2000 Junior Nationals Championship

2000 Comet Junior Nationals Championship
by Mark Buruchian

The Comet Class Jr. Championship Regatta was held again at Stone Harbor, NJ on August 17th - 18th. A total of nine boats competed in a six race series in varying wind and weather conditions. It was exciting to see a team from Bermuda compete, confirming the International status of the Comet Class. All in all, the regatta was superbly run and provided a competitive venue for a championship regatta.

Bill Young of Stone Harbor and his crew Vicki Mossbrook repeated as Jr. National Champions in a very hard fought dual with Kevin King and Beth Hendee of Ocean Gate Yacht Club. The Championship wasn't decided until the last leg of the last race. Bart Nicholson, also of Stone Harbor, proved to be the spoiler as his finishes on the second day provided Bill the cushion needed to win the regatta. Bart's finishes also proved good enough to edge out Kevin Buruchian of Highland Lakes by one point for third place overall. The Bermudan team of Maxwell Curtis and Stefan Furbert rounded out the top five.

While the regatta was extremely competitive, a high level of sportsmanship was also evident. One of the competitors gave up their boat to her brother as he had broken his mast between races. In turn the sailors with the broken mast lent their rudder to the Bermudans who had to drop out of the prior race due to rudder problems.

Standings and finishes were as follows:

#4106 Bill Young Vicki Mossbrook Stone Harbor, NJ 2,2,1,4,1,1
#4096 Kevin King Beth Hendee Ocean Gate YC 1,1,3,1,3,2
#4046 Bart Nicholson Sarah Van Horn Stone Harbor, NJ 7,8,4,2,2,3
#3983 Kevin Buruchian Dan Smit Highland Lakes, NJ 3,4,5,3,4,5
#4095 Maxwell Curtis Stefan Furbert Bermuda 6,6,2,5,DNF,4