Youth Sailing Forrest Gay, Director / youth@sfyc.org
Opti Team Trials at SFYC
photo by Dave Hein
photo by Dave Hein
T
he Optis have come and gone. But I am quite confident that the sailors who were here for a week from all over the country will remember the SFYC Team Trials for a long time. While the fleet had a great taste of what the Berkeley Circle can offer up, we also saw some easily manageable conditions for the first two days of the event. There were 172 boats sailing in the event. Each competitor had qualified to be at this regatta over the past year at other competitions. The Team Trials brings out “the cream of the crop”. It is used specifically to determine who will qualify to represent the U.S. at international events this summer. The SFYC had 13 sailors racing in this regatta. And should they choose to, at least 8 of these competitors will qualify for an international regatta this summer and be on Team USA. This year’s SFYC team stepped it up on our home waters. We had a vast improvement in the final standings over our performance in 2010 in Houston. Our head coach Nico Winograd was assisted by Robi Bisi to provide a great coaching team and a very low sailor-to-coach ratio. The visiting sailors enjoyed both the SFYC hospitality and the sailing venue. There were surprisingly few complaints about the one-hour tow to and from the race course. These kids were here to race and most of them showed up a few days early to practice all aspects of the event, from the launching and towing to the current and wind conditions. We had almost 150 volunteers from the SFYC community
10 • JUNE 2011 THE BULLETIN • www.sfyc.org
photo by Dave Hein
By Forrest Gay
helping to pull this massive event off. Without volunteer help large regattas of this type are simply impossible. Thank you! The SFYC professional staff was “all-hands-on-deck” for this event as well. I heard many compliments throughout the week about the SFYC’s service and general organization. Chef Reny’s breakfast burritos and continuous BBQ were well liked by all. The complimentary keg kept the parents happy in the parking lot as the kids got off the water. The Catering Staff’s setup changes for each aspect of the day did not go unnoticed by the Regatta Management, many of whom were visiting and very impressed. The Harbor Staff controlled the parking lot well and made sure as many members as possible could park in the space not taken up by the 172 boats. The newly opened Belvedere Woodlands Market graciously sponsored and provided all of the lunches for the competitors with great sandwich spreads. In addition, they donated the 4500 bottles of water that the regatta participants consumed. Thank you to everyone who put in countless hours to make this such a great event. The SFYC should be very proud to have been chosen to host this prestigious event and then to have executed it so well. SFYC’s Opti Team finished well at our own event and will surely continue to perform at a high level worldwide. For some cool videos of the regatta check www.sailgroove.org/coverage/238675-USODA-Optimist-TeamTrials-2011
2011 Summer Sailing Sign-ups Classes for youth aged 7 through 15 years old are available in many different types of boats. Applications are available at www.sfyc.org/youth. SUMMER SAILING 2011 Session 1: June 13-17 Session 2: June 20-July 1 Session 3: July 4-15 Session 4: July 18-29 Session 5: Aug 1-12 2011 Fees (for 2-week sessions) Member half-day: $385 Member full-day: $680 Non-member half-day: $590 Non-member full-day: $1045