What a tremendous weekend for sailboat racing. High school racing, of course.
(Yea, the Blakely Rock Race report will follow shortly. But this high school sailing thing is really a big deal and is key to the future of our sport. If you ever have a chance to hang out and witness one of these regatta scenes, you really owe it to yourself to do so.)
Regional high school regattas were sailed in Kingston, Anacortes and the Willamette Sailing Club, in Oregon. Congratulations to all the young sailors, and especially to the teams Friday Harbor, North Kitsap and Lincoln High Schools. We have some excellent drone footage courtesy of Dave Wagner. I’m pretty sure some young skippers are going to pore over that 20+ minutes of footage from a tactical standpoint. Andrew Nelson reports from Kingston, where the South Regionals were sailed.
NWISA North Regionals
Report by Steve Orsini: The NWISA North Regionals on March 3 was held in Anacortes on what every one agreed was a stunning day for sailing. The stunning weather was matched by a stunning turnout: 93 sailors signed in and raced in a fleet of 23 FJs in a steady 7-11 knot northerly on the broad, sun sparkled waters of Fidalgo Bay. The Regatta was co-hosted by NWISA, Anacortes Parks and Recreation and the Anacortes Yacht Club(AYC). AYC provided the chase boats, dock masters with the course set by PRO Fred Abelman. At the end of 12, two island teams battled for the lead with Friday Harbor taking first, followed by Orcas and third went to Franklin from Seattle. Through the diligent efforts of Dave Wagner, AYC sailor and drone aficionado you get a cat bird seat on this regatta on YouTube at: NWISA North Regionals. Enjoy.
NWISA South Regionals
By Andrew Nelson, Youth Sailing Director, The Sailing Foundation
The South Regionals in Kingston were a big hit. We had 11 boats on the water representing 7 different schools. Weather was perfect with 7-12 knots of wind out of the north and sunny skies all day. This was the first time there’s been a high school regatta in Kingston, and the community was really excited to host. Sail Kingston Cove is now supporting the Kingston High School team, so we hope we can come back to this venue. The SKC volunteers and Port of Kingston did a great job putting on the event. The racing between the top couple of teams was really close, with North Kitsap edging out Central Kitsap for the top spot. PRO Chris Brown, assisted by his wife Jessica, fired off 8 races in each fleet (16 total). The sailors returned to the dock just before 5pm good and tired from a very full day of racing in mostly hiking conditions.
Oregon Regionals
We don’t have a report from Oregon (yet) but here are the results.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.