Big Finish for Bellport/Bayshore Semi-Finals

The Semi-Finals have come to an end and you all know what that means...the big time!

  The Sears, Smythe and Bemis Semi-finals were sailed this week, July 27th-29th, on the Southern shore of Long Island. The Bellport and Bayshore Yacht Clubs helped host these Area B eliminations to help whittle down the competition even more. All sailors have been training hard for this and gave it everything they had to make it one step closer to competing in the U.S. Sailing's Chubb Junior Championships. 

 The Chubb Championships are the final destination for U.S. Junior Sailing National Championships. The Sears consists of triplehanded sailing, the Bemis doublehanded, and the Smythe singlehanded. The Bemis and Smythe Semi-finals were conducted at Bellport Bay Yacht Club by regatta chair Edmund Laviano, while the Sears was sailed out of Bayshore Yacht Club just down the shore, run by locally loved Dianne Schmidt. 

 The host sites weren't too far from each other, just 15 miles away and were both sailed on the same body of water, experiencing much of the same breeze and weather conditions. The racing began on Tuesday, with Monday being a day for practice. The Sears event was sailed round-robin style in Flying Scots provided by GSBYRA, with a new set of sails to each boat. The Smythe and Bemis were BYOB, and that doesn't involve a cooler!  

  The mostly sunny skies and a 6-10 knot breeze were favorable, unlike Wednesday's fog that caused postponement throughout both events. Eventually the fog lifted and each course got in their required number of races (8-Bemis/Smythe, 6-Sears). Glenn Schmidt, an event organizer for the regattas, warmly complimented the sailors, "All the sailors were great and we truly enjoyed having them at our respective clubs." 

 Congratulations to the winners moving on to the final round: 

• Smythe- Dan Nickerson (Ram Island YC, ECSA)
• Bemis- James Schaefer/ Jason Raymond (Cedar Point YC, JSA LIS)
• Sears- Nathan Fast/ Ben Wilkinson/ O.J O'Connell (Mystic River Mudhead SA, ECSA)  

Uh-oh Bemis, here comes the JSA! Give them a run for their money Boys!

For Full results keep checking the US Sailing Junior Championship Page.