Newport Harbor Sailing Team wins National Championship

Cindy Barnard

Over the weekend of May 9-10, sailors representing Newport Harbor High School and Corona del Mar High School traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida to participate in the 2009 High School National Fleet Racing Championship. Newport Harbor took the championship winning by 70 points, while Corona del Mar sailed an exceptional regatta placing third with a very young team. The regatta was sailed in extremely light, tricky conditions with varying winds from 4-10 knots and hot, humid weather.

Hosted this year by the University of Southern Florida, the event format includes the sailors switching every two races between two different type of double-handed dinghy boats, CFJ’s and 420’s. Each high school team is divided into A and B divisions and the results from each division are added together to get the team score. Sailing for Newport’s A Division were senior Skipper Chris Barnard with crews Nicole Grice, Brooks Clark and Jeff Aschieris. In B Division, Junior Chris Segerblom skippered and was assisted by senior Kayla McComb, while freshmen Francesca Cappellinni and Ryan Davidson jumped in the boat when the winds got light.

On Saturday, the sailors were kept out on the water for a grueling 9 hours until 7 pm to complete 22 races. Though Newport began Sunday with a narrow lead of only 10 points over the hometown team of Sarasota High School, they sailed consistently well to clinch the title before the last two races. With their experience practicing in the light winds of Newport Bay, the CdM High school team consisting of Tyler MacDonald, Heather May, Emily Dahl, Michael Dahl, Kieran Chung, Madison Vitarelli, Brett Potter and Mackenzi Burke kept their composure to secure the bronze medals.