Junior Fleet

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2019 Virginia Commonwealth Regatta

This weekend was the first big regatta for our race teams! All four of our teams and all of our coaches headed down to Fishing Bay Yacht Club for the Virginia State Championships. The weekend saw a variety of weather and was a first event for some of our new race team members. Stay tuned for our Junior Fleet Update for full write ups from the coaches!

The AYC RWB sailors were invited to the Chesapeake Bay’s inaugural FBYC Team Race Regatta held on Friday before FBYC’s Annual Jr. Regatta. This idea was proposed by FBYC this past winter as a great way to promote more Team Racing on the Chesapeake Bay. The event was a huge success and AYC sailors spent the entire first week preparing for Team Racing and had a blast in the very windy conditions on Friday. Sailors also enjoyed sailing in the FBYC’s VA State Champs and finishing in the top 15 consistently on Saturday with a few podium appearances on Sunday.

For the Laser Team, Alex Adams represented AYC this weekend. We had beautiful weather in Deltaville, VA, and nice wind throughout the weekend. We had practice in Fishing Bay on Friday, where Alex powered through some 20-25 knot heavy air laser sailing. Saturday and Sunday were lighter, and Alex sailed well to a third place finish! Thank you to Fishing Bay Yacht Club for a wonderful weekend and regatta.

For the Opti Green Fleet, the Fishing Bay Regatta was one of firsts for many of the sailors. For Sofia Forsberg and Halsey Carter, who both had finishes in the top 10, the Fishing Bay regatta was their first time competing. Daniel Draper and Will Mohler both experienced their first bullets, and for Sam “Skinny Lightning” de los Reyes, the regatta marked his first overall win.

The Fishing Bay Regatta was a first regatta with spinnakers for some of our 420 Chesapeake Team. Many of them, having competed in high school events that didn’t require spinnaker handling, struggled with the new tactics downwind. Race Committee flew the Z flag for the majority of the two day regatta but overall we had a couple impressive starts and even a couple top 10 finishes. The Chesapeake 420 Team is off to a great start!

The 420 Race Team had a great weekend at Fishing Bay. On Friday we had a big breeze practice session, we had gusts into the low 20's and everyone got back to the dock with big smiles and some new stories! Annapolis Yacht Club took 1st through 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 18th, and 19th on the 420 course at the Virginia State Championship. Owen Hennessey and Gavin Meese won the event, Nick Budington and Liam Gronda took second place, and were closely followed by Matt Budington and Linnea Forsberg in third. A great regatta by all the sailors and we are all looking forward to the next one!

Full results available on Regatta Network.