Jr Commodore's Regatta
Published in the Islander 07/14/00
BY ANDREW WARREN
Guest Writer
Published in the Islander 07/14/00
BY ANDREW WARREN
Guest Writer
| On July 6 & 7 Surf City Yacht Club hosted the 23rd Annual Junior
Commodores Regatta. One hundred thirty seven young sailors from all over
New Jersey competed in four different classes. The weather was perfect
for the event with sunny skies and a nice steady breeze for both days of
the competition.
The largest class was the Optimist Dinghy with 77 boats. The Opti's are divided by age into three fleets, white being the youngest, blue and then red being the oldest, but the fleets all sail together. The closest competition was in the blue fleet between two Surf City Yacht Club Racing Team members, Kyle Rogachenko and Royce Weber. On the first day Royce won all three races and Kyle finished with three seconds. Day two started just the opposite with Kyle winning the first two races and Royce coming in second. The sixth race proved to be the most exciting race of the series. On the final leg of the race the lead changed several times between Royce, Kyle and Mike Battista from Brant Beach Yacht Club. Coming into the finish line Royce tacked just to the leeward of Mike and Kyle. Royce was able to pass Kyle but was unable to catch Battista who won the race by less than half a boat length. Kyle went on to win the seventh and final race with Royce finishing in second place. Each sailor was able to throw out his worse finish. That left the two team mates tied for fisrt place with nine points. The tiebreaker was who finished higher in the final race and that was Kyle with the first place finish. In the Sunfish fleet it was Katie Laird from Brant Beach Yacht Club winning every race. And in second place was Tommy Shireman from Spray Beach Yacht Club who finished second in all but one of the races. The Laser Radial class was the second largest fleet with 18 boats and the top three boats were all from Bay Head Yacht Club. Matt Goetting who won easily with four first place finishes and two second places. In second place was Carl Horrock and in third was Bob Koar. The only two-man boat in the regatta this year was the Club 420 and there were a total of 13 boats. It was the team of Mike Sorbo and Rebecca Mergenthler from Toms River Yacht Club who counted five bullets and a second place to win the regatta. In second place from Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club was the team of Robinson and Stokes Carrigian. For complete results and photos check the SCYC web site at www.scyc-nj.org |