Junior Olympic Sailing Festival makes only SoCal appearance

SAN DIEGO — One of three Junior Olympic Sailing Festivals on the West Coast just concluded July 16, with San Diego Yacht Club hosting the national touring regatta in the event’s only Southern California stop.

San Diego YC hosted the national sailing festival for junior sailors at its Southern California waterfront home, July 14-16, with 68 teams competing in four classes: Laser, Laser Radial, C420 and CFJ.

Cameron Feves of Camarillo Beach Yacht Club beat out seven competitors to win the Laser class (11 races scored); Soenke Jordan (Coronado Yacht Club) and Lukas Kraak (Cabrillo Beach YC) rounded out the top three finishes.

Marcus Huttunen, who raced on behalf of San Diego YC and Mission Bay Yacht Club, finished atop the Laser Radial class (12 races scored), ahead of Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club’s Maxwell Mayol and California Yacht Club’s Gavin McJones. There were 18 competitors in the Laser Radial class.

San Diego sailors dominated the top of the C420 winners’ list. Ansgar Jordan and Patrick Mulcahy, representing Coronado and California yacht clubs, claimed first place in the C420 class. Finishing in second were Jack Egan and Jack Plavan, both of whom represented San Diego YC.

Jack Reiter and Tanner Chapko (representing San Diego YC and Mission Bay YC) finished third in the C420 class, which featured 16 boats competing in 12 races.

Micky Munns and Alexander Shapiro, both of King Harbor Yacht Club, beat out the most competitive field of the regatta to claim the CFJ class (11 races scored).

Santa Barbara Yacht Club’s Payne Donaldson and Sara Muir placed second in the CFJ class, which featured 30 sailing teams.

The third place finisher was the sailing team of Sean Tailman and Christopher Andrews, both representing King Harbor YC.

U.S. Sailing brought (or will bring) the Junior Olympic Sailing Festival to several host cities this year. Most of the regattas are or were held on the Eastern Seaboard, though quite a few of this year’s events was or will be in the Midwest.

The nationwide series of sailing regattas is geared toward youth sailors between the ages of 8 and 18. U.S. Sailing and the participating yacht clubs host the regattas to encourage youth sailors to enjoy sailing and learn about the sport. Each event is operated in Olympic format, complete with an opening flag ceremony, torch run and awards podium.

Participants are not allowed to be in college or be 19 years old during the competition.

Seattle Yacht Club will host a Junior Olympic Sailing Festival in the Emerald City, Aug. 26-27; Waikiki and Hawai’i yacht clubs jointly organized their U.S. Sailing youth regatta in Honolulu, July 10-14.

Other hosts on this year’s docket include Dillon, Colorado, suburban Minneapolis, suburban Detroit, suburban Cleveland, suburban Boston, Miami, Portland, Maine, and Newport, Rhode Island. In all, this year’s festival calendar has 30 events.

Ten events remain on this year’s U.S. Junior Olympic Sailing Festival docket between Aug. 3 and Dec. 30, including three regattas in Massachusetts, a couple in Michigan and the final at Coral Reef Yacht Club in Miami, Dec. 27-30.

U.S. Sailing estimated more than 5,000 sailors would compete in this year’s series of regattas, which run from April to December.

SDYC photo