USA Junior Olympic Sailing expect 700 sailors from 20 countries

by US SAILING Communications on 23 Dec 2009 Another impressive turnout rate is expected for this year’s USA Junior Olympic (JO) Sailing season finale in Miami, Fla. The 33rd annual Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta, hosted collaboratively by the US Sailing Center (Miami, Fla.), Coral Reef Yacht Club, Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, and Lauderdale Yacht Club, takes place on December 27-30. Over 700 junior sailors from 20 countries, as well as 28 U.S. states and territories will convene for the Orange Bowl Regatta, the largest youth sailing regatta in the country.

Registration for this event is closed

Junior Olympic Sailing events are a cooperative program of US SAILING and the U.S. Olympic Committee with the purpose of broadening the base of youth sailing in the United States. The event is the largest of 25 USA Junior Olympic Sailing Festivals. The regatta includes four days of competition on Biscayne Bay, featuring fleet racing on four courses for Club 420, International 420, Laser, Laser Radial, Laser 4.7 and Optimist classes. Over 130 generous volunteers will be on-site contributing to this event.

Several former U.S. Olympic medalists will be on-hand to present awards, including James Barton, Kevin Burnham, Magnus Liljedahl and current US Sailing Team AlphaGraphic members, Zach Railey and Anna Tunnicliffe. Trophies will be awarded to the top five or ten sailors in each fleet, depending upon fleet size. Each Optimist Green Fleet sailor will receive a USA Junior Olympic medal or certificate. The 2004 Olympic gold medalist, Magnus Liljedahl, will present the Orange Bowl Regatta Sportsmanship Trophy to a sailor who exemplifies sportsmanship at the event.

On “College Night” (Dec. 28), 25 college and university sailing coaches will speak to competing high school sailors about college sailing, and details about their respective college sailing programs.

Junior Olympic Sailing is sponsored by West Marine, Gill, Bull Frog, and Active.com. For more information about US SAILING’s JO program,

Video highlights from the Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta will be made available by Sailgroove at http://www.sailgroove.org/.

www.ussailing.org