Members of the 2014 Opti & Laser Race Teams at Corsica River Yacht Club, MD.

On March 14th the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association awarded the 2014 Junior High Point Awards. FBYC race team members dominated in all classes and fleets! Benton Amthor and Boyd Bragg finished 1st and 2nd in the Opti Overall and Alexander Hanna finished 1st in the Laser Overall! And continuing a long tradition at FBYC, our girls rocked: Reese Bragg finished 1st, Baylor Goldthwaite 3rd and Madeline Amthor 4th in the Opti Girls’ Division; with Claire Lennarz 2nd and Nina Willms 4th in the Laser Radial Girls’ Division! All of our kids did outstanding, placing in every division and dominating throughout the standings!

FBYC Girl Power! Madeline Amthor, Reese Bragg, Claire Lennarz and Baylor Goldthwaite (Just 4 of the 12 girls on the 2014 FBYC Race Teams!)

In addition to the above cumulative scores, Alexander was both the 2014 Maryland State Champion and Commonwealth of Virginia Champion in the Laser Radial; Benton was the 2014 Commonwealth of Virginia Champion in the Opti; and Boyd was the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Junior Olympics and Bay Champion in the Opti! All three won these individual regattas.

The CBYRA High Point is a cumulative series made up of annual invitational junior regattas, the State Championships and the Junior Olympics, held at member clubs around the Bay. Scoring is weighted based on the number of participants at each regatta-the more boats a competitor beats, the better the cumulative score. A junior must be a member of the CBYRA and must sail in at least 4 sanctioned events to be eligible for an award, but cumulative scores are kept for all sailors.

Optis are divided into three fleets based on age, in addition to Overall and Girls: Red Fleet is for those aged 13-15, Blue Fleet for those 11-12, and White Fleet for those 10 and under. The Green Fleet is for beginning and novice racers, and cumulative scores are not kept.

2014 Tred Avon yacht Club Annual Junior Regatta Awards for Red Fleet-all 5 are our kids! Nic Lennarz, Ian Street, Trent Levy, Boyd Bragg and Benton Amthor

Overall in Optis, we had 6 in the top 10, and 12 in the top 25, out of 153 total competitors! Here are some of our highlights: Benton Amthor-1st Overall and 1st Red; Boyd Bragg-2nd Overall and 2nd Red; Nathan Smith-5th Overall and 3rd Blue; Trent Levy-7th Overall and 3rd Red; Guthrie Braun-9th Overall and 1st White; Gannon Troutman-10th Overall and 5th Blue; Ian Street-5th Red; Nicolas Lennarz-6th Red; Alex Resio-10th Red; John Vail-7th Blue; Reese Bragg-10th Blue and 1st Girl; Morey Levy-13th Blue; Jackson Montague-15th Blue; Will Street-17th Blue; Ren Moody-20th Blue; Baylor Goldthwaite-2nd White and 3rd Girl; Reed McAllister-4th White; Joshua Bendura-6th White; Logan Hayes-7th White; Madeline Amthor-9th White and 4th Girl; Quintin Levy-11th White. Evie Wensell missed some of the racing, but also had some fantastic finishes during the summer.

In the Laser Radial Class we had 5 in the top 10, and 10 in the top 20, out of a total of 98 competitors! Here are our team members’ Overall places: Alexander Hanna-1st; Eric Roos-6th; Graeme Alderman-7th; Garret Levy-8th; Nathan Llewellyn-9th; Claire Lennarz-12th and 2nd Girl; Luke Hayes-13th; Ralph Levy-16th; Jordan Bendura-18th; Nina Willms-19th and 4th Girl. Unlike in Optis, there are no divisions based on age, and we had sailors as young as 12 competing against 18 year olds! Two of our team members sailed a limited schedule-Noah Han travelled abroad part of the summer, and Amanda Almany broke her ankle.

Our Opti and Laser Race Teams also travelled off the Chesapeake for large national regattas, which are not included in the CBYRA High Points.

Three members of ODT-Quintin Levy, Josh Almany and Swayne Sparkman at Hampton Yacht Club

All 12 members of the Opti Development Team began the season racing in the Green Fleet, where cumulative scores are not kept. After a summer of professional coaching, many moved into the various other fleets and immediately began to win races.

Judging by the smiles in the above photos, our future looks bright!