King Harbor extends at J/70 US Youth Championship

St. Petersburg, FL (November 17, 2018) – The second day of the J/70 U.S. Youth Championship continued to be blessed by beautiful sailing conditions. The seven teams saw winds oscillating from 20 to 65 degrees (N-NE) and velocities ranging from 5 to 10 kts of wind; pretty much as forecasted from a variety of weather models for a weakening low pressure system flowing off to the northeast.

Based on those forecasts, the St Petersburg YC PRO and Regatta Chairman Todd Fedyszyn immediately sent the teams out to start promptly at 10:00am in the morning with a goal of getting at least seven races in for the day. In the end, Fedyszyn’s team managed to pump out eight races before the wind diminished to below the 4-5 kts threshold at 3:00pm.

Starting where they left off the first day, King Harbor YC Youth Team (Kyle Collins/ Brock Paquin/ River Paquin/ Justin Zmina) won the first race of the day in convincing fashion. Thereafter, they accumulated five more 1sts in the 8 races to extend their lead in the championship by 21 pts.

Jumping into second place with an amazingly consistent day was the Little Traverse YC Youth Team of top woman skipper Merideth Moran and her team of Ellie Wagner, Molly Matthews, Luke Baker, Jack Miller. They posted five 2nds in those 8 races and now have a total of 50 pts.

Not having one of their better days was Chicago YC Youth Team’s team of Ray Groble and crew of Bridgette Groble, Remmington King, and Jack Hemmelgarn. In the shifty, variable conditions, they started off with a promising 3-2-3 in the first three races. But, then the wheels fell of their shopping trolley, posting a tough 6-6-2-6-5 for their last four races to drop back to 8 pts off the pace from second place.

The forecast for tomorrow’s racing is a bit suspect; a light northeasterly dying by 12 noon. The StPYC PRO has scheduled a 9:30am start with the hope to get in at least two races to complete the 20 race series.

Day Two Results (18 races)
1. King Harbor YC, Kyle Collins / Brock Paquin / River Paquin / Justin Zmina; 29
2. Little Traverse YC, Merideth Moran / Ellie Wagner / Molly Matthews / Luke Baker / Jack Miller; 50
3. Chicago YC, Bridgette Groble / Remmington King / Jack Hemmelgarn / Ray Groble; 58
4. St. Petersburg YC, Heather Kerns / Emma Shakespeare / Heidi Hicks / Emily Allen / Cameron Delgado; 79
5. Mudratz Sailing Team, Lily Flack / Peter Cronin / Lucy Rath / Eli Gleason / Tanner Kelly; 80
6. South Carolina YC, Matthew Monts / Bradlee Anderson / Colin Meidler / James Thurlow / Bobby Soares; 101
7. American YC, Maddy Saffer / Lise Powers / Grace Flannagan / Felix Nusbaum / Burke Avenari; 107

Event details – Results – Facebook

Source: Stu Johnstone