LISOT Black wins USODA Team Race Nationals

Pensacola, FL (July 21, 2015) – The Optimist US Team Race National Championship completed their 78-race required round-robin on Monday, leading the way today for a final 28 races on the Gold Course plus a first to three finals and a best to two petite finals. Long Island Sound’s LISOT Black came out first in the Gold Fleet taking the USODA Team Race National Championship Russell Trophy 3-0 from the Brenton Reef team from Newport RI.

The Long Island sound team was led by team captain Emma Cowles, and included Max Anker, Carmon Cowels, Owen Hennessey and Conner Marac. Emma and Carmon celebrated their birthday today in a special celebration as all the sailors sang Happy Birthday to the sisters.

The committee decided to go back to the regular schedule with a 10AM CDT start. They got off all their 28 round-robin races with only one short delay. The wind had come in early from an unusual northwesterly direction and stayed steady but turned light and died out as the sea breeze filled in from the usual 185º that Pensacola is famous for. It built through the afternoon reaching about 16kts as the finals started. Competition between the top team was tight and exciting.

On the Silver/Bronze B Circle SYC White was first in the Silver Fleet, LISOT Gold was second and Ft Lauderdale’s LYC Gold was third. There was a tie for first through third that went to a tiebreaker to decide the final order for the winners.

In the Bronze standings Lake Ontario’s Loot 3 was first, Southern Yacht Club’s SYC Yellow was second, Long Island Mid Atlantic’s Lima Red was third and New Jersey’s Team Manto was fourth.

Complete scores for the 26 teams here

The USODA Team Race National Championship had 26 teams racing on July 19-21. Then comes the 86-boat USODA Girls National Championship on Wednesday (July 22) and the boys and girls racing in the 306-boat USODA National Championship on July 23-26.

Event website: www.usoda2015nationals.com

Report by Talbot Wilson.