Sailing champs: Leigh Hammel, 16, (l) and Emily Dellenbaugh, 15. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Larry Untermeyer for WestportNowcomHistory was made today as the four-day 2005 U.S. Youth Sailing Championship hosted by Westport’s Cedar Point Yacht Club came to an end.
For the first time in the 23-year history of the event, an all-female team has won the doublehanded Club 420 fleet. Emily Dellenbaugh, 15, of Easton, Conn., and Leigh Hammel, 16, of Warren, Vt., took the honors.
They demonstrated great consistency throughout the event by always finishing in the top six of seven races in the 50-boat fleet.
Thomas Barrows of St. Thomas, USVI, was victorious in the Laser class and Kyle Rogachenko of Collegeville, Pa., won the Laser Radial class.
Racing was intense in the Club 420 fleet with the overall lead changing several times throughout the championship.
In the end, only six points separated the top three finishers in the event with Tyler Sinks and Myles Gutenkunst (San Diego, Calif./Mill Valley, Calif.) taking second place and San Diegans Adam Roberts and Nicholas Martin finishing third.
Dellenbaugh attributed her team’s win to “lots of practice.” She and Hammel have been sailing together for about a year and when they’re not sailing together, Dellenbaugh practices in her Club 420 with her sister Rebecca.
Dellenbaugh and Hammel take home US SAILING’s Manton Scott Memorial Trophy.
In the Laser fleet, competing for his third time in the championship was the charm for Thomas Barrows (St. Thomas, USVI), who defeated 34 competitors to take home the National Championship title.
“This year’s event was the best competition I’ve ever been in,” said Barrows, adding that his high school sailing experience and a recent Advanced Racing Clinic in Newport, R.I. helped him prepare for the championship.
With 23 points total, Barrows finished seven points ahead of the second-place finisher Robert Noonan (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) and 10 points ahead of current U.S. Youth World Team-member Royce Weber (Surf City, N.J.) who finished third.
By winning the event, the 17-year-old Barrows has received US SAILING’s Robert L. Johnstone III Trophy and has also qualified to compete in the U.S. Singlehanded Sailing Championship for US SAILING’s O’Day Trophy to be sailed at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, Calif., on Aug. 17-21.
With a total of four wins in seven races in the 25-boat Laser Radial fleet, Kyle Rogachenko took the lead on the first day and held on to it throughout the championship.
This event served as great practice for Rogachenko who was recently named to the 2005 Laser Radial Youth World Team and will represent the United States at the Laser Radial World Championship in Brazil in December of this year.
David Hernandez (Miami, Fla.) finished in second place overall, one spot higher than last year’s event when he finished third. John Moulthrop of Middlebury, Conn. finished third overall.
The David M. Perry Perpetual Sportsmanship Trophies were awarded to the sailors voted by their peers as most sportsmanlike in each fleet. The awards went to Fred Strammer (Nokomis, Fla.) in the Laser fleet, Zeke Horowitz (Sarasota, Fla.) in the Radial fleet, and to Club 420 skipper Tyler Sinks and crew Myles Gutenkunst.
For more information about the 2005 U.S. Youth Sailing Championship, including complete results, daily reports, and photos, visit www.ussailing.org/championships/youth/youthchamp.
