Tuesday, July 1

Today was a day of upsets and victories at the 2008 U.S. Youth Sailing Championships.  For Tyler Sinks, defending champion in the C420 class, this was his and his crew, Briana Provancha's last U.S. Youth Sailing Championship.  A veteran of a number of U.S. Youth Championships, this one may rank as one of his favorites.  As Tyler said, "The only problem with this championship was too much wind - but we'll take it."    He complemented his fellow competitors for really keeping it tight. He noted that both he and Briana had won this event in the past and their experience  paid off.  The top all-women's finishing team was Emily Maxwell and Elizabeth Dudley.

In the Laser fleet, Cam Cullman pulled off an upset victory against Luke Lawrence, who had an OCS on the final race and dropped to fourth.  For Cullman, another for whom this is his last Youth Champs, this was a wonderful day.  "I feel amazing.  This is the best feeling in the world.", he exclaimed.

In the Radial fleet, another upset had front runner Chris Barnard from Newport Harbor Yacht Club dropping to third place after a 16th in the final race of the championship.  Philip Crain's second and third place put him on top of the podium.  Defending champion, Colin Smith, who won in the Laser division last year, took home second.  For the women, local Claire Dennis was the top finisher with ninth.

Judge Ryan and Hans Henken, who are off to the ISAF Youth Worlds in Denmark in just a few weeks, took top honors in the 29er class.  The team will represent the United States in the men's doublehanded division.  Ryan said that this was the team's last tune up before the Words.  "We went out the first day and posted some pretty good scores."  He noted that the final day of racing was in fact the hardest as everyone was "finding their groove."

All in all, everyone raved about this year's event.  The conditions were tough, there is no doubt about it.  Experience and size both paid big dividends.