All the News That Didn’t Fit (in Racing Sheet)

With late-spring racing in full-on jammin’ mode, we ran out of space for Race Notes in June’s Racing Sheet. So we promised to run them here. We’ve added a couple of notes from more recent events as well.

Match Racing Update

A whole slew of match-racing activities characterized the spring sailing season. We’ll dive in with California Dreamin’. The series made four stops this year, at San Diego, Balboa, St. Francis and Long Beach Yacht Clubs. Shawn Bennett, Shannon O’Gallagher and Ryan Seago each won stops. Seago, of Detroit, MI, and sailing for Bayview YC, topped the series.

Long Beach YC hosted the Ficker Cup on April 19-21. Kiwi-American Scotty Dickson, sailing for LBYC with crew Erik Berzins, Garrett Brown, Steve Flam, Zachary Hanna and Shane Young, topped the eight-team field from six countries. The top three ranking Ficker Cup skippers (Scotty Dickson, Megan Thomson and Cole Tapper) qualified for the Congressional Cup.

LBYC then hosted the 59th Congressional Cup on April 24-28. Chris Poole repeated as champion. He sails for Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club and hails from Westport, CT. See our report in April 29’s ‘Lectronic Latitude here. Learn more about the World Match Racing Tour at https://wmrt.com.

And Then There’s Team Racing …

Newport Harbor YC hosted the Baldwin Cup on April 18-20. In a 2v2 format in a stadium setting, 20 teams competed for top honors in Harbor 20s. In the final round, NHYC Thunder vanquished St. Francis YC Blue. Find the nitty-gritty at https://www.nhyc.org/baldwincup.

On April 28-29, Stanford won the 2024 College Sailing Women’s Team Race National Championship. MIT and Harvard hosted the regatta on April 28-29 in Boston, using FJs and 420s. Michelle Lahrkamp/Ellie Harned, Vanessa Lahrkamp/Gwendolyn Donahue, and Hannah Freeman/Alice Schmid secured the victory for the Cardinal.

How about a FREE hat with a gift subscription and t-shirt for Father’s Day.? Order a subscription and shirt for dad from our store and we’ll also send him a FREE Latitude 38 hat!

The Point Loma Pointers (of San Diego) won the 2024 High School Team Racing Championship on May 17-19 in Oak Harbor, WA. Twelve teams competed in CFJs. The winning team members were Anton Schmid, Wyatt Kelly, Harrison Strom, Sabrina Anderson, Skye Terrell, Preston Miller and Jonah Wozniak.

Courtesy of an unblemished 9-0 performance on June 1, the St. Francis YC team went into the second and final day of New York YC’s Women’s 2v2 Team Race with a two-point cushion over second place. But then NYYC won twice and Newport Harbor YC won once. But StFYC won their next two races to guarantee the title with one race still remaining. Congratulations to Molly Carapiet (skipper/team captain), Rosalind Meade, Samantha Steele, McKenzie Wilson, Lindsey Baab (skipper), Helen Lord, Kate Shiber and Elena VandenBerg. The two-day regatta took place at NYYC’s Harbour Court in Newport, RI, using Sonars.

Kudos to Some More Sailors

We reported on the Bullship Race for 8-ft El Toros in May’s Racing Sheet, but the May issue of Lake Merritt Sailing Club’s Telltale newsletter added some important details. Special awards went to:

• First boat to finish, Lino Pera El Matador Perpetual BS Race Trophy: Chris Sullivan
• First woman to finish, Monterey Herald Perpetual Sirena Award: Rowena Carlson
• Second boat to finish, Joaquin Koepler Memorial Perpetual: Vaughn Seifers
• First maiden voyager to finish, Jorge Gutekunst’s Ondine Perpetual: Rowena Carlson
• First heavyweight to finish, Clydesdale: Chris Nash
• First elder to finish, El Viejo: Vaughn Seifers
• First wooden boat to finish, Woody: Tom Tillotson
• First LMSC skipper to finish, Robinson Perpetual: Vickie Gilmour
• Last boat to finish, Tailender: Sam Normington

Jack Kisling of Capitola won the All-PCCSC Sportsmanship Award for the 2023-2024 school year. Jack attends Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. The PCCSC (Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference) has more than 500 sailors in 18 universities in the Pacific Coast region. Jack skippers Cal Poly’s offshore sailing team.

Stanford junior Vanessa Lahrkamp won 2024 Quantum Women’s College Sailor of the Year, as well as PCCSC Open and Women’s Skipper of the Year. For more PCCSC news, see https://pccsc.collegesailing.org.