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.
The 2019 Islands Race is safely tucked in the history books. For the record, 30+ boats registered this year, with 26 boats in 5 different fleets making it to the start line, and safely around the course to the finish. The course this year was modified to allow for an unusually large military training and certification exercise off San Clemente Island that included several large exclusion zones to be avoided. Thus, in an abundance of caution, the course was shortened to exclude San Clemente and to round only Catalina Island and proceed directly to the San Diego finish. The weather was fully considered as well. Leading up to the race, there were two fronts forecast to bring severe winds and rain across the course during the race. Those forecasts were revised during the days leading up to the race resulting in a nice, but still blustery breeze of mid-teen to mid-twenties forecast with short periods of rain shown for race day. Winds were lighter than forecasted at the start and the lead boats spend the better part of four hours covering the 23 miles to West End Catalina. As night fell, the breeze increased, but again, not as severely as anticipated. Most boats were in full sail mode with periodic clear skies between small localized squalls, and good sized swells to work off the wind.
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.
It’s been a full weekend of intense competition in colder than usual San Diego temperatures as the Pac52s, TP52s and Beneteau 36.7’s kicked off their seasons with the 2019 SCYA Midwinters hosted by San Diego Yacht Club. Starting Friday, the two 52’ classes lined the SDYC docks and readied their boats for a flux of breezes in Coronado Roads, while the Beneteau fleet joined in for Saturday and Sunday.
Nine Beneteau 36.7s, three Pac52s and five TP52s raced in fluctuating winds, sandwiched between winter SoCal storms. However, the scoresheet revealed consistent performances throughout most of the races. In the Pac52 class, Austin and Gwen Fragomen’s Interlodge VI took first with mostly bullets and one second in race six. The TP52s led a similar trend with David Team’s Vesper taking first, winning six out of seven races. Chick Pyle's Kea in the Beneteau class took first after Neil Senturia's Legend retired from the race four, giving Kea the top position. These dominating boats didn’t leave much room for competition this weekend.
John Miller is welcomed to the San Diego Sailcast. John and Host Alli Bell jump right into the details discussing new sailing safety requirements, especially offshore, along with the Safety at Sea programs that are available to complete those requirements.
The two-day program consists of weather briefings, a search and rescue for the US Coast Guard, and other topics including communication, medical, equipment, technology, and hands-on work.
“Good seamanship will always trump technology,” he says. John explains how they review many scenarios that they sailors may encounter, how they learn from other sailors challenges, and how getting on the water is crucial to learning.
Thank you to all who attended Dave Perry's NorthU Match Race Clinic in January. Dave has provided video content from the weekend for review.