The 2009 Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta crosses Finish Line

by Connie Bischoff on 1 Jan 2010
After four days of sailing 12 races, everyone was a winner at the 2009 Orange Bowl hosted by Coral Reef Yacht Club. The weather had cooperated with lots of sunshine and wind. Co-Chairs Wendy Kamilar and Pat Ficaro set out the many awards and Registrar Carol Ewing filled the huge silver Trophy Bowl with oranges. Everyone was ready for trophies and the Magnus Liljedahl Sportsmanship Award. The 722 sailors cheered as Coral Reef Yacht Club (CRYC) Commodore Mark Kamilar and US sailing Olympians James Barton, Magnus Liljedahl and current US Sailing AlphaGraphic members, Zach Railey and Anna Tunnicliffe.

A summary of the top awards is listed below. Complete results are found at www.coralreefyachtclub.org.

The dolphins came back to the finish line for the last day of the regatta on the 420 course. Finishing in first place in the Club 420s were Virginia's Graham Landy and New York's Colin Murphy. In 2nd place were the California Segerblom brothers, Chris and Daniel. In 3rd were two Caribbean sailors, Tyler Rice from St. Thomas and Billy Gibbons from St. Croix. The top all-girl team was made up of Melany Johnson from Berwyn, Pennsylvania and Mackenzie Needham from Shelter Island, NY. In International 420s, Morgan Kiss from Holland, MI and Katia DaSilva from E. Greenwich, RI took first place. Puerto Rico's Raul Rios and Rogelio Fernandez were 2nd. In 3rd place was another all girl team: Deirdre Lambert from Maine and New York's Tracy Doherty.

The Laser class had 192 competitors. In Laser 4.7s, Just Van Aanholt from Curacao was the winner with Germany's Maximillian Stein in 2nd and Juanky Perdome from Puerto Rico in 3rd. The Laser Radial Class was won by St. Petersburg's Mateo Vargas with a 5 point lead over Stefano Mazzaferro from Brasil and Michigan's Mitchell Kiss in 3rd. The top girls in Laser Radial's were Lauderdale Yacht Club's Erika Reineke, Arielle deLisser from CRYC and Marissa Lihan of Lauderdale Yacht Club. John Wallace from St. Petersburg Yacht Club won the Laser Full-Rig Class with Lauderdale's Andrew Fox in 2nd and Canada's Ricardo Montemajor representing the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club in 3rd.

The competition in the Optimist class was huge in their 223 boat fleet. The overall winner with a four point lead was Christopher Williford from Lauderdale Yacht Club in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. In 2nd was Javier Arribas from Lima, Peru representing Yacht Club Peruano. The 3rd place winner was Ft. Lauderdale's Duncan Williford sailing for Lauderdale Yacht Club. The three of them also trophied in the Optimist Red Fleet. In the Optimist Blue Fleet, Brazilian Gabriel Elstrodt sailing for YCSA Brasil took first. He was also 7th Overall. He was followed by Nic Muller from Ft. Pierce, FL and Romain Screve from California who sailed for Team Westside. Optimist White Fleet sailor Wiley Rogers from Houston, TX, representing Team M and Houston Yacht Club, won his class, followed by CRYC's Ivan Shestopalov and Sean Brennan. The top girl in the Optimist Red/Blue/White Class was Coral Reef Yacht Club's Martina Sly from Weston, Florida. The top local sailor (Miami-Dade and Broward Counties) was Christopher Williford.

In first place in the younger Optimist Green Fleet was Geronimo Nores sailing for Miami Yacht Club, followed by Key Biscayne's Sebastian Clark and Sam Baker from Tavernier, FL

The Magnus Liljedahl Sportsmanship Award reviewed 60 nominations which had been submitted after the final day of racing. This year the award went to Opti Green Fleeter Carolina Mantilla from Miami, Florida. She was nominated 8 times for consistently finishing every race even though in last place most of the time. Magnus says, 'It is totally an act of sportsmanship. Never quit a race because it is not fair to your competitors and it is not fair to yourself'.

The Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta, with Miami's Coral Reef Yacht Club (CRYC) as the Organizing Authority, is a huge undertaking with more than 150 volunteers. The CRYC Race Committee runs three of the racing circles with Lauderdale Yacht Club's Race Committee running the busy Laser circle. The Principal Race Officers were, CRYC's Bill Smoak (Optis), Trish Walker (Opti Green) and Jane Anne Pincus (420) with Lauderdale Yacht Club's Tom Lihan running the Laser circle. The Chief Judge was Jere Woltz. Scoring was by Connie Bischoff and the CRYC Scoring Team. CRYC was assisted by the US Sailing Center-Miami and Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. The regatta was a USA Junior Olympic Sailing event.

Sponsors for the regatta included Investors Solutions, Dinghy Locker @ Landfall, Laser Performance, Lightning Printing, West Marine, Zoum and McLaughlin Boats. West Marine has loaned the regatta a safety boat and driver. Scoring is done on the water using DataJack.com's wireless Internet service.