Titles awarded at U.S. Junior Championships

Traverse City, MI (August 8, 2014) – It was a memorable experience for the 93 sailors racing this week in Northern Michigan at the 2014 Chubb U.S. Junior Championships. After three days of competition, new titlists were crowned in the single-, double-, and triplehanded fleets.

The Byte CII and Interlake fleets managed to squeeze in one more race Friday, while the Club 420 fleet had to call off their final race attempt due to a late wind shift and another postponement.

U.S. Junior Singlehanded Championships – Smythe Trophy
Henry Marshall (Newton, Mass.) won Friday’s lone race, including seven of eight races total. He won the Smythe Trophy by 13 points over runner-up Alexander Hanna (Poquoson, Va.). Marshall has had a lot of success in the Byte CII. He won the 2014 Byte CII North American Championship and Youth Olympic Games Qualifier. He also placed second at the Byte CII World Championship. Next up for Marshall is the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China later this month.

Quotes:
Marshall – “It always feels good to win an event like this, especially sailing against a lot of good sailors. I couldn’t expect this going in, but in the end I got the result I was looking for.”

On his development since last year’s event in Houston – “I have evolved my technique with the boat. The practice that you get on your own is just not parallel to sailing against 19 of the top sailors in the country, so events like this are always a big boost. That’s what I’m taking out of the event. I definitely have a lot to work on. The score-sheet doesn’t show some of the mistakes I’ve made. Some of it is tactical. You can never sail a perfect regatta. There is always things you can improve upon like my speed and boat handling.

Top 5 Byte CII Standings
1. Henry Marshall, 1-1-1-1-[3]-1-1-1- ; 7
2. Alexander Hanna, 2-2-[5]-3-4-2-4-3- ; 20
3. Sam Morrell, 3-3-4-5-2-4-3-[8]- ; 24
4. Drake Lyon, 6-5-2-2-10-[12]-2-4- ; 31
5. Hannah Steadman, 4-4-6-6-1-3-[13]-11- ; 35

U.S. Junior Doublehanded Championship – Bemis Trophy
With no races today, Cassie Obel (Marina del Rey, Calif.) and Annika Garrett (Culver City, Calif.) wrapped up the Bemis Trophy on Thursday. They edged Augie Dale (Pewaukee, Wis.) and Gavin Burkhart (Sussex, Wis.) in the 20-boat Club 420 fleet. Obel will be competing at next week’s U.S. Youth Championships in Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich. Obel and Garrett recently finished third at the U.S. Junior Women’s Doublehanded Championship earlier this summer.

Quotes:
Obel – “If we didn’t get off to a great start it wasn’t a big deal because there were only 20 boats. We usually started towards the pin and once everyone else tacked off we went for a while to get into clean air. Because of our boat speed, we were able to make up for our starts quickly.”

On finding clean air – “I usually focus on what’s in front of us, like the waves and puffs. I can steer to that and Anna can focus on the other boats, their distance, and the puffs further away, so we can see what’s coming.”

Top 5 Club 420 Standings
1. Cassie Obel/Annika Garrett, 2-5-2-1-2-[8]-3- ; 15
2. Augie Dale/Gavin Burkhart, [21/OCS]-1-3-2-3-5-8- ; 22
3. Roberto Stevens/Sydney Avitia-Jacques, 3-2-6-5-[14]-7-1- ; 24
4. Kristopher Swanson/Alexander Ron, 6-4-4-[7]-5-2-4- ; 25
5. Timothy greenhouse/Oliver Parsons, 4-7-1-8-6-1-[18]- ; 27

U.S. Junior Triplehanded Championship – Sears Cup
Despite placing ninth in Friday’s race, Liam McCarthy (St. Petersburg, Fla.), Josh Dochoda (St. Petersburg, Fla.), and Greiner Hobbs (Tampa, Fla.) won the 11-boat Interlake fleet through 11 races. They outlasted runner-ups Hugh MacGillivray (Portsmouth, R.I.), Peter Barlow (Warren, R.I.), and Nicholas Sertl (Rochester, N.Y.) by 10 points. McCarthy was the runner-up in last year’s Sonar fleet for the Sears Cup. Hobbs and McCarthy will compete against each other next week in the Laser Radial fleet at the U.S. Youth Championships. Dochoda and McCarthy will join forces again in Newport, RI at the J24 World Championships this September.

Quotes:
McCarthy on the Interlake – “We just kept an open mind, talked to some people who knew the boat, fine tuned our boat, and we were able to focus on general sailboat racing. We had to focus on our teamwork, because we had only sailed together in qualifiers.”

Top 5 Interlake Standings
1. Liam McCarthy/Josh Dochoda/Greiner Hobbs, 2-1-2-5-2-4-1-2-4-8-[9]- ; 31
2. Hugh MacGillivray/Peter Barlow/Nicholas Sertl, 5-6-1-4-1-3-7-6-[12/DSQ]-2-6- ; 41
3. Dane Byerly/Collin Scoville/Howdy Hughes, 1-4-5-[11]-4-7-4-7-3-4-7- ; 46
4. Wade Wagner/William Curtis/Mark Davies, [10]-5-3-3-9-5-6-10-2-1-3- ; 47
5. Johannes McElvain/Rebecca McElvain/Jack McGraw, [9]-7-6-6-7-1-8-3-5-5-2- ; 50

Final Results & Standings

There was 2015 U.S. Youth Championship implications on the line this week. The top two single- and doublehanded teams, not already qualified and finishing in the top 30% of competitors, receive early acceptance to the 2015 U.S. Youth Championships in a doublehanded boat of their choice. Teams must apply for the 2015 U.S. Youth Championship to be eligible.

Event website

Report by US Sailing media.