By Vern Vincent
Santa Barbara Yacht Club hosted the Junior Olympics Sailing
Festival on the waters just outside the harbor from July
15-18, 2010. This major regional youth sailing event was
sanctioned by US Sailing and Junior Olympics. 215 junior
sailors from all over the west coast competed in six different
fleets, including single-handed Optimists, Laser Radials,
Lasers, and double-handed CFJs, 420s, and 29ers. The Santa
Barbara Yacht Club fielded over 100 volunteers to run registration
and three complete race committees with Dana Jones, SBYF
Racing Director, running the double-handed course (CFJs,
420s, and 29ers), Duncan Shea, SB Youth Sailing Foundation
Coach, running the Laser course and Kent Pierce, SBYSF past-president
and SBYC past commodore, running the Opti course. The Santa
Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation's Summer Sailing program
practiced all summer to have nearly every participant prepared
to sail in this major event. Boats dotted the ocean from
off Shoreline Park to East Beach. Between 10-to-12 races
were completed on each course over the three day event.
Sailing relies upon nature to provide a key element, and
no one was disappointed at this event. Light morning breezes
gave way to steady winds with light chop; ideal conditions
for racing large fleets.
The youngest sailors, between 8 and 15 years old, were
well-represented in the Optimist fleet of 46 single-handed
sailors. William Cefali of the San Francisco Yacht Club
took home the Gold Medal with only 21 points after 11 races.
Only 2 points behind him for the Silver medal was Santa
Barbara Yacht Club's Quinn Wilson. Cooper Weitz of California
Yacht Club took home the Bronze. Other SBYC Opti sailors
included Lucas Pierce who finished in 4th place in his age
group (13th overall), Patch Curtis who captured a silver
medal in his age group and finished 19th overall, Matthew
Pierce who took home the bronze medal in his age group and
finished 21st overall, Shenara Brewer in 26th, Paul Harteck
in 33rd, Kyra Oakes in 34th, Dustin Oakes in 39th, and Emma
Spencer in 46th.
The next largest fleet was the single-handed Laser Radial
fleet with 41 competitors. Local High School sailors ruled
this fleet with Ventura's Annie Rossi taking the Gold Medal
with 37 points in 11 races with every race except one as
a top-five finish. Chris Vilicich of the Santa Barbara Youth
Sailing Foundation program captured the Silver. The Bronze
Medal went to Jordan Heldman of SWYC. Just a few points
off the medal podium was Stephen Long of SBYSF in 4th and
Hanna Vincent in 5th (also 2nd place female). Hanna will
be sailing on the MIT sailing team starting this fall. Sky
Adams, also from the SBYSF Program and headed to the Brown
sailing team in the fall, was in 1st place at the end of
the second day of the regatta. However, she had to miss
the last day to allow her to travel to a National women's
regatta in Miami. Even without sailing the three races on
Sunday, Sky 'finished' the regatta in 11th place. Other
local sailors included Matthew Long in 23rd place, Nicholas
Perez in 29th, Jonathan Beardon in 30th, Cassidy Shevitz
in 34th, Carson Shevitz in 35th, Jake Bartlein in 40th and
Hunter Yegendorf in 41st.
The Laser Full-rig fleet fielded eleven sailors. Kieran
Chung of Newport Harbor Yacht Club took the Gold with only
16 points after 12 races. Five points behind for the silver
medal was Nevin Snow of San Diego Yacht Club, then Philip
Lozier of Coronado Yacht Club won the Bronze. Santa Barbara's
Cameron Walsh narrowly missed the podium in 4th place. Kieron
Kavanagh, also of Santa Barbara, finished in 8th.
Three double-handed fleets made for a very busy patch of
ocean set up off of Shoreline Park. Del Rey Yacht club dominated
the CFJ competition with Chris Weis with Cassie Obel taking
the Gold and Seamus Dougherty with Cailin McMartin winning
Silver. Jimmy Madigan and Katie Donahue of Newport Harbor
won the Bronze. Two SBYSF teams competed: Brenna Hensley
with Isabel Yegendorf finished in 25th, followed by Danial
Gay with Niles Sterner in 26th.
The Club 420 fleet Gold went to Kate Rakelly with Colleen
Hackett from Mission Bay Yacht Club. Jack Jorgensen with
Samantha Gebb from Alamitos Bay Yacht Club won the Silver,
and Adam Pokras with Nikki Obel from Del Rey YC earned the
Bronze.
The 29er fleet of 11 high performance skiffs completed
11 fast and colorful races with some very high speed downwind
spinnaker powered legs. Newport Harbor's Tyler Macdonald
with Brian Bolton crushed the fleet with only 13 points
(seven first-place finishes) to confidently earn the Gold.
Chris Ford with Mike Deady from the Richmond YC earned the
Silver with a respectable 28 points, followed very closely
by JP Barnes and Andrew Cates from San Diego, with 33 points.
SBYSF skipper Tucker Atterbury with a San Diego crew, Duncan
Swain just missed medaling with 36 points in 4th place.
And, the SBYSF team of Newt Cutcliffe and Davey McBride
were in 7th place.
For the 200+ competitors and over 100 volunteers, this
Junior Olympics was a huge success. Sportsmanship was endemic,
as was the very high level of competition and enthusiasm.
Results
Photos
