I420 Worlds - After Day 2

So much for the pre-regatta light air wind forecast - the first two days of Worlds have been steady 15-20, gusting 25+ with the notorious massive BA chop. The young Team USA has experienced everything from great starts and solid upwind boatspeed to downwind capsizes and near catastrophic boat breakdowns.

Claudia/Amanda Taselaar are having the best, and most consistent regatta of the 3 teams, and are currently in 20th place in the Ladies division. They've sailed well, and most importantly, finished all three races solidily in middle of the fleet after 3 races.

Megan/Caroline were just head of mid-fleet in Race 1 yesterday when their mainsheet block blew out of the deck while blast reaching, a mere 100 yards from the finish. They crash flipped and were hit hard by another boat. Nobody was hurt, but the boat needed considerable fiberglass repair overnight to the mainsheet and the starbord hull, which was done perfectly by the local 420 builder - J-Boats (for whom the sailors are forever grateful). Unfortunately, since the failure occurred in the first race, they had to drop out of that race and were subsequently DNF in Race 2. The girls were back on the race course for race 3.

Reinier/Spencer have been getting solid starts and very strong upwind speed in the massive waves and 25 knot plus. Unfortunately for them, the downwind surfing has been a learning experience, with the team flipping in each race.

Team USA Coach Dave Hughes has been doing a great job of not only helping the sailors with their strategies, but even more importantly with the high wind/wave conditions - keeping the boats in nearly one piece and the sailors calm and focused for each race.

Tonight YCA is hosting a New Years Eve party at the club - which everyone is looking forward to attending. Sunday the RC plans 3 races to get back on schedule, and then 2 races per day thereafter. The forecast is for the breeze to ease up after tomorrow, down to 10-15. The lighter wind and reduced chop will be a welcome change for the team.

Mens Results
Ladies Results

Follow the action on the event Facebook page
Photos from the yacht club
Matias Capizzano has been taking fantastic pictures in the big air and big wave conditions.

worlds...day one

Have not seen full results yet (nor been able to watch tracking) but the best US performance of the day was by Christopher W, who spent much of the day looking back at competitors. Christopher had two top 10s and a 15 (or so) in three races with typical conditions: light air, shifty, and current (strongest on right side of the course, especially adverse in R1). 3 relatively short races: R1: 8-11kn (35 mins), R2: 6-10 kn with left shift, R3: 2-12kn, with the first flight getting the 12kn beat in a rainstorm. R2c and R3c were both shortened to end at the gate, which denied Wade W especially an opportunity to claw back on a second beat. Harry had a difficult day, including an ocs...

Hello from Buenos Aires, Argentina - I420 Worlds

Team USA enjoyed the opening ceremonies last night, and a practice race today in the heaviest breeze yet (15-20) since we arrived on Dec 26.  Just under 200 sailors (43 girl teams and 58 boy teams) are here in sunny and hot BA, traveling in from about 20 countries from all corners of the globe.

Team USA (l to r) Claudia, Reinier, Megan, Caroline, Spencer, Amanda, Coach Dave

Team USA is 3 boats, all from LISOT (Megan/Caroline, Claudia/Amanda, and Reinier/Spencer, coached by Dave Hughes, who's doing a great job getting this fairly young team ready for their first 420 worlds.

Matias Capizzano was out taking his always amazing pictures in the great sailing conditions.

Claud/Amanda and Reinier/Spencer spent many hours over the 3 practice and measurement days getting their new Nautivela boats fitted out, measured and race ready. Megan/Caroline did the same with a locally chartered J-boat built boat.

The largest teams, besides a good group from the host country, are from GBR, GER and ITA.

hello from kuah, langkawi, malaysia...

...where harry and the rest of the worlds team starts racing for keeps in four days. most of my posts will be to the worlds team blog - http://usaworldteam.blogspot.com/ - but when anything happens that's more harry- than team-related, i'll post here. good luck to lisot sailors near and far...there's a lot more water than long island sound under lisot bottoms...

Lots of LISOTers at World Championships This Holiday Season

It's a very busy holiday travel season for LISOT sailors competing at World Championships in far away waters.

While many are enjoying the warm sun and wind of Biscayne Bay for Orange Bowl in Opti's, C420s, I420s and Radials, others on sailing in waters on the other side of the equator, or the world (literally), including:

2010 Optimist Worlds - Langkawi, Malaysia (Team USA Blog)

December 28 - Jan 8, 2011

• Harry Koeppel

2011 i420 Worlds - Buenos Aries, Argentina

Dec 30 - Jan 5, 2011

• Reinier Eenkema van Dijk / Spencer McDonough
• Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick / Caroline Atwood
• Claudia Taselaar / Amanda Taselaar

2011 29er Worlds - Mar del Plata, Argentina

January 2-9, 2011

• Andrew Mollerus / Matthew Mollerus
• Head Coach Pepe Bettini / Coach Fernando Gwozdz

Good luck to all the LISOT sailors around the world and in South Florida!

Wishing Harry The Best at Opti World's

GO HARRY, have a great time and sail fast!

You've inspired so many of our young sailors and elevated everyone's game!

The entire LISOT Family wishes you and the rest of the USA World Team the best of luck in Malaysia.

Follow their progress on the USA World Team Blog

Congrats To 17 LISOT Team USA Sailors

The international team selections are now finalized. Congratulations to the 17 LISOT sailors who accepted invitations to Team USA.

This is the largest number of LISOT sailors to ever make internationals teams in a single year season, and represents almost one-third of all sailors on Team USA for spring international regattas.

IODA South Americans - Algarrobo, Chile

• Russell Clarida
• Audrey Giblin
• Matt Kaplan
• KB Knapp
• Will Logue
• Jack Parkin

Laka Garda Optimist Meeting - Riva del Garda, Italy

• Florian Eenkema van Dijk
• Drew Gallagher
• Jared Gaynes
• Richie Gordon
• Clayton Johnston
• Sean Walsh
• James Westerberg

Magic Marine Easter Regatta - Braassermermeer, Roelofarendsveen, Netherlands

• Meg Gerli
• Charlotte LeClue
• Matt Logue
• Cooper Yeager

2010 Holiday Party & Opti Step Up

The 2010 LISOT holiday party, an annual tradition, was again hosted by Beach Point Club on a wonderful (and snowless this year) night.

In addition to celebrating a great 2010, and the eight Opti sailors who are aging out of Optis, the 125+ parents, coaches and sailors were visited by Sinterklass and his helper, Pete.

The traditional step up video, below, by Janet Grapengeter, was a nostaligic walk down memory lane for the 'graduates'

For more pictures, including Sinterklass and the graduates, click here and here.

Happy holidays to everyone.

Final Report - USODA MIDWINTERS - Team LISOT Dominates

Congrats to a very successful Team LISOT, lead by Head Coach Pepe Bettini, who dominated the challenging and highly competitive USODA Mid-Winters at Southern YC in New Orleans - which this year was also the qualifier for the 2011 international spring regattas.

Jack Parkin and Will Logue were the top two LISOT sailors, in 3rd & 4th respectively, and Audrey Giblin (14th) and KB Knapp (28th) were the top two girls!

Russell Clarida (6th) and World's team member Harry Koeppel (9th) rounded out the 4 top LISOT sailors in the top 10.

Equally strong were many of the 26 sailors on Team LISOT, as our sailors will make up fully one-third of Team USA at the three international spring regattas in 2011 - IODA South Americans; Lake Garda Optimist Meeting, and the Magic Marine Easter Regatta in Braassemermeer, The Netherlands.

As always, sailboat racing on Lake Pontchartrain is not for the faint of heart. After the Race Committee wisely abandoned the 2nd day of racing on Friday due to very rough seas, the final day, Saturday, turned into a great day with 6-12knts out of the NE.

The Harbor Start was early - 8:30 AM - as the RC wanted to get in 5 races. And Head Coach Pepe, and Coaches Panic and Victor had the team prepped, ready and focused as they left the beautiful Southern Yacht Club for a long day on the water.

Conditions for Day 3 were not easy, with plenty of shifts but even more challenging pressure gradients that crossed the course. Many LISOT sailors were dueling it out in the top ten but equally as importantly, many were getting consistently better finishes than Day 1, with many in the first 20.

After the first day of racing, Team LISOT was doing very well. But no one imagined then just how far up the rankings the team ended up.

Continuing the success of LISOT under Head Coach Pepe Bettini, LISOT sailors qualified for 18 spots on Team USA for the international regattas (double the 9 LISOT sailors who qualified last year), including 4 in the top 10 , 7 of the top 20 and the top 2 girls!

Final international teams selections have not been announced, but congratulations to all who made the trip south and enjoyed a classic SYC Thanksgiving!

Final LISOT results:

3. Jack Parkin
4. Will Logue
6. Russell Clarida
9. Harry Koeppel
13. Matthew Kaplan
14. Audrey Giblin (top girl)
16. Ty Ingram
22. Drew Gallagher
25. Jared Gaynes
28. KB Knapp (2nd girl)
33. Adele Whitmyer

34. Augie Dale
37. Sean Walsh
39. Florian Eenkema van Dijk
52. Alexandra DelBello
53. James Westerberg
55. Richie Gordon
58. Clayton Johnson
73. Taylor Gavula
80. Matt Logue
86. Cooper Yeager
108. Henry Fernberger
118. Meg Gerli
129. Charlotte LeClue
136. Emma Kaneti
157. Hailey Ullmann
199. Rhett Ullmann

Full results are posted here.

Challenging Conditions at USODA Mid-Winters in New Orleans

28 LISOT team members traveled to beautiful Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans for the 2011 USODA Mid Winters - this year the qualifier for spring international regattas. Head Coach Pepe, along with coaches Panic and Victor are leading the team.

Day one was set to end early to give everybody time to get to Thanksgiving dinner, with the last series to start no later than 1300. The race committee did a great job setting the course and getting the kids racing soon after the 0830 harbor start. And they worked hard to get in three races on the day.

The breeze Thursday was brisk, blowing 15-20 out of the South, with puffs to 25. The wind was very shifty throughout, and the strong breeze was challenging for many, particularly the younger and less experienced sailors. There were lots of boats capsizing throughout the day, and 45 of the 214 sailors had at least one DNF, with many having two or three.

Team LISOT did well with 5 sailor in the top 15. Ty Ingram leads the way in 4th place with Russell Clarida right behind him in 5th, Jack Parkin is 7th, Harry Koeppel 11th and Will Logue 12th.

Day two, Friday, began with the wind out of the North having shifted 180 degrees overnight. On shallow Lake Pontchartrain a strong breeze out of the north results in very choppy conditions as waves build on their way across the lake.

It was raining as we arrived at the club, with colder temperatures in the upper 50s and dropping. The wind was blowing steadily in the high teens to low 20s with poor visibility and short steep waves. Racing was delayed as the Race Committee waited for conditions to improve.

Southern Yacht Club’s terrific hospitality and beautiful new club house made the wait for 300+ sailors, parents and coaches quite nice while hoping for for conditions to improve. Unfortunately the weather did not improve and the Race Committee cancelled racing jut before 1300.

LISOT Looks to the Olympics

Congratulations to 8 current and former LISOTers who were named to the 2011 US Sailing Development Team:

Laser: LISOT Laser Head Coach Rob Crane, Dan Delbello

Radial: Ryan Schmitz

29er: Andrew and Matt Mollerus

49er: Declan Whitmyer and Ian Storck

470: Marlena Fauer

LISOT takes top 3 spots at I420 ACCs

Congratulations to Deirdre Lambert and Tracy Doherty for winning the 2010 I420 ACCs this past weekend at Annapolis YC.

LISOT took the top 3 spots, with Marcus Edegran/Nick Gallagher taking the #2 spot, and Olivia Crane/Fiona Walsh in third.

Diedre and Tracy also took home the top girl trophy.

Conditions for the 6 race regatta over the 2 days was very light and shifty, with temperatures more common for September rather than November.

LISOT finishers were (full results):

1. Dierdre/Tracy

2. Marcus/Nick

3. Olivia/Fiona

5. Reinier EVD/Spencer McDonough

9. Ian Robinson/Mike Kaplon

10. Roger Dorr/Matt Lyons

11. Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick/Caroline Atwood

LISOT Wins BMW Opti Team Racing Cup!

Congratulations to LISOT, representing Team USA, who was the first non-European team to win the prestigious BMW Opti Team Cup in Berlin Germany.

(l. to r: Alexandra Del Bello, Coach Pepe Bettini, Drew Gallagher, Will Logue, Jack Parkin, Ty Ingram).

Final Results

Here's the report from LISOT's very happy Head Coach, Pepe:

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday we finished the day winning all 12 races! Today we started already in the finals because we were the leaders of the 3 stage round robin!

Conditions were very light, 2-4 knots for the first race. And we won!

Conditions for the 2nd race against one of the 4 GER teams worsened down to 1-2 knots. For the majority of the race USA held their positions. At the last upwind GER was able to get better speed and we lost!

The last race of the 3rd stage was against ITL, also in 1-2 knot conditions and USA won!

The thought of sailing the finals in these conditions was not ideal for any team. And the race committee decided to postpone for a while until the wind picked up to 5 knots.

The final final was on! USA vs NOR!

In the first race USA was the winning combination 90% of the race and the race became very difficult in the last upwind, but we held on and won!

The second race USA was looking for the title, and we went out for that! Just one more win and we will be the Champions!

We started again in a great position! But the wind got lighter on the reach until all the boats were grouped together again. One more time after a great last upwind and a nice leward mark rounding with a NOR sailor doing a penalty, we fought like champs during all the upwind against a great team and we got the 1,2,6 & 7!

The lake went wild. Spectator boats were screaming and honking their horns! Two little kids came with US flags!

I can't explain in words the faces of the team, hugs, hands up and celebrating!!

There were 4 world teams racing and the level of the Europeans in Team racing is really good!

At the awards we all went to the podium! We received 2 awards: one for being the team traveling the furthest to compete, and a Challenge Trophy with all the champions names on it...no non Europeans have won it before! We are the first USA Team to win the BMW Team Racing Regatta!!!!

As you can imagine we are all really happy and looking forward to flying home celebrate!

See you soon!!!!!!!

Pepe

Opti Team Racing in Berlin - Report on Prep & Day 1

After a break in 2009, LISOT is once again representing the USA at the BMW Opti Team Cup Team Race this weekend at the Potsdamer YC on Lake Wannsee in Berlin, Germany.

This years' team is Alexandra DelBello, Drew Gallagher, Ty Ingram, Will Logue, and Jack Parkin, together with LISOT Head Coach Pepe Bettini.

The team flew over on Thursday night, arrived in Germany on Friday morning, and were on the water for practice by 11:30.

Pepe's initial report for Friday included:

We are all here and everything is going great!
Is not cold at all!, or at least is not what as we were expecting!
The hotel is nice! And the breakfast even better.
The club is really nice and everybody looks happy.

Today we went to the water around 1130 and after 10 minutes of warming and testing the boats we start team racing against everybody! The wind is great! We started the day with 8 and finished with 10 and gust of 12, shifty conditions and flat water!

We are ready for tomorrow but really tired! Kids sleeping already 845 we had dinner at the club, nice food! At 820 we were back at the hotel and 5 minutes after that some of the team members were out!

Pepe's reports after Saturday included:

Stage 1 Round Robin:

We just finished our 7 first races, we won all of them GER, DEN, POL, RUS, NOR, GER, SWE!

All the teams were really good, and we are getting slowly into our game!

Stage 2 Round Robin:

We won the 4 races against GRB,GER, NED, UKR. This stage was very difficult. Although we won all 4 races, for 3 of the them it was only at the very end that we took the lead.

Stage 3 Round Robin:

The wind dropped down and it's now 4:30 pm. We sailed only one race at this stage and we won it against FIN. The sailors are doing great! They were winning by a lot, but after some problems on the downwind, they were losing on the last upwind and then they just went on fire at the last leg, and won with a 1238 combo.

The regatta is incredible!! The other teams are really good. The level of team racing in Europe is amazing. And the juries are also really good - I saw a lot of extremely good calls!

We are allowed to follow the race from just 50 meters away. That helps us a lot to work together because I am able to see everything! We are learning a lot because of that!

LISOT takes 6 of top 10, Top Girl at Opti's ACCs

Last weekend a LISOT team of 30 sailors, along with coaches Pepe, Marcos and Rio, headed down to the Tred Avon Yacht Club in Oxford, Maryland for the 2010 ACCs.

A lot of silver was taken home as LISOT sailors made a strong showing in this competitive fleet taking 6 of the top 10, 10 of the top 20, and top Girl.

Congratulations to Harry Koeppel who was the top LISOT sailor in 2nd place, in his final tune up for Worlds in December.

Harry was followed by Augie Dale in 3rd, KB Knapp in 4th (and top girl), Jared Gaynes in 5th, Clay Johnson in 6th, and Sean Walsh in 10th.

It was a beautiful fall weekend and Tred Avon did a fabulous job hosting more than 150 sailors. The level of competition was high, with sailors from all over the east coast and as far away as Texas. The only thing missing was the wind…again!

The local conditions were particularly challenging as the race course is at the mouth of a river flowing into Chesapeake Bay. This means contending with current from the river as well as current from tides.

The fleet was split into four groups, with about 75 boats on the line for each start. A long course and light winds led to the first series of races lasting about 60 minutes each.

The first race of the series was a LISOT-fest with our sailors taking the first six places. Sean Walsh won, holding a lead of well over 100 yards from the windward mark all the way to the finish. The breeze freshened for the second series and the races were completed in about 45 minutes. And then the wind died and the floating began. Because of the currents in the area, the light afternoon breeze was not enough to race in and after a couple of starts that had to be abandoned the race committee sent the sailors in for the day.

Sunday began with sunny skies, cool air and a brisk breeze as sailors arrived early for the 9:00 harbor start. The Optis got off the beach and headed out to the course right on time, and then the wind died. Although they tried hard, with four attempts to start races throughout the day, there was not enough wind to sail and racing was called at about 3:00. The regatta finished with two series completed in winds ranging from 4-10 knots.

LISOT sailors took four of the top 10 spots in Blue fleet, with Clay finishing 2nd, followed by Sean 4th, Jack Parkin 7th and Will Logue 8th. Emma Kanneti was 4th in White fleet.

LISOT's Sarah Williams/Collin Murphy Win C420 Mid Atlantics

Congratulations to Sarah and Collin for dominating this years' C420 Mid-Atlantic's.

The duo won this "home game" at Noroton YC with an impressive 14 point lead over the very fast 2nd place pair, Axel Sly/Scott Ewing, up from Coral Reef YC, and a 34 point lead over 3rd place LISOT team of Reinier Eenkema van Dijk/Spencer McDonough, who also sailed a superb regatta.

LISOT placed 7 in the top 12 as well as the top female award to Olivia Crane/Fiona Walsh in 4th overall.

Head Coach Steve Keen was accompanied by current Olympic Coach Bunny Warren and Richard.

The 6 races on Saturday in shifty and puffy Northerlies were followed on Sunday with more clear and cloudless sun and a rock solid Westerly that built to 15, gusting 20 with a ripping moon flood tide that made for some big, steep seas and very challenging starts.

The RC ran 4 more races on Sunday for a total of 10, all with a .8 mile beat, before the 1400 hour deadline (starting Race 10 with just 10 minutes remaining on the clock).

And to add a tad of excitement to the breezy day, Head Coach Steve Keen, in full foul weather gear, dove in under a capsized boat just prior to the start of a race to rescue a sailor.

In the end, the two day regatta included 10 races with 1 throw out.

LISOT Finishes (Full results):

No	Sail	Name	Total
1	5735	Williams, Sarah, Murphy, Collin, Bayhead	40.0
3	5747	Eenkema van Dijk, Reinier, McDonough, Spencer, LYC	74.0
4	5744	Crane, Olivia, Walsh, Fiona, Noroton YC	83.0
7	6000	Edegran, Markus, Gallagher, Nick, LYC	103.0
8	618	Robinson, Ian, Kaplon, Mike, BYC	109.0
9	6201	Klinger, Casey, Liggins, Alexandra, LYC	112.0
12	5898	Grapengeter-Rudnick, Megan, Atwood, Caroline, Noroton YC	123.0
16	6205	O'Leary, Brendan, Schneider, Jack	132.0
19	5964	Gerli, Jack, Rohman, Abby	161.0
29	5651	Dorr, Roger, Lyons, Matthew, PWYC	214.0
31	5431	Taselaar, Claudia, Kelly, Katie, New York YC	242.0
33	3198	Cornell, Sean, Sterflinger, Peter, CYC	253.0
34	4575	Gallagher, Thomas, Gallagher, John, LYC	280.0
35	5719	Robertson, Clara, Robertson, Molly, AYC	281.0
40	6010	Katz, Lily, Driscoll, Tierney, Bellport YC	350.0
42	5871	Quirke, Rebecca, Fung, Emily, AYC	357.0
44	6009	Philip, Nick, Mundinger, Finn, AYC	363.0
46	4126	Anderson, Rebecca, Johnson, Julia, CYC	373.0

LISOT Board Member and Noroton YC member Bill Crane was the event organizer, and his brother Jim took on the PRO duties. The race committee and volunteers included many familiar parents from clubs around LI Sound and as far away as Chicago (Chuck Lamphere), Minneapolis (Dave Garber) and Florida (Lynn O'Brien), as well as LISOT Board Members Doug Wefer, Phil Factor and Michael Rudnick, and Stamford YC's Annette Morrill as Chief Scorer.