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.
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.
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.
Team San Diego Yacht Club continued to work with team advisers over the holidays to organize an IC 37 charter for training on the east coast this summer, coaching, training schedules and of course fundraising. Team SDYC also provided a program status update to the SDYC Board of Directors and SDYC Member #1 S/C Malin Burnham in December. The Team brought the Board and S/C Burnham up to date on their progress and planning to capture the Rolex NYYC Invitational Cup in September.
The San Diego Yacht Club and Newport Harbor Yacht Club are celebrating the 10th annual Islands Race on February 15-16, 2019. The decade old, 134 nautical mile race is a signature SDYC offshore regatta co-hosted with Newport Harbor Yacht Club. An expected 25+ boats will start from Long Beach Harbor, make way around Santa Catalina and San Clemente Islands and finish in Point Loma.
Congratulations to SDYC's Eric Doyle and Alli Bell who were awarded as the SDAYC Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year at the December 13th SDAYC Meeting at Silver Gate Yacht Club. The San Diego Yacht Club Sailing Foundation was also awarded the Alonzo de Jessop Memorial Award.Eric, Alli and the SDYC SF will be recognized at San Diego Yacht Club's Opening Day ceremony on April 14th.
Team San Diego Yacht Club announced they have filed the necessary entry documents and fee required as of the December 1, 2018 deadline set by the New York Yacht Club to compete in the 2019 NYYC Invitational Cup. Team SDYC officially has a spot on the starting line at the 2019 regatta.
“Nick Martin, Nick Kashak, Max Hutcheson, many SDYC members, friends and the Club’s leadership have been working hard since September getting the SDYC’s Invitational Cup effort organized. We are very excited that SDYC is officially entered in the 2019 edition of the NYYC Invitational Cup,” said Resolute skipper Tyler Sinks. “Step 1 is complete. Now the real work begins. This is going to be a very hard fought regatta, no question. Team SDYC has a lot to do to bring the best effort to the starting line next September. The goal is clear, win.”
The 2018 PC National Championships were held Dec. 1-2 on San Diego Bay. Six boats participated in a fun, lively competition. Everyone was watching the weather forecast for rain and breezy conditions, but the weather cooperated beautifully allowing all five races to be sailed for the championship in sunshine.
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!