98th Lipton Cup, San Diego YC, (Yacht Club Invitational, J105s)
This year’s 98th edition of San Diego’s Lipton Cup saw a renewed level of interest in one of our region’s longest standing events, including participation from two of our local teams. The Lipton has been raced nearly continuously since 1903.
For this year’s event, SDYC decided to invest in a fleet of equalized boats with new sails that will be used solely for the Lipton Cup; clearly both of these steps have helped reinvigorate this event.
Some of the best known sailors from throughout California showed up at San Diego for this year’s Lipton Cup, not to mention invited guests from New York and Southern yacht clubs.
This year also saw a hyper-competitive field in identical J-105s; it was really like a “Who’s Who” convention of top California sailors. Among the well-known names were former Olympians Russ Silvestri and Mark Reynolds, competing with teams from San Francisco and San Diego, respectively. Other top one-design/offshore sailors ncluded event winners Bob Little and Ben Mitchell from Cal Yacht Club in Marina del Rey.
Both BYC and NHYC fielded teams this year, with Carson Reynolds leading a strong team from BYC, and Chris Raab sailing for NHYC. Raab’s team was contending at the end of the first day, but dropped back to sixth place overall, while Reynold’s BYC team finished in 11th. This was such an incredibly talented 12-boat fleet; looking at the final scores in this 11-race series showed that every boat in this fleet finished at least a few of their races at the very back of the fleet.
Further race info at sdyc.org/liptoncup.
Cressy Regatta (High School Singlehanded Sailing Championships), US Sailing Center Long Beach
Two local high school sailors qualified to compete in this year’s Cressy Regatta. Conner Kelter finshed 9th/18 boats in Full Rigs. Wills Johnson tied for 14th among the 18 boats in the Radial Class.
Just qualifying for the Cressy is a big deal; both Kelter and Johnson had to finish in the Top 4 in the So Cal regional qualifier last month; there were a lot of talented high school sailors who didn’t qualify for this event.
Kelter, a junior on the CdM sailing team, finished the event with Top 10 finishes in 10 of the 18 races sailed. Johnson, a lanky 6-foot, 2-inch sophomore from NHHS, struggled in the big breezes the boys raced on the first two days of the event. By Sunday, Wills decided he really liked the lighter breezes and wrapped up his last day of racing with all Top 10 finishes, including three “bullets.”
So Cal #2, BYC (FJs, High School, Junior High), Nov. 10
BYC hosted a fun Saturday of racing for new CFJ sailors just getting into the high school sailing team. Last weekend saw big breezes and lots of capsized FJs. Full results available at PCISA.org.
Upcoming Sailing Events:
Nov 17-18, Ullman/Frost/Hamlin Series, ABYC (Laser, Laser Radial, 29er)
Dec 1-2, Sunkist Series #2, BYC (inside classes Saturday; outside Sunday)
Dec 2, Winter Series, NHYC (H20, L12, Finn)
Dec 8-9, Anteater Regatta, UCI/NHYC (High School)
Dec 9, Hot Rum Regatta #2, BCYC (PHRF)
