. The puff filled the course with wind, and I was luckily in it. I sailed well and passed a few more boats and ended that race in 7th place. The next race I sailed to the right on the first upwind and unfortunately the left was favored. I passed a few boats and ended up in about 24th place. The next race I sailed to the favored side. I sailed a poor reach and downwind and ended up in about 11th place. After that day, I was somewhere around 10th because of everyone having a very inconsistent day.
On the water action at the 2017 U12 Sabot Championship, sailed at San Diego Yacht Club, with the top 25 sailors from the North and South qualifiers. Big thanks to Coach Cal Pedroli for the video work!
SAN DIEGO (July 21, 2017) Over 150 junior and senior sailors took San Diego Bay on July 21, 2017 for the 45th Annual Dutch Shoe Marathon. A summer time favorite, these competitors completed the annual dinghy distance race from San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) to Coronado Yacht Club all in a sabot sailboat.
The sky was perfectly sunny and temperatures were in the high 70s with lighter winds mostly around 6 knots when the fleets began, starting in La Playa at noon. From there, they traveled down San Diego Bay, traveling over 7 miles on the race course, ultimately finishing in Glorietta Bay. Most participants were between the ages of 8 and 15 with many adult sailors also participating in the senior division.
Marleigh Henehan from Mission Bay Yacht Club was leading most of the race in her yellow striped sabot. At 14 years old, this was only Marleigh’s second Dutch Shoe Marathon. “I raced it two years ago and I capsized during that race. Since then, I’ve moved up two fleets. The first time I did it I was in C1 and now I’m in C3. I’ve been going to sailing camp in Mission Bay every afternoon to practice.”
Marleigh triumphantly crossed the finish line first, sailing into the horns and cheers of the spectator boats. After crossing she pumped her first in the air and exclaimed, “Girls Rule!”