FBYC Juniors Scattered to the Four Winds

Eric Powers on Monday July 31, 2006 11:47PM

This last week has seen the FBYC Junior Racing Team and their coaches boxing the compass at multiple events around the country and across the ocean. Four of our Optimist sailors plus one guest from England attended the USODA National Championship Regatta in Sarasota Florida. Traveling Girls on the Team also raced in the Girls Championship held on the first day of the event. The Team battled moderate to light winds, delays and crowded started lines of 90 plus boats to pit their skills against an overall fleet of 280 boats drawn from around the the US and from numerous other countries. While three of our team members posted top-half finishes after seven races, Alex Jacob took team honors with his 92/280 finish. Austin Powers and Madeleine Alderman followed up with finishes of 117 and 122 respectively and therefore qualify for next year' Team Trials for the National Optimist Teams. Madeleine Alderman also took an 18th place finish in the Girls Nationals. Other FBYC juniors in attendance included Erin Jacob, Graeme Alderman, Kyle Swenson and Kendall Swenson.

Meanwhile, the older FBYC Juniors, under the expert coaching of Alejandro Cloos, headed north to challenge other Laser Radials at two events including the US Sailing Junior Olympics held at Island Heights Yacht Club in New Jersey and the Hyannis YC Regatta held at Hyannis, MA. Quentin Jenkins rolled in with a fifth place out of 65 boats after some heavy air sailing at IHYC and then went on to take 10th out of 48th at Hyannis. Cori Radtke also worked her way through the heavy air at Hyannis to take 41st. These sailors deserve a lot of credit for sticking with it through very difficult conditions.

Closer to home, four FBYC juniors attended the Rappahanock River Yacht Club Junior Regatta including Conrad and Eric Roos, Katie D'Antonio and Julian Waters. This was Katie and Junian's first race and they did quite well in the five races held in light conditions. Conrad Roos took team honors with a 2nd Place overall finish out of ten Optimists. A good time was had by all with ice cream and the swimming pool after the race.

This week, Madeleine Alderman and our guest Jane Scaeles head across the big pond to participate in the British Nationals to be held on the coast of Wales. We wish both of them fair winds an a top-end finish! The rest of the team hangs back at FBYC to attend practices, a performance clinic and our second Junior Regatta to be held on Thursday, August 3rd.

FBYC Juniors Scattered to the Four Winds

Archive