Rush Creek Juniors race at the Orange Bowl

Four of the Rush Creek 420 sailors who attended the Orange Bowl.  Photo provided courtesy of Chris Love for Sailgroove.

The Orange Bowl is the last big regatta of the year for junior sailors.  Located in warm and beautiful Coral Gables, Florida it is a great get away for families seeking a vacation after the craziness of the holidays.

 

This is a huge regatta; rarely do junior sailors or any sailors for that matter, see starting lines like they do at the Orange Bowl.  For example, the 420 fleet has 90 boats and 180 sailors, the Opti Red White and Blue fleet features 222 boats.  The Laser Radial boasts 135 sailors.  In total the Orange Bowl this year featured seven fleets with 610 boats and 722 junior sailors. 

 

The Orange Bowl is truly an International Regatta.  This year sailors came from 17 countries including six European nations and five South American Nations.  Twenty three states were represented as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands 

 

The regatta was held at three venues right next door to each other.  They opened the gates between them so you can wander around.  It is gorgeous and a very well organized program.  It is a tremendous amount of work for the clubs to manage a program of this size with all of the junior sailors, their boats, their parents and their coaches. 

 

The Dallas Metroplex area was represented by five sailors from RushCreek.  Two 420 sailboats attended with Stewart Draheim, the Flying Scot Junior North American Champion skippering one with his crew Alexis Meyers.  Yuki Yoshiyasu skippered the other 420 and her crew was Alexander Judd.  Hamrick Morgan, National Champion crew for the MC Scow sailed in the Red White and Blue Opti fleet. 

 

None of the RushCreek sailors finished on the podium this year, their first year competing.  Stewart stated, “It was an exciting regatta for me…The highlight of the week was it was my first opportunity to look at all the best 420 sailors across the country and analyze my strengths and weaknesses.  It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. 

 

  

For more info: Please write to me Hunter Farris at Hunter.Farris@yahoo.com.  I'd love to hear from you.