PHOTOS BY SARI ASAHI
RS21 North American Championships the Lucky Dog Racing Team from New Jersey, skippered by Travis Weisleder with his crew Marcus Eagan, Chandler Self and John Bowden, dominated the event and won 11 of 15 races sailed in these very shifty and puffy conditions. On the final day, the fleet was separated into the Gold and Silver Fleet, with each fleet sailing three races each. In the Gold Fleet, Second Place was hotly contested by John Lovell of New Orleans and Glenn Darden from Fort Worth Texas who both tied for second place before the very last mark when Lovell had to make a penalty turn issued by one of the “on the water umpires”, allowing By John Barnett
L
akewood Yacht Club
hosted the first RS21 North American Championship with their new RS21 club sailboats! These boats proved to be fast, fun to sail and every racer was able to rotate their boat every few races. This regatta became a race of sailing skill and not how a team could best modify a boat for racing. The event had a competitive fleet of 17 teams consisting of Olympic and National Champion sailors sailing 24 races in 3 days. Due to the boat rotation, these races where short and plentiful each day sailing the race course at the east end of Clearlake where there are a lot of wind shifts. However, it didn’t prove to be an advantage to the local sailors because
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Bay Area Houston Magazine | AUGUST 2020
Darden to comfortably finish in Second Place. The local club sailors were well represented by Danny Plestch in 4th who won a tiebreaker over Casey Lambert who finished 5th. This new format for a Championship Regatta provided a very fast pace exhilarating Regatta! The race course was kept short enough to keep the championship exciting for the spectator instead of watching a typical sailing event that is similar to “watching grass grow” while the boats sail over the horizon. The new race format allowed for a big fleet of spectators to watch this exciting fast-moving championship. On the water, the event was run
