Gulf Yachting Association team takes top spot at 2021 U.S. Adult Sailing Championship

2021 U.S. Adult Sailing Championship © Samson Vasquez

After four days of racing on Gavelston Bay, Max Albert (Pontchartrain YC) and his crew representing the Gulf Yachting Association won the U.S. Adult Sailing Championship and the Clifford D. Mallory Trophy.

Albert sailed with Andrew Brennan, Matthew Dupuy, and Eddie Adams. The 2021 U.S. Adult Sailing Championship was contested in Sonars. Ten teams, with nine representing a regional sailing association from around the country plus the club's home team, sailed ten races over four days, starting on Thursday, October 21st. Albert and his team scored just 33 points, and despite having only one first-place finish, their consistent top-of-fleet performance kept them within striking distance of the top of the results all weekend long.

Paul Wilson (Vineyard Haven YC) and his crew, Brett Davis, Christina Persson, and Nicholas Watts, representing the Southern Massachusetts Sailing Association, came in second after a tie with third-place team from the Northeast Sailing Association, skippered by Brian Doyle (Lake Sunapee CF) and crewed by Shane Wells, Steve Kirkpatrick, and Dale Harper. The two teams tied with 39 points overall at the end of the weekend, with Wilson winning out in a tie-break.

"We put a few points on people in the first race today, and we got closer and closer, but we couldn't quite pull it off," said Doyle, who is also a US Sailing youth coach and a past winner of US Sailing Coach of the Year. "It's great to be out at a US Sailing Championship; I haven't done one in a long time, so it's good to be back and great to have TCYC hosting. This championship is great, it brings together people of all ages, and from all over the country, so it's top-level racers from around the nation, which is really fun."

The weekend was a challenge for the race committee, who, despite wrestling with shifting conditions, rapidly changing weather, and inconsistent breeze resulting in postponements, organized a full roster of ten races over the four days.

"The weather over the past three days has been quite a challenge," said PRO Shannon Bush. "These were not typical October weather patterns, more like a summer pattern. Dodging thunderstorms and lightning, watching the radar constantly yesterday sneaking in the races before a white out hit, was something unexpected."

"Today the conditions were against every single forecast I looked at," continued Bush. "We started an hour earlier today, thinking I would be done by noon, but mother nature had other plans. The breeze was supposed to already be locked in, but we saw a huge swing to the right in the magnitude of 60 degrees shift, causing me to abandon and restart race number 10 four times...but in the end, it was a great race to cap off the event. Lots of racing, boat to boat."

After coming off the water each day, sailors and supporters were treated to a delightful array of social events hosted by the Texas Corinthian YC. The event was sponsored by Regatta Craft Mixers. For more information, photos, and full results, visit www.ussailing.org/competition/championships/2021-u-s-adult-sailing-championship