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            The Orange Bowl Regatta came to an exciting close on December 30, finishing up the youth regattas of 2009. We saw every condition from flat water, no wind, and 85 degrees to high waves, 15 knots, and too-cold-for-Florida weather. As always, the regatta was very well run, the race committees were excellent, and the competitors had a lot of fun. Click the class names below for results.

            Optimist RWB

Tommy Garber, an Opti sailor new to the fleet, summed up the regatta for the younger sailors saying , “It helps to not be over.” Even the second place finisher, Peruvian Javier Arribas, had two OCS scores in the final results. The other two top places were occupied by local brothers Christopher and Duncan Williford, Christopher beating Duncan by 11 points. Christopher also won Red Fleet while Gabriel Elstrodt of Brazil won Blue and Wiley Rogers of Houston won White.

            Club 420

Despite an OCS in the last race, Graham Landy and Colin Murphy held on to their position for the final day to win the C420 class. The team was closely followed by brothers Chris and Daniel Segerblom in second. Tyler Rice and Billy Gibbons, who finished third overall, found that an effective strategy for them involved singing Taylor Swift songs. Loudly. Interesting idea, and it seemed to work for them.

            International 420

Morgan Kiss and Katia DaSilvia won the I420 class with only 40 points in 12 races. They and the team of Deirdre Lambert and Tracy Doherty were two of the three all-girl teams to finish in a top five place. Raul Rios and Rogelio Fernandez finished between the two to get second place. Marcus Edegran, a recent buyer of an I420, credited the success of the last minute addition of the I420 class to many young sailors who, like him, bought the boats in order to compete internationally and participate in the Youth Worlds Qualifiers taking place in a few weeks. Due to the number of participants this year, the I420 class may become a permanent addition to the regatta.

            Laser Full

John Wallace won the Laser Full class with less than 20 points accumulated through the 12 races. Andrew Fox just barely beat out Ricardo Montemayor in a tie breaker for second place. These three competitors created a 20 point gap between themselves and the rest of the fleet, most likely because none of them held any race worse than a fifth place.

            Laser Radial

Max Lopez, an experienced Radial sailor, described his competitors’ success as coming from “having abs of steel and hiking like nobody’s business”. Clearly the windy conditions of this regatta made a lasting impression on him. Mateo Vargas, who must have followed Max’s advice,  finished first despite his high scoring last race beating Stefano Mazzaferro by only five points. Mitchell Kiss rounded out the top three with 68 points.

            Laser 4.7

Just Van Aanholt barely took first place in the 4.7 class by one point from Max Stein who lost it in a protest in the eleventh race. Juanky Perdomo finished in third despite two OCS scores which he dropped.

For further information and sponsers see the Coral Reef Yacht Club website.

Orange Bowl – Day 3, December 29, 2009

The sailors here are grateful for the breeze of the past two days. The 420 and Opti courses have gotten in eight races, taking full advantage of the 10-15 knots. Today the breeze died for about an hour in the late morning but rolled back in strongly from the northwest for the rest of the afternoon. Conditions were shifty but seemed to solidify as the pressure continued to build.

In the Optimist Class, after nine races the top places are held by Javier Arribas, Sinclair Jones, and Christopher Williford in first, second and third respectively. Javier has made an impressive performance with all top three finishes except for one race in which he was over early. Luckily, with six races already completed, he will be able to drop that OCS.

The Laser course has only been able to complete seven races so far but they have been very competitive. In the full rig class, only one point separates Andrew Fox, John Wallace, and Ricardo Montemayor in the top spots. The same is true for Stefano Mazzaferro and Mateo Vargas in the radial class and Just Van Aanholt and Maximilian Stein in the 4.7 class. Tomorrow will be the deciding day for all of them so the pressure’s on!

The 420 classes have put the wind to good use and have now finished 10 full races. Morgan Kiss and Katia DaSilva are leading the I420 class closely followed by Raul Rios and Rogelio Fernandez. Today Graham Landy and Colin Murphy overtook former leaders Chris and Daniel Segerblom in the club 420 class but competitive racing sure to come tomorrow could change the standings. To see full results and further regatta information, go to:

http://www.coralreefyachtclub.org/index.cfm?menu=7560

Orange Bowl – Day 1, December 27, 2009

This year’s annual Orange Bowl Regatta, held by Coral Reef YC and Biscayne Bay YC, was off to a light and shifty but very competitive start today. The breeze varied but remained below 8 knots, providing frustrating conditions for both the race committee and the competitors. Most classes only sailed one race so, as always, there is a lot of regatta still to come.

On the Laser course, the international sailors led the fleets. Canadian Ricardo Montemayor won the first and only race in full rigs while Ecuadorian Jonathan Martinetti won in the radials. In the smaller laser, the 4.7, Max Stein tops the standings.

Though the Opti class only sailed one race today as well, the young competitors seemed in good spirits. Cassie Oble at her first regatta in the Optimist was pleased with the racing and said it was “a good experience for her first event”. Currently, Arthur Fortune and Chris Williford hold the top spots with firsts in separate flights.

In the C420 class, Michael Dahl and Nicole Crice are winning from today’s two races. Alex Ramos, in 7^th place advocated “playing the shifts and having a good start”. It seemed that being caught behind the fleet off the start was not the best of plans in today’s light breeze.

This year, a brand new class has been added to the regatta, the international 420. Despite the last minute notice, the class is extremely competitive. Many of the top sailors who previously sailed in the club 420 class have made the switch to the faster and lighter boats, so the racing is very tight. With the two races sailed today, two girl skippers have taken the top places in the standings led by Georgie Ryan and Haley Kirk, a team who began the regatta today with two bullets. Several other I420 sailors I spoke to look forward to more breeze as we move into tomorrow which is probably a sentiment shared by the majority of the people here. Wish for breeze for us!

Amanda Salvesen

Results:

http://www.coralreefyachtclub.org/index.cfm?menu=7560