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.

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

Sunny skies and warm temperatures greeted the 100 sailors at the 2010 C420 Mid Atlantic's at Noroton YC.

Day 1 was a marathon in very challenging conditions, with 6 races and 1 throw out. The breeze was up and down between 5 an 15 knots with puffy oscillations between 230 and 010 degrees.

LISOT's Sarah Williams/Collin Murphy lead the 50 boat fleet and 6 LISOT boats are in the top 10:

1. Sarah Williams/Collin Murphy (20 points)

2. Reinier Eenkema van Dijk/Spencer McDonough (35)

3. Olivia Crane/Fiona Walsh (39)

7. Casey Klingler/Alexandra Liggins (41)

9. Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick/Caroline Atwood (56)

10. Ian Robinson/Mike Kaplon (58)

Full Results