Powerful winds cut short national regatta for teenage sailors on Great South Bay

Powerful winds generated by post-tropical cyclone Debby did not stop 160 intrepid young sailors from hitting the Great South Bay on Friday for a major national regatta that attracted competitors from as far as California and Florida.

It was so windy that there were no other sailboats visible on the bay — just "ferries and Coast Guard. That was it," said Stephen Kelly, commodore of the Sayville Yacht Club, which hosted the event.

Nevertheless, the C420 South Shore Championship went off smoothly — at least initially.

But regatta organizers called it a day after one sometimes-wild race persuaded them to send the fleet in as conditions were getting too treacherous. Racing resumes Saturday and Sunday, with conditions expected to be far less punishing.

The competitors — the contest was open to anyone up to 21 years old but it seemed to attract mostly teens — included many of the top young sailors in the nation. Brian Elliot, head sailing coach at Sayville Yacht Club and the Stony Brook School, said he has little doubt some will make it to the Olympics one day.

"I think some of them will definitely aspire to be Olympic athletes," said Elliot, who himself trained for six years to try to make the U.S. Olympic sailing team. "Some of them are potentially good enough to do it."

The competitors sailed in 420s — nearly 14-foot-long, two-person dinghies known for their speed. Crews were often out on the "trapeze" — an apparatus that lets them stand almost entirely off the side of the boat, to help prevent it from flipping in high winds.

Some of the young sailors said Friday's conditions were among the windiest they had ever raced in. Others, from San Francisco, for instance, said it was typical of what they experienced. Winds were blowing steadily at about 23 to 25 knots, with gusts up to 31 knots during the race, Elliot said.

Danika Torres, 15, traveled from Miami with her family and crew, or teammate, for the event. 

"It was really stressful but at some points it was really fun," she said, explaining that she was often just trying to keep her boat from capsizing.

She failed at one crucial point — about 10 boat lengths from the finish line.

She and her crew, Victoria Tarrazzi, 15, quickly got the boat back up and finished the race, though a few boats passed them as they were getting righted.

The race, Tarrazzi, said, "was wild."

She and Torres are among those who have high hopes for their sailing careers. One of their coaches in Miami is a Frenchman who is currently coaching Turkey’s national sailing team in the Olympics in Paris, they said. Another is a North American champion in several types of boats who has coached sailors who made it to the U.S. Olympic trials.

They weren’t the only ones who went over. Some boats got what Kelly called the "Great South Bay Badge of Honor": boats that flip and "turtle" — that is, turn completely upside down — and end up with a slab of mud on top of their mast and sail from the bay bottom.

But only one boat had substantial damage, no one was seriously injured, and the sailors all had a day to go home and talk about.

Jack Spillane, 17, of Worcester, Massachusetts, said he was getting so much water sprayed in his face at times that it was hard to see. But he and his crew, Hudson Poor, 17, of Orleans, Massachusetts, felt right at home since where they sail on Cape Cod is similarly windy.

"We wanted to do more races," Poor said. "This is the best possible thing for us."

Overall, he concluded, it was "a great day."