The 2019 U.S. Women’s Match Race Championship was held at Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, MI. The match race regatta consisted of seven all-female teams sailing in Ultimate 20s. The format included two round robin qualifying series followed by a semifinal and final series. Team SDYC consisted of Dana Riley at the front of the boat trimming both jib and spinnaker, Molly Vandemoer calling tactics and doing middle, and Giselle Nyenhuis at the helm.
Our team set out to sail this regatta with two goals in mind. One, as always, was to have a great time on the water. All three of us seldom get the time to race anymore so it was a special occasion to get back in a boat and compete again! The second goal was to get me, Giselle, more familiar with match racing. I hadn’t match raced since I was in my late teens so I had a lot to catch up on! I credit our success to the two amazing crew members on board, who did a great job encouraging me to go head to head with some of the best women match racers in the nation.
Olympic hopefuls Nevin Snow and Dane Wilson led the 29er coaching team at the recent pre-SDOCR clinic at SDYC. Forty two youth sailors from all over California attended the three-day clinic held in late August in three of the Olympic development classes (29ers, Lasers and Int’l 420s). Additional 29er coaches included Chuck Eaton, JP Barnes, Giselle Nyenhuis and Pearce Mendoza. Both JP and Pearce coached one-on-one on a 29er to ensure that several brand-new skiff sailors had a very steep learning curve in two loaner boats that are part of the High-Performance Youth Sailing activity at SDYC. The head Laser coach was Mission Bay’s Doug Hart with new SWYC Junior Director Jackie Hollander assisting. JJ Fetter and Shawn Bennett volunteered to coach the four i420 teams.
On Sunday morning, all the sailors heard an inspiring talk by Nevin and Dane about their 49er campaign that focused on the importance of goal setting. Several parents donated support to the clinic including Morgan Spriggs and Steve Shughrou who were on the water in safety RIBs, Gordon Wanlass brought his motorboat from Newport Beach to run practice starts and short-course races and the Holthus family loaned their RIB to the clinic. Plus Paula Schmid provided snacks at the end of each day for the tired and hungry sailors and pizza on Saturday night. The next clinic will be for 29ers only and will be held on September 21-22.
Shirts have images of popular classes holding major events at SDYC in 2019 (Star, Snipe, Sabot, Etchells, J/105) as well as some additional SDYC details. The price of the custom Reyns that will include the burgee embroidery is $104/ea + tax. The shirts are available now in the SDYC Ship Store
Contact Brooke with any questions
brooke@sdyc.org
JJ Fetter joins us on the San Diego Yacht Club Sailcast to discuss a variety of topics with our host, Alli Bell. JJ speaks about how she got into sailing, her successes throughout her career, including two Olympic medals, the importance of youth sailing, and the long history of Olympic success at SDYC.
The conversation starts with JJ telling us how she got into sailing, involving the SDYC junior program, sabots and several mentors. One of which was Dave Perry, who encouraged JJ to sail in a variety of other boats to keep growing. From there, JJ ventured to more East Coast regattas where she saw success in the sport at an early age.
JJ continues on to tell us about attending Yale and how her Olympic campaigning began. She discusses her two Olympic experiences in 1992 and 2000, the difference between both experiences, and where she was in life at the time – including having children).