Over the weekend of September 24 and 24, 2002, five high school teams from the Northwest raced in Penn Cove, WA for the right to represent the Northwest at the High School Keelboat Championships to be held on December 10 and 11 in St. Petersburg, Florida:  the Ballard Beavers, the Downtown School Sockeye Salmon, the Bainbridge Spartans, the Oak Harbor, WA Wildcats and the Lincoln, OR Cardinals. Both the Ballard and Downtown crews were composed of CYC junior race team members and Bainbridge also had crew from CYC.

photo by Michael Dougherty

Thanks to the generosity of the Oak Harbor, WA, San Juan 24 Fleet, the teams raced in four prepared SJ 24s.  In the regatta, one team sat out each race, and the teams changed boats each race in order to even out differences in boat performance.  Over the weekend, the excellent race committee ran 10 races on the east end of Penn Cove, six on Saturday and four on Sunday, so each team scored eight races and sailed twice in each boat.

The Ballard team – Arden Rathkopf on the helm, Sam Airhart handling the sheets, Simone Zuriford on the main and Phoebe Mach on foredeck - jumped into the lead quickly, with three firsts and one second in the first rotation of boats, leading Bainbridge (with two firsts, a second and a third) by three points.  Ballard kept the regatta lead with another first and two seconds in its next three races, and had wrapped up the Regional Championship after the ninth race of the regatta. Importantly they won with the better boats and were able to get at least second when assigned the slower boats. Conditions were perfect – a 10 knot westerly all day on Saturday and with one postponement on Sunday the westerly, with just enough shifts to make it interesting, filled in nicely for the rest of the day.

photo by Michael Dougherty

The Downtown School won the last two races of the regatta to close the gap but Bainbridge finished one point ahead of Downtown to claim second place.   Lincoln was fourth and Oak Harbor fifth. 

The juniors sail in dinghies so mastering the 1970 designed IOR quarter-tonner with a masthead symmetrical spinnaker showed the quick learning ability of all the juniors.  CYC director Mark Bradner and Staff Commodore Ken Johnson were able to take out members from the crews from Ballard, Downtown and Bainbridge on their SJ 24s in the weeks before the regatta to familiarize them with the idiosyncrasies of the class. Mark and Ken agreed that not only were the juniors all excellent sailors but importantly were very appreciative, eager to learn and just genuinely nice folks of the type who would be welcome on their boats at any time. 

The December nationals will be sailed in J/70s, and any practice and racing Seattle J/70 skippers can provide the Ballard High team will be most appreciated. Good luck, Beavers, in St. Petersburg!

By: Dieter Creitz, freshman at Ballard high school representing CYC Seattle

In October I competed in the NWISA Singlehanded Champs 2021 hosted by Corinthian Yacht Club with 37 other high school sailors from the North West Interscholastic Sailing Association District (NWISA) which encompasses 5 regions - North, Peninsula, Seattle, South Sound and Oregon. As the winner at this for the Laser Radial (ILCA 6) class I qualified to represent our district, Corinthian Yacht Club and the Ballard Beavers in the ISAA High School Singlehanded Championship. Local sailor and my friend Jack Carroll qualified to represent the district in the Laser Full Rig (ILCA 7). 

The National Championship was hosted by the Lauderdale Yacht Club at Virginia Key Park in Miami Florida December 17-19.  

A lot of sailors competing in the Bacardi Cup were staying at our hotel and we ran into a team from Orcas. 

On Thursday I picked up my Zim Sailing charter boat, got it put tother and worked on my rigging.  

Friday was the practice sail. In high school sailing there are no coaches or spectators on course, not even for the practice. I tuned up and sparred with some of my sailing friends from the California district. The practice session was short. 

Conditions on Saturday were moderate 10 - 13 knots with choppy waves. There was a strong current coming from Biscayne Bay. The race committee ran 9 races. My best finish was 2^nd. Courses are shorter in high school sailing. And there are no dropped races. 

Sunday started with an on-course postponement with the wind slowly building to 9 knots. The light air conditions were challenging. Of 6 races sailed my best finish was a 1^st place. 

Overall, I ended up finishing 6^th out of 18 competitors. I was 1 of 3 freshman competing in the Radial fleet. I’m hoping for the opportunity to return to Cressy and represent NWISA, CYC and Ballard High School in 2022! 

Though the madness of summer camps is over, our Juniors Program has stayed busy! 46 sailors from several different high schools make up our JV and Varsity teams, and our Opti team has 13 regular participants. CYC’s sailing teams are bigger and more competitive than ever, and in the coming months CYC will be represented at two (more!) different nationals, for a total of 4 national appearances in the 2021 year. Ballard High School and The Downtown School qualified for a national women’s invitational in San Diego, and Dieter Creitz from Ballard HS will be representing all of NWISA at the Cressy Trophy, date and location to be Dieter-mined. We hosted the Burke Thomas Trophy in conjunction with PSSC Small Boat, and we couldn’t have done it without the help of Cindy Barrett, Matthew Wood, Bob Combie, and Jared Hickman. Thank you for all your efforts in encouraging youth sailing to flourish in our community!

CYC Seattle Race Team Results – September

NWISA Women’s Champs - FJ

3^rd -The Downtown School (Izzy McNabb, Mira Shupe, Francesca Dougherty, Mia McNabb)

4^th - Ballard High School (Catie Vandervort, Meimei Peterson, Caroline Lochner, Phoebe Howe)

Burke Thomas Trophy – NWISA Singlehanded Championships (Laser Radial)

1^st - Dieter Creitz

2^nd - Danny Juan

6^th- Isabelle McNabb

NW Youth Racing Circuit – FJ Overall

1^st - Nathan Pease and Henry Thomas

4^th - Catie Vandervort and Mia McNabb

5^th - Francesca Dougherty and Esther Goodall

NW Youth Racing Circuit – C420 Overall

3^rd - Nadia Khalil and Isabelle McNabb

NW Youth Racing Circuit – Laser Overall

2^nd - Dieter Creitz

NW Youth Racing Circuit - Opti

2^nd/4^th Blue/Overall Opti Fleet - Andrew Lin

If you’d like to help out with the Juniors program, email Annie at juniorsprogram@cycseattle.org.

Ballard High School is now the 17^th ranked high school sailing team in the nation, and the 2^nd ranked team in the Northwest. The team flew to Cleveland, OH for four days and raced in shifty, unpredictable conditions. We were plagued by hordes of jetskiiers and cargo ships at the beautiful Historic Coast Guard Station on Lake Erie while the wind varied from 5kts to gusts of 22kts. The welcome received from The Foundry was lovely and warm, though they incorrectly cited Ballard High School as being from Louisville, KY. Everyone asked, somewhat incredulously, what water could the team possibly sail on? And where were their accents? Olympia High School, the 1# ranked team from Washington, and assured everyone we were indeed from the Northwest.

Erik Anderson, Johnny Vaughey, Sam Airhart sailed hard and consistently in A fleet and took a top ten finish. This was the last high school regatta for seniors Erik and Johnny. They’ve been members of the team since its onset and have a passion for sailing the team will miss. Though they’re graduating the team, they will still be around CYC as instructors and coaches for our summer program. Catie and Meimei sailed competitively in B fleet and got a 3^rd place in race 4B- of the highest place finishes in by a NWISA team at a championship doublehanded fleet racing event. Coach Annie Sorensen, Commodore Shelagh Hansen, Debbie Anderson, Roy Peterson, Sebastian Dougherty, and Nancy and David Vandervort joined them as support and chaperone. Thank you to members of CYC and greater Ballard community for their generous donations to the high school racing program, this couldn’t have happened without you. The program is growing and stay tuned for great things to come.

It has been two years since a NWISA district championship has been run for high school sailors in the Pacific North West. In the midst of a global pandemic, CYC’s varsity sailing team has practiced with grit, passion, and dedication, and gave it their all at NWISA’s district championship events. In spite of the significant lack of regular competition, not only did they place 2^nd overall in NWISA’s Team Race District Championship, they placed 2^nd overall in Fleet Race District Championships, clinching their spot as the #2 ranked high school sailing team in Washington and Northern Oregon, as well as securing a berth at the 2021 ISSA Mallory Doublehanded National Championship. Erik Anderson, Johnny Vaughey, Catie Vandervort, Meimei Peterson, Sam Airhart, and Caroline Lochner will travel over 2,000 miles to represent Ballard High School and CYC in Cleveland, OH on June 5^th and 6^th and compete against 20 of the best high school race teams from across the country.

This trip is an amazing experience and opportunity, and we would love your help in getting our sailors to the event. Flights, accommodation, regatta fees, and transportation amount to a large expense. If you’d like to support our team and this occasion , please email juniorsprogram@cycseattle.org for information on donations and how else you can help.

We are overwhelmed with the enrollment in our summer camps- in a year where we have more than doubled our offerings, we are at 94% capacity (370 total spaces) and our waitlist continues to grow. MY SAIL camps on Hobie 16s have (as of Wednesday) only 5 spots remaining across the summer, and our Adventure Camp with Ballard kayak sold out in days. We are working to add more programming and hope we can get you and your family out on the water soon!

Ballard High School is back and they're looking great! 6 teams competed this past weekend at a fleet race scrimmage at Sail Sand Point. After a day of shifty and difficult conditions, Ballard won the event with a solid 30 point lead on the second place boat. This is a promising start for our season and the team has fleet race district championships in sight.

Erik Anderson (skipper) and Johnny Vaughey (crew) in boat 1 and Catie Vandervort (skipper) and Meimei Peterson (crew) in boat 2 round the leeward mark in first and second place. 

Coleman Barnes singlehandedly rolling a boat to leeward. 

CYC boats beating to windward. Caroline Lochner (skipper) and Holly Peterson (crew) are pictured in sail 3. 

On October 4th and 5th, CYC hosted the NWISA Singlehanded Championship  in conjunction with PSSC Small Boats. In the Radial Fleet Division, CYC sailors Erik Anderson placed 3rd, Catie Vandervort placed 5th, and Isabelle McNabb placed 6th. Congratulations!!  Saturday's light wind and current made it a tough day of sailing, luckily there was more wind on Sunday

On September 28, Sail Sandpoint hosted a Fleet race scrimmage. CYC team members from Ballard and Lincoln participated in this fun regatta

On September 28th, CYC hosted the NWISA Keelboat Qualifier. Eight teams competed and the Ballard High team tied for third. They enjoyed the opportunity to sail on J/80s in some moderate winds.