2007 ended on a high note for team LISOT with Antoine Screve winning a very competitive 2007 Orange Bowl Regatta. Congratulations Antoine for an outstanding regatta – and winning the hard way... without a single bullet. LISOT also celebrated with the Screve family as younger brother Romain took 3rd in Green Fleet!
This year’s Orange Bowl was one of the most competitive regattas in US waters in 2007, as well as an event that actually had some decent breeze.
US sailors were the minority in the top 20, taking just 8 of the first 20 finishes (3 of the top 10). Ecuador, Peru, US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Argentina and The Netherlands were consistently out in front. In fact, it was not uncommon to see the first dozen boats rounding the reach mark void of a US sailor. Most starts in the 10 race regatta were run under black flag. Even so, the fleet was so experienced that in all 10 races there were only 2 BFDs and 2 OCS’s amongst the top 30 finishers!
Coral Reef Yacht Club ran a magnificent event both on the water and off, as they always do. This year they had lots of cooperation from the wind gods. Although very light conditions were prevalent in the days preceding the event, including Day 1 which saw the abandonment of Race 1 as the light breeze shut off around 3pm, the next three days were blessed with 7-12 knots of northeast to east wind.
The 4th and final day of racing saw the strongest winds – pushing 13-14 knots at times, and generally between 8-12 out of the east with a stiff chop, which made for some great photos. The winds on day 3 and 4 oscillated far more than on day 2, upwards of 20-30 degrees on semi-regular cycles. This resulted in some big boat length leads for those that hit the shifts correctly, and a lot of position changes on the final leg of each race. Our Red Fleeters took full advantage of the shifts, while most of the blue and white fleeter were focused on boat speed and starting tactics on the tight, aggressive line and bumpy, puffy conditions.
LISOT team finishes:
1. Antoine Screve
29. Declan Whitmyer
45. Ian Storck
49. Gary Prieto
50. Elliott Morrill
55. Sarah Williams
71. Olivia Crane
73. Bryce Kopp
74. Lily Katz
81. Andrew Mollerus
83. Tracy Doherty
88. Connor Marion
96. Charlie Peck
98. Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick
103. Andrew Poupolo
115. Mathew Mollerus
118. Harry Koeppel
139. Adele Whitmyer
147. Hannah Morrill
156. Laura Lubben
161. Casey Klingler
165. Sean Cornell
176. Ian Crane
177. Ben Cohen
181. Stefan Kuehn
194. KB Knapp
196. Derek Arnheiter
201. Chrissie Klingler
In addition to all the hard work on the water, our sailors had a lot of fun in and around The Grove. Sunday night the Cocowalk was teeming with LISOT parents and sailors. A large group of LISOT families joined up at The Knife and Tu Tu Tango, along with some non-LISOT families. Friendships were made, Mojito’s were enjoyed, and there were even a few ‘henna’ tattoo’s displayed on arms, backs and ankles!
Thanks to Trevor Moore in his debut regatta as LISOT's head coach, and Erik Storck, Kaity Storck and Alejandro Primavera for their terrific coaching.