Thirteen sailors from the Orcas High School sailing team traveled to the first summer youth regatta of the season, June 25-27 at Vancouver Lake, Wash. Summer sun and wind greeted the sailors, making for some awesome sailing with temperatures soaring into the low 80’s and a moderate shifty wind setting down on the lake. The team also enjoyed the lakeside camping and fire pit provided by the Vancouver Lake sailing club.

Skipper Jake White and crews Lee Gibbons and Connor O’Neil stepped into a three person lighting sailboat for the first time Friday afternoon for a clinic before the regatta. Their learning curve was quick and they jumped out to an early lead Saturday by winning the first two races. Seven races were completed during the two day event for the lightnings with White and crew opening up their lead and securing the regatta win with some very tricky light air sailing on Sunday. They will now move on to represent the Northwest at US Sailing’s Chubb U.S. Junior Championships for the Sears Trophy August 14-19 in San Diego, Calif.

Skipper Carly Temple with crew Nile Reed had a strong showing as well in the V-15 class; after leading five races on Saturday they slipped to second place overall in the light shifty winds on Sunday.

The Laser class, with 14 boats competing, was the biggest class on the water. Taylor Smith was able to take third place in this fleet, a very strong showing for Smith as he worked very hard to keep boat speed up in the light winds.

White and Smith will continue their summer training program by traveling to Canada and participating in the prestigious WAVES regatta July 2-4 hosted by the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. Next up for the team is the Port Townsend youth regatta on July 17-18.

Contributed by coach Burke Thomas.