US Youth World Qualifiers

January 16, 2010 - January 18, 2010 • Clearwater Yacht Club - Clearwater, Florida Coverage created by max fraser

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9 comments

2 years ago

Brenner, of US Sailing, was very bright and planned this regatta during east coast exam period and this excludes a lot of good sailors from the east coast from attending, especially last year when it was in California. The youth champs should be the qualifier hands down, it may be further (time-wise) from youth worlds, but it has a wider range of competition.

Went for it anyway 2 years ago

I did go to the qualifier for radials, but knowing that winning the thing and qualifying would be a somewhat of a long shot, I was almost deterred from going because of the travel expense and inconvenience. I am sure there are many others who also share this viewpoint on regattas such as this.
And for the naysayers, try to tell me that the top 20 Youth Radials in the country (minus just a couple) were not at this regatta. The competition was unbelievably tough.
However, I am glad I went, and it was a great experience.

Quiet Thinker 2 years ago

Everyone picks their own boat. I'd say that the ones that were serious about going to youth worlds are the ones that picked the I420. the cost differential for an I420 is not THAT far off of a C420 out of the box. Obviously though other costs build up anytime you can tweak and pick the stuff you use.

There are also a lot more Laser Radials in the US than what was there but that's still all you got.

Outside Observer 2 years ago

Sailors competitng in the I420 had to qualify through the Orange Bowl. The Top 6 males and I thought Top 8 females qualified for the Youth Qualifer, hence the small fleet size. Not sure about the other classes though...

Observer 2 years ago

There are hardly any more I420's in the US than that! Sort of narrows the field down!

Quiet Thinker 2 years ago

I don't look at that as a sign of trouble at all. I could see a lot of potential competitors from say Orange Bowl not going because they see the event as realistically being there only for those seriously trying to go to youth worlds.

Obviously it could be better with more competitors but that in no way implies that sailing is in trouble
I also doubt the event would have drawn many more sailors in from FJ, and Laser without taking away from the classes already there. Probably a few more in the C420. But don't even start on optis...I think they already have a world qualifier

Classes? 2 years ago

Imagine how many US sailors would show up if the classes were Opti, C420, FJ and Laser.

Sailing? 2 years ago

Sailing is in trouble if this is how many boats we can get to show up for a youth world qualifier. Imagine how many kids would show up for an open qualifier for any other youth world team.

USA! 2 years ago

Congrats Mateo, Erika, Ian, Colin, Marlena, Christina, Antoine, James, Cullen, and Taylor! Make us proud!