On June 22-24, 5-time U.S. Match Racing National Champion Dave Perry led an advanced S.O.D.A. youth match racing clinic, sponsored by North U, at the San Diego Yacht Club. Nine of the top teams in the U.S. trained hard for two and a half days in the Club’s J/22’s.

SDYC hosted the Star Trials for the '68 Olympics

The 35-boat fleet included many champion sailors including several from the San Diego Bay Star fleet: Lowell North with crew Peter Barrett, Malin Burnham with crew Jim Reynolds, Alan Raffee with crew Dennis Conner, Pete Bennett and Kim Fletcher among others. World-class sailors traveled from around the country to SDYC including Bill Buchan, Don Trask, Hilary Smart and Dick Stearns. As a young SDYC junior Sabot sailor (and now the US sailor with the most Olympic medals) Mark Reynolds recalls “cleaning boat bottoms for $1/day” during the Trials.

The first #1 (of 3 scheduled) West Coast 2018 United States Match Race Championship (USMRC) Qualifying Events was held at The St. Francis Yacht Club last weekend. Unlike the last scheduled match racing event up there, (that resulted in no racing due to insufficient winds), this sailing event almost did not happen as well, only this time due to too much wind.

The 29er Fleet in the United States hosts two Mid-Winter Regattas, East in Miami and West in Coronado. Scheduling was challenging as they occurred this year on back to back weekends in March. We participated in both events this year. Traveling to Miami meant an opportunity to connect with former SDYC Head Coach Maru Urban for some coaching in Biscayne Bay. With shallower bay conditions the traditional Miami Chop was certainly in effect along with light and shifty winds. As with many “trapping” boats like the 29er, shifty conditions put extra complexities on both the skipper and crew.  

Last weekend our team representing SDYC sailed in the third and final 2018 California Dreamin' match race event which was held in Long Beach.  This 2018 season has offered unusual weather which cut the San Diego stop (#1) short only providing enough wind for 6 races and turning the San Francisco stop (#2) into a non event with only two races in two days, not enough to even score it.  The Long Beach stop (#3) in contrast offered more consistent breeze and two complete round robins of racing, a first for the 2018 series, but was still sailed in lighter pressure overall than prior years events there.

On February 17-18, SDYC welcomed 17 teams from all around the country to race in the first annual Women’s Winter Invitational. Teams from Southern California, Northern California, Washington, Texas and New York gathered in La Playa on a sunny and breezy February weekend for excellent racing and fellowship. The regatta was not your usual regatta – and even though the competition was close, regatta organizers went out of their way to make sure that fun was had by all.