Report By Rich Roberts & CBYC.com
The US Optimist National Championships will hit the West Coast for the first time Sunday with three days of Team Racing, to be followed by the one-day Girls Nationals and four-day open Nationals through the following weekend, all hosted by the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club.
The climactic 2009 competition will see Christopher Williford, 14, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., among more than 200 sailors ages 7 to 15 from 16 states and two Canadian provinces defending the title he won last year at Patchogue, N.Y., on the southern shore of Long Island. His strongest rivals will include his twin brother Duncan, who finished first to Christopher’s third in the North American Midwinters in December.
Racing will be inside and outside the Angels Gate lighthouse entrance to Los Angeles Harbor and will start daily at noon, conditions permitting. The Green fleet for beginners and the first two phases of Team Racing, with about a dozen multi-boat teams, and Girls Nationals will be staged inside the breakwater. The final four days of open racing will be outside on the ocean fully exposed to the normally robust southwest sea breeze that builds most afternoons between the coast and Santa Catalina Island 22 miles out: “Hurricane Gulch.”
There’s significance to this being the first appearance of the Opti Nationals on the “left” coast of the country, according to Rob Rowlands, executive director of the US Optimist Dinghy Association (USODA).
Rowlands said, “It’s a growth area for the class and this is an opportunity for some of the local and regional people to be exposed to the national level sailors, as well as for the national sailors to experience sailing in Southern California.”
That scenario makes for an interesting match between the two most heavily represented states: California, with 53 entries, and Florida, with 38.
They all might get some tips from San Pedro locals Frank Dair, 10, and Kaili Campbell, 10, who finished third and 10th among 28 sailors in the Opti West Coast Championships at Marina del Rey last weekend, although conditions at San Pedro on the other side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula are generally more challenging.
The fleet of 7-foot 9-inch boats also will include Malcolm Lamphere, 13, of Lake Forest, Ill., who placed third among 147 boats in the Open European Championships at Piran, Slovenia early this month, and Cooper Weitz, 13, of Marina del Rey, who won the West Coast Champs.