On July 1st and 2nd, the Ida Lewis Yacht Club, with support from Sail Newport, hosted the first Opti Regatta for our 2026 season. On July 1st, sailors participated in a clinic and were met with some heavy, heavy breeze. Olympic sailor Kathleen Tocke worked with the Green fleet and USODA coach Luke Ingalls coached the Champ fleet.
On July 2nd, the Ida team hosted the official regatta. There were 67 total sailors at this event, with 33 of them being Champ fleet sailors. The team at Ida got off 5 races in total, allowing each sailor to drop their lowest score. The top finisher, Hadley Slusarz of JK Sailing/Barrington Yacht Club, throw out a retirement in R1 and finished with a total score of 5.
Slusarz was closely followed by Sage Dovbniak of the East Bay Sailing Foundation in Bristol, finishing with a total of 8 points. In third place overall was Charlie Dunbar of Conanicut Yacht Club, with a net total of 19 points.
In the Red Fleet, the oldest division, Slusarz placed 1st. There was a tie breaker for 2nd and 3rd place, with 2nd place going to Connor Walmsley of BCRP and 3rd going to Keira Oakley. Oakley recently finished 2nd place at the Mary Rose Marshall regatta, just earlier that week.
In the Blue Fleet, the middle division, Dovbniak came in 1st and was followed by Dunbar in 2nd. 3rd Place went to Ryan Daly of BCRP.
In White Fleet, where sailors are age 10 and younger, Perry Marks came in 1st. Marks hails from BCRP. In 2nd was Ryan Oakley, of Wickford, and in 3rd was Shep Emrick, from the homeclub of Ida Lewis.
These are the first scores for our overall season scoring. The next Opti regatta is being hosted by Barrington Yacht Club on July 16th. Registration closes at 8pm on July 15th.