International Optimist News

The 2009 IODA North American Championship in the Dominican Republic just concluded with some of the best American results ever. American Chris Williford was the overall winner. Brian Higgins from Argentina was 2nd and Axel Sly, another member of Team USA was 3rd. LISOT sailors did a terrific job with Harry Koeppel 24th, Lily Katz 50th, Gary Prieto 54th, Holly Tullo 70th and Reinier Eenkema van Dijk 95th. Complete results can be seen at www.optinam2009.org/

Currently still in progress is the IODA European Championship and the Flanders Youth Regatta. The Europeans (Slovenia) continue through July 12th and the Flanders Youth Regatta (Belgium) concludes today. Follow LISOT sailors Drew Gallagher at the Europeans and Liza O’Connor and Constantine Spentzos in Flanders on the event websites –

IODA European Championship – www.sailpiran.si/eoc2009
Flanders Youth Regatta - www.nieuwpoortweek.be/

LISOT Sailors Competing Around The World

The summer is off to a busy start and so is LISOT at the big international regattas. Many LISOT sailors are competing in major championships at venues around the world in the next two weeks - and again in late July and August.

Here are the early summer events, our sailors attending, and the websites for easy reference:

OPTIMIST

IODA North American Championship - June 30 – July 6, Dominican Republic - www.optinam2009.org/

Reinier Eenkema van Dijk
Lily Katz
Harry Koeppel
Gary Prieto
Holly Tullo

IODA European Championship - July 4-12, Slovenia - www.sailpiran.si/eoc2009

Drew Gallagher

Flanders (Belguim) Youth Regatta - July 4-8, Belgium – www.nieuwpoortweek.be/

Liza O’Connor
Constantine Spentzos

LASER RADIAL

Laser Radial North American Championship - June 25-28, Buffalo Canoe Club, Crystal Beach, Ontario, Canada - http://www.laser.org

Jamie Beres
Daniel DelBello
Stefan Kuehn
Matthew Mollerus
Connor Needham
Ryan Schmitz
Catherine Shanahan
Sarah Stubbs

C420 & 29er

US Youth Champtionships - June 25-30, Indian Harbor YC, Greenwich, CT - http://championships.ussailing.org/Youth/US_Youth_Champs.htm

Olivia Crane & Ali Blumenthal
Markus Edegran & Teddy Mark
Deirdre Lambert & Tracy Doherty
Burgess Malarkey & Bev Elmer
Chanel Miller & Rebecca Liggins
Andrew Mollerus & Charlie Peck
Eliza Richartz & Carly Schevitz
Luke Vreeland & Michael Lucciola
Declan Whitmyer & Ian Storck

INTERNATIONAL 420

Keil Week - June 24-28, Kiel, Germany - www.kieler-woche.de/eng/englishdefault.php
Jordan Factor & Matthew Wefer
Marlena Fauer & Christina Lewis
Ian Liberty & Alex Whipple

Intervela - July 1-4, Riva del Garda, Italy - www.fragliavelariva.it/
Jordan Factor & Matthew Wefer
Marlena Fauer & Christina Lewis
Ian Liberty & Alex Whipple

ISAF Youth World Championship - July 9-18, Buzios, Brazil - www.youthworlds2009.org/
Ian Liberty & Alex Whipple

Good luck to everyone!

LISOT Sailors Finish 2nd & 3rd at Newport Opti Challenge

With new head coach Pepe Bettini at the helm, LISOT hit the water with speed at the 2009 Newport Opti Challenge, taking home plenty of silver in 51-boat fleet over the 9-race, two day regatta on Narragansett Bay.

The conditions were classic spring in Newport - shifty ESE wind of 6-11 knots, plenty of current, healthy chop and a parade of grand prix boats each afternoon returning from the NYYC regatta.

LISOT's Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick and Gary Prieto dueled it out for 2nd and 3rd overall (respectively) behind 2009 Team Trials winner Max Simmons.

Also taking home silver were LISOT's Florian Eenkema van Dijk and Jared Gaynes with 4th and 5th in Blue Fleet.

Team LISOT's finishes overall were (full results):

2nd - Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick

3rd - Gary Prieto

15 - Florian Eenkema van Dijk

16 - Jared Gaynes

22 - Sean Walsh

23 - Julia Monro

24 - Caroline Booth

36 - Brandon Leibnick

Congratulations to all the sailors.

Update on LISOT at Laser Radial ACC's in Annapolis

The LISOT Laser Radials completed a very successful weekend of racing at Laser Radial ACCs at Severn Sailing Association in Annapolis June 6-7.

Building on his great work with our sailors during our Memorial Day Clinic, Coach Juan Pablo del Solar Goldsmith joined us again in Annapolis for a pre-regatta practice day at Severn on Friday followed by two days of racing. JP kept the sailors on their toes every moment and on the water as much as possible. In true LISOT form, JP made certain that our sailors were the first boats on the water each day and well-prepared for the event.

Our young but eager Radial sailors tackled this challenging 60 boat regatta in style. Saturday's racing was limited to two very light air races and our sailors are to be commended for persevering in very challenging conditions. The winds cooperated on Sunday and the superb race committee got off three races in nice breeze for a total of 5 races for the series, giving the sailors one drop.

Results for the LISOT sailors are below, but they don't tell the full story. Many of our sailors are new to the boat and to Grand Prix racing and took away many important lessons that they will surely put to work as the season progresses.

Overall results are as follows:
Matthew Mollerus 11th
Daniel del Bello 25th
Erike Reieke 27th
Catherine Shannahan 33rd
Ryan Schmitz 41st
Connor Marion 47th
Stefan Kuehn 49th
Scott Booth 53rd
Kia Olsson 54th

Complete results are available at www.laseracc2009.org. Congratulations to all of our sailors and many thanks to every parent who worked hard to make the event a success.

Please check the LISOT website for signups for upcoming events in June and beyond. June highlights include June 13-14 at Sayville YC for a day of practice and a day of District 8 racing with Ned Jones returning to coach; June 20-21 we return to Sayville for the two-day District 8 Championships with former Laser North American champion Jeff Bonanni returning to coach; and Laser North Americans at Buffalo Canoe Club June 25-28.

As always, if you have any questions please contact Chris Kuehn (ckuehn@optonline.net) or Joan Mollerus (jgmollerus@hotmail.com).

10 LISOT Sailors Qualify for USNT & USNDT in '09

Congratulations the the ten LISOT sailors who qualified for the US National Team and the US National Development Team.

LISOT has a long tradition of having all our sailors in their final Opti year qualify for the USNT, as well as many of our 12-13 year old sailors on USNT or USNDT, and this year is no exception.

US National Team

Reinier Eenkema van Dijk

Drew Gallagher

Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick

Ty Ingram

Harry Koeppel

US National Development Team

Augie Dale

Alexandra Del Bello

Liza O'Connor

And we also have 3 USNT-level sailors who are aging out: Holly Tullo, Katie Kelly and Cally Tullo.

Twelve LISOT Sailors Make ALL Summer International Team

Congratulations to the twelve LISOT sailors who made US teams to represent the USA at all the summer international Optimist regattas. That's fully 1/3 of the LISOT team who sailed at Team Trails that made US teams.

Go Team USA. Go LISOT!

IODA Worlds - Brazil

Holly Tullo

IODA Eurpoeans- Piran, Slovenia

Drew Gallagher

IODA North Americans - Dominican Republic

Reinier Eenkema van Dijk

Lily Katz

Harry Koeppel

Gary Prieto

Holly Tullo

British Nationals - Largs, Scotland

Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick

Katie Kelley

Flanders Youth Regatta - Nieuwpoort, Belgium

Liza O'Connor

Andrew Puopolo

Constantine Spentzos

Great Wind & Coaching at Team Race Practice

LISOT team racers had the pleasure of being coached this weekend by ISAF World Team Racing Champion Colin Merrick, along with some really great conditions on Saturday.

Colin has been coaching LISOT for a few years, and this weekend had simply fantastic wind and waves to work with - similar conditions to what sailors will find in California for Team Race Nationals.

Sailing out of Noroton YC, sailors saw a steady 15 knot Easterly with gust over 20 all day. The seas were rolling from the East with a very steep chop when the tide changed and began to ebb. Team racing in these conditions provided our sailors with a good opportunity work on TR maneuvers as well as boat handling in big seas.

With quick access to LI Sound, sailors are able to come in for lunch and a mid-day briefing, which gave Colin opportunity for a good mix of classroom and on-water discussion.

On Saturday everyone also enjoyed watching the big boats returning on the Block Island Race. With kites up, the 60 and 70 footers blew past as the optis were just heading out in the morning. By afternoon, the 40-50 footers were passing by.

More pictures are posted on the LISOT Facebook page and on Picasa.