Long Beach Yacht Club Junior Match Race Invitational
by Rick Roberts 5 Jun 2018 07:55 PDT
2-3 June 2018
2018 Long Beach Yacht Club Junior Match Race Invitational © Rick Robert
Youth match racing spent the weekend in Southern California at the Long Beach Yacht Club, June 2-3, for the sixth-annual Junior Match Race Invitational. Cameron Feves of Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club won the first Grade 5 match race on Saturday, and David Wood of Balboa Yacht Club took the win for the second Grade 5 match race on Sunday.
You may ask, 'Why have two World Sailing-graded events for a two-day match race regatta?'
The answer is to give these young sailors--- the future of match racing in North America---the opportunity to accrue World Sailing match race points on their path up the ladder.
"I like the format," said David Wood. "It provides the first day as a sort of training day. Today, we put it all together."
When asked about any challenges over the two days, Wood replied, "In today's last race, at the start, we received a penalty. So on the second windward beat, as we rounded the mark we did our penalty turn and stayed ahead for the win."
Jack Egan of San Diego Yacht Club took second place on Sunday and said, "This was our first match race (as a team). It was a good regatta and we felt this was a benefit for us."
Racing on LBYC's fleet of Solings, the skippers and their crew were fortunate with the recent cool and cloudy weather (locals call it "June gloom") giving way and allowing summer to finally arrive with solid warm breezes out of the southwest of 6-12 knots under sunny skies.
Trent Turigliatto, having finished second in Saturday's regatta and third today, commented on the weekend's regattas.
"The two-day format was nice," said Turigliatto. "It gave a lot of guys the chance to practice for the upcoming Rose Cup and later Gov Cup. We lost in the semi-finals today, but came back in the Petite for third.
"I want to give my thanks to the race committee and umpires for this weekend. We are looking at coming back next year (smiling)."
Turigliatto's commented last year, after finishing second in the one-day regatta, saying, "I think this should be a two-day regatta. That would give the teams a chance to develop their match racing skills on the first day and maybe do better on the second day. It would make their commitment to match racing stronger."
It was his suggestion that inspired Kirk Brown, LBYC member and chair of the club's Race Management Committee, to make this regatta a two-day event.
Turigliatto's idea of a two-day regatta benefitting youth match racers was echoed by many of his fellow match racers this weekend.
In addition to CBYC and BYC, the other four teams represented in this year's regatta were; Trent Turigliatto, LBYC; Peter Sangmeister, LBYC; Jack Egan, San Diego Yacht Club and Ansgar Jordan of Coronado Yacht Club.
The inspiration for the regatta came from LBYC's past Junior Commodore Jack Berg who raced in the inaugural regatta in 2013.
"My dad (Eric Berg) and I were looking at the America's Cup AC45s on TV and I said, 'it would be really cool to have a match race for juniors.'
"The next day my dad was at the club's board of directors meeting and mentioned my idea. Then it just kept growing."
Final Results for Saturday, June 2, 2018
1. Cameron Feves, Cabrillo Beach YC
2. Trent Turigliatto, Long Beach YC
3. Jack Egan, San Diego YC
4. David Wood, Balboa YC
5. Ansgar Jordan, Coronado YC
6. Peter Sangmeister, Long Beach YC
Final Results for Sunday, June 3, 2018
1. David Wood, Balboa YC
2. Jack Egan, San Diego YC
3. Trent Turigliatto, Long Beach YC
4. Cameron Feves, Cabrillo Beach YC
5. Peter Sangmeister, Long Beach YC
6. Ansgar Jordan, Coronado YC
Results are also available at www.lbyc.org