USODA Team Race National Championship - Lightning causes chaos

by Talbot Wilson on 20 Jul 2015 John Alden Meade, Principal Race Officer (PRO) for the Bravo Course at the USODA Team Race National Championship at Pensacola Yacht Club was relaxing during a lightning delay. 'The Alpha Course and PRO Dwight LeBlanc got off twelve races in an hour and fifteen minutes and my committee on Bravo got off eleven.' Meade said, 'It is too bad we had to bring the kids in because of lightning. We were getting off eight races or more an hour.'

Circle A Preliminary Qualifying Series overall standings see Fishing Bay Yacht Club, Austin (TX) Yacht Club, Long Island Sound Opti Team Black and Lake Ontario Opti Team Two leading the way. They are tied with two races and two wins.

Circle B Preliminary Qualifying Series overall standings find six teams tied with one race and one win.... Colie Elite Racing Team (CERT), Lakewood Blue, Lake Ontario Opti Team Three (LOOT 3), Long Island Sound Opti Team Gold, Southern Yacht Club Red and Lake Ontario's Team One.

Lake Ontario's three teams are in the top standings on both circles. They got off to a hot start on Circle A with LOOT 2 handily defeating Pensacola Yacht Club A. The three LOOT teams have sailors from Canada, Bermuda and the USA.

All the sailors and race officials and volunteers were disappointed today because they had their sights set on getting in 78 races finished on each course. The day had started off hot and humid with a predicted heat index of 108ºF. As the sea breeze filled in sailing conditions improved and every two or three races the mark boats had to extend the weather legs to keep the races about eight minutes long.

But clouds in the south west were harbingers of the pop-up thunderstorm building in the distance. Racers were called in from the course because of lightning within three miles of Pensacola Bay and when the rain cleared out the rain had killed the thermal and the sea breeze with it.

The USODA Team Race National Championship, the first event of this sailing trifecta of youth championship regattas started Sunday. Team racing continues on Monday and Tuesday. With the 86-boat USODA Girls National Championship on Wednesday and the boys and girls racing in the 306-boat USODA National Championship, this is the biggest week of sailboat races in the history of Pensacola, Northwest Florida and Pensacola Yacht Club.

Racing started with the three-day USODA Team Race National Championship through July 21. The second event, the day-long USODA Girls National Championship, follows on Wednesday July 22 and the big wrap-up is the four-day USODA National Championship sailed July 23-26.

Spectators are invited to come to the Pensacola waterfront at Plaza de Luna, Pensacola Maritime Park, Sanders Beach or Pensacola Yacht Club. A 'Food Truck' food court will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner daily at Pensacola Yacht Club.

For fleet racing in the USODA Girls National Championship and the USODA National Championship individual entries come from all over the USA and other countries including Canada.

Pensacola Yacht Club welcomes all of the young Opti sailors for these elite events from beginners to experts. A ‘beginners’ Green Fleet will race Thursday through Sunday in the shallow waters off Sanders Beach adjacent to Pensacola Yacht Club. In total, PYC expects over 2000 people to be involved in the championships as participants, coaches, race officials, volunteers and parents supporting their young green and championship fleet challengers.

The USODA Opti Nationals week is a great time to enjoy all that Pensacola and Northwest Florida have to offer.