September was an excellent month to kick-off our Fall Season!
Below, check out some achievements of our sailors and coaches who put in so much work! Enjoy!
LYC Sailors shine at Opti Worlds!
The 2018 Opti World Championship was held in Cypres in late August, pitting the top 5 Opti sailors from each country in one of the most competitive regattas, period. Stephan Baker took 2nd overall and Tommy Sitzman was 5th! It is the dream of any young US sailor who competes on a national level just to attend! This year LYC’s Pilo Rocha was honored by being selected to coach the squad, and 2 LYC sailors qualified at Team Trials this past April: Baker and Sitzmann. They were joined on the Worlds team by Peter Foley, Ryan Satterburg and Thommie Grit. Italy’s Marco Gandoni sailed an incredible event to repeat as World Champion, but Baker was able to take the last race to best the rest of the field. Congrats to these sailors and coach!
LYC Qualifies Eight Laser Sailors for Cressy Nationals!
Cressy Nationals is the National Singlehanded High School Laser Championship. Each district around the U.S. has three qualifying spots for Laser Radial and Laser Standard. The top three in each District Championship moves on to the National Championship. LYC sailors competed in three districts and claimed eight of 12 possible spots. Six Laser Radial sailors from LYC qualified including Nicholas Reeser and Mateo Di Blasi (1st and 2nd in SAISA District), Chapman Petersen and Leyton Borcherding (1st and 2nd in NESSA District) and Jack Baldwin and Lawson Levine (1st and 2nd in MISSA District). In Laser Standard Christian Ehrnrooth and Collin Porter were 1-2 in the SAISA District Championship. Cressy Nationals will be held in Macatawa, Michigan October 27-28.
LYC Hosts South Points 1 High School Regatta
This year LYC hosted South Points 1, the first High School double-handed regatta of the fall season. The event was an incredible success with Beth Rielly as the Regatta Chairperson and a whole host of star volunteers from LYC, including PRO Tom Lihan, and an amazing team on and off the water. A record 36 teams were on the start line for the one-day regatta south of Hollywood’s Holland park on North Lake. Two schools from LYC competed, St. Thomas Aquinas and Pine Crest School. St. Thomas Aquinas Varsity earned 4th place in a close tie for 3rd. Pine Crest has a new crop of excellent sailors who moved their team up to 10th place. Some of the sailors on the team were in their first regatta and were coached by not only Arthur, but their teammates who are also LYC sailing program veterans. A big highlight for the event was St. Thomas’ Junior Varsity team who claimed first in their division and won multiple races against the Varsity teams! Congratulations to all the sailors and volunteers as this event was termed a “Well-oiled machine” by some of the coaches.
Brown/Blodgett Win US J24 Nationals
LYC coach Arthur Blodgett, trimming on the 5-man J24 skippered by Robby Brown won the 2018 US Nationals in Portland, ME September 7-9th. The team (Brown, Blodgett, Mark Liebal, Brian Simpkins & Ron Hyat) came from 9 points down in the final race to take the regatta, posting a 1,2,2 line through the last 3 races in the competitive 48 boat fleet. Robby coached Arthur in college and was an LYC guest regatta coach last year with both LYC Optis and High School teams. Arthur says “It was great to win my first National championship as a sailor – my Opti kids keep doing it so I feel like I have a lot to live up to!”
Fast Start to Fall Opti Season at 49th SE Dinghy Champs
Saturday September 15th felt like Opening Day in any sport, with 97 Opti’s from South Florida and beyond racing again together on Biscayne Bay. Coaches, parents and kids from different yacht clubs were all happy to see each other again after summer travels and getting back to school. 31 Sailors from LYC represented!
LYC’s Gill Hackel took control of the event Saturday with 4 races of good starts, great upwind speed and good decision making, and on Sunday had his first major regatta win! Rounding out the top 10 for LYC were Jack Redmond 4th, Lulu Hamilton 5th Leo Seuss 6th, Nico Garcia-Castrilon 7th and Tyler Lamm 9th. Thank you to Key Biscayne Yacht Club for hosting another top-notch event and we are excited for all our sailors the rest of this Fall Season!