Santa Barbara Yacht Club wins U.S. J/70 Youth Championship

by J Boats on 14 Aug 2017 The inaugural U.S. J/70 Youth Championship had its fair share of drama after two days of sailing. Tight racing. Teams pushing the envelope tactically all weekend long. Close-quarters racing producing dramatic turn-arounds at each corner of the course.

As each race unfolded, yet another wind shift and puff pushed another group of boats past leaders in front of them. To say the least, it was about as atypical weather conditions anyone could imagine from a “locals” point of view in Newport.

Ultimately, winning and demonstrating good tactical decision-making capability, extraordinary boat-handling, and a steady boat-speed advantage through-out the regatta was the Santa Barbara YC Youth Team- skippered by Lucas Pierce with an excellent crew of Ryan Eastwood, Chris Kayda, Payne Donaldson, and Kris Ozolins. It was a remarkable performance, especially considering the wildly fluctuating and variable wind conditions every team had to contend with over the three-day regatta.

Remember, on Friday, it was a cruise ship floating around the bay off Newport that kept winds fluctuating from the SSE to SSW direction. Then, on Saturday, after a long weather delay/ postponement, an ornery passage of a weather front ultimately produced mist and a good breeze from the south to finish a second round of nine races by early evening. Sunday’s finale was no different, fog, then sun, then good breeze, then a thermal breeze shutdown by a front with high-level northwesterly breezes!

All things considered, the regatta format permitted good teams to rise to the top given enough opportunities to get there! In the Sunday morning “repechage” round that consisted of four races on Sunday morning, the top three teams were Annapolis YC, Little Traverse YC and Coral Reef YC. They joined the double-round-robin leaders- Santa Barbara YC, Sail Newport and Severn Sailing.

The finale started just after noon time. Winning the first race was Sail Newport’s team led by Brendan Read. Then, in the second race, Annapolis YC won by a large margin. Then, in the third race, Sail Newport Youth Team won again. There was no question the Santa Barbara YC crew were feeling the heat, especially from the local youth team from Sail Newport.

In the fourth race, the wind went crazy, going light and mixing cat’s-paws with small streaks and shifting at least 50 degrees. Two boats shot into a leg and half lead, in second was Santa Barbara, having seen the first streak and shot right to grab it and take off around the windward mark. Sail Newport went left and missed it, bobbing in the powerboat chop. The race was ultimately canceled due to the time limit, much to everyone’s delight! As a result, with no visible wind in sight and less than forty minutes to the regatta time limit, PRO Dooley wisely decided it was time to call it a day and fired off three guns to mark the end of racing.

As a result, winning the regatta by ten points was the Santa Barbara YC Youth Team. Second was the SAIL NEWPORT Youth Team comprised of Brendan Read, Andrew Sherrin, Kate Nota, and Ted Bjerregaard. Third was Annapolis YC Youth Team comprised of Porter Kavle, Will Comerford, Benjamin Podlich, and Jake Viskers. Rounding out the top five was Severn Sailing Association Youth Team in fourth and Coral Reef YC in fifth place.

At the awards ceremony, the Santa Barbara YC Youth Team (pictured here) was presented not just with their keeper trophies, but also the FREE J/70 their club gets to use for twelve months! The SBYC Vice Commodore Scott Deardorff, himself a J/70 sailor, is looking forward to utilizing their FREE J/70 (complete with a brand new suit of North Sails and Triad Trailer) for club events, youth keelboat development and perhaps even women’s keelboat development!

Regatta Chairman Stuart Johnstone remarked, “it was amazing to see the high-level of competitiveness by all nine teams. Having sailed against some of them in past J/70 events, it was evident most could compete in the top ten in any major J/70 regatta, that is how much they had improved over the course of the year. I also wanted to thank all the boat owners who donated their boats for the event- SAIL 22 (Ed & Becky Furry), Tim Healy, Henry Brauer, and Juan Reid from Chile- without them there would be no regatta! I also want to thank our sponsors that provided amazing support- North Sails, Harken, MJM Yachts’ Bob Johnstone (who also donated the free J/70), Sail Newport (Brad Read and Vinnie Pattavina), and Sail 22 (especially the help of Sam House as our regatta bosun). Finally, kudos to our PRO Kevin Dooley from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy- amazing job for running 25 races in crazy weather conditions! And, thanks to his supporting RC cast of Bill Canfield, Oakley Jones, Paul Hazlett, Bob Spagnolo, Richard Barker, Jack Fisher, and Macken Offspring!'