Orange Bowl Youth International Regatta 2020

Last week, 22 sailors traveled to sunny Florida during Christmas to participate at the annual Orange Bowl Youth International Regatta, hosted like every year by the Coral Reef Yacht Club, the US Sailing Center and Shake-a-leg in Miami.

After one day of practice rather windy and wet on Dec 26th, the regatta lasted 4 days, until Dec 30th. The event was an absolute success, with all the fleets being able to complete the racing program (12 races total) and weather conditions that almost reached perfection, with winds ranging from 7 to 23 knots throughout the championship and an estable wind direction from the E-SE every day.

Starting with the C420 Fleet, the only two crews representing Lakewood qualified for Gold Fleet, with Kelly Bates finishing 26th overall (crewing for former Lakewood sailor Emilie Janzen) and Alex Wise/Jake Sutton finishing in 34th overall.

Moving to Laser 4.7, Stevie Neumann, after a promising start, unfortunately, suffered an injury during the second day and had to retire early from the regatta. We wish her a speedy recovery!

In the Laser Radial Fleet, 3 sailors sailed under the Lakewood burgee. Ethan Polsen was the only one able to qualify for Gold Fleet, finishing 32nd overall. His team mate, Scott Mather, fell short to do so, but made up for it finishing 3rd in Silver Fleet and 37th overall. Imad Mabsout had a first taste of an International Regatta, and finished 50th overall.

William Wise was the only Green Fleeter representing Lakewood this year, and after a fantastic effort with the very strong winds we had on the second day, he finishing 49th overall.

To finish, our largest representation this year, the RWB Fleet, with 12 sailors competing under the Lakewood burgee. This year, the top Puerto Rican sailor joined Lakewood Team for the Orange Bowl Regatta, and he had the best result ever for an International Regatta finishing 6th overall and 4th in Red Fleet. Not far from him was Stephen Momeier, who remained in the top 10 every single day and finished 7th overall and 5th in Red Fleet to close his Opti Career in a really high note. Lakewood had a 3rd sailor in the top 10 (2nd team with most sailors in the top 10) with James Pine making his way into the top 10 in the last race, claiming 5th in Blue Fleet as well.

Two more Lakewood sailors qualified for Gold Fleet, with William Baker sailing a fantastic event and finishing 20th overall, and Nathan Pine, who despite his irregularity, finished 44th overall.

In the Silver Fleet, Hiraku Masumoto led the Team finishing in 104th overall (40th Silver Fleet) with a trio of Lakewood sailors not far behind, led by Dylan Tomko in 115th, Blake Polsen in 116th and Tanner Ward in 117th.

To finish, our two youngest RWB sailors at the Regatta. Patrick McNamara did a fantastic job, especially sailing through the strong winds, and finished 153rd in his first-ever Orange Bowl Regatta in the RWB Fleet. Ian Farley, in his first ever Orange Bowl Regatta in the RWB Fleet as well, finished 172nd.

Results can be found here

Open Orange Bowl Regatta 2019

At the same time as the OBYIR, the Open Orange Bowl Regatta was hosted by the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, This event runs for fleets that aren't part of the OBYIR like I420s, 29ers and Laser full rigs.

In the 29er class, Noah Zittrer as a skipper partnered with Thomas Kerrigan from SYC, and in their first ever 29er event together, finished 14th overall.

In the I420 class, Nicky Abate crewed for Haru Masumoto, and they finished 17th overall out of a fleet of 35 boats.

Results can be found here