JSA Sailors in USODA Nationals

At the United States Optimist Dinghy Association National Finals at Lake Minnetonka, JSA Opti sailors raced excellently among the best in the country.

The group of JSA sailors that went to Minnesota for the event are also part of the Long Island Sound Optimist Training (LISOT) Team and were coached by coaches that have helped with the JSA in the past.

Their head coach, Erik Storck has been at previous Advanced Racing Clinics during the past few years helping sailors prepare for the season and the Law Trophy Regatta. Also on the coaching team were Manny Resano, Dennis Paaske and another Advanced Racing Clinic Instructor Kaity Storck.

The high JSA finisher was Declan Whitmyer of Noroton Yacht Club. Whitmyer finished in fifth place, losing out on fourth by tiebreakers only. Larchmont’s Andrew Mollerus was in seventh, with Evan Reed in 10th.

In the Girls Nationals, Sea Cliff Yacht Club’s Laura Wefer came in second place, with Noroton’s Olivia Crane on ninth, followed by Sea Cliff’s Tracy Doherty in 11th.

Full results can be found here.

-Busy racing week with the Pequot's Blue Jay/Pixel Regatta, McIntyre Racing Champs in SUNY Maritime, and the Blue Jay/Pixel Champs at Centerport.

Race Week Results

The JSA website has full results from last week's class specific race weeks at Sea Cliff and Cedar Point. Winners included Paul Wefer (Radial), Will Wolfe (Lasers), Angus Page and Mary Alice Miller (C420), Austin Coneys and Matt Gardner (Blue Jays), Richard and George Gregory (Pixels), James Maguire (Opti White), Lonneke Eenkema (Red) and Mackenzie Cooper (Blue). Full results can be seen here.

-The new Navigation and Seamanship Tests are being given tonight. Let the JSA know how the new format worked, and what your experience was like. Let us know at news@jsalis.org or post a comment to the blog.

-The McIntyre Team Racing Championships begin tomorrow at SUNY Maritime.

-Pequot's Blue Jay and Pixel Regatta began today, any articles or pictures, let us know!

JSA Sailors Sweep Area B's

JSA sailors did more than proudly represent themselves in the Area B Semifinals, as four sailors will be advancing to the National Finals in August.

Cam Cullman from American Yacht Club won his third consecutive Area B semifinal in the Laser class, finishing no lower than second in any of the races, including his dropped score. Stamford's Ben Leibowitz was right behind Cullman in second place, earning a spot in the finals as well.

In the C420 class, Brendan Kopp and his crew Michael Costello of Pequot continued to dominate the competition. The duo won every race en route to an easy first place vicotry. Eamon Glackin and Alex Hering came in third and are an alternate choice to go to Nationals if either of the top two teams cannot make it.

In the Ideal 18's, Pequot was once again on top. Skipper Andrew Foster and his crew Tim Clark and Charlie Proctor, won all but one race and finished with the easy first place victory.

-The webshots page has been updated with new pictures from the Area B awards ceremony and some on the water shots from Safety at Sea Seminar. Take a look.

-A reminder that even though the deadline for the Blue Jay and Pixel Champs at Centerport has passed, you can still sign up for the event. Because Sea Cliff's Blue Jay Pixel Race Week ended yesterday as well, Centerport will happily accept late registrations. Contact Grant at GrantConeys@optonline.net.

Also Blue Jays have a special opportunity: Even if you did not qualify for JSA Blue Jay champs, you are eligible to sail in the Blue Jay Class National Champs that open to all Blue Jay Class Association members. The BJ Class Nationals will be run at Centerport at the same time as JSA Champs, on the same course, with separate scoring and prizes. So sign up for the Class National champs or the JSA champs, whichever you like. But please register quickly!

Area B's, Opti News

The Area B seminfinals for the US Junior Championships are underway at Indian Harbor Yacht Club. After one day of racing, the JSA is in great shape. The triplehanded team from Pequot Yacht Club, is in first place with two first place finishes in three races. Skipper Andrew Foster and his crew of Tim Clark and Charlie Proctor have a one point lead heading into the final day.

In the C420 class, Brendan Kopp and Brendan Costello of Pequot continue to dominate in the short season, winning all three races yesterday. In third place, just three points out of second, are Eamon Glackin and Alex Hering of the Northport Bay Sailing Association.

The JSA is also at the top of the Laser Class, as well. Cam Cullman from American Yacht Club is leading the way, in first place with two first place finishes. A JSA sailor is in second place as well, with Ben Leibowitz from Stanford Yacht Club.

Racing concludes today and we will have all the winners on the blog as soon as possible.

-The IODA World Championships are underway in Spain this week. The US Team, featuring JSA sailors Matt Wefer and Marlena Fauer, are hoping to come out with a strong showing. Check back for race updates and scores.

-Blue Jay and Pixel Race Week get underway today at Sea Cliff Yacht Club. If anyone wants to share their experiences or write a letter for the Ditty Bag, just let us know!

JSA Big Boat Navigation Test

The navigation and seamanship tests are scheduled for July 30. The full description of the tests and suggested study guide is in the Big Boat Manual that may be downloaded by clicking on the title above.

Sailors sometimes ask why they need to study navigation and piloting when most yachts have sophisticated electronics. The answer is that use of electronics is limited in JSA big-boat regattas to basic GPS, speed, depth, wind, compass and radar. No laptops, weatherfax, route optimizing programs, etc.

JSA Championship Qualifiers

The list of finish positions that qualify for JSA championship events has been updated to include regattas completed through July 18. The list may be viewed here.

Two additional Opti events held on July 19 are still being processed.

Safety at Sea Seminar was Great; Opti Team Race is Cancelled

The Safety at Sea Seminar presented by the Storm Trysail Club took place at Larchmont Yacht Club today. After some bleak weather in the morning, everything cleared and the sailors were treated to great sessions from top notch instructors. There was even a visit from sailors at the USCGA too. Pictures should be on Webshots early next week.

-Beach Point Opti Team Race Cancelled: the July 31 event has been cancelled by BPYC due to unexpected conflicts. If you know anyone who was planning on going to the event, let them know ASAP.

Everyone have a great weekend of sailing!

Opti Day, LYC Race Week in the News

Now that all the C420's, Lasers, Blue Jays and Pixels are off the grounds at Larchmont Yacht Club, it was the Opti's turn to take part in Larchmont's Jr. Race week on Thursday. The weather in the morning was less than ideal, but Optis did eventually make their way onto the water around noon.

-All results are available at LYC's website, http://www.larchmontyc.org/ click on "Racing" and select the C420/Laser/Radial or the Opti page.

-Larchmont Race week received some great coverage from the local Westchester paper, The Journal News, take a look at all the articles.

-Just a reminder for all Big Boat sailors that the Safety at Sea Seminar presented by the Storm Trysail Club is Friday July 20.

Race Week Concludes

Larchmont Race Week came to end with today's terrible weather throughout the area. Larchmont should have full results on their website within the next day or so. The big winners at today's trophy presentation, however, were LYC's Matt Zupon and Sea Cliff's Matt Wefer, who were both recipiants of the Commodore's Trophy for their exceptional sailing as the committee both felt that they were the most exceptional sailors of the week.

-Pictures from race week are now up and can be seen at the webshots account. They are under the Eastern/Western Districts link for the time being, but should be in their own folder by tomorrow.

-Larchmont is going to be busy for the next two days as well, with the Opti's coming in for their day of racing tomorrow, and the Safety at Sea Seminar on Friday.

-Look for the latest issue of the Ditty Bag to be online in the next few days.

-Anyone who wants to write about their experience at Larchmont Race week, just let us know!

Larchmont Race Week

Larchmont Race Week is into day two of racing and results from the first day are in. The Laser Radials have been broken up into four different fleets: Red, Green, Yellow and Blue. James Barry from Riverside Yacht Club leads the Red, Jamie Beres of Beach Point is the top JSA sailor in the Green, Cedar Point's Dylan Abel head the Yellow and Stephanie Hart of Indian Harbor is the top JSA sailor in the Blue.
Larchmont's own Matt Zupon heads the Laser class, with Pequot's Brendan Kopp in second and Matt Jaykus of Stamford is the next top JSA sailor.
The C420's were also broken up into four fleets as well. Larchmont's Alex Takata and Alex Lubben lead the way in the Red fleet, with fellow club members Matt Habig and Willie Herrmann leading the Green fleet. Cold Spring Harbor's Angus Page and Mary Alice Miller are leading the Yellow fleet and another Larchmont pair, Lukas Edegran and Robbie Habig lead the Blue fleet.
The Pixels are also separated into the four fleets. Nathaniel Gleason and IG Schottleander of Noroton lead the Red fleet. Richard and George Gregory, also from Noroton, lead the Green fleet, while Shore and Country Club's Matt Fornshell and Mark Fesenmeyer are pacing the Yellow fleet. American's Peter Duncan and Charles Bocklat are leading the Blue fleet.
Centerport has a pair of boats at the top of the Blue Jay division, as Austin Coneys and Matt Gardner are in first, followed by Cameron Coneys and Alex Kazerouni in second. Manhasset Bay's Katie Stack and Johanna Silbersack are in third. Full results can be found here.

-If anyone wants to chronicle their experience at Race Week on the blog or in the Ditty Bag, don't hesitate to write in with your thoughts and insights.

-McIntyre Team Race:A slot for one more team is still available, so if you want to be part of great coaching and a great regatta sign up today at http://www.jsalis.org/Clinics.html We encourage either one team from a club not yet registered, or one additional team from a club already registered.

Be sure to check back for updated results from Race Week!

Opti Fun in Flanders

Two JSA sailors recently completed a successful trip to the Flanders Youth Regatta in Nieuwpoort, Belgium on June 30 - July 4. Andrew Mollerus of Larchmont Yacht Club and Ian Storck of Centerport Yacht Club, two members of the 15-member US Opti team attending the regatta, sailed on the North Sea in winds of up to 25 knots and 5-6 foot seas. Andrew and Ian finished 19th and 20th overall, respectively (out of approximately 115 sailors).
Click on the title above to see full report written by Andrew.

Eastern/Western Districts and More

The 2007 Eastern and Western District Championships have come to a close. The events, hosted by Noroton, Norwalk and Sea Cliff Yacht Clubs, were able to avoid the bad weather that came later in the day and get three races in for the sailors.
At Noroton, Ben Leibowitz from Stamford Yacht Club, continued to have a great start to his season, finishing in first place in the Laser class for the Eastern division. Pequot's Andrew Foster and Stamford's Renee Gagne finished in second and third place respectively.
Another sailor that continued his strong start was Pequot's Brendan Kopp, who ran away with first place in the C420 class, winning all three races. James Schaefer of Cedar Point Yacht Club finished in second, while Andrew Hall from Riverside and Laura Cuccio finished tied with 15 points, with third place going to Hall.
In Norwalk, Indian Harbor's Stephanie Hart sailed strong en route to a first place finish in the Radial division. Cedar Point had a pair of sailors finish in second and third place as Dylan Abel and Christian Whitmer each sailed consistently for the strong finishes.
With the event being rained out last year, this was the PiXel's first district regatta, with Pequot's Bridgette Foster and Charlie Wolstenholme taking home the inaugural championship with three second place finishes. Noroton's Nathanial Gleason and Ig Schottlaen finished in second, while Nathaniel Arndt and Theo Aris from Pequot took home third.
In the Western part of the Sound at Sea Cliff, Larchmont's Matt Zupon scored an impressive victory in the Laser division. Zupon and perennial winner Cam Cullman of American Yacht Club tied with five points apiece, however, Zupon's two first place victories propelled him to the top. Centerport's Phil Forgione also raced well finishing in third.
Seawanhaka's Catherine Townes edged out Sea Cliff's Paul Wefer to take home first place in the Radial division. Wefer won two races, but a fifth place finish in the final race, and Townes first place finish, gave her the win. Colin Leon, also of Seawanhaka, finished in third.
Andrew King and Mackenzie and Needham finished in first place in the final two races of the day to earn the victory in the C420 class. Larchmont's Alex Takata and Alex Lubben finished in second, just one point ahead of third place finshers Chris Price and Austen Anderson of Centerport.
The Blue Jay Class saw a down to the wire battle, with Manhasset Bay's Johanna Silbersack and Katie Stack taking first. Sea Cliff's Sam and Harry Ehrlich were just one point behind in second, while fellow club members Megan O' Rourke and Elizabeth Sheerin were in third.
Lou Magarelli of Larchmont won the Western District's first PiXel race with two first place finishes. Horseshoe Harbor's Patrick Pozzi was in second, with Larchmont's Nick Gallagher in third.

-Norwalk was nice enough to provide a boat for the JSA to go and take pictures, which are now up at the JSA Webshots site. The weather looked iffy all morning, but to the race committee's credit they were able to get three races in before the wind died and then the rains came. To see the pictures go here: http://community.webshots.com/user/JSANews.

-Larchmont Junior Race Week is less than a week away, and preparations are already beginning at the club. Let's all hope for more wind and less heat than last summer!

YRA of LIS Sears Quarter-Finals

Congratulations to first place winners from Pequot Yacht Club - Andrew Foster, Tim Clark and Charlie Proctor - who swept the fleet with three firsts and two seconds.

Noroton team took second place (Connor Fitzpatrick, Justin Marks and John Connery) while Larchmont team was third (Alex Takata, Alex Lubben and Megan McEvily).

See full results here.

Black Rock YC Big Boat Program in the News

Due to the rise in popularity of sports like soccer and lacrosse, local youth's participation in sailing has dropped. Jim Lubeck understands this problem all too well. Luckily, Lubeck may have found a way to solve the problem.

"It used to be that when you were in sailing, you were in with both feet," said Jim Lubeck, former Commodore at Bridgeport's Black Rock Yacht Club. Lubeck believed that the main reason local youths were choosing other sports over sailing was their desire to be part of a team.

Instead of waving a white flag and giving up, Lubeck came up with an idea that has spread throughout the Long Island Sound region. (read full Connecticut Post article here)

JSA Comment:
This article first appeared in June, then got a second life with a pick-up in Scuttlebutt in July; a testament to the benefits of promoting your club junior activities with the local sports reporters.

2007 Next Step to Rolex Program

Junior women sailors interested in gaining keelboat sailing experience are invited to participate in the 2007 Next Step to Rolex Program. The three-day learning experience takes place November 9-11 and is held in conjunction with US SAILING’s Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Championship (Rolex IWKC), November 14-17 at the Houston Yacht Club (HYC), in La Porte, Texas. This year’s program features instructional clinics with hands-on practical learning in J/80 keelboats. Junior women sailors, 13 to 17 years old, can apply online at http://www.ussailing.org/riwkc

July 9 Update

A great example of getting your regattas out to the local media was seen by Pequot Yacht Club this weekend. Their Opti Open on Saturday was featured in the Connecticut Post and can be seen here: http://www.connpost.com/ci_6323274?IADID=Search-www.connpost.com-www.connpost.com.

Some other notes to start off the week:

-Big Boats: Please submit ASAP your registration for Safety at Sea if you expect to request Storm Trysail to arrange a big boat for your club. Also email this week to JSA your estimated counts of big boat sailors planning to take the advanced and basic navigation tests on July 30 so we pre-order sufficient materials.

- JSA Laser Sail Numbers: LAST CALL before the District regattas. Each Laser and Radial sailor should review the online request info at http://www.jsalis.org/Forms.html#Misc and submit their own request. And clubs should review the number list at that link to assure the JSA numbers they submitted for District Regatta registration match those on the list.

Check back tomorrow for an update on the Sears Quarterfinals and more.

Organisers defend decision to hold junior yacht race in Ireland

An organiser in charge of a junior sailing regatta in which over 100 children and teenagers had to be rescued, said he would bring the same children out to sea again in the exact same weather conditions.

Race organiser Patrick Blaney has defended his decision to take children as young as 12 years of age out to sea last Thursday, despite the fact that Met Eireann had issued a small craft warning shortly before they set sail. (click here for full story)

A word to wise regatta organizers from JSA:
Don't be in the headlines. Subscribe to a weather forecasting service for the full duration of your regatta this summer. Many JSA clubs have found that Commanders' Weather fills this role very well.

Investing in Sailing's Future

Schwab Cup gives juniors keelboat racing experience

By Bill Wagner, Staff Writer, The Capital, Annapolis MD

Charles Schwab is a company that is known for investing people's money wisely. By creating the Charles Schwab Junior Sailing Cup, the respected firm is making a sound investment in the future of sailing.

Thanks to the sponsorship of Charles Schwab, dozens of youngsters throughout the Annapolis area have gotten the opportunity to race keelboats as part of the J/World Thursday Night Series.

The Annapolis branch of the nationwide company has chartered four J/80s for the duration of the summer series and paid the entry fee for each. Every Thursday night, some 25-30 junior sailors don matching colored life jackets provided by Schwab and compete with other J/80s in the one-design format (click here for full story).

JSA comment: This is different than most JSA big boat events. Instead of juniors racing against juniors, the juniors are racing in an event open to all adults. This summer, junior big boats can test themselves in any open big boat event, not just JSA events. Bangarang from Norwalk YC competed in Block Island Race Week, mid-week and weekend PHRF racing is fun, and the Around Long Island Race will have a junior divison for the first time.

2007 Law Trophy Pictures

A link to all the pictures taken from the Race Committee Boat can be found here: http://sports.webshots.com/album/559761436dsGjoi.

Be sure to leave comments and share your opinions on the pictures and the days themselves!

Law Trophy Results

The 2007 Law Trophy Regatta at Indian Harbor has come to a close, and familiar names are at the top of the standings. American Yacht Club's Cam Cullman once again won the Laser class, fueled behind a strong first day of racing, where he won three out of the four races. Stamford's Ben Leibowitz, who sailed at the US Youth Champs at New Orleans alongside Cullman, finished in second. Sea Cliff's Paul Wefer came in third.
Peqout Yacht Clubs Brendan Kopp and Mike Costello followed up their strong performance at New Orleans with a first place finish in the C420 class. The duo finished in first four times over the two days. Centerport's Austen Anderson and Chris Price came in second after taking home first place in the series' final race, while Sea Cliff's Matt Wefer and Olivia Crane came in third.
Larchmont Yacht Club's Matt Zupon dominated the Radial class, finishing in first place in four races, and second place in another. Indian Harbor's Stephanie Hart finished in second, followed by Noroton's Peter Sullivan in third.
Congratulations to all those who completed in the Law Trophy Regatta, and to those who will be representing the JSA at the Area B Semifinals. For full results, visit http://indianharboryc.com/sailing/pdf/lawresults07.pdf./ To see pictures from The Photoboat, you can see them here: http://www.thephotoboat.com/.

-The Blog will be updated with photos that were taken from the Race Committee Boat today. Look for them in the next update!

-Everyone enjoy their Fourth of July Holiday!

Start of the Law Trophy

Today marks the start of the JSA ladder event for the US Sailing Jr. Championships, the Law Trophy, at Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, Conn. This morning's weather was magnificent with blue skies and a good breeze that judges and competitor's were hoping would last throughout the day. Full results will be posted when racing is finished tomorrow afternoon.

-Alinghi is within one victory of repeating as America's Cup Champions after defeating ETNZ once again to take a 4-2 lead in the series. The 7th and potentially Cup winning race was postponed to Tuesday due to light winds.

-Look for a sign up link to the annual Safety at Sea Seminar hosted by the Storm Trysail Club to be on the JSA website in the coming days.

-New C420 Clinic at Shelter Island YC: We received from SIYC a notice about the first-ever Long Island Advanced Racing Clinic to be held Friday-Sunday, July 13-15, 2007, with a rigging clinic on Thursday the 12th. See this link.

-Once again a reminder to all Laser sailors that you must have a JSA number affixed to your sail in order to compete in JSA regattas, including next week's Eastern/Western Districts. There were sailors at the Law Trophy today who had to scramble at the last minute to get a number on their sail, don't let the same happen to you!