Congratulations to Mike Nicoletti, Kara Voss, Parker Mitchell and Chris Nesbitt, winners of the 2019 US Match Race Championship Qualifying event in San Francisco over the weekend. The Championships will be held October 3-6, 2019 in San Francisco, hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club. Team SDYC last won the Match Race Championship in 2016.
The Sailing World Annapolis NOOD Regatta concluded May 5 with torrential rains taking a break for the final day’s race action. SDYC’s Bruce Golison and his Midlife Crisis crew (Steve Hunt, Erik Shampain and Jeff Reynolds) secured a convincing victory in the J/70 fleet, the largest of the regatta with 30 boats. Midlife Crisis won five of the eight races in posting a low score of 13 points – 18 points better than the runner-up, Travis Odenbach from New York.
Christy Crawford Donnelly, formerly known as Christy Steinman, covers a variety of topics on the San Diego Yacht Club Sailcast including the start of her sailing career, being a navigator, several intense races she sailed in, SORC, and of course, being the first woman to crew for America’s Cup with Dennis Conner.
Christy kicks off the Sailcast telling host Alli Bell about how she got started in sailing Hobie 14’s and how she was automatically hooked looking for wind shifts. She tells the story of her first sail in the Tahiti Race sailing on Obsession, where sailing became her “obsession.” Christy quickly became a talented Navigator and was hired by many skippers in the ‘80s.
Thank you to all of those who have contributed and followed Team SDYC’s preparations for the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) Invitational Cup. As the team is getting ready to begin practicing this month, here is a brief update and summary for those of you who are not yet aware.
In 2009, NYYC hosted the first Invitational Cup for amateur sailors from all around the world. For yacht clubs in the United States, entry is only earned by winning the Resolute Cup.
Last September, San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) earned its first ever bid for the Invitational Cup as Tyler Sinks, Nick Martin, Nick Kaschak, and Max Hutcheson won the Resolute Cup for SDYC. Jake LaDow, Carissa Crawford, Drew Freides, Erik Shampain, and Tori Porter will join the Resolute winning team for the Invitational Cup which will be held September 7-14 in Newport, Rhode Island.
With a new teammate in Dane Wilson, our journey has only started at the recent Princesa Sofia Regatta in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. As a fresh team our focus has been to simply get good hours on the water working together, but this is also a busy time of year with regattas so we are balancing hours on the water with good competition in Europe.
We are gelling nicely and Dane is showing that all of his kite-foil racing time haven’t dulled is sailing skills. In our first event we managed to nearly qualify for Gold fleet and found ourselves racing near the top in Silver (even won a race!). For now we are steadily progressing with the USA 49er Squad, but we are also looking to get some more time on the water as there are many little things to learn on our own, as a new team. Next up, 49er Europeans in Weymouth, UK.
Thanks SDYC for all of the support!
Mark Reynolds joins us on the SDYC Sailcast to discuss how he got into sailing, his experiences racing through his career, the Olympics, his icons, and what he’s doing now.
Mark started sailing in a Sabot that his father built him when he was just a toddler. For the next 17 years, he stuck with the Sabot learning skills that he says was the foundation of his progression through the years. “It was huge for my tactic and boat handling skills,” he says.