The regatta attracted 75 competitors, a sign of youth sailing’s resurgent popularity. It was the largest of any local youth regatta in over 10 years. The King Harbor Yacht Club and King Harbor Youth Association hosted the event.
Weston began his sailing career racing sabots at the King Harbor Yacht Club when he was 11. He then moved on to racing the 8-foot opti boats with the Cabrillo Yacht Club. Over the past year and a half he has trained with a small group of sailors in Santa Barbara.
The training paid off with a convincing win for the 15-year-old Mira Costa High School student. He won three of his six races and finished nine points ahead of the second place competitor.
The key to his victory, he said, was making the fewest mistakes. Because the upper age limit for opti racing is 15, Weston will be moving up to race the larger lasers.
But first, he’ll travel with the U.S. Optimist Dinghy Association to the North American Championships, to be held outside of Mexico City in October.
Weston also runs cross-country at Mira Costa, though the two sports are not complimentary, he said.
“Running shakes off all the muscle up top, which sailing needs, so it’s a constant battle between putting muscle on and losing it,” he said.
The two-day Redondo regatta consisted of three separate fleets — red, blue and white. Red is ages 13 to 15, blue is ages 11 and 12, and white is ages 10 and under.
The races began with all three groups gathering outside the harbor, and sailing up to an imaginary starting line between the race committee boat and a buoy. A measure of the sailors’ competitiveness was the fact that Friday’s first race required three general recalls because so many of the sailors crossed the start line prematurely.
The course required the sailors to bear away on a beam reach for one-third of a mile to the first mark, then jibe downwind to the leeward gate, and then race upwind for half a mile to the finish.
Organizers hoped to have five to six races on both days. But due to light winds, only three races were held on Saturday. Sunday’s races were delayed 45 minutes due to heavy fog. But after the fog gave way to bright sunshine, the wind picked up, allowing three more races to be held.
Despite the light winds, Principal Race Officer Brian Angel said he was pleased with the regatta’s organization and large turn-out.
