High School Racing

2019-2020 NWISA Pre-Season Prognostications

School is in session, which means it’s time to talk High School Sailing. I’m once again putting out my pre-season predictions ahead of the first NWISA regattas later in September. Olympia proved Last Year’s Pre-Season Rankings mostly correct when they went out and absolutely crushed it (as predicted). Unranked Sehome snuck in and disrupted things a bit after they took 2nd place at Fleet Race Districts, but other than that the rankings held up pretty well. I’m glad Sehome proved me wrong and I hope some other unranked teams do the same this season.

In order to better quantify my predictions, I’ve developed a high-point scoring system with point values assigned to NWISA championships and qualifiers.  The NWISA Fleet Race and Team Race Championships are most heavily weighted (worth 5 points each), while the smaller Fall Championships/Qualifiers (Girls, Keelboat, and Singlehands) are each worth 3 points. Runners up receive the remaining points. Here is how last year’s predictions compared with end of season results using this formula.

Heading into the Fall Season the NWISA conference is looking more competitive than ever before. A lot of talent that has been percolating for years is finally maturing. Orcas was really the only team that graduated most of its varsity squad. I expect the top of A-Fleet to look very similar to last year, with most of the same players returning- just faster and more experienced. If anything I think the depth of the conference will make it more difficult to predict the outcomes this year, and there’s not one super dominant team like we had last year. Here’s my best guess…

#1 Gig Harbor High School (Gig Harbor, WA)

GHHS will have a target on their back all season. The Tides have arguably the best one-two punch in the conference with skippers Axel Stordahl (‘20) and Dayne Hall (‘22). This is a team which is 80% intact from last year’s Cinderella run. They came tantalizingly close to qualifying for both spring national championships last year, and that memory is going to keep them hungry all year. Graduated is varsity crew Ripley Morris and utility player Peter Ryalls who was injured for most of the spring season. Both were part of the winning keelboat team last fall. However, Axel and Dayne will still have plenty of options in the front of their boat and a solid supporting cast when they get in a keelboat. Carlos Rivas is a very key and versatile piece of the puzzle this year. He’s turning into one of the best crews in the district, but he is also capable of grabbing the tiller when needed, like he did last year during Team Race Champs.

Prognostications: Look for strong performances in Keelboat Quals and Fleet Race Championships. They could win the Team Racing Champs too, but they are going to have to rely on a lot of 1,2, X combos to pull it off. It wouldn’t be the first time a team has won it like that.

#2 Bainbridge High School (Bainbridge Island, WA)

It’s a toss up for 2nd place between Bainbridge and Sehome, but if you put emphasis on the spring championships, then Bainbridge gets the nod. The Spartans are heading into this season with the most talent they’ve had in several years. These sailors aren’t new additions, rather they’re all returners who are now upperclassmen primed for a breakout year. Skippers Max Doane, Zach Cooper, and Dane Petrakis are as good a trio as you’ll find in NWISA. It’s unclear which two will be in the varsity spot for fleet racing, but they’ll be a real force when it comes to team racing. Barrett Lhamon and Lindsay Campbell are versatile players who can both transition easily between skipper and crew roles. Both crewed in the spring championships last year, but Lindsay will likely skipper some Fall regattas, including Girl’s Champs. Coach Susan Kaseler has been saying “one more year” for several years now. If she’s waiting on another NWISA Team Racing Championship to retire, then this may be her year. It’s her favorite event and she really pushes team racing hard in the spring.

Prognostications: I would not be at all surprised if Max Doane wins Singlehands in the full rig, although if Eric Anderson (Ballard) elects to sail the full rig it’ll be a real battle between those two. Team Racing Championships are theirs to lose, but the Spartans could certainly podium at Fleet Race Championships too.

#3 Sehome High School (Bellingham, WA)

This is a team full of young talent that peaked at just the right time last year. They’ve been on my radar for awhile, and have become scary-good very quickly. Leading the charge is a boatload of female talent. Emma Powell and Natalie Serbousek are going into their junior years and will likely be sailing together again. Sammy Farkas is currently leading the NWYRC Laser Radial standings and has already sailed several national and international championships. Now a freshman, Sammy will join her friends Emma and Natalie in the varsity role (as an 8th grader last year Sammy could only sail JV regattas). Add any number of talented female crews, like Natalie Werner or Casey Malone, to the mix and you’ll have an all female team ready to make boys cry all season. This may be the last year to beat Sehome before they reach true dynasty status. You’ve been warned.

Prognostications: Sammy is the favorite to win Singlehanded Quals in the Laser Radial. The team is a shoe-in for the Girl’s Champs, and will be a real force at fleet racing districts again next year. However, their team racing game probably needs another year or two to really develop.

#4 Olympia High School (Olympia, WA)

The Bears absolutely dominated last year. A team goal was to represent NWISA at every national championship/invitational and they almost did it. Varsity A-Fleet skipper Owen Timms was a big reason for that success, however he has since graduated and is now off to sail with at George Washington Univ. Some might expect Oly’s star to fall after the loss of such a key member, plus varsity crews Evan Krug and Kevin Hicks, but coach Sarah Hanavan has a crop of talent ready to continue the OHS legacy. Skipper Sam Bonauto and crew Peter Kelleher who sailed opposite of Owen last year have established themselves as a real force, a pair capable of placing top-5 in any given NWISA fleet. Skippers Erin Pamplin and Ella Hubbard will likely be working to earn the other varsity skipper spot. When they put three boats on the water, they’ll be more than able to hold their own in team racing.

Prognostications: Oly’s strongest events are most likely Girl’s Champs, which they are hosting (home field advantage never hurts!), and Team Race Champs.I think they also have a good shot at placing in the Keelboat Quals. It’s an event they’ve won in the past, and they are one of the few teams that actively train for it.

#5 Roosevelt High School (Seattle, WA)

The nucleus of Miles Williams, Abbie Chipps, and Sam Kimmel helped put Roosevelt on the map. They’ve been sailing at Sail Sand Point together for several years, with Miles and Abbie starting in Optis. The team has grown steadily the last few seasons and blossomed into a real contender. Miles is one of the fastest skippers in the conference, and Sam is capable of cracking the top-5 in B fleet. Abbie is one of the top crews in the district and has been honing her skills as a skipper in the Laser this summer, which may be put to use when it comes time for Team Race Champs. The Rough Riders scraped together enough sailors to field a full team racing roster last spring, a first for RHS, but they still lack the roster depth of some of the more established teams.

Prognostications: This team could win Fleet Race Championships if they catch fire. As previously mentioned, roster depth will make it difficult to get on the podium in the other disciplines.

Honorable Mention: Ballard High School (Seattle, WA)

There’s a high probability we’ll see Erik Anderson on the podium at Singlehands and he’ll have a solid B-Fleet opposite him all season. They could make a late season push similar to the run Sehome made last year. I wouldn’t count them out of Fleet Race Champs or Keelboat Quals.

Honorable Mention: Lincoln High School (Portland, OR)

The Cardinals have the deepest roster in the Portland area and have two pretty quick pairs. Depending on who emerges as their third skipper, they could be a threat at Team Race Champs. We may also see senior Casey Pickett do well in Singlehands. This is a group with keelboat experience (Area L Sears winners), so watch out if they elect to do Keelboat Quals this year.

Ed. Note: Sailish loves to post results, photos, insights, and just funny stuff on the high school sailing scene, but we need help to get material. Competitors and organizers - send stuff! Parents, it’s a great way to be engaged and solidify the scene for the future.

You probably get tired of hearing me say it, but youth and high school sailing in the Pacific Northwest is where it’s happening folks. Leave it to “kids these days” and their very supportive parents to remind us what a great sport we have.

Last weeked at Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island there was a highly competitive and full fleet of high school kids whipping their boats around, working as a three boat team and doing things with their boats most big boat sailors can’t even imagine.

Andrew Nelson, the NW Youth Sailing Director with The Sailing Director, reported the following: “Scores and a regatta summary can be found at the link below…
https://scores.hssailing.org/s19/2019-nwisa-team-race-championships/
It was a 3 on 3 team racing regatta, so any combo of 10 or less points wins. Olympia was a slight favorite going into the regatta, and after day one there was pretty much a four way tie between Olympia, Gig Harbor, Bainbridge, and Orcas.”

NOTE: I would love to have some dinghy boots on the ground reporting from youth events - so any of you young sailor-writers, coaches or parents who want to send something after big events, please email them to me and I’ll do my best to get them posted.

Photos by Jan Anderson. If you want to get excited about kids sailing, here’s the rest of them.

Kurt Hoehne

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.

Andrew Nelson of The Sailing Foundation has kindly offered this preview up (with some bold predictions) for the upcoming high school racing season. Yep, even though some of the schools’ bureaucrats might not even know it, these schools have exceptional athletes in a program that allows boys and girls to compete with and against each other, often with the full and enthusiastic participation of their families. So, even if you don’t have a kid in high school, take a good look at the excitement being generated by the next generation of sailors.

By Andrew Nelson

Kids are heading back to school and the fall high school sailing season is just around the corner. Fall includes a few smaller regional regattas, the singlehanded “Cressy” qualifier (our only Laser event), a new NWISA Girl’s Championship, a keelboat regatta, and a Fall Championship (mostly for bragging rights). All of this happens in the span of seven furious weeks between mid-September and early November.

My not so totally arbitrary “Top-5 Power Rankings” are below. We’ll see how my predictions hold up over time, and I hope there are some spoiler teams out there that prove me wrong!

#1 Olympia High School

OHS finished up a stellar spring season last year with a trip to the Mallory (HS Fleet Racing Nationals), while just barely missing out on also representing the NWISA conference at the Baker (Team Race Nationals). Although their B-Fleet skipper Max Miller graduated last spring, the core of their team remains intact. Look for senior Owen Timms to be out in front of A-Fleet this year. Sam Bonauto (2021) and Erin Pamplin (2020) will be duking it out for the second varsity skipper spot, and when the three skippers unite for team racing they’ll be a formidable squad. OHS has a deep roster which also includes plenty of talented returning crews. One thing we didn’t really see last year were consistent skipper/crew pairings. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Oly move towards a more stable system of pairs as the season progresses.

Predictions: 1^st Place- Team Racing, 1^st Place- Cressy Qualifier (Laser), 2^nd Place- Fleet Racing

#2 Orcas Island High School

OIHS cleaned up last year, earning a spot to both the Baker and Mallory spring championships. Like Olympia, they graduated a key member of their team, Maggie Toombs, last spring. However, they will have two veteran skippers leading the charge this year- Seniors Ronan Rankin and Dominick Wareham. They’ll be surrounded by a supporting cast of experienced crews including seniors Millie Kau and Emma Freedman. When it comes down to performing under pressure, there’s nothing like having a bunch of experience on your side. With more than half a dozen seniors set to graduate in 2019, this is the time for OIHS to cash in on their years of hard work and practice.

Predictions: 1^st Place- Fleet Racing, 4^th Place- Team Racing

#3 Bainbridge Island High School

BIHS is always a contender. Coach Susan Kaseler has more district championships under her belt than anyone else, and she’s been at it since before any of her current sailors were even born! By BIHS standards it might have been a bit of a down year last year, placing 4th in Team Racing and 5^th in Fleet Racing at the NWISA Championships. A new generation will take their turn at the helm this year, including skippers Max Doan, Dane Petrakis, Zach Cooper, and Lindsay Campbell. They’ve all be sailing Lasers regularly this summer and are a fast group. I expect coach Susan will have some hard decisions to make about who to put in the varsity spot. This depth is a great problem to have and will make BIHS a tough opponent in team racing.

Predictions: 2^nd Place- Team Racing, 2nd Place Cressy Qualifier (Laser), 3^rd Place- Fleet Racing

#4 Capital High School

This team surprised me more than any other team last year. They were my “bracket buster” so to speak. I love it when teams prove me wrong and Capital did just that by placing 4^th at Fleet Racing and 7^th at Team Racing during the NWISA spring championships. Capital and Olympia both sail out of OYC, and Sarah Hanavan coaches both teams. Clearly this is an example of how the success of Olympia has rubbed off on Capital. Oly and Capital will have a chance to tune up against each other all year, and you can bet by April there will be some seriously competitive practices. Capital has a big crop of juniors and only graduated one sailor last year. This team will be in the hunt this year, and as we were reminded last spring, anything can happen at district championships. They’re going to get their shot either this year or next!

Predictions: 3^rd Team Racing, 5^th Fleet Racing

#5 Gig Harbor High School

I’m going out on a limb for GHHS. This team has had a lot of talent percolating and now the stars are aligning. Axel Stordahl, Dayne Hall, and Peter Ryalls have all been working very hard this summer and are constantly near the top of the FJ fleet. Crews Ripley Morris and Carlos Rivas have been a big part of this success, and have been very dedicated. They’ve also added depth to their roster and will now have more than enough eligible sailors to field a capable squad at team racing events. Like Oly and Capital, GHHS has had a chance to spar regularly with another very successful team, Charles Wright Academy, over the past few seasons. Recent (like really recent) CWA alumni, Alyosha Strum-Palerm, will be at practice again this fall, not as a sailor, but as the coach. Not so long ago another 19 year-old coach, Stasi Burzycki, led the North Kitsap High School team to nationals, surprising a lot of people in the process. We’ll see if Alyosha and GHHS can make a similar Cinderella run.

Predictions: 4^th Place Fleet Racing, 5^th Place Team Racing

If any of you high schoolers want to get a word in edgewise, send me your own predictions, race reports or team updates. Sailish is committed to covering youth sailing in the region, but we can use all the sea boots on the ground we can get. Oh, and for the teams not mentioned, prove Andrew wrong. He’ll love it!