2019 Valentine's Day Regatta Hosted by St. Petersburg Yacht Club

Bobby Lippincott, Opti Program Manager

The Annapolis Yacht Club Optimist Racing Program traveled down to St. Petersburg, Florida, this past weekend, and three of our sailors competed on Tampa Bay in the 2019 Valentine’s Day Regatta on February 8-10, 2019.

Our sailors competed in one of the most fun regattas of the year where they raced hard and made new friends. They started the weekend off with breezes ranging from 17 knots in the morning hours, to about 5-6 knots in the early afternoon. Later on in the day, the breeze picked back up for the final race on Saturday to about 16 knots.

On the 2nd race of the event, there was a total of approximately 57 BFD penalties, which hurt a lot of the sailors' scores until the 5th race was completed.

On Sunday, the weather forecast predicted that winds would be much lighter. Breeze started out in the morning to around 9 knots and had died down to around 5 knots or less by afternoon. The Race Committee planned to have three races for the day due to lighter winds, but by 12:45 pm all races were called and our team headed in for the day.

With one more USODA event for the winter sailing circuit in Jensen Beach, Florida, our team will be traveling next to the Sunshine State Championship at the US Sailing Center. This event will take place March 1 through March 3, 2019. This is the last big USODA qualifier that we will be attending before Team Trials in Marina Del Ray, California, in April/May 2019.

Click here to see Gold results (PDF).

2019 Valentine's Day AYC Sailor Results:

Kyle Reinecke – USA 22595 – 30th Place in Gold Fleet
Chris McCollum – USA 20686 – 60th Place in Gold Fleet
Ava Arepally – USA 20616 – 103rd Place in Gold Fleet