Olympian Paris Henken returned to SDYC in early October to coach an advanced 29er clinic with a stellar coaching team including her brother Sterling Henken, Noah Nyenhuis and B Lindsay. Saturday’s focus was drills to improve down-speed boat maneuvering — a crucial skill for skiff sailors to be able to hold their spot on the starting line. Drill 1 - “The Glide” / Time & Distance, Drill 2 - Rounding a mark without tacking, and Drill 3 - Quick double tacks. [If you are wondering how skiff sailors can round a mark without tacking, it involves managing your speed, communicating with your teammate on the right times to back the main and jib in order to move forward and then sideways and then sail backwards]. Sunday was a “Clinigatta” with seven races as part of the Luff-in Series won by Olympia / Maribelle Barelli, 2nd place was Kevin Cason / Holland Vierling and 3rd place was Sean Kaseburg / Braden Ozarski.
Like SDYC, the New York YC knows how to host a boat race, this time it was their biannual Resolute Cup, which is the defacto Keelboat Amateur Championship of the USA. 28 all-amateur teams met in mid-September in Newport, Rhode Island (the other Newport) to battle it out in white boats & white sails, rarely exceeding the 5.2kt hull speed of a Sonar. I joke, but this really is the best part of the game of sailboat racing - 20 boats on the line, equalized sails & rigging, every team for themselves to determine the champion. It takes the SDYC Lipton Cup model and basically doubles it... quite impressive both on the water and on the social side, and a giant tip of the hat to NYYC and their team of volunteers & staff to pull it off.