LISOT Holiday Party Dec 5th at Beach Point YC - sign up now

We're pleased to announce that Beach Point YC has again graciously agreed to welcome LISOT for our annual holiday party and Opti "step up" - Sunday, December 5th from 4-8pm. Please sign up on any of the class pages (Opti, 420, Laser). Cost is the same for all classes: $35/adult, $15/sailor.

Last year about 150 parents and sailors got together for some fun, food and drink and to celebrate the 20 opti sailors who stepped up into 420s and Radials. This years' party is sure to be another fun afternoon as we look back on an incredibly active and successful 2010 for so many LISOT sailors who competed around the world, and look ahead to an active 2011.

LISOT I420s at UK Nationals

Congrats to newly minted I420 skipper Reinier Eenkema van Dijk and his cousin Maarten EVD, who stepped in at the very last minute to crew, on their 9th place finish at the very windy, super competitive British I420 Nationals in Brightlingsea, UK.

Winds were frequently over 20 knots, with strong tides and plenty of very cold rain. It was so windy that racing was abandoned twice over the 5-day regatta due to Force 6-7 winds.

Brenda O'Leary/Jack Schneider, also first timers in an I420, finished 21st. Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick (also new to the I420)/Caroline Atwood (their first time sailing together) were 28th in the 57 boat fleet.

Team LISOT, the only US sailors to make the trip, were coached by Steve Keen.

Thanks to Phil to masterful coordination of charter boats and RIB; Janet for finding beautiful, new (and less expensive than hotel rooms) condos right on the venue; Annie Atwood who was the team leader (and team feeder) as the sole parent accompanying the team; and Steve for getting our sailors introduced to the I420 for a few days in CT, all this happening literally in the 5 days immediately before the team flew to the UK.

Full results

Team LISOT visits the Jersey Shore

Sean Walsh, Jack Parkin and Jared Gaynes made the trip down to the Jersey Shore on Monday to represent LISOT, NY and CT at the New Jersey State Opti Championships. And as has been the case recently, they represented quite well.

The Brant Beach Yacht Club, on Long Beach Island, hosted the regatta in place of the Shrewsbury Yacht Club which was originally scheduled to host last June.

The first day of the two day regatta started quite well with beautiful weather and a nice breeze in the low teens. The race committee got in two races before taking a break for lunch. Jack and Sean each took a bullet in the first two races, with Sean just nosing out Jared who had led the entire first race until Sean got him at the finish. After lunch it was tough sledding for many of the sailors as the clouds and rain came in, and the wind picked up to the low to mid twenty’s before racing began again.

With plenty of inexperienced sailors in the fleet the spectators and safety boats spent most of their time in the afternoon picking up sailors who were having trouble. Only about half of the boats finished the third race, including Jared who finished in 10^th even though he flipped his boat. The race committee had to cancel the rest of the days racing early as there were not enough race committee boats left with so many kids heading into shore.

Tuesday morning started ominously with 100% cloud cover, rain, and white caps in the inner harbor. The breeze was blowing steady in the low 20’s with gusts to 35. The race committee postponed until 10:00 at which time they had to cancel the rest of the days racing due to the high winds.

LISOT sailors took 3 of the top 6 spots overall, with Sean in 6^th, Jack in 5^th and Jared in 3^rd place. They all took home silver, with Jared also taking home the perpetual trophy for the top out of state sailor. Sean and Jack came in 4^th and 3^rd respectively in blue fleet.

Full Results

LISOT Collects Some Silver at the C420 Team Race Nationals

Congrats LISOT sailors Graham Landy/Marcus Edegran for being members of the winning Hotchkiss team at the 2010 CJ Buckley C420 Team Race National Championship last week hosted by the East Greenwich Yacht Club and the Greenwich Bay Sailing Association, and sailed out of wonderful Goddard Memorial State Park in East Greenwich, RI.

This win makes a hat trick for Graham this summer, his 3rd regatta win in a row (2010 US Sailing Youth Championship, 2010 BBR, and team racing).

Congrats also to our two C420 teams who raced as Team LISOT 1 and 2 - coached by Steve Keen and Udi Gal.

The regatta turned out to be the largest team race regatta in the world, with 32 teams of 3 boats. Many boarding school teams were there, along with a variety of yacht club teams.

The regatta PRO, Justin Assad and a terrific volunteer group of parents did a simply fantastic job running 391 races over the 3 days of sailing (that's 31 races per team - an average of 10 per day!) on two "digital N" courses. Kyle Assad worked magic at registration and the math involved in setting up and managing the modified swiss league format. And Chief Judge Amanda Callahan had a crack team of on-water judges that did a great job!

Our teams finished 6th in Gold (LISOT 1) and 2nd in Silver (LISOT 2) - a strong showing, especially since, while many of our skippers had extensive Opti 4-on-4 team racing experience, they had virtually no 420 3-on-3 team racing experience.

LISOT teams were:

LISOT 1

Elliot Morrill/Caroline Atwood

Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick/Fiona Walsh

Jack Gerli/Abby Rohman

LISOT 2

Lily Katz/Spencer McDonough

Reinier Eenkema van Dijk/Tom Gallagher

Connor Swikart/John Gallagher

Full results

LISOT Laser Radials Dominate US Nationals

After three days of light air conditions at Milwaukee Yacht Club, the breeze filled in and the race committee pounded out four races to complete a seven race series for the Radials.

Once again, LISOT's Radial sailors domiated the regatta, taking four of the top 10 spots.

Congratulations go to all of our sailors, with their spectuacular results as follows:

3. Ryan Schmitz
6. Andrew Puopolo
7. Jack Swikart
9. Matthew Mollerus
23. Colin Kennedy
29. Sarah Stubbs
30. Madeline Alderman
38. Kaylee Schwitzer

Full results

LISOT Dominates BBR in both C420 and Radial fleets

Congrats to LISOT 420 sailors Graham Landy/Colin Murphy and LISOT Laser Radial sailor Ryan Schmitz for winning their classes at the highly competitive Buzzards Bay Regatta last weekend in Marion, MA.

Ryan was on fire and won the last 7 races of the 10 race series for the Radials!

On the C420 course Graham and Colin, coming straight off their win at the US Youth Champs in California, didn't let any jetlag slow them down. They crossed the line first in 5 of the 10 race series, with many of those bullets by a considerable distance over the second place boat.

Conditions were classic BBR - with southwesterly sea breeze that came on around 11am with 10-12 knots, and built to 15-20 by mid-afternoon. Sunday afternoon saw the strongest breeze of the weekend, while Friday was the lightest, with Races 1 & 2 sailed in under 10 knots - including one abandonment of each race due to dying or large wind shifts before the sea breeze settled in.

C420 Fleet

The LISOT "Black Dots" were on top in most races, taking 11 of the top 20 spots in the 150+ boat fleet.

LISOT also had the largest team - 22 boats - lead by Head Coach Steve Keen and his world & Olympic coaching team of Dave Hughes, Udi Gal and Skip Whyte.

LISOT 420 Finishes (full results):

1. Graham Landy / Colin Murphy

3. Marlena Fauer / Declan Whitmyer

6. Marcus Edegran / Sam Fitzgerald

10. Alex Jacob / Ben Buhl

11. Lily Katz / Spencer McDonough

13. Holly Tullo / Haley Fox

14. Ian Robinson / Emily Johnson

15. Melany Johnson / Mackenzie Needham

16. Brendan O'Leary / Jack Schneider

18. Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick / Fiona Walsh

19. Elliot Morrill / Caroline Atwood

22. Roger Dorr / Matt Lyons

26. Cally Tullo / Michael Kaplon

29. Ian Storck / Jordon Factor

32. Reinier Eenkema van Dijk / Connor Swikart

37. Jack Gerli / Sarah Graves

41. Claudia Taselaar / Julia Rew

45. Will Florio / Kristina Jakobson

57. Thom Gallagher / John Gallagher

70. Will Greer / Cameron Snyder

90. Abby Rohman / Katie Kelley

120. Haley Ullmann / Bridget Croke

Laser Radials (full results)

While Ryan was out in front, LISOT radial sailors Colin Kennedy, Andrew Puopolo and Sarah Stubbs, all four recently back from the Radial Worlds in Large, Scotland, were not far behind in the 65 boat fleet.

LISOT results:

1. Ryan Schmitz

4. Colin Kennedy

5. Andrew Puopolo

9. Sarah Stubbs

It was a nice sight to see 3 LISOT Radial sailors up on the awards podium.

LISOT’s Landy/Murphy Win US Sailing’s US Youth Champs in C420

San Pedro CA’s Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club and Hurricane Gulch provided a great sailing venue for the 2010 US Sailing US Youth Championship - with breeze predictably turning on around mid-day.

The 17 LISOT sailors who attended this resume event in C420s and Laser Radials navigated swells, current, chop, and light ‘n shifty through windy conditions.

Sailgroove caught a lot of the action on video. See regatta winners Graham Landy and Colin Murphy interviewed here, watch 6^th place finishers Lily Katz & Spencer McDonough port tacking the fleet here, and videos of races in all fleets here

Congratulations to Graham, Colin and all our LISOT sailors who participated in this competitive regatta:

C420 LISOT Results (full results)

1. Graham Landy & Colin Murphy

6. Lily Katz & Spencer McDonough

15. Ian Robinson & Emily Johnson

20. Marcus Edegran & Nick Gallagher

22. Melany Johnson & Mackenzie Needham

24. Elliot Morrill & Caroline Atwood

25. Scott Barbano & Adam Kaplon

Laser Radial LISOT Results (full results):

15. Ryan Schmitz

18. Matt Mollerus

19. Connor Needham

Jack Parkin wins Opti New Englands, LISOT places 6 out of top 15

Tradition of USODA Regattas includes the winner giving a speech and being thrown in the water by his team mates. This year is no different other then the coach also being tossed in the water!

LISOT's Jack Parkin won USODA New England's after dominating the racing for 3 days. The closest competitor was 12 points back in this very competitive fleet.

Conditions all week were excellent with strong Newport sea breeze in the 12-20 knt range and aggressive current. The Championship course was set up just north of the Newport Bridge with the weather mark tucked up under the bridge or near the beach. This lead to excellent viewing from the shore as the kids rock hopped up the beach to avoid the current.

Brad Read, Kim Cooper and the volunteers from Sail Newport once again did a fantastic job of running the regatta. Sail Newport is the perfect regatta location and combined with the people make it one of the best venues in the country.

PRO Ken Legler and the RC did an out standing job getting in 11 races over 3 days resulting in 1 drop for the series. Ken mixes great regatta management with informative updates on conditions and competitor placements at the marks!

Jack led the regatta from the first day and never looked back. Rounding out the top 15 places were Drew Gallagher, Augie Dale, Harry Koeppel, Russle Clarida and Will Logue. Alex DelBello was 4th girl.

Overall Results

Jack Parkin 1st

Drew Gallagher 7th

Augie Dale 8th

Harry Koeppel 10th

Russle Clarida 14th

Will Logue 15th

Florian Eenkema van Dijk 23rd

Sean Walsh 25th

Alex DelBello 26th (4th girl)

Kate van Loveren 32nd

Pierce de Boisblanc 43rd

Jared Gaynes 55th

Ty Ingram 56th

Vladimir Estoup 81st

Matt Kaplan 88th

Richie Gordon 91st

Henry Fernberger 106th

Matt Logue 125th

Meg Gerli 126th

Chris Keller 153rd

Cooper Yeager 193rd

Kristen Picard 198th

James Westerberg 204th

Charlotte LeClue 205th

Rhett Ullmann 208th

Kate Koeppel 249th

Sloane Kratzman 282nd


A special recognition to Kate Koeppel for nominating the sportmanship award for a competitor helping her after a capsize!

LISOT Opti's at UK Opti Nationals in Weymouth

Five LISOT sailors made that journey across the pond to compete in the 2010 British Nationals last week - which included nearly 500 Optimist sailors who congregated at Weymouth to compete in three divisions, Senior, Junior and Regatta Fleet.

The gods could not have been kinder with blue skies and ample wind throughout the regatta. LISOT's Sean Walsh, Florian Eenkema van Dijk, Russell Clarida and Pierce Boisblanc, competed in the Senior Fleet with Jack Parkin our sole representative in the Junior Fleet.

Throughout the week, Jack fought a great duel with Freddie Grogono GBR, last year’s champion for the overall Junior prize, for the top spot with Jack claiming a very honorable silver on the podium for his efforts.

All four of our Senior Fleet sailors qualified for the Gold Fleet after the first 6 races and went on the take on some of the best sailors in Europe.

Final Senior Standings were:

24. Sean

41. Russell

50. Florian

58. Pierce

The top Team USA Sailor was Jack Toland from Seattle in 13^th with the overall Senior winner being Silvis Mas Depares from Spain.

Full Results

You’ve got to see this YouTube video of the launching in the morning to appreciate the scale of the event.

Reported by Dan Walsh.

USODA NE's - Day 2 update.

It was another great day on Narragansett Bay for Jack Parkin and Team LISOT.

Jack remains atop the 324 boat championship fleet with just 16 points after 9 races - 3 points ahead of Wade Waddell. Augie Dale moved up to 4th and Drew Gallagher to 7th.

With 9 races and 1 throw out, the top LISOT boats are:

1. Jack

4. Augie

7. Drew

8. Harry

13. Russell

15. Will

Jack, Augie, Harry, Russell and Ty all had bullets yesterday.

Today is the third and final day of racing.

Full results

USODA NE's - Day 1: Team LISOT Out In Front!

It was a picture perfect day on Narragansett Bay for the start of the 3-day 2010 USODA New Englands at Sail Newport. And the classic Southwest sea breeze didn't disappoint - with 15-20 knots and loads of sunshine.

Team LISOT was fired up and out of the gate like a shot, with many sailors taking line honors.

Jack Parkin leads the 332 boat fleet with 9 points, including 2 bullets in the 4 races on Day 1.

Six LISOT sailors make up the top 12, including:

1. Jack

5 Harry Koeppel (also had 2 bullets)

6. Russell Clarida

7. Augie Dale

9. Will Logue

12. Drew Gallagher

Russell, Augie and Will also each had a bullet on the day, as did Kate van Loveren.

Tomorrow's forecast is for another day of smokin' seabreeze.

Full results

LISOT's Sarah Stubbs Wins Silver Medal at US Sailing's US Singlehanded Championship

Congratulations to LISOT Laser Radial sailor Sarah Stubbs who won the Silver Medal at US Sailing's US Singlehanded Championship (Adult) for the O'Day Trophy that was held at Pensacola Yacht Club in Florida.

Sarah, the youngest of all the 24 sailors at the event, was winning the women's division from the first day until the very last race. She ended the regatta only one point out of the lead after a tough final showdown with eventual winner Leonie Schuurmans of Texas.

Sarah sailed a remarkably consistent regatta, finishing every race in the top five! And despite an on-water charter boat breakdown and 100-plus degree Pensacola heat, Sarah finished 10 points ahead of the 3rd place boat.

Competitors qualified for the US Singlehanded Championship through specific national and regional competitions and at Area eliminations. For the first time this year the O’Day included the women’s Radial fleet.

Full results

LISOT Takes 1st & 2nd at Hyannis 420 Regatta.

LISOT's Casey Klingler/Alex Liggins sailed a great regatta and took home the gold with a convincing win at this years' Hyannis Regatta, a solid 18 points ahead of the second place boat! - the LISOT team of Roger Dorr/Matt Lyons.

The 8 races regatta over 3 days - with no throw outs - in light to moderate conditions with plenty of shifty winds put a premium on starting - with many of the top sailors earning black flags, which hurt their scores considerably.

The two top LISOT boats were very consistent in the 101 boat fleet, including Casey/Alex taking 3 bullets. Roger/Matt and Megan/Fiona also had a bullet each.

LISOT boats were: (full results)

1. Casey/Alex

2. Roger/Matt

13. Connor Swikart/Reinier Eenkema van Dijk

20. Abby Rohman/Katie Kelley

25. Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick/Fiona Walsh

28. Claudia Taselaar/Julia Rew

29. Will Greer/David Kagan

39. Brendan O'Leary/Jack Schneider

44. Jack Gerli/Sarah Graves

57. Tom Gallagher/John Gallagher

69. Hailey Ullmann/Tomas Dietrich

LISOT's coaches - Skip White, Dave Hughes and Udi Gal - did a great job coaching.