Winning Weekend: Cayards, Hamlin, Heineken All California Winners

California has always been a sailing powerhouse, with champions emerging from up and down the coast in all events, from the America’s Cup to the Volvo Ocean Race, Olympics and endless world championships in a wide variety of classes. The past weekend saw some great results in the very competitive world of small-boat and wingfoil sailing.

5O5 World Championship

Three California teams were in the top 10 of the 5O5 World Championship held August 1-10 in Varburg, Sweden. The 5O5 is one of the world’s most difficult, technical and competitive fleets, made even more challenging when there are 95 boats in the fleet! In Varburg it was 70-plus-year-old Howie Hamlin who was the top Californian, in third place (just two points behind first) ahead of last year’s world champions Mike Martin and Adam Loory in fourth and the Santa Cruz 5O5 team of Mike Holt and Rob Woelfel in seventh.  You can see the complete results here.

Star North Americans

Closer to home, the Newport Harbor Yacht Club hosted the Star North Americans from August 5 to 10. There were 25 boats on the line in this star-studded class, and it was 1988 Star world champion Paul Cayard, with his son Danny as crew, who came out on top of this competitive fleet.

2009 SDYC Star world champion George Szabo and crew Guy Avellon were a close second. Renowned Bay Area sailor John Kostecki, with crew Austin Sperry, was back in the game, taking sixth in class.

Paul currently serves as president of the International Star Class Association and is current North American champion. The Star class has been hosting world championships since 1923 and will be holding its World Championship September 4–13 with 62 boats currently signed up to compete at the San Diego Yacht Club. The San Diego Yacht Club is also home to Star world champions Mark Reynolds and Vince Brun. Complete North American Results here.

Summer Wingding — US WingFoil Championship

Even closer to home was the first US WingFoil Championship, hosted August 9-11 by the St. Francis Yacht Club. It wouldn’t surprise anyone who’s followed kite-foiling or wingfoiling for a while to find out former kiteboarding world champion Johnny Heineken came out on top after finishing with 10 bullets in 15 races, with his two throwouts being fourths, and the three other races taking second. With an incoming current it was flat water for the three-day event that was sailed in winds from 10–34 knots. Find the full results of this first-ever national US Sailing WingFoil championship here.

Around the world or around the buoys, West Coast sailors continue to lead the charge in an endless list of extremely competitive events. Look for a recap about the Bay Area’s impressive Olympic sailors, Daniela Moroz, Hans Henken (bronze medalist) and David Liebenberg, in the upcoming issue of Latitude 38. In classes up and down the coast a new generation of sailors is following in the wake of these California champions.