Scott Young Sailing

RC 44 Oracle Cup Re-Cap

2011-03-08T13:40:00.004-06:00

Sharon Green Photo Words can't adequately express the experience I had steering Team Aqua in the RC 44 Oracle Cup held in San Diego this past weekend. For me, it was initially overwhelming...perhaps like starting in the front row of the Daytona 500 after spending most of your driving career on the interstate highway. Eventually.... the "deer in the head-lights" look was slapped off my face

Can You Say "Forrest Gump"??

2011-03-02T09:04:00.003-06:00

I am seriously having a Forrest Gump moment! A few days ago, I got an email from my old college friend, Chris Bake, asking me if I would be interested in steering his RC 44 in the first stop of the RC 44 World tour for 2011 being held in San Diego. Chris has been very successful in the oil business overseas and has had business commitments come up that have made it impossible for him to attend

J 22 Mid-Winters Re-Cap

2011-03-01T11:45:00.003-06:00

The J 22 Mid-Winters were recently held at the Davis Island Yacht Club on Tampa Bay. The race committee did a great job getting all 9 races in over three days. Even though the total boat count was low (26 boats), the competition was fierce. Someone mentioned that there were 18 pros scattered about the 26 boat fleet. I don't know if this is a good thing or bad thing for the class but the

2011....Here we go!

2011-01-12T19:10:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! It has been a while since my last post. I finally got around to getting my big toe operated on and am gradually getting a little more range of motion. I never fully appreciated how important our toes are in having proper walking mechanics and how problems in our toes and feet can affect our whole body. Needless to say, I have a lot of kinks to work out!My plan for 2011 is to

2010 J 80 Word Championship--Newport, RI

2010-10-10T12:54:00.005-05:00

What a wild ride! John Morran, Terry Flynn, Philip Williamson and I, embarked on a two regatta J 80 campaign that began at the North Americans in Marion, MA less than a month ago. The four of us had never sailed together as a team prior to that regatta. My last J 80 event had been the Worlds in Corpus Christi, TX in 2006. We had no idea if we would be competitive but our assumption was that

2010 Governor's Cup

2010-09-29T20:53:00.001-05:00

The 2010 Governor's Cup was a huge success! With out much time to plan and organize the event, the regatta attracted over 90 boats and we raised nearly $15,000 for the AYC Fund. With the exception of a delay for lack of wind followed by squall blowing through, the weather cooperated well and I think all of the competitors had a great time. Next years Governor's Cup will be even bigger and

2010 Governor's Cup--Austin Yacht Club

2010-09-21T18:46:00.000-05:00

The 2010 Governor's Cup Regatta will be held this weekend (September 24-26) at the Austin Yacht Club on beautiful Lake Travis. The Governor's Cup this year will be benefiting the AYC Fund (http://aycfund.org/) which provides financial support for learn to sail and racing programs here in Central Texas. This year, Austin Yacht Club sailors Doug Kern, John Morran, John Bartlett and Scott Young

2010 J 80 North American's Re-Cap

2010-09-16T08:25:00.001-05:00

What an amazing regatta! 13 races over three days on beautiful Buzzards Bay. The regatta was hosted by the Beverly Yacht Club in Marion, MA. The host yacht club ran an absolutely flawless regatta. There were 45 boats competing with several former World and North American champions in attendance. The accomplishments of the crew on several of the boats rivaled the helmsman. Most teams were

2010 Laser Master's North Americans Re-cap

2010-08-15T23:14:00.002-05:00

What a great event!! 10 races held in incredible conditions with great committee work and amazing competition. What more could you ask for?? I made a mini comeback with three 5th place finishes today to end up 7th overall. Considering the way I began the regatta, I was pretty pleased with the progress that I made as the event went on. I wished the regatta started tomorrow. I felt like I was

These guys are really good!!

2010-08-15T10:47:00.005-05:00

In my effort to "call it as I see it"' I must confess that I am a bit overmatched out here. Th locals along with the San Francisco sailors are so much better prepared for these conditions than I am. In my younger days it was a bit more possible to hang in there physically without much preparation. As I have gotten older, If I am serious about doing well in the Laser, it really takes months of

Humbling....

2010-08-14T11:41:00.001-05:00

Th first day of the Laser Master's North Americans brought pretty ideal conditions in a slowly increasing breeze that hit close to 25 knots in the last race. It was a grind upwind and equally tough on the reaches and runs. In the big waves, there was no point during the race that you could rest. The first race, I got flushed at the start, bailed to the right, ducked a majority of the fleet and

Where has the summer gone?

2010-08-12T12:10:00.000-05:00

It has been some time since my last post. I was able to sail with Glennn Darden and Philip Williamson on their Swan 42 in the New York Yacht Club Annual regatta followed by the nationals a couple of weeks later. We finished second in both events to two different winners. Ironically, the winner of each regatta had pretty bad regattas in the event they didn't win. The reality of racing NY 42'

New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta

2010-06-09T09:23:00.000-05:00

I will be heading up to Newport Rhode Island tomorrow to sail with Glenn Darden on his NY 42 in the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta. We won this event last year and then followed it up with a pretty awful regatta in the NY 42 Nationals a month later. Glenn has largely the same team together for this summer's season and I am looking forward to sailing again with "Team Hoss". As I did

Wedding Day!!

2010-06-06T07:28:00.003-05:00

Amy Campbell and I were married this past weekend at the Circle H Lodge on beautiful Inks Lake here in the Texas Hill Country. We had the perfect weekend with both of our families staying at the Lodge with us. The weekend was full of paddle boarding, kayaking, volleyball, Laser sailing and windsurfing. It was awesome to see all our kid, nieces and nephews spread across the lawn and lake

Laser Master's Nationals Wrap-Up

2010-05-17T20:16:00.002-05:00

The Carolina Yacht Club of Charleston, SC did a fantastic job in hosting the 2010 Laser Master's Nationals. The race committee was able to run 10 excellent races over 3 days of sailing. The sea breeze kicked in each day at around noon and blew from 10-20 mph each day under warm, partly cloudy skies. Eric Oetgen of Savannah, GA sailed a beautiful regatta to win the Apprentice Master's Division

Laser Master's Nationals--Day 1

2010-05-15T06:52:00.000-05:00

It was a very challenging day on the water. We were able to get four good races in conditions that ranged from 5 to 18 mph winds with big holes, big shifts, auto tacking puffs and a strong ebbing current. The leeward end of the line was set up to be favored and it was too alluring for me to ignore. Many of my starts were near the leeward end and each case, I thought that when I tacked to port,

Laser Master's Nationals Practice Day

2010-05-14T06:09:00.001-05:00

Remarkably, the trailer pulled by Keith Zar's wife Barbara, arrived at the Carolina Yacht Club about 10 minutes after we arrived from the airport. I can't thank Barbara and her friend Liz for driving the boats out for us! I don't think it was quite the "leisurely drive" that they were hoping for! Thanks to Fred Schroth's excellent trailer organization, we were able to quickly unload the trailer

Laser Master's Nationals

2010-05-12T08:32:00.001-05:00

The Laser Master's Nationals will be held in Charleston, SC beginning this Friday. The event already has 70 standard rigs and 25 Radial rigs registered. I haven't sailed in Charleston since I competed in a team race there during my college days. I believe we were racing Solings and I remember a race where we had to anchor several times due to the strength of the current. We would get a puff

Maintain Your Lane!!

2010-04-24T08:12:00.004-05:00

As we enter into the Spring and Summer months, many of you will be competing in regattas that will draw big fleets. As the number of boats on the race course increases, the ability to create and maintain a lane of clear air and water while sailing upwind is hugely important. In fact, I think this topic is probably one of the least discussed but most important concepts related to big fleet

2010 Easter Laser Regatta Recap

2010-04-11T10:17:00.001-05:00

The 27th Annual Easter Laser Regatta was held last weekend here in Austin on beautiful Lake Travis with nearly perfect sailing conditions. The winter and spring rains have re-filled Lake Travis and life is good here in Austin! The event attracted nearly 50 Standard Laser, Radial and 4.7 sailors from all over Texas and with some from neighboring states. The most noticeable evolution of this

Roadrunner Regatta Observations

2010-03-29T13:38:00.000-05:00

I was very impressed with the skill level exhibited at the recent Roadrunner Regatta junior hosted by Austin Yacht Club. I had a chance to watch some of the racing from a race committee boat on the first day and was on the Laser, 4.7 and Radial course along with a 18 boat fleet of Flying Juniors. Here are a few observations: The starts were very competitive and as a rule, most of the

AYC Road Runner Regatta---This Weekend!

2010-03-04T10:14:00.000-06:00

The Texas Junior Road Runner Circuit makes its stop in Austin this weekend. The top Junior's from around the State of Texas will compete this weekend on Lake Travis and we are expecting a great turn-out of Laser radial, Laser 4.7, Opti's of all skill levels and a fleet of the AYC owned Flying Juniors. The weather forecast is for strong southerly breezes for the whole weekend. The southerly

It's That Time!!!

2010-03-01T10:48:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the long Blog hiatus! I am back and ready to start focusing on my sailing goals for 2010. I will start with my first and most important goal which is getting my 50 year old body ready for battle. I have been nursing a nagging left big toe injury which has surprisingly, really been preventing me from pursuing many of the exercise hobbies that I enjoy so much. I am now painfully aware

2009 J-22 North Americans Wrap-Up

2009-10-03T21:55:00.007-05:00

Mother Nature chose not to cooperate with the final day of the J-22 North American Championship held at Rush Creek Yacht Club outside of Dallas, Texas. After two almost perfect days of racing, the cold front that came through on Thursday night quickly fizzled and Friday morning greeted the fleet with sunny skies but little breeze.After several hours of postponement, the race committee went out

J-22 North Americans---Day Two

2009-10-01T17:29:00.004-05:00

Well, today gave us a bit of everything. The first race of the day started in solid breeze with cloudy skies. We had a decent start but still were barely in the top 10 as we approached the first windward mark. We just hung tough throughout the race and picked up a few boats on every leg and narrowly missed finishing second to end up 3rd. Kelson Elam sailed a great race to take home the win.The

J-22 North American's----Day One

2009-09-30T20:42:00.002-05:00

It would have been difficult to have ordered up a better day of sailboat racing today. Conditions were virtually perfect with the breeze ranging from probably 8 to 18 knots with plenty of shifts thrown in for good measure.Flip Wehrheim from Rochester, NY dominated the day with excellent starts and great speed around the course.We had a pretty good day and felt better as the day went on. My

J-22 North Americans, Dallas, TX

2009-09-29T21:20:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the long delay since my last post. Things have been pretty busy around the Young household and sailing has had to take a backseat for a while. After a couple of month sailing hiatus, I am very excited to be competing in the J-22 North Americans which begin tomorrow (9-30) and are being hosted by the Rush Creek Yacht Club outside of Dallas. I taught sailing during my high school and

Kite Boarding for Sailing Dummies

2009-07-10T10:17:00.010-05:00

Yes....that is me causing that big splash in the picture to the right!I must confess that I have put together a "mini-bucket list" as I have recently celebrated my 50th birthday. One of the items on the list for this year was to learn how to kite board.While on vacation at the beach in South Padre Island, TX, I took advantage of perhaps some of the best conditions anywhere to attempt to learn

Which Leeward Gate Mark Do I Round?

2009-07-02T17:45:00.005-05:00

I am writing this post from the beach down at South Padre Island in far South Texas.....far, far away from the race course. I am here for a week of fun and family time and have a fair amount of "down-time" so I thought would try and put into words some ideas that I have been kicking around about the leeward mark rounding when using a "gate system".It seems like lately, almost every regatta that

Fear Itself

2009-06-24T11:28:00.003-05:00

My great friend and sailing compadre, John Morran, has a 12 year-old daughter named Meredith. She is rapidly becoming obsessed with racing her Laser 4.7 with our fleet of 25 or so Lasers on Wednesday nights here at the Austin Yacht Club.Meredith is truly passionate about the sport and is like a sponge when it comes to absorbing information. The best part of what I see in Meredith is that she is

True Wind

2009-06-23T10:58:00.007-05:00

While sailing with Glenn Darden in the NYYC 42 event in Newport, I quickly had to get up to speed on the amazing sophistication of the electronics packages available on modern, grand-prix racing yachts.For a lake sailor who rarely uses a compass, this was quite an eye opening experience. It was truly amazing the level of data input that was available. In fact, it is very easy (and tempting) to

New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta Wrap-Up

2009-06-16T17:24:00.004-05:00

Team Hoss prevailed in the Swan 42 class at the 155th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta!We had a 6 point lead going into Sunday's races. The morning started off cool, rainy and the forecast for wind did not look promising. Once we arrived at the racing area after about an hour motor out, the rain stopped, the skies cleared and a 11-16 knot Northeasterly breeze settled in.In the first race, we

New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta

2009-06-14T07:02:00.003-05:00

I am doing something a little out of the box for me this weekend. I am serving as tactician to Glenn Darden on his New York 42 in the New York Yacht Club Annual regatta being held in Newport, Rhode Island.Summertime in Newport seems to be the center of the sailing universe on the east coast. The New York Yacht Club resides in a historic mansion overlooking Narragansett Bay and is one of the

The Great Escape

2009-06-03T11:45:00.007-05:00

As I think back to regattas that I have won or did well, there was almost always one or two races in those series where I had a bad start and had to do some serious scrambling to get back in the race in order to stay in contention.This was certainly the case at the Laser Master's NA's. I had a couple of starts that were 2nd or 3rd row. This was probably due to my desire to be ultra conservative

What's Next??

2009-05-29T13:08:00.002-05:00

I decided to wait a couple of weeks following the Laser Master's North Americans to get caught up on work, kids and life before I locked into the summer racing schedule. My mother and father's heath has been pretty fragile and so I am thinking it makes sense to try and stay pretty close to home for a while.Jay Lutz graciously offered me a chance to steer a J-122 in Block Island Race week which

Failed to Mention.....

2009-05-17T19:29:00.004-05:00

I guess I failed to mention in my post earlier this morning that if there were no more races today, I would actually finish in a tie for 1st and lose on a tie breaker. Peter Vessella from San Francisco Bay was able to throw out a 28th in the 3rd race to my worst race of 6th place. On a non-throw out basis, I would have won fairly easily......but a throw-out came into play once 6 races were

Hanging In There

2009-05-17T07:46:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was classic Wrightsville Beach conditions. About a 15 knot sea breeze and big waves.I got off to a good start in the first race near the pin and was able to tack soon after the start and cross most of the fleet. I rounded the first weather mark in a close 3rd. I then proceeded to start losing boats downwind. The wind was strong enough to really ride the waves and I just wasn't

Good Start...

2009-05-15T17:14:00.002-05:00

I can honestly say that I had no idea how I would stack up against such a big talented fleet. Well....so far so good. I had really good upwind speed in the light and lumpy conditions. There was still a lot of sea left over from the strong Easterly breeze from yesterday. The first race the pin end was pretty favored and I really had no idea which way to go. It seemed like the wind was trying

Wash-out

2009-05-15T06:44:00.002-05:00

Well....yesterday was supposed to be the last practice day before the NA's begins but stormy weather cut the practice short. As it turned out, I attempted to go out during the worst part of the weather. The wind was blowing about 25 knots, driving rain and the waves were huge. So big in fact, I was worried about doing damage to my boat. After about 1/2 an hour of pounding as I sailed out the

Wrightsville Beach, NC

2009-05-14T06:38:00.008-05:00

Well.....I made it. Got in on Wednesday around noon. Amazingly, Bill Mitchell and Fred Schroth arrived with the boats in tact about a half hour before I landed. They had a smooth trip and I really appreciate their willingness to drive such a long way.We rigged the boats up and got our for a late afternoon sail. It was great having done all of the boat preparation while back in Austin. There

Curve Ball....

2009-05-12T10:23:00.003-05:00

Just before getting packed to head to North Carolina, I went to New Braunfels on Monday to help my father with a procedure to have a tumor removed from his bladder. He has had cancer of the bladder over the last few years and has been considered in remission until this new tumor appeared. Thankfully, the doctor was able to easily remove it and the early prognosis is good.About an hour after I

Countdown

2009-05-06T08:02:00.003-05:00

The 2009 Laser Master's North American's is only a week away. With travel time for the boat, I only realistically have about 2 days left to prepare. The regatta organizers are expecting 100 entries. Should be great event!This week I have been finalizing all of the boat preparation work and have been trying to get a an hour or two on the water each day. Gradually, everything feels like it is

Goals for the 2009 Season

2009-04-28T20:45:00.003-05:00

Given the limited amount of time I have available to race, I am going to try to make the most out of my schedule for 2009. My big goal is do well in the Laser Master's World Championship which will be held on St. Margaret's Bay, near Halifax Nova Scotia in late August. In addition, I am excited about gearing up to do the J-22 North Americans which will be held at Rush Creek Yacht Club outside

2009 Easter Laser Regatta

2009-04-28T09:48:00.008-05:00

This year celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Easter Laser Regatta at Austin Yacht Club. The father and mother of the regatta, Fred and Sally Schroth continue to pull it all together for the benefit of Laser sailors from around the country. This year's Easter Regatta was sailed in varied conditions. Saturday was overcast and cool all day with a light to moderate easterly breeze. This wind

2009 J-22 Austin Circuit Stop

2009-04-27T18:27:00.005-05:00

Mark Salih asked me to steer his boat in the recent J-22 Austin Circuit stop held over the April 4-5 weekend. We recruited my trusty sailing partner John Morran to round out the crew and we were excited to get back on the water. We really hadn't raced seriously since the Mallory Cup finals in September so naturally, I was a little worried about the rust accumulation.We got out on the Friday

2008 Mallory Cup--US Men's Sailing Championship

2009-04-27T07:17:00.005-05:00