Halloween Howl Opti Regatta
Bobby Lippincott, Opti Program Manager
Annapolis Yacht Club hosted our annual Halloween Howl Opti Regatta this past weekend. At this year’s regatta, AYC had 24 RWB and Green Fleet opti sailors making up the 36 boat event. Weather conditions for Saturday were cloudy skies and cooler temperatures in the morning around 50 degrees, and it warmed up to about 65 degrees later on in the day. AYC sailors were eager to get out on the water for their last home regatta of the 2019 CBYRA sailing season. AYC opti sailors met with their coaches in the morning around 9:15 am to go over the game plan and strategies for the day. The breeze started out around 8-10 knots and continued to diminish to a steady 5-7 knots by the afternoon. The sea state was choppy, which brought a challenge for our sailors on the up-wind beats. The RWB race committee did an excellent job cranking out five races on Saturday. The racing concluded around 3 pm.
Before Green Fleet headed out for the day, our Program Director, Bri Grenier, gave them some solid sailing tips about sail trim. “Your sails have to be trimmed in to the corners of your boat so that when the coach boats throw candy to you, it hits the sail and falls into you boat!” she coached. Hopefully this lesson will stick with them even when the coaches aren’t providing candy!
On Sunday, our sailors experienced some heavy air and stormy/spooky weather conditions. Winds started out around 17-18 knots and then diminished half way through the one and only race, to 12-15 knots. Overall it was a great day for our Chesapeake Bay opti sailors to get some heavy air practice in, to combat the summer time light air routine. Our team hopes to get out and experience more heavy air conditions between now and the end of fall opti practices.
Green Fleet stayed on shore Sunday and were shown new sailing program classic films such as Morning Light and Moana. Thank you to the parents that stuck around to assist with classroom management and decorating for our after sailing awards!
After RWB racing on Sunday, AYC opti sailors enjoyed their Halloween party with a chili bar and lots of Halloween candy after racing. AYC Regatta Staff hosted a Halloween Costume Contest after the awards ceremony and a winner was chosen based upon creativity, most original outfit. Congratulations goes out to Mabel Aho for winning best costume and getting crowned by the commodore! She was a really cool jelly fish!
I would like to personally thank all of our regatta volunteers and especially our Regatta Chair, Bri Grenier, for running the regatta and also taking care of all of the logistics. Also a big thank you goes out to our RWB PRO, Bobby Frey and his committee and our Green Fleet PRO, Dr. Pendleton Alexander. Photos from the Halloween Howl and Friday's Cobweb Clinic can be found on our Junior Fleet Photos page.
Full results available here.
RWB Results:
USA 20616 – Ava Arepally – 2nd place overall, 1st in Red
USA 22852 – Luca Webb – 4th Place Overall, 2nd in Red
USA 18948 – Owen MacWilliams – 5th Place Overall, 3rd in Red
USA 18485 – Sam de los Reyes – 6th Place Overall, 4th in Red
USA 20956 – Nathan Jensen – 7th Place Overall, 5th in Red
USA 20367 – Conor Mastromarco – 8th Place Overall, 2nd in Blue
USA 17649 – Alders Kulynych-Irvin – 9th Place Overall, 3rd in Blue
USA 20369 – Robbie Wilmer – 10th Place Overall, 6th in Red
USA 21360 – Michael Yost – 12th Place Overall, 4th in Blue
USA 6154 – Mason Cook – 13th Place Overall, 5th in Blue
USA 21629 – Ben Gendell – 15thPlace Overall, 6th in Blue
Green Fleet Results:
USA 9399 – Daniel Draper – 1st Place
USA 6195 – Reese Bonney – 2nd Place
USA 20955 – Luke Reinecke – 3rd Place
USA 19320 – Robert Carey – 4th Place
USA 18996 – Caroline Carey – 5th Place
USA 16064 – Halsey Carter – 6th Place
USA 20628 – Quinn Bonney – 7th Place
USA 20775 – Sofia Forsberg – 8th Place
USA 18664 – Charlotte Hugo – 10th Place
USA 8729 – Tommy McGeady – 11th Place
USA 1866 – Mabel Aho – 13th Place
USA 14317 – Alice Aramendia – 15th Place
USA 21860 – Saoirse Taylor – 17th Place
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