Former Junior champ takes victory at ISAF Mixed Selection Regatta
Junior Champs from Sarasota, Florida

Sarah Newberry and Matthew Whitehead (Both Former Multihull Junior Champion) of Miami, Florida convincingly won the F16 Class at the 2012 Tradewinds Midwinter Open Cat Nationals held at Founders Park Watersports at Founders Park in Islamorada, Florida in three days of racing over Martin Luther King Weekend.
The annual event drew 70 high-speed, high-tech beach catamarans from all around the USA, as well as top world-class sailors, including Olympic Medalist Pease Glaser of Long Beach, California.
US Sailing, the governing body of all sailboat racing in the United States, selected the Tradewinds Regatta as its selection regatta for U.S. Youth Multihull World Qualifier, and for the U.S. Youth Multihull Championship, and the selection of the top two teams for development for the next Sailing Olympics.

There were six classes at this huge winter event for cats: the largest class was the F16 with 23 boats. The winner of the largest class wins the Carlton Tucker Memorial Trophy, a metal sculptured spinnaker boat on a huge wooden base.

Other classes were the F18 and Nacra20 that sailed on the Gold Course for high-speed, spinnaker boats. On the Orange Course there were the Hobie 16s, Waves and Open Class.

The class of boat used for the event was the F16 catamaran. There are a number of manufacturers and all must build the boats all to the same specs. These extremely fast catamarans reach speeds over 30 mph in ideal conditions. And the conditions were ideal over this past weekend. Even though Friday was windless, Saturday and Sunday had winds around 20 mph and higher. These boats were literally flying around the buoyed courses.

Winning the F16 Youth Championship were Jeremy Herrin and Same Armington of Sarasota, Florida winning by 10 points over Ben Brown and Luc Lisi of San Francisco, California, and rounding out the Podium was Joseph Bello and Shelby Brown of Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
Winning the selection for the Olympic Development team was former Junior Champ, Sarah Newberry and Matthew Whitehead of Miami, Florida, winning convincingly over Past Olympic Gold Medalist, Pease Glaser, of Huntington Beach, California with John Williams Crewing. Third spot went to Mike Easton and McKenzie Wilson from Lexington, Massachusetts.

The Races:
Friday was a bust for the Gold Course. There seemed to be absolutely no wind on this course set farther off shore than the Orange Course. On that course three fleets started in winds between 4 and 5 mph, but soon the wind backed off to two. A breeze would fill in once in a while and appear to be a nice fresh new air that would stick around. But it didn’t. The RC shortened the course, but did get in one race.
Saturday brought cooler weather, but very good wind. It was measured between 18-20 mph and stayed that way all day. Being on the Bay Side of the Florida Keys, the seas are relatively flat to what they would be on the Ocean Side. These are perfect conditions for catamaran sailing. And the venue cannot be beaten anywhere. How can you beat sunny skies, aqua-clear water, average winds of 15 mph and flat seas? You can’t!

Both courses got in a total of nine races for the weekend – the Gold Course had 5 races on Saturday and 4 more on Sunday; the Orange Course were one on Friday, Four on Saturday and Four on Sunday.
The F16 Fleet:
Sarah Newberry/Matthew Whitehead started Saturday off with a bang, nailing 3 bullets out of five races, and holding a one point lead over Junior Champ Taylor Reiss/Brianna Chu. Close behind these two teams was Mike Easton and McKenzie Wilson. Pease Glaser and John Williams were back in 4th place, and Annie Garnder (Nelson) and Ereic Witte rounded out the top five.

Newberry lit it up again on Sunday starting off with two aces, a 3rd and then threw out her worst finish of 5th, taking an eight point lead over Glaser/Williams who managed to stay with the top group of sailors and finish up with a first place finish. Easton/Wilson made the podium by one point over Reiss/Chu, Gardner/Witte settling for 5th place overall.

This class was also for the US Sailing Youth Championship. Jeremy Herrin and Sam Armington of Sarasota, Florida took first place in the Juniors, and was 7th place overall in the class. Ben Brown and Luc Lisi of San Francisco were ten points behind and took 2nd place, and in the overall score were 9th. Joseph Bello and Shelby Brown of Ft Walton Beach took the final podium spot, and were 12th place overall.

Here are the Youth Winners

The F18 Class
The F18 Class was the second largest class, and there was no contest in this one. John Tomko and Ian Billings came from Texas and showed everyone how Texans do it. Seven out of nine bullets for the regatta. The ones he didn’t win were two second place finishes. Yes, they do it big in Texas.

Brett Moss and Kenny Pierce of Miami, Florida were in second spot, with 10 points, six points behind Tomko/Billings. Holding down third spot after Saturday’s races Robbie Daniel and Gary Chu were seven point behind the leaders, and only one point behind Moss and Pierce.
Also in the running were Alex Shafer/Laura Mum, Jake Kohl/Mike Krant, and Dave Ingram/Mark Herendeen.
On Sunday, Tomko/Billings did not let up – three more aces and a deuce. Moss/Pierce averaged second place finishes and easily took second, 15 points ahead of Kohl/Krantz. Shafer/Mum and Ingram/Herendeen rounded out the top five. Daniel/Chu did not race on Saturday, dashing any hopes of the podium.
The Wave Class.
Ray Matuszak from Put-in-Bay, Ohio completely dominated this aggressive class, taking 6 bullets in nine races. His first race was his worst – a 5th. After that, he never got farther back than second place. Two-time past National Champ, Leah White was a bit overpowered (she is rather petite) was holding on to a slim 2-point lead over Mike Phillips. This was Phillips first time on a Wave and was doing very well against some very talented sailors. Mark Scarpelli, also from Put-in-Bay, was in fourth place, and Mike Powers and John Sherry were tied up for 5th place.

Matuszak continued in his winning ways and won by 13 points over White. Phillips held on to 3rd place. Rounding out the top were Sherry in 4th place and Scarpelli taking fifth.
Hobie 16
It was awesomely close racing in this tough class. Old-timer Bob Johnson and Joanna Lienti started off with a bang by winning the race on Friday. But, the only raced one more race, not starting the last seven.
By beer time on Saturday, Ken Hilk/Gina McDonald had a slim one-point lead over Mike Montague and Kathy Ward, who had a one-point lead over Sean and Kathleen Tracy, who in turn had a one-point lead over Wally Myers and Sharon Woodruff. Do you get the Point?

It was anyones regatta on Sunday, but Montague/Ward knocked off some great starts and took three bullets and a second to capture the title by four points over Hilk/McDonald. The Tracys took 3rd spot and Myers/Woodruff settled for fourth, with Mark Jones and Pam Moss in 5th place

N20
Only three boat showed up this year. Strangely a few years back they were the largest fleet and won the Carlton Tucker Memorial Trophy. Trey Brown and Bailey White took all bullets and retire for the last race. Steve Lohmayer and Jay Sonnenklar were second and Patrick Pettengil and Joe Podeva were third.
Open Class
There were only three boats in the Open Class as well. It was won by Emiliano Oddo/Oscar Garcia-Coni/Ivan Loya on a Stiletto 23. Kelly Davis was winning with his Hobie 17, but he kept breaking down and could not sail the last two races. Third went to Hans Evers/Laurens Schouten Evers on a Hobie 20

The regatta was hosted by Founders Park Water Sports, Catamaran Sailor Magazine, www.catsailor.com, www.OnLineMarineStore.com, RedGearRacing.com and Catamaran Assn. Of Biscayne Bay. The event has been held annually over the MLK Weekend for almost 20 years. For more information you can contact rick@catsailor.com
Be sure to start preparations now for next year.., same time, same place – ML King Weekend at Founder Park Watersports.
For Notice of Race for 2013, here is the Link; http://www.catsailor.com/Tradewinds.html

Here are some great videos from Mike Krantz:

Here are some great pictures by PhotoBoat.com, and you can see many more at:

http://www.photo-boat.com/tradewinds-regatta.html

Results:

F16 Class

F18 Class

N20 Class

Waves

Hobie 16

Open