The 2015 49er, 49erFx and Nacra national were completed last week. U.S. National Champions are Michael Easton and Katie Pettibone in the Nacra, Judge Ryan and Hans Henken in the 49er and Emily Dellenbaugh and Elizabeth Barry in the 49erFX. This was the first national championship for all three teams in an Olympic Class.
Dellenbaugh and Barry specifically attribute their improvement to 75-plus days that they have trained with the support of Oakcliff over the last year.
A total of four races over three days were sailed. In most places the sea breeze fills in mid-afternoon, but in Oyster Bay especially with this unusually warm weather system, it was very late.
Executive Director Dawn Riley commented, “This week we started calling it a ‘happy hour breeze’ instead of a sea breeze.”
The High Performance sailors baked in the sun, swam in Cold Spring Harbor, and made an uncounted number of ice cream runs waiting for the sea breeze to fill in each day. Nevertheless, the sailors maintained an excellent attitude.
PRO Liz Shaw and her team of 16 volunteers were precise in squeezing in out every opportunity to race. High Performance Fleet Captain Evan Sjostedt also kept the beach rolling and the equipment ready as Oakcliff’s large high performance fleet made it easy logistically for many younger teams to compete.
Of note in the 49erFX Class, Germans Leonie Myer and Elena Stoffers and Canadian’s Erin Rafuse and Danielle Boyd were first and second in the class.
