February 21, 2017 For Immediate Release
In November 2016, World Sailing approved the International Viper 640 Class’s application to become a recognized World Sailing class. The International Viper 640 Class Association, at the same time, adopted an international constitution and signed a contract with World Sailing confirming the Class’s international status. World Sailing has accredited Zeke Horowitz, Ian Coleman, and Brendan Healey, all from Annapolis, MD, as Viper 640 World Champions, following their win last November at the first World Championships in Bermuda.
Commenting on the completion of this process, Viper 640 Class International Chairman Justin Scott said, “We have fleets in three continents and a circuit of destination regattas over the next three years that span spectacular locations across North America, Australia and Europe. The Viper 640 is now truly an international one-design class.” Jason Smithwick, World Sailing’s Director of Technical and Offshore, added, “The Viper 640 combines an excellent boat and a solid international organization with great sailors that enjoy each other’s company both on the water and off. We are delighted to have the Viper 640 class join the World Sailing family.”
Perth 2018 – World Championship
The International Viper 640 Class is pleased to announce its next World Championship Regatta from February 17 to February 23 2018 at South of Perth Yacht Club, Western Australia. SoPYC is one of the largest yacht clubs in Australia with more the 2,300 members and truly magnificent world class facilities. They have hosted several national championships, they co-hosted the World Sailing Team Racing World Championships in 2009 and the Sailing World Championship in 2011.
February will provide ideal sailing conditions on the Swan River estuary with the infamous southwesterly “Doctor” blowing in the afternoon from 15–25 knots.
Viper 640 Australian Class president Graeme Monkhouse stated, “We are aiming to host the largest Viper regatta ever outside of North America with 20 Western Australian Vipers eager to go up against some of the best Viper sailors coming in from around the World.”
Long Beach 2019 – World Championship
The Class is also announcing that , Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, Long Beach, CA, USA, will host the 2019 Viper 640 World Championship. Alamitos Bay Yacht Club Commodore Chuck Clay said, “We’ll make sure Viper sailors have spectacular racing on the water while enjoying our special southern California hospitality ashore.”
For more information contact Viper 640 Class Association Administrator Ed “Buttons” Padin (epadin@padesta.com) or Rondar Raceboats, the Class builder (www.rondarboats.com)
Blog
2017 Club 420 Midwinters Results & Report
February 18-20, 2017 Results at: http://www.club420.org
Jensen Beach, FL – A 103 boat fleet was treated to a spectacular weekend of racing that saw conditions that delivered each day and certainly kept the competitors on their toes from shifty light conditions to full trapeze planning conditions, we had it all. The regatta format was two days of a qualifying round, where the fleet was divided into two fleets and seeded by a formula. The final day was a medal round where the top 52 boats were in gold and sail for the championship and the next 51 boats sailed in silver. 
The regatta was close all the way through with Jack Johansson and Jack DeNatale from “Team Chill” showing off some commanding speed at times leading the regatta through the qualifying round with their worst score as a 2. On the second day of racing Jack and Jack swept the day with all firsts. Not to be out done Tucker Weed and Olivia de Olazarra stayed tight with the Jacks by scoring no lower than a 3 and staying extremely consistent through the qualifying round and setting up a show down with Jack and Jack on the last day trailing by just 4 points. Ivan Shestopalov and Claudia Loiacono stood in third after the qualifying round 10 points back of Tucker and Olivia and in a tight battle with local hero’s Emily and Katie Bornarth from the USSC Martin County.
On the Final day Tucker Weed and Olivia de Olazarra from Coral Reef Yacht Club showed their mental toughness and overcame the deficit to beat Jack Johansson and Jack DeNatale to win the 2017 Midwinter championship. The local ladies Katie and Emily Bornarth also battled today finishing 3rd overall. It was a fantastic weekend of racing with 11 races in Gold and 10 races in silver fleet. The PRO Campbell Rich and his team did a fantastic job keeping the racing going and keeping it fair in sometimes tough conditions. The class thanks Alan Jenkinson and his incredible group of volunteers for another great Midwinter championship in Martin County, we look forward to next year!
Top 5- Gold Fleet
Tucker Weed/ Olivia de Olazarra 18pts.
Jack Johansson/ Jack DeNatale 22pts.
Emily Bornarth/ Katie Bornarth 50pts.
Jack Reiter/ Tanner Chapko 54pts.
Boyd Bragg/Aisling Sullivan 61pts.
Top Junior Boat
Luke Arnone/ Mariner Fagan
About The Club 420 Class Association
The Club 420 Association was established in 1980 to promote, foster, encourage and sponsor one-design sailing. The Association sponsors a class North American Championship, US and Canadian National Championships as well as regional championships for the class across North America while promoting the class to all ability and experience levels of youth sailing. Since 2006, the class membership has more than doubled from 300 to its current 715 members. The class offers many regional, national and North American championships in both fleet and team racing formats as well as clinics across North America. Our Nationals / North Americans have had 175 boats attend, with all levels of sailors competing in some of the finest and socially fun regattas you will attend.
About The Club 420
The Club 420 is a two person dingy which forms the base of many local, high school and collegiate programs in North America. Simple for beginning sailors and yet challenging enough for collegiate champions. The Club 420 offers more learning opportunities than any other double-handed boat you can find. Over 5,000 Club 420s are sailed in youth, high school and collegiate programs all over the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
For more information please visit our website at www.club420.org or visit us on Facebook
Contact:
John Vandemoer, Executive Director
Email – ED@club420.org
2017 ICSA Team Race Preview & Coaches Poll
2017 ICSA Team Race Preview & Coaches Poll, 21 FEB 2017
By Airwaves Writer Dillon Paiva
Brought to you by Dynamic Dollies, Sail1Design would like to welcome everyone to the spring team race season! This discipline in college sailing is growing more popular every year. Sailors love the short course, fast pace, expert boat handling required, and of course, team work. Before the first collegiate team race regattas of the season begin this weekend, Sail1Design brings you this exclusive in depth look at the best teams in the country. We reached out to five college coaches and asked them to rank the top ten teams in the ICSA, and then give us some comments on each team. Below are the pre-season tabulations. See the full rankings and coaches comments HERE
| Rank | School | Total Points |
| 1 | Yale | 50 |
| 2 | BC | 44 |
| 3 | Georgetown | 41 |
| 4 | Dartmouth | 34 |
| 5 | Navy | 19 |
| 6 | Charleston | 18 |
| 7 | Stanford | 12 |
| 8 | MIT | 10 |
| 9 | St. Mary’s | 7 |
| 10 | Hobart | 6 |
| Also receiving votes: Roger Williams, Tufts, Bowdoin | ||
About Sail1Design
Sail1Design is a grassroots organization, by sailors for sailors, dedicated to the youth, high school, college, and one-design sailing communities. Born in 2007, Sail1Design has grown considerably, and reaches out to all sailors wishing to enjoy and learn more about our sport. We have three main areas of business:
SAILING/MARINE INDUSTRY CAREER CENTER & JOB BOARD
We offer sailing’s #1 Career Center and Job Board, always chock full of incredible sailing job opportunities. Our comprehensive career center also offers job seekers the ability to create their own web page, highlighting their experience and posting their resume. Likewise, employers can search our resume database to find the right match for that open position. Sail1Design is proud also to be the official job board of the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA), the US High School Sailing Association (ISSA), and US Sailing.
MARKETPLACE & PROFESSIONAL BROKERAGE
Unique to the industry, Sail1Design hosts and manages an active private, by-owner marketplace, focusing on performance and one-design sailboats & gear. For all boats under 25′, our ads are free. What makes us different is that we also provide, side-by-side, professional brokerage services as well. We have had great success helping our sailing clients market and sell their boats, using our powerful client base, social media, and the brokerage industries multiple listing service to ensure your boat gets noticed.
AIRWAVES NEWS & CALENDAR
S1D also hosts Airwaves, an interactive, user fed Sailing Calendar and informative Sailing News, Articles, tips, & more. Airwaves has developed a great niche in the sailing publication world, and now boasts a seven-member staff of dedicated sailors, all contributing to our varied content.
Waszp
Looking for a new boat, and not only a new boat but a foiling boat? A boat that is fast, fun, durable, and affordable? The Waszp may just be it! Similar to the Moth the Waszp offers sailors with a more durable and affordable boat. Just recently at the end of January, the first Waszp regatta took place in the US. This regatta was part of the Winter Series that the Moth class has held at the Upper Keys Sailing Club for the past couple years. Since the US Waszp class is brand new the president of the US Waszp class Reed Baldridge thought this winter series would be a great stepping stone for the class. The regatta brought 8 sailors with Waszp’s all around the country, it was not only a great regatta but a great learning and brainstorming session for this new class.
The Boat:
The Waszp is a one design foiler, that was created by Andrew McDougall, designer of the world beating Mach 2 foiling Moth. Recently, it was just named 2017 Best One-Design by Sailing Worlds Boat of the Year Awards. The Waszp and the Moth are similar in their concepts, but for a couple reasons, the Waszp hits a market of different dinghy sailors. First, the Waszp is half the price of the Moth, you can buy a brand new Waszp in the US for $12,500. Unlike the Moth the Waszp is a one design class. With the Waszp you have adjustable wing angles allowing you to adjust for your skill and for storage. The Waszp comes with retractable alloy foils making it an easy boat to launch. With a free standing rig, you can rig up quickly and have a much 
easier time getting back into the boat after capsizing.
Strategy & Tactics in Waves
By Andrew Kerr
Having recently sailed a 10 race series at Key West Race Week that featured a large part of the regatta with waves and cluster chop. Here is some strategy, tactics and boat handling key elements that can help your team sail a fast and consistent series when the waves are up.
Pre-Race
Which tack is better versus the waves and is there flatter water on the course?
Go upwind on each tack and get a feel for the wave formations and find out which tack is better versus the waves if there is one, very often they are similar.
Do we need to set the boat up differently from tack to tack?
On the harder tack we have found it better to move the lead one hole forward and ease the Jib/ Genoa and mainsheet slightly to sail the boat more open on the leeches to cope with the waves and the rapidly changing apparent wind angles.
On the easier tack the Jib / Genoa lead is typically a hole further back and the sheets trimmed on a little harder as it is easier to point in the flatter water.
Is there flatter water inshore?
At a lot of venues the waves are smaller inshore – research this when you go upwind in the pre-race period.
Communication
Take time to get the communication flowing from the wave caller in the crucial pre-race upwind leg leading up to the start – if it is constant waves then we have found it is even more critical for the wave caller to call out any flatter water so we can shift gears accordingly – “Flatter water in 3, 2, 1 – now – lasts for 2 boat lengths “is a really important piece of info.
Also be sure to work on identifying flatter spot’s to tack in, “flat spot to tack in 3, 2, and 1 – now “.
Boat speed wise, if possible we would like to get on on the easier tack so we can get off the line and find our space and go – the driver will appreciate this if you can choreograph it that way!
Which jibe is better or more stable downwind versus the waves?
As an example – at Key West we found the wave axis to be better on starboard tack as the boat could plane more consistently.
In the absence of wind and angle considerations – the better Jibe with the wave axis is going to get us going faster or if the wind is lighter and the waves more confused – will keep the boat more stable , is one better than the other? Very often the most challenging conditions are when it is light air with confused waves – is one jibe better than the other for keeping the spinnaker stabilized?
Starting
In decent sized waves it’s really important to get the biggest gap to leeward on the line that you can so that you can go bow down and full speed as long as possible without a leeward boat playing interference .
So strategically we are looking for a low density area on the line, away from crowds and in a place to sail to flatter water on the course or the favored side which at quite a lot of venues is inshore.
Upwind
- Try to sail on the easier tack as long as you can to get best VMG.
- Minimize tacks as much as you can as the loss from tacking can be substantial – be selective when you tack .
- To this end either tack in a flatter spot or if one is not available tack on the top of a wave so you minimize the loss.
- If lee bowing another competitor the adage is that in order to lee bow someone in waves you have to basically be able to cross them as the boat loses a lot of speed and you risk getting rolled over.
- If a lee bow will not work then either duck them for freedom to go fast or tack well early to maintain space and speed, remember the big picture of which side of the course you want and get the dialogue onboard going early .
- If looking for a lane of clear wind – be sure to pick a wide lane so that you can go fast without fear of falling into a boat that is pinching.
- Avoid packs of boats – they are usually sailing a little high and not optimum VMG, go for space.
- Lay lines to the weather mark should be called with a wider tacking angle in mind and slightly over standing is always going to be better than a tight lay line.
Downwind
- In the absence of velocity, current or angle considerations ( which may well be of higher priority ) then take the better jibe versus the waves – either to get the boat going faster and planning/ surfing more consistently or the one which is more stable if the waves are confused .
Leeward Rounding
- If it is planing / surfing conditions then err on the side of taking the spinnaker down a little earlier rather than later so you do not plane past the mark!
- If the wave is picking the boat up and pushing it downwind , be sure to turn the boat early upwind and trim the main in rapidly otherwise you will get pushed to leeward of the mark – sometimes a long, long
- If the waves are confused and slowing the boat down then fly the spinnaker as long as you can into the mark ( practice is key here ) for max speed in and out of the rounding.
- For all the above elements practice and repetition of takedowns and mark Roundings is going to be critical so you can make an informed decision on how long it takes to execute the boat handling and the rounding.
Best of luck in your next race or regatta and May the waves be with you!
Club Profile: Lakewood Yacht Club
News Flash: Lakewood Yacht Club is hiring a full-time Youth Sailing Director
Located on 38 beautifully landscaped acres on Clear Lake beyond the busy highways of East Harris County, Texas, Lakewood Yacht Club is an exceptional environment for social and water activities with a wonderful story to tell. Lakewood Yacht Club has over 300 covered and open boat slips for any boat aficionado. Lakewood, however, is so much more than just a yacht club for docking your boat; it is a haven for members, their families and guests. There is a sense of peace and tranquility here combined with unparalleled camaraderie that makes Lakewood an escape from your everyday world. Add to that the club’s calendar which is overflowing with a variety of social and water activities for all ages and you have a remarkable package with remarkable value.
The Bermuda-style clubhouse provides Lakewood’s 500 plus members with harbor-view dining facilities and excellent cuisine. Lakewood has a stunning bar and piano lounge with several large screen televisions. At the other end of the clubhouse is a harbor-view ballroom for monthly holiday/event parties as well as popular Sunday brunches. Children enjoy visiting their friends and playing videos in our supervised Game Room while their parents partake of a quiet dinner meal.
Lakewood has a strong agenda of regattas and cruises organized by Lakewood’s enthusiastic volunteers. An active Ladies Association holds monthly luncheon meetings with a program in addition to a fun group trip every year. Our Youth Program, known as the Seahorses, is recognized as the best in Texas and is guided year-round by the club’s parent volunteers and dedicated coaches. Three lighted tennis courts and friendly but competitive monthly tennis socials and weekly matches add to the allure of Lakewood.
Lakewood Yacht Club offers a unique Youth Sailing Program, with a wide variety of opportunities for children of all ages. Achieving prominence as one of the top yacht club programs in the United States, our youth sailors (the Seahorses) participate in the Texas Sailing Association Series as well as National and International Regattas worldwide. With programs that offer year-round fun for members and guests alike, with our summer sailing camps, Learn-to Sail and Advanced Racing classes there is something for every young aspiring sailor at Lakewood Yacht Club.
Youth Sailing
Under the direction of dedicated coaches, Lakewood Yacht Club’s Youth Sailing Program has grown into being the envy of other yacht clubs all over the country, not just around the Gulf Coast. The Seahorses have brought stellar recognition to the club, influencing our membership growth as families join the club so their children can learn to sail and compete, if they wish. As long-time local racer Charles Milby says of sailing as a child,“Once I learned how to crew, once I learned how to trim a spinnaker and a jib, I could go anyplace. It was a skill I learned. I could sail a 13 foot boat or a sixty foot boat; the principles are exactly the same.”
News Flash: Lakewood Yacht Club is hiring a full-time Youth Sailing Director
