USA Championships for Liberty and 303

From October 16- 18, The Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors (BAADS) and the South Beach Yacht Club hosted the USA Access Class Championships Regatta on San Francisco Bay.

Friday, October 16 was for practice racing. Four championship races were completed on Saturday and three races on Sunday before winds gusting near 25 knots forced racing to be discontinued. Twelve Liberties were on the starting line and four 303’s competed. There was close competition in all of the fleets.

The “Herb Meyer Cup” is a newly created, perpetual trophy that will be shared by the winners of the Liberty Manual Division and the Liberty Servo Division each year in the USA Championship. The inaugural winners were:

Liberty Manual – Carwile LeRoy edged out Henrik Hartz by one point. A protest between the top three boats during the start of race six was disallowed and consequently all the races were scored without penalties being incurred.

Liberty Servo — Ted Abbott was the class-action of the fleet with five first places in seven races sailed.

Access 303 – Brandon Arthur claimed the trophy with 7 first place finishes. Brandon and his crew from the Santa Cruz Yacht Club Junior Program could not be caught.

The US Class Association is hoping that in 2010 we will be able to attract sailors from throughout the United States to join our National Championships. We will then be able include all of the Access Classes.

It is expected that a minimum of three and possibly as many as five BAADS members sailing in the Liberty Access Class will be competing at the World Championships in Rutland, UK in June, next year.

Full results available here.