Successful summer for young sailors

(CISC): Cayman’s youth sailors finished a busy racing season at the Canadian Olympic Regatta in Kingston, Ontario, from 11 to 20 August. Seven sailors represented Cayman at one of the largest regattas in the world with over 700 sailors.

Stuart Jennings raced in the Olympic Laser Division and finished a very strong 10th place out of 45 in the Silver fleet. Alex Walton, also sailing the Laser, placed 24 in the Silver fleet, a very good result for his first regatta. Hugo McErlean finished a strong 13th out of 43 in the Laser Radial Bronze division. Marina Maffessanti raced in the Byte CII class and finished 13th out of 19. This was also Marina’s first regatta.

At the CORK Optimist regatta, Cayman’s Optimist champion Matthew Courtis sailed to a very good 29th place out of a huge fleet of 98 boats while Camilo Bernal finished 81st. Earlier in the month, brothers Thomas and Niklas Wolfe competed at the World Championships in Sweden for the RS Feva, a two person sailboat. The boys finished 29th out of 54 boats in the Silver fleet.

The Wolfe boys also raced Optimist sailboats in the Texas Youth Race Week in July. Thomas finished 12th out of 22 and Niklas 14th out of 22 in their respective age divisions. Cayman’s youth team started the summer with Stuart Jennings, Jeremy Hill, Joshua Hill, Willie Cruz, and Craig Ebanks taking home the gold medal at the Premiere’s Cup Regatta in Tortola, BVI.

Sailing Director Michael Weber said, “I am happy with the results from this season, our second year racing abroad. Our advanced racers improved and our beginner racers gained a lot of experience. I am looking forward to growing the team and seeing some top 10 finishes in 2009.”

The next major regatta is the Scotiabank National Youth Sailing Championships held at the Cayman Islands Sailing Club on November 1st and 2nd and the Orange Bowl Regatta in Miami from 27 to 30 December .

Anyone interested in joining the youth team is encouraged to contact Mike Weber at sailing@sailing.ky.