Leandro Spina, US Sailing’s Olympic Development Director, who last year was awarded "Developmental Coach of the Year” by the US Olympic Committee, traveled to SDYC last weekend to coach the latest high-performance youth sailing clinic organized by JJ Fetter. 45 youth sailors attended the weekend clinic. Two laser sailors came down from San Francisco. Top 29er and Laser sailors traveled from Santa Barbara, LA and Long Beach plus youth sailors attended from every SD-area club. Seventeen SDYC juniors participated.
Finn Olympic medalist Caleb Paine and former Youth World Champion Giselle Nyenhuis coached the sixteen Laser Radial sailors. The 29ers were coached by former Youth World skipper Neil Marcellini and Olympic skiff coach Willie Mcbride (who left the day after the clinic for New Zealand to coach Olympians Paris Henken and Anna Tunnicliffe at their upcoming World Championships). And the C420s were coached by multiple World Champion and PLHS Head coach Steve Hunt with former C420 National Champion Chuck Eaton. The next high-performance youth clinic at SDYC will be February 1st - 2nd for i420s, 29ers and Laser Radials.
This past June, three of my friends and I competed in the 2019 Youth Match Racing Championship, commonly known as the Rose Cup. We were excited for many aspects of it, first and foremost it was hosted by SDYC and would be raced at city front, which made everything surrounding the event much easier. Also, it was a reunion of sorts, as “B” Lindsay who had moved to Florida almost ten years ago, was back for the summer. Jack Plavan, Matt Dorgan, and I all grew up sailing with her so it was very cool to have us all four on a boat together. For me personally, I was also very excited as it was my first major match racing regatta as a skipper.
My brother Jack and I met in early October in Stamford, CT at the Stamford Yacht Club to compete at US Sailing’s Annual Championship of Champions. As the name indicates, it is the collection of champions from various North American and US National championship regattas.
Sailors ranged across many classes and SDYC was well represented with Jack and I, as US 29er Nationals winners along with Kelly Holthus, Open Bic NA winner sailing with Bill Hardesty.
While Andy Roy was visiting from Canada for the International Masters Regatta, we got a chance to sit down with him on the SDYC Sailcast. After the recording, Andy and his team went on to finish first in the regatta. Andy talks about his history in sailing, Laser sailing, the America’s Cup, and Junior Sailing.
The conversation begins by discussing some of Andy’s background in the sailing world, focusing mostly on his love for Lasers and his experiences sailing around the world. Alli Bell (host) and Andy talk some of the differences in sailing Lasers then and now, an article that Andy has actually published on in Laser Magazine. He goes on to talk about Laser Master sailing and Lasers in the Olympics.
While East Coast boaters were preparing to winterize their boats, the SDYC cruising fleet members were stocking up on sunscreen to enjoy the October ‘cruise’ to La Playa Cove for a raft up in perfect San Diego weather! Co-captains Gregg and Terri Wickstrand and Martin and Cyndi Buser hosted a weekend packed with beautiful people and magnificent boats, all prepared to enjoy a weekend of relaxation and friendship.