Young Sailors Take to the Bay for National Competition off LBI
More than 200 sailors from 45 states will participate in the 2012 KO Sailing/United States Optimist Dinghy Association Team Trials April 26-29, hosted by the Brant Beach Yacht Club.
"New Jersey and particularly Barnegat Bay have produced some of the best sailors in the U.S.," said race coordinator Ernest "Bub" Kovacs. "The current president of U.S. Sailing and former America's Cup skipper, Gary Jobson, is from Beachwood and grew up sailing on Barnegat Bay."
This is the third time the competition has been held in New Jersey in the race's more than 25 years. Optimists are small one-person sailboats invented in 1947 as a way for young children to learn the sport of sailing. The sport has grown over the past 55 years and there are now more than 20,000 young sailors in the U.S.
Competitors in the team trials range from age 10 to 15. They were invited to participate based on their performance in qualifying regional and national events. Sean Crabb, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Toms River Intermediate School East, qualified at a race in Massachusetts.