2015 St Thomas International Optimist Regatta

The 23rd International Opti Regatta Presented by US Virgin Islands Department of Tourism Hosted by the Virgin Islands Sailing Association and the St. Thomas Yacht Club.

Regatta DirectorS Margo S. Lynch & Ann Nicolosi St. Thomas Yacht Club Manager Greer Scholes

RACE COMMITTEE. START: Jim Walsh PRO, Chuck Pessler, Charlotte Perrell, Rob Upson FINISH: Jean Barrows, Lyn Reid, Phil Shannon, Pat Courtney GATE: Chris Sharpless and Chris Sharpless Jr PIN: Shep Barrows, Karl Gartner and Morgan Dale MARK: Mark & Charlotte Van den Dreissche and Chris Haycraft SAFTEY: Carlos DiBlasi & Maria Elliff judges: Don Makowiecki, Dave Pelling, and Stacey Gibb Green Fleet: Paul & Jessica Stoeken

MATIAS CAPIZZANO WWW.CAPIZZANO.COM CAPIZZANOPHOTO@GMAIL.COM

History of the International Optimist Regatta A vision to create a strong new program to train junior sailors in a boat sailed around the world led to the development of the then Caribbean International Optimist Regatta in 1993. This idea began when St. Thomas Yacht Club (STYC) junior sailing instructor, Karen Paige, took a group of sailors to the Orange Bowl Regatta in Florida and was amazed at how young sailors adeptly skippered the 8-foot single-sail Optimist dinghy. Paige enlisted the help of ISAF International Judge and St. Thomas resident Henry Menin. Menin at first networked with a teenage Opti sailor from south Florida named Eric Bernstein who was able to ship several boats from the U.S. mainland to St. Thomas. This fleet, plus those borrowed from the neighboring St. Croix Yacht Club, were the boats sailed in the first IOR. Shortly thereafter, Menin and fellow STYC member, Bill Canfield, along with Puerto Rica’s Jose Fuentes, purchased a trailer load of 20 Optimists from Estonia. Sixteen stayed in Puerto Rico and Menin and Canfield brought 4 back to St. Thomas. The next year, Menin contacted Steve Sherman, president of McLaughlin Boat Works, headquartered in Hixson, Tennessee, to see if they would transport Optimists to the Virgin Islands for charter at a reasonable price. This enabled organizers to attract off-island competition for the region’s young sailors. Out of this inauspicious start, the IOR has proven a crucial event in promoting junior sailing in the Caribbean. This has occurred in three key ways.

First, the IOR has indeed served to train world-class junior sailors. Youth Olympic Gold Medalist, Ian Barrows, plus Olympians Cy Thompson, Thomas Barrows and Mayumi Roller from the U.S. Virgin Islands got their competitive start in the IOR. So has other Olympians such as Trinidad & Tobago’s Andrew Lewis and Curacao’s Philippine Van Aanholt. The USVI’s Taylor Canfield, the number one ranked match racer in the world, sailed in the IOR, as has Puerto Rico’s Raul Rio, who won the Optimist World Championship and several Snipe continental championships.

Puerto Rico’s Juanky Perdomo and the USVI’s Nikole Barnes and Agustina Barbuto all medaled in the ISAF Youth Championships just a few years after competing in their last IOR. Most recently, the USVI’s Teddy Nicolosi won the Optimist New England Championships, Optimist Midwinters, Orange Bowl Regatta and IOR all in a 12-month period. These are just a few of many examples.

Secondly, the IOR has helped to seed Optimist programs throughout the Caribbean.

One way has simply been the opportunity to race in the IOR. This led one Puerto Rican father to buy the island’s first Optimist so that his son could practice for the IOR. A second way has been the cost advantage for Caribbean island nations of purchasing boats from the charter fleet McLaughlin transported annually to St. Thomas. Spencer Wiberley, vice president of McLaughlin, estimates he’s sold over 200 Optimists in the Caribbean over the last 23-years via the IOR route.

Third, the IOR caught the attention of International Optimist Dinghy Association Class Administrator, Helen Mary Wilkes and her husband, Robert. The Wilkes traveled from their home in Ireland to attend the IOR in 1994 and afterwards met with coaches present from all three USVI, Puerto Rico, Antigua, Martinique and Trinidad & Tobago to provide support for Optimist development programs on other islands. This eventually rippled out to the first-ever hosting of the Optimist North American Championships in the Caribbean, in Trinidad & Tobago in 2005.

Puerto Rico, Curacao and Antigua have since hosted this continental championship, with the Dominican Republic hosting the region’s first Optimist World Championships.

Eighty-two sailors from nine nations competed in the 2015 IOR, including nearly 20 beginners. This portends well for the continuing success of this regatta as well as the upward momentum of world-class junior sailors in the Caribbean.

Carol Bareuther July 1, 2015

THE CLINIC 6

Agustin Resano, Coach.

We just finished a great week of sailing in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands during June 15-22.

We had a three day clinic from June 15 until the 17. The clinic’s main goal was to practice starts, strategy and tactics. This gave the countries with small fleets (like most caribbean countries) the opportunity to have big fleet training.

We had 57 boats on the Championship Fleet Clinic with sailors from 11 different countries and 9 international coaches.The racing area had open waters, big swell, and nice trade winds. This conditions were very challenging and fun for most sailors. We also held a clinic for the “green fleet” paralell to the championship clinic.

On June 18th we had a team racing regatta where twelve teams participated. The teams where divided into two groups and each group sailed a round robin to determine the top two teams for each group. This four teams had a semi final and a best out of three final to crown the champion. We moved the course insede the bay and closer in, which made the team racing much more tactical.

From June 19 until the 22 we had the IOR Regatta. We had one fleet of 65 sailors in the championship fleet. The racing area was again in the open waters and had 11 races total. Each race was between 40 and 50 minute long with a trapezoid course. The regatta was the perfect preparation for the 2015 North Americans that is going to be held in our neiighbour island of Antigua in two weeks.

8

10

11

12

14

15

16

19

20

21

22

25

OPENING CEREMONY 26

29

VOLVO RACE

30

32

34

THE TEAM RACING

36

38

40

42

43

46

THE RACE 50

53

54

55

56

58

65

66

68

70

72

80

83

85

86

92

97

104

106

111

114

RESULTS Optimist CHAMPIONSHIP - 64 boats Series Standing - 11 races scored Sail ISV720 ISV72 18311 IVB 911 21322 19187 15436 ANT 2 20797 ISV 215 20005 20123 FRA45 20402 15756 17848 ISV 224 ISV 460 IVB 864 ANT22 17404 478 19781 ISV312 20252 ISV 480 19626 16316 ISV204 SBH818 PUR1207 937

118

Skipper Teddy Nicolosi [Red] Mia Nicolosi [Blue] Zane Rogers [Red] Rayne Duff [Blue] Isabella Casaretto [Blue] Mariner Fagan [Red] Julia Johansson [Red] Rocco Falcone [Red] Stephan Baker [Blue] Mateo Di Blasi [Blue] Peter Foley [Blue] Hayden Earl [Blue] Lorenzo mayer [Blue] Ella Marsden [Ineligible] Berta Puig [Red] Mateo Farina [Blue] Julian v. d. Driessche [Red] LAKE SANFORD [Blue] Nathan Haycraft [Blue] River Andrews [Red] Katie Nelson [Blue] Rider Odom [Red] Luke Arnone [Red] Mathieu Dale [Blue] Polk Baggett [Blue] Atlee Kohl [Red] Michael Pinto [Red] Cooper Walshe [Blue] Victoria Flatley [Red] ALICE pru [Red] Jose Arturo Diaz [Blue] Gillian Perrell [Red]

Yacht Club STYC STYC LYC STYC/RBVIYC CRYC AYC CRYC AYC CRYC STYCC CRYC LIMA/SHYC SBYC CRYC CRYC CRYC STYC SCYC RBVIYC AYC DIYC-team for St. Croix Mantoloking SCYC Cyc-nc SCYC OCYC EYC LIMA STYC SBYC CNSJ STYC

Total 29 36 39 49 71 80 90 91 106T 106T 111 114 123 136 149 160 169 191 195 198 213 215 240T 240T 245 250 253 266 283T 283T 283T 309

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Sail 19039 LCA 611 21065 FRA43 SBH504 17042 17375 PUR 307 11881 PUR5637 PUR 5585 20796 20686 ISV 360 20334 IVB21803 5595 USA 20818 ISV 715 ISV 724 SBH971 PUR5815 20058 19787 21307 IVB329 20288 21303 IVB11 17693 AHO48 CAY717

Skipper J.J. ( Jessica) Smith [Red] Danny Dillon [Red] Matthew King [Red] erell largitte [Red] Mathieu Larregain [Red] Arabella Dixon [Blue] Ian Thomas [Red] Sebastiรกn Casellas [Red] Liliana Capiola [Red] Joaquin Lopez [Blue] Francisco de Mari [Red] Jackson McAliley [White] Devin Wade [Blue] Dawson Kohl [Blue] Francesca Edmands [Blue] James Rajic-Knight [Blue] Jose G. Mendez [Blue] Sebastian Spinelli-S. [White] Caroline Sibilly [White] steven Hardee [Blue] adrien elie [Blue] Osvaldo E. DeLeon [Blue] Brooke schmelz [Blue] Meg Courtney [Blue] Nicholas Hardy [Red] Maxwell Reshtiloff [Blue] Ethan Homberger [Blue] Audrey Foley [White] Kyle Roose [Blue] Christopher Capiola [Blue] Cas van de Klok [Red] will jackson [Blue]

Yacht Club SYS/SPYC ST Lucia Team FOR SBYC SBYC CYC- NC, LIMA LIMA CNSJ NCSC CNSJ CNSJ CRYC Team FOR SCYC CE

RBVIYC CNSJ Team FOR - SSS STYC St Croix SBYC CNSJ SCYC Team For-DIYC NBYC RBVIYC PBYC CRYC R BVI YC NCSC

YSCO SPYC/CISC

Total 314 337 359 371 383 396 399 411T 411T 413 416 417 422 425 429 432 433 437 439 452 465 470 488 495 508 513 534 546T 546T 579 592 599

Pos 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64

Optimist Green - 20 boats Series Standing - 15 races scored Sail ISV4 IVB 91 ISV 280 208 IVB2303 ISV1955 ISV3 294 ISV617 ISV5 ISV224 ISV2 ISV9 IVB864 ISV2002 717 1023 4 ISV7 86

Skipper Katherine Majette Anya Reshetiloff Lola Kohl Hannah Tonin Ryan Lettsome Tanner Krygsveld Zahrria Thomas Carson Oakley ADELAIDE JONES Winborne Majette Max van den Driessche Robbie Richards Cruz Lonski Nicolas Haycraft Alejo Di Blasi olivia jackson Arjuna Morris Connor Maccallum Andy Yu Scott Kirk

Yacht Club

STYC

RBVIYC

SCYC

SCYC

R BVI YC STYC

STYC

SCYC

KATS St. John STYC

STYC/RVYC

STYC

STYC

RBVIYC

STYC

CISC/STYC

KATS St. John RBVIYC

ISV 2

RBVIYC

Total 34 53 66 68 69 73 76 80 107 109 114 139 157T 157T 168 183 192 196 201 238

Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Team Racing Top 4 Team.

1st - TEAM St Thomas Yacht Club Mateo DiBlasi, Victoria Flatley, Mia Nicolosi Teddy Nicolosi Julian van den Driessche 2nd - TEAM USA & Antigua Luke Arnone Hayden Earl Rocco Falcone Zane Rogers 3rd - Coral Reef Yacht Club Stephan Baker Bella Casaretto Julia Johansson Ella Marsden 4th - Team St. Croix Mathieu Dale Atlee Kohl Rider Odom Lake Sanford