Stephanie Hudson, with crew Rebecca King, won U.S. Sailing's 2009 U.S. Youth Sailing Championship in Club 420 on June 30, 2009! Will Haeger, with crew George Kutschenreuter, won the final race of the event. Annie Haeger placed 3rd in Laser Radials! Colin Smith placed 6th in the Laser fleet.

According to the US SAILING press release, “the U.S. Youth Sailing Championship is the pinnacle of youth sailing competition in the United States. The country’s top single- and double handed young sailors, both girls and boys, ranging from 13 to 19 years of age raced for four prestigious trophies from Friday, June 26 through Tuesday, June 30. US SAILING selected this field of sailors from across the country, including the U.S. Virgin Islands, based on their sailing resumes and performance at regional, national, and international competitions.”

Hudson/King competed in the largest class with 28 entrants. They started quickly winning two of the first four races and adding two fifth place finishes taking the yellow pinnies indicative of the regatta leader. The ladies retained the yellow pinnies on day three with three good races, opening up a 14 point lead. Unfortunately, they struggled on day four in the light (2 to 5 knot) breeze, tripling their score in just three races. This dropped them three points back into second place with just one race to go.

Having lost the yellow pinnies, the ladies rallied in race eleven, finishing in sixth place, ahead of all of their nearest competitors and beating the yellow pinnied leaders by six boats. As they crossed the finish line, Steph celebrated their victory by tackling Becca out of the boat after they crossed the finish line, but while under a full spinnaker. With their win, the ladies were presented with Gold medals and the Manton D. Scott Memorial Trophy as the nation’s double handed youth champions. In another exciting finish, Beulah's William Haeger and George Kutschenreuter won the final 420 race of the regatta by surfing the final wave past the leader Ian Barrows.

On the Laser Radial course, Anne Haeger entered the final day, tied for the lead, but wearing the yellow pinny. Winds were 10 to 12 knots, more to the liking of Chris Stocke of Sarasota and Nevin Snow of San Diego than the winds of the previous four days. Despite a valiant effort by Anne Kate, Stocke won the title, followed in second by Snow. Anne won three of the eleven races sailed, but settled for the bronze medal. Twenty sailors competed in the Radial class.

For those of you who lived on Lake Beulah in the 1970’s, you may remember Nevin’s mother, Mary Brigden (B-33). Mary won the 1975 WYA X and ILYA Class X Senior Fleet Championships. She later graduated from the US Naval Academy. In addition to his Silver medal, Nevin was honored with the Sportsmanship Award based on a vote by his peers.

Finally, LBSS instructor Colin Smith competed in the Laser Full Rig class. With strong competition, Colin finished in sixth place overall. While Smith had many strong race finishes, he was unable to overcome a DNF and three finishes in the mid teens. Twenty one sailors competed in the Laser Full Rig fleet.

Congratulations to all of our Beulah representatives!

420 Results

Laser Radial Results

Full Rig Results

Videos