U.S. Sailing brings Youth Match Racing to San Diego

SAN DIEGO—U.S. Sailing’s Youth Match Racing Championship, where young sailors will be competing for The Rose Cup and Nick Scandone Sportsmanship Award, comes to San Diego, June 26-30, with San Diego Yacht Club hosting.

The invitational race is open to sailors who are between 16 and 20 years of age. One of the benefits of the regatta: young sailors are exposed to world-class coaching and race management.

Ten young sailors were selected for the regatta: Ansgar Jordan, Cameron Feves, Christophe Chaumont, Cole Harris, David Wood, Jack Egan, Jeffrey Petersen, Porter Killian, Robert Turgliatto and Sidney Gathrid.

The four wait-listed sailors are, in alphabetical order: Samuel Bartel, Matthew Galbraith, Emma Kaneti and Owen Lahr.

Youth sailors compete in teams of four aboard provided keelboats. Each team must have at least one male and one female, with a maximum crew weight of 680 pounds.

Registration, weigh-ins and practice sailing will be held between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on June 26. The opening ceremony is set for 7 p.m. on June 27. Racing will be held on June 28 and 29. Please read the Notice of Race for exact timings of each event. The Notice of Race is available online at bit.ly/2wcjyIa.

The entry fee is $750 per team; the fee covers boat use, coaching, housing, entertainment and most meals.

Stage one of the regatta will be a round robin; the second stage is quarterfinal/semifinal/final knockout series, with consolation races.

The winning team will be presented with the Rose Cup, which is a perpetual trophy; medals will also be awarded.

“The top finishing skipper will receive an invitation to the 2019 Governor’s Cup, to be held July 15-20, 2019, at the Balboa Yacht Club in Corona del Mar, California, provided that the skipper has requested an invitation to the Governor’s Cup organizing authority within their deadline (April 12, 2019),” the Notice of Race stated.

“The top finishing skipper will receive an invitation to the 2019 Oakcliff Halloween Invitational, October 26-27, 2019, in Match 40’s,” the Notice of Race continued.

Also to be awarded will be the Nick Scandone Sportsmanship Award.

Members of Newport Beach’s Balboa Yacht Club established The Rose Cup as a youth match racing event in 2010; Jack Parkin, Ashton Borcherding, Bram Brakman and Wiley Rogers of Riverside Yacht Club won the Rose Cup in 2018. Last year’s Rose Cup was hosted by Oakcliff Sailing and Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club.

The Nick Scandone Sportsmanship Award is named after Nick Scandone, a U.S. Paralympic Gold medalist who stood atop the winner’s podium at Beijing, China in 2008. Scandone won his gold medal despite having ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

U.S. Sailing stated the regatta would be a World Sailing Grade 3 event.