Junior Week Campers

OPTI KIDS AND JUNIOR WEEK  This year’s Opti Kids and Junior Week smashed all records for numbers and fun! A total of 44 sailors attended Opti Kids and 143 sailors and over 40 full time volunteers and 6 pro coaches attended Junior Week! The weather was perfect. Paul and Julie Ann Wash taught Opti Kids, and every sailor left loving sailing. Doug and Jennifer Bendura then did an amazing job of organizing everything from the class assignments to the tee shirts for Junior Week. There were 13 separate classes this year; 200 kids and their families attended the pool party with the teen band ZigZag, and on Thursday night we hosted 340 at the traditional catered cook out! Like last year, Friday ended with ice cream. Every day brought perfect winds and fun for everyone. A simple statistic that proves how successful Junior Week 2015 was: 51 Junior Week sailors stayed to race in the Junior Olympics the weekend following camp!

38 of the 49 FBYC Race Team Members, with their Coaches, at the JOs

JUNIOR OLYMPICS AND CHESAPEAKE BAY OPEN  The dust from Junior Week had literally not settled, when parents removing Optis used at camp had to work around teams from out of state unloading boats for the Junior Olympics! Event Chair Michelle Hayes brought us an extraordinary regatta with 153 kids racing; a Taco Bar Saturday night for 300, and a combined 350 breakfasts and 350 lunches. A unique and fun touch was a second Mexican meal, a Kona Ice Truck, and a live band playing as the kids sailed in on Sunday and de-rigged and loaded trailers, traditionally the most dreaded part of any junior regatta. The racing was fantastic in great winds, with the RCs headed up by Ric Klein, Bo Bragg and Doug Bendura doing a fantastic job. 25 Race Team parents put in over 10 hours a day to pull off a fantastic regatta. Our own Nathan Smith won the Opti Overall and the CBYRA Chesapeake Bay Open, with FBYC claiming all five of the top spots overall in the Optis: Nathan Smith, Benton Amthor, Boyd Bragg, Ian Street and Guthrie Braun; and our kids dominated throughout the Opti classes. In the very competitive Laser Radial Class, FBYC scored 3 of the top 10 spots, with Luke Hayes 6th, Jed Londry 7th, and Garrett Levy 8th.

RACE TEAMS  June also saw the start of the Summer Race Teams, and by the end of Junior Week all four of our teams- the Opti Development Team, Laser Development Team, Opti Race Team and Laser Race Team-were at full swing, and had grown to a record 49 kids! The teams kicked off their summer race season at the Junior Olympics, and the season will run through August. On the Tuesday after Junior Week the Opti and Laser Race Teams left for regattas at Annapolis Yacht Club and Severn Sailing Association. Look for detailed reports on their exploits in the coming weeks.

Race Team Coach Claire Lennarz teaching at the YMCA Camp

YMCA CAMP  The week after Junior Week FBYC hosted the annual Middlesex County YMCA Sailing Camp. 20 kids from around the county sailed for three days on our Optis under the guidance of FBYC coaches Claire Lennarz, Eric Roos and Austin Powers, and volunteer Miles Kimbrough. On the last two days of camp the kids sailed on larger boats belonging to Event Chair Lud Kimbrough, and members Dick Cole, Karen Souie and Brad Miller. All had a fantastic time and many campers have contacted us about sailing in our other programs the rest of the summer! 

Coming up in July: Our Race Teams race from Massachusetts to Florida, Private Lessons swing into high gear back home, and the Fun Sail!