Island sailors peel off a win at Orange Bowl

Connor Needham (sail number 178) in hot pursuit of leading sailor and eventual Laser Radial winner Mateo Vargas (number 9). Needham placed an impressive 21st out of 135 boats.


Three Shelter Island sailors – summer resident Colin Murphy andConnor and Mackenzie Needham – represented the Shelter Island YachtClub among 738 junior sailors who traveled to Miami during theChristmas holiday break. They participated in the 2009 Orange BowlInternational Youth Regatta, a US Sailing Junior Olympic event atCoral Reef Yacht Club in Florida. Competitors represented 17countries and 26 US states in what is billed as the largest youthsailing regatta in the country.

Murphy sailed with Virginia’s Graham Landy in a Club 420.Mackenzie teamed up with Melany Johnson from Pennsylvania, also ina Club 420. Connor sailed in a Laser Radial.

The fleets were coed, with male-male, female-female, andmixed-sex teams in the double-handed 420s and male and femalesailors comprising the single-handed Laser Radial fleet.

The breeze was on the light side the first day. The Club 420fleet completed two races, while the Lasers only finished one. TheLandy-Murphy boat placed 9th and 3rd while Johnson and Needhamscored 29th and 18th in the 90-boat Club 420 fleet. In his firstrace Connor managed to place 25th in the fleet.

The second day of racing brought warm northerly winds, startingat about 10 knots in the morning and increasing to 16 knots by theend of the day. Both fleets managed to get in four races thatday.

Landy-Murphy had a great day, posting 8th, 4th, 2nd and 3rd.Johnson-Needham scored 6th, 19th, 8th and 10th for the day. Connorwas a little rusty sailing the Laser having not been in the boatsince September. It showed, as he finished 43rd and 35th in thefirst two races, but he eventually settled in and scored 11th and15th in the next two races.

The sailors were treated to a cold breeze on the third day ofracing with temperatures in the 50s – out came the wool caps andwarm gloves. There was a slight break mid-day as the breeze diedfor a while before returning with a fresh 10-knot northerly.

Landy-Murphy had another great day with finishes of 5th, 2nd,2nd and 4th. Johnson-Needham had some solid finishes, too, scoring19th, 4th, 3th and 17th. They led the fleet for two of those racesonly to be passed in the last few minutes. Connor scored 44th,13th, 25th and 34th.

On the final day of racing the breeze and temperature were justright with 70-degree warmth and about 8-10 knots of wind from theeast. The 420s sailed in two races. Landy-Murphy started off with abullet (1st place), but the boat was penalized for being over thestarting line early in their final race. Johnson-Needham placed13th and 5th.

The Laser Radials sailed in three races, in which Connorfinished 23rd, 16th and 17th. This third race was held to make upfor only having one race on the opening day. Because the fleetscompleted 12 in total, competitors were allowed to drop their twoworst finishes to improve their final scores.

For their excellent sailing and consistent finishes, Landy andMurphy won the 2009 Orange Bowl Regatta in the Club 420 fleet,placing first by a margin of 6 points over the second-place team.Johnson and Mackenzie Needham were awarded the first placeall-female-team trophy in the Club 420, 9 points ahead of thesecond-place female team. Connor placed 21st out of 135 in theLaser Radial fleet, besting a number of accomplished rivals whom hehad never beaten before.