There have been many exciting developments since our February Mainsheet update! Two IC37 training and practice platforms – East Coast and West Coast, plus Training Sails and more...

With the help of Rick Merriman, Team SDYC has secured a co-charter from the NYYC fleet of 20 brand new club owned IC37’s this summer. This will allow the Team to gain valuable boat on boat racing and practice time in the Newport, RI venue prior to the September NYYC Invitational Cup.

Team SDYC plans to sail in Newport from June 29 - July 7, competing in two regattas during that time: The NYYC One Design Regatta and the Sail Newport Regatta, with full practice days in between. Additional events are being considered. A training partner for practice days has also been engaged. The Team worked very hard to secure a co—charter arrangement with a NYYC member in order to lower the cost as much as possible for the team.

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.