This year’s U.S. sailing Youth Champs were held in Cascade Locks, Oregon, on the beautiful Columbia River. Known as “The Gorge,” the area is famous for strong winds, and current. The land east of the Gorge is mostly desert and the hot air there rises, and pulls the cooler western air up the valley. As the Gorge narrows, the velocity increases, and speeds over 20 knots are common. This year, the first two days of the regatta provided those predicted winds, but the second two days proved to be so hot that the winds stayed light.

The U.S. Sailing Youth Champs is an invitational regatta. Sailors are selected based on the strength of their sailing resumes. To have 12 kids invited, shows just how strong and talented the pool of young sailors at LYC has become.

LYC juniors won 1/4 of all of the awarded medals. In the 29er class, Mac Agnese teamed with StFYC's Antoine Screve to take silver. They were followed by the Lauderdale pair of Christopher Williford and Kai Friesecke in third. In the Laser Radial, Erika Reineke placed second (and top female), and Erik Weis took the medal for fifth. In the 420 class, Lauderdale's Haley Fox teamed with Larchmont's Casey Klingler to take fifth (and top, all-girl team). That's 6 of 24 medals awarded, going to Lauderdale Yacht Club sailors, twice as many as for any other club. Well done, kids!

Also competing for LYC were Dana Rohde (21^st) and William Livernois (23^rd) in the Radial Class; Luke Muller (6^th), Colin Kennedy (9^th), and Curtis Woodworth (11^th) in the Laser Class; and Duncan Williford (12^th) in the 29er Class.