Southampton Yacht Club Hosts Outside Clubs For First Time Since 2019 With PGJSA Junior Regatta

The Southampton Yacht Club opened its doors to outside clubs for the first time since 2019 when it hosted a Peconic Gardiners Junior Sailing Association qualifying junior regatta on July 15-16.

Although sailing was one of the most popular sports last summer due to the obvious spatial distances between sailors, most clubs still took heed and did not host any outside clubs for regattas last year. However, like Southampton, most did hold internal regattas with races amongst club members, sailing director Geoff Loffredo said.

But Loffredo said it was really nice to welcome outside clubs back and onto Shinnecock Bay.

“Everybody loved seeing that return that resembled something pretty normal,” he said. “I think the turnout was good. It was little less than what it was in previous years, but that’s what we’re seeing at regattas that other clubs are hosting and seems to be the theme. I think it’s going to take a little while to get to those old numbers that we were seeing in the past. I think some people might not be comfortable coming out still, and I think because sailing was one of things people could do last year, with other things opening up maybe people are taking their families and doing the things that they couldn’t do. But it was a great turnout for the two days and we were lucky with the conditions we had on both days.”

With light winds earlier in the day last Thursday, races weren’t able to start until after noon, which led to four races. But Loffredo said once the wind picked up, things were good to go.

Sunfish, laser 4.7s, laser radials, laser fulls and c420s took to the waters on the first day of racing, while optimists sailed on Friday. Grace Lyons of Southold Yacht Club finished with a low of 7 points on the day to edge Joanna Anderson (unknown club) who finished with eight points to win the sunfish division. Aislinn Callanan of Southold YC finished third with 11 points.

Julia Dahiya of Old Cove Yacht Club in New Suffolk won the laser 4.7 division with five points, seven points ahead of second place Sean Beaver of Southold YC. William Bateman of Shelter Island Yacht Club placed third with 16 points.

Jarred Hosking of Shelter Island YC won the laser radial division with six points, just taking the number one spot from Southampton’s Will Stork, who finished with seven points. Richard “Micky” Kalich of Mattituck Yacht Club placed third with 18 points.

Southampton’s Oliver Vulliez and Tristan Stump tied for first place with six points each in the laser full division. James Bergstrom of Shelter Island YC placed third with 12 points.

Cuatro Villareal of Orient Yacht Club and Emily Rosenthal of Shelter Island YC won the most competitive class of the day with 15 boats total, the c420s, with six points. Southampton’s Alexander Von Lehe and Christian Doscas placed second with 12 points and Eli Shainker and Rufus Burnes Heath finished third with 13 points.

The optis took to the waters on Friday, with the red, white and blue fleets sailing in Shinnecock Bay, and the green fleet, the youngest sailors, raced right in front of the club on Old Fort Pond.

Anders Siewert of Shelter Island YC won the blue fleet with 15 points, followed by Southampton’s John Garguilo with 19 points and Will Seery of Old Cove YC with 33 points. Everett Lehnert of Old Cove YC won the red fleet with five points, while Bryan Lynch, also of Old Cove YC, placed second with 13 points. Hannah Lyons of Southold YC placed third with 24 points. Leo Hackett of Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett won the white fleet with 50 points, Briggs Siewert of Shelter Island YC placed second with 57 points, and Peter Hackett of Devon YC placed third in 68 points. Henry Aldridge-Krawciw of Southampton YC won the green fleet with seven points, Alexander Makarov of Southold YC placed second with 11 points and Skye Lily Charles of Southhampton YC placed third with 17 points.

Full results can be found at pgjsa.com or regattanetwork.com.