Speed sailing open 29er Midwinters West

Coronado, CA (March 22, 2019) – The opening day for the 29er Midwinter West Championship completed four races with winds of 10-15 knots from 250 degrees slow drift to 270 as the day went on.

It was definitely not the normal shifty South Bay and made for “speed test” conditions where the more experienced teams settled in and could focus on changing modes from speed build in the puffs and then gain height in the light spots. Downwind was difficult to lose any boats so the focus was on minimal gybes and not making a mistake by flipping.

The field included 33 teams with the normal MW mix of the top teams and newer, younger teams mostly from the US and Canada. Five points separate the top three with Ripley Shelley/ Nicholas Hardy (USA) in the lead followed by Jordan and Grant Janov (USA) with Stephan Baker/ Oliver Duncan (USA) in third.

This event is the second and final leg for the United States 29er Youth World Qualification with the YWQ #1 hosted at Coral Reef Yacht Club in February. This regatta is part of the SCYYRA (Howie) Hamlin Series which consists of between 32 and 40 races over 4 events and at its conclusion awards the Maxam Family Perpetual that uses a unique scoring system to award the top skipper and top crew for the year.

CorYC Jr. Program Director Jill Powell has led a big group of volunteers to again coordinate this event for the 12th year that has been part of a pipeline of So-Cal sailors who have represented the US 29er class at the Youth Worlds before. Ten races are scheduled for March 22-24.

Event details – Results – Facebook

Source: Jon Rogers