News Stephan Baker 3-Time Winner of North Americans

Stephan Baker 3-Time Winner of North Americans

Racing concluded for the 149 sailors from 14 nations on Sunday for the 2018 North American Championships hosted by the Vallarta Yacht Club, in beautiful Riviera Nayarit, Mexico.

 

Top of the leaderboard for the whole championship was Stephan Baker, winning seven of nine races to win the Championship title for a third time in a row.   He previously won the North American Championship in Antigua in 2016, in Toronto in 2017, and for the third time in Mexico in 2018.  

 

Nine races were completed in the overall championship – 5 in the Qualification Series and 4 in the Final Series over 4 days of racing.

 

For many sailors, the Team Racing part of the championship is the highlight of the week. It’s fun and exciting to sail with your teammates and  to represent your country in a team event. The North American Team Racing Championship and Nations Cup took place in the middle of the championship.  USA dominated the North American Team Racing Championship with a total sweep of the top three podium positions.   In the Nations Cup for teams from outside of North America, URU took top honours followed by BRA in second and SGP in third.

 

In the fleet racing championship, Sebastian Kempe from BER followed Baker by 40 points to finish second place overall with Santiago Pacheco of Uruguay in third. Santiago won the award for theTop Overall Sailor from outside North America.  Peter Foley, winner of the recent 26th International Optimist Regatta last month in the US Virgin Islands was 4th overall and 3rd place finisher from North America. 

 

Awarded the Top Overall Girl at the North American Championship was Faith Hailey Toh from Singapore in 5th place overall.  Second overall girl was teammate Radiance Koh placing 7th overall.

 

Lucy Meagher from the United States in 9th overall was the top North American girl at the championship.  She was followed by teammate Sara Schumann in 10th overall and Caroline Sibilly from the US Virgin Island in 11th.

 

The 2018 North Americans has come to a close. Many thanks to the Organizers and many volunteers for your hard work and dedication in making this such a successful event. 

 

To see the results, go to:

http://2018northamericans.optiworld.org/en/default/races/race-resultsall

To see the photos, go to facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/2018OptimistNorthAmericanChampionship/