2022 District 13 Championships Results
The D13 Championship was held December 3-4, in Sarasota, hosted by the Sarasota Sailing Squadron. A record size fleet of 141 competitors included young and old, with sailors from as far away as California, Nova Scotia and even Germany. The youngest junior sailor was 11 and the oldest Master 81! We had an impressive ILCA 4 fleet with 36 sailors, a massive 67 boat ILCA 6 Fleet, and a talent stacked ILCA 7 fleet of 31 boats.
SSS is an ideal venue and the 26 volunteers worked hard to provide top-rate hospitality and race management.
Challenging conditions tested the Race Committee, who did an excellent job getting 3 races in on a weekend where the wind was light at best on Saturday, and came in late on Sunday. On Saturday 2 races were started and then had to be abandoned due to an extreme wind shift (sailors found themselves close hauled on the downwind leg and still not making the mark!), or the wind dying completely. The trapezoid course was shifted multiple times to adjust for the wind.
In addition to the wind challenges, the SSS had to deal with a red tide event that occurred a few days ahead of the event. After cleaning up their waterfront and assessing the best marine data available, which showed declining algae numbers, it was decided to go forward and that turned out to be a good call. While not ideal, the levels were low enough to be safe.
Top 3 ILCA 7’s were:
- Mats Braaten [Junior] Ontario Sailing Team /Royal Canadian YC
- Kurt Taulbee [Grand Master] SailFit/ CCSC
- Alex Liebel [Junior] Sarasota Youth Sailing
Top 3 ILCA 6’s were:
- Griggs Diemar [Junior] Lauderdale Yacht Club
- Jake Homberger [Junior] Lauderdale Yacht Club
- Isabella Mendoza-Cabezas [Junior] Key Biscayne Yacht Club
Top 3 ILCA 4’s were:
- Will Barnhart [Junior] Key Biscayne Yacht Club
- Fernando Figueroa [Junior] Key Biscayne Yacht Club
- Nissana Berman [Junior] Lauderdale Yacht Club / Chicago Yacht Club
One more item of note, many of you are surely aware the Edison Sailing Center in Ft.Myers got devastated by Ian. As they recover, they attempted to send some youth sailors to the D13 Champs. While they had boats, they were missing sails. Their container with sails was literally buried in the mud and not yet fully cleaned out. We put out a request for help, to see if anyone might have used, but class legal, sails to borrow or donate. They needed 2 ILCA 4, and 1 ILCA 6 sails.
Our sailing community responded in a big way, with several offers of sails to donate. And one person then offered to simply buy 2 new ILCA 4 sails and also cover the cost of shipping! Many thanks to all those fellow sailors that helped! It’s gratifying to be a part of this sailing community – we race hard on the water, but also take care of each other when the need arises.
