American kiteboarders will have the opportunity to represent their country at the 2019 Pan American Games by winning the Kiteboard Pan American Trials in Formula Kites hosted by the San Diego Yacht Club on March 29-21, 2019. An expected 12-15 kiteboarders will compete in a series of races off beautiful Crown Cove on Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado, California.

The Crown Cove venue is ideal for kiteboarding, allowing the riders to launch right from the beach into the flat waters of South San Diego Bay. Last November, kiteboarders from all over the world came to compete at the same venue for the Kiteboarding North Americans where six riders, including Will Cyr of the USA, qualified their countries for the 2019 Pan American Games.

On February 9-10, SDYC hosted a 29er clinic led by Rio Olympics 49erFX coach, Willie McBride with additional high-level coaching from Sterling Henken, Giselle Nyenhuis, Dane Wilson and JJ Fetter.  Teams traveled from San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Long Beach to train with our growing SDYC 29er fleet. The clinic included two days of high-intensity drills and post-sailing video debriefs. Next stop for several of the teams, including SDYC 29er sailors Ian and Noah Nyenhuis, will be competing in the first Youth World Qualifier (YWQ) in Miami on February 16-18. The second and final YWQ is the 29er MidWinters West at Coronado Yacht Club on March 22-24.

On December 26^th, the day after Christmas, my sister and I got on a plane for Miami. We were going there for the Orange Bowl regatta. I crewed for Kelly Holthus on a 29er and Alice crewed for Piper Holthus on a C420. Kelly and I were not very experienced compared to the other people there since we have only been sailing since the end of August and we went into the regatta with the mindset to learn as much as possible. With the help of the amazing coaches there, I feel we achieved that. The 29ers, Optis, I420s, and Lasers sailed out of the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, which was a great facility and they did a good job as hosts.

SDYC was represented by skippers Andy Reiter, Will La Dow, and Scott Sinks, and crews Molly Pleskus, Carissa Crawford, and Rebecca McElvain respectively. We would like to start by saying thank you. Our privilege to represent SDYC at the 2018 US Team Racing Championship would not have been possible without the support of our amazing members, board of directors, and the Competition Fund. We would also like to thank our generous hosts, the Barker family who provided housing, transportation, food, and managed to run the regatta at the same time!

San Diego Yacht Club is pleased to host the PCISA/ISSA Girls National High School Invitational Regatta on October 20-21, 2018. Founded by SDYC's Mary Brigden-Snow, this is the largest National, High School Girls regatta today. The SDYC junior program is uniquely positioned to host events like this. Our outstanding junior facility, a fleet of 24 CFJ's, and an armada of coach boats, means teams from around the country can be hosted at SDYC.

Lumpy seas and a moderate Pacific Ocean swell this weekend didn’t dampen the spirit of the sailors from two days of intense sailing, hardy competition and for some, significant improvement. The inaugural San Diego Olympic Classes Regatta (SDOCR) was nothing short of a successful weekend. Over 80 boats in six fleets came out for the regatta and are already anticipating their return next year.

For this year’s Extreme Sailing Regatta, the “Chat with Champions” event will be held at 5:45PM on Friday, October 19th and is open to any junior sailor who would like to attend.  

All the hard work from the JAC, membership and friends of the junior program working to maintain the excellence of our junior program finally culminated with the Sail 2018 Junior’s Nine-0 Luau last Friday. Tables where decorated with flowers in Tiki Cups, Hula Girls, cans of spam and pineapples capped off by tunes from Ke’Ahi on his ukulele. Great craft beer donated by our friends from Karl Strauss, accompanied roast pig, with all the Hawaiian trimmings.