The How and Why of a NorCal ‘Bragging Rights Regatta’ for High School Sailing

“We need a bragging rights regatta,” says Kimball Livingston. “Our Northern California high school teams race September to May, then go home with no story to tell to the school paper, the kids in the hall.”

As Kimball tells it, the annual NorCal regatta is a wrap-up of sorts for high school sailing teams from Marin to Monterey, but the adrenaline levels are so-so because the motivation is so-so. Historically, the winners wring out their socks, accept congratulations, load their dinghies onto trailers, and go home and tell Mom about it and go to bed.

Not this year.

“I dug up a historic trophy, and I dreamed up a bonkers prize, and I found a lot of people who are keen to make something happen,” Kimball says. It probably mattered to the mission that he is curator and historian of St. Francis Yacht Club, also Staff Commodore Ambassador to Youth Sailing, a title that he says started out tongue in cheek, “But then there was a vote, and I’m making it real.

“John Bertrand won two Laser worlds as a junior before he went on to Finn world championships and an Olympic medal,” Kimball says. “Bertrand skippered the winning boat at the 1981 California Cup — Cal Cup is a big deal — and the keeper trophy he carried away is now out of hiding and repurposed for the Northern League Championship of High School Sailing. Every member of that young crew, including Paul Cayard, Craig Healy, Steve Jeppesen, [and] Ken Keefe, helped build the legends of their generation. Maybe we can spark some legend-building in the next — and give them stories to tell.”

The trophy will go to the winning school’s display case. The winners will go racing in Annapolis.

Yes, Annapolis. The winning team will be offered a foundation-sponsored trip for five sailors and a coach to an annual invitational event, the Phoebe King Memorial Regatta. The NorCals/Northern League Championship runs April 6-7 in Flying Junior dinghies at PYSF in Redwood City. The Phoebe King runs at Annapolis YC June 1-2 in C420s.

What has changed?

“We’ve always been the Northern League of the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association,” Kimball says. “We just never paid it off before.”

There are other dimensions, but apparently no one would know them without being neck-deep in the youth racing scene. As described, high school sailing — kids representing their schools — is only one feature of youth sailing. It plays a big role, however, and brings more people together more often than most other competitions. But there is said to be a world of difference between north and south.

“Our kids do fine,” Kimball says, “but our school teams are relatively small. A lot of the sailors are learning as freshmen. It’s great to have them joining the sport, but when teams go south they run into a juggernaut. SoCal teams have won five of the last 10 Nationals. They have big schools packed with kids who became lifestyle sailors as peewees. Heck, at Harbor High, Newport Beach, the football team is called the Sailors. I love it down there, but the culture is … different.

“Our best teams can compete, but breaking through to the top is just not a good bet,” Kimball says. “That’s why I support high school sailing for what it is and what it does — I wouldn’t be cranking up this event at PYSF otherwise — but when I find a kid with a fire in the belly, I know those killer instincts will need some other outlet too. And now isn’t the time to go into it, but I believe the Bay Area is overdue for a group rethink on what we could do better together.

“Meanwhile, working together, the foundations of the San Francisco YC, Richmond YC, Encinal YC, St. Francis YC and PYSF are all-in to support the Northern League Championship in 2024, just as they were on the first attempt, in 2020, when the plan got 2020’d. It took this long to relaunch,” Kimball says. “But I love watching kids react when they hear about this, and it’s a thing of beauty to share the enthusiasm of the foundations to make something happen.

“It’s our boat; let’s rock it!”