Hi all. Junior Liptons are going on now on Vipers. All sailors 18 and under. Ten clubs representing. Follow along here:
https://m.facebook.com/groups/1912474155654277?tsid=0.3262747484966497&source=result
All right, non techie Craigee trying to do this via mobile device. One of the starts at Junior Liptons, where all sailors are under 18:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hVBj5JgQmmg
Boatpark at Southern Yacht Club for Junior Liptons on Vipe's
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T3PUi429LxA
Quick interview with all youth team from Jackson YC , Jackson Mississippi , sailing Vipers for Junior Liptons. 10 yacht clubs represented. Rule is a skipper can only drive two out of six races.:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hFF-Qj9AbRM
All right, this was Craig's first interview with some kids racing Vipers in the Junior Liptons, and a start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5htBt8kzVs
Hi all.
So the Junior Lipton's are held once a year in the Gulf Yachting Association. All sailors must be 18 years old or younger to compete. A GYA yacht club can only send one boat per club. Out of a six race series, skippers can only drive two of the six races, requiring a mix of skippers and crews. For example, Fort Walton Yacht Club had seven youth sailors, of which four of the kids had driver spots. Some of the kids swapped out between races, so that every kids on the team had a chance to sail.
Ten teams, from ten different yacht clubs sailed this years event with approximately 80 plus youth sailors participating. We had a yacht clubs from Texas (Lakewood Yacht Club) to Florida (Fort Walton Yacht Club) as well as clubs from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
As the GYA adopted the Viper 640 to replace the Flying Scot as the GYA interclub race boat, or Capdevielle series, all events previously sailed in the Scot are now sailed in the Viper 640. The Flying Scot has been the GYA interclub raceboat for about the last fifty years and prior to that was the Fishboat . This is to include the Junior Liptons and the ladies championship, the Knost Regatta. the Knost regatta is only a few weeks away, and Craig hopes to be able to catch video for that event as well.
Some history of the Junior Liptons, taken from "History of Southern Yacht Club":
"Recognizing the increased interest of, and participation by juniors in interclub racing, the Gulf Yachting Association donated in 1941 a beautiful sterling silver bowl and named it the Junior Lipton Cup in memory of the "grand old man of yachting, "Sir thomas J. Lipton. (Unlike today, in earlier years only senior members of GYA yacht clubs could participate in the Senior Lipton regattas held on Labor Day weekends.) Now the juniors had a Lipton Cup of thier own.
The Buccaneer Yacht Club was selected to host the first Junior Lipton Cup Regatta in 1941. Five clubs participated:Buccaneer, Gulfport, Mobile, Pensacola, and Southern. The Southern Yacht Club won all three races that year...."
"Southern made a repeat performance in 1942 and after 1942, World War II interupted this series of races until 1947, with the Biloxi Yacht Club dominatingthe post war years..."
link to the Fish Class, the first interclub raceboat for the GYA preceeding the Flying Scot:
https://fishclass.org/history/history.html
Gulfport Yacht Club, Youth Viper 640 Team, quick interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS7MWGkkLM4
Start of race four of Junior Liptons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19OxpzwAg3o
Quick interview with youth ladies at the Junior Liptons. Both young ladies were both crew and drivers at the event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbl7jdpNQuc
Quick shot of youth teams prepping their club Vipers at Junior Liptons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33TjXfIHr9E
15 year old 'Sponge" after driving two races at Junior Liptons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Inr3GCw1A
Walk down the dock on the "windy day" at Junior Liptons. Wind reports show that winds were 10knts to 16knots during their sailing with a couple puffs hitting 20knots. All the kids sailed the vipers well. a few teams opted not to pop the kite on the first downwind leg, but opted to go for the second downwind leg of race one. All teams popped chutes the second race.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8N-z7S5o1g
Quick one with 17year old Zach after driving his race at Junior Liptons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_o8gsJlQcM
Interview with 17 year old Ricky Welch from the winning team of the Junior Liptons. Even bigger news was that Long Beach Yacht Club, Mississippi just picked up their first club Viper 640...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMOOMAlrWfM
Fairhope Yacht Club Viper 640 Youth Team at Junior Liptons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvVZVfSSijg
Interview with 15year old Michael Burns from the winning team of Pass Christian Yacht Club at Junior Liptons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTVu1v5gzTE
Lakewood Yacht Club, Texas, Viper 640 youth sailors at Junior Liptons. These guys pulled of some first place finishes in their first Viper event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw51RXOGSpQ
Youth Viper 640 sailors leaving the dock in breeze at Junior Liptons, two youth ladies (one of 'em driving) and two teenage boys....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw51RXOGSpQ
Final results:
https://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=17203&show_crew=1
Junior Liptons, First Place Team: Pass Christian Yacht Club
Junior Liptons, Second Place team: Southern Yacht Club:
Junior Liptons, Third Place team, Gulfport Yacht Club:
Junior Liptons, Uncle Roy Trophy. Awarded to the winning skipper of the last race of the Junior Liptons. Donated by Roy A Troendle, Senior. Placed into GYA service in 1979...
Lakewood Yacht Club, Texas, Asher Zittrer:
Junior Liptons Leslie Beard Sportsmanship Award. Determined by single ballot per team at Junior Liptons voted on by their fellow youth peers and youth sailors.
Pontchartrain Yacht Club:
Photo of Junior Lipton Cup:
Past Winners of Junior Lipton Cup:
Winners of the Junior Lipton Trophy
1941 Southern Yacht Club
1947 Biloxi Yacht Club
1948 Biloxi Yacht Club
1949 Biloxi Yacht Club
1950 St. Andrew's Bay Yacht Club
1951 Fairhope yacht Club
1952 Fairhope Yacht Club
1953 Fairhope Yacht Club
1954 Mobile Yacht Club
1955 St. Petersburg Yacht Club
1956 Pass Christian Yacht Club
1957 St. Petersburg Yacht Club
1958 St. Petersburg Yacht Club
1959 Southern Yacht Club
1960 Southern Yacht Club
1961 Southern Yacht Club
1962 Ft. Walton Beach Yacht Club
1963 Bay Waveland Yacht Club
1964 Southern Yacht Club
1965 Southern Yacht Club
1966 Southern Yacht Club
1967 New Orleans Yacht Club
1968 St. Andrew's Bay Yacht Club
1969 Pass Christian Yacht Club
1970 Southern Yacht Club
1971 Bay Waveland Yacht Club
1972 Southern Yacht Club
1973 Pensacola Yacht Club
1974 Southern Yacht Club
1975 Pensacola Yacht Club
1976 Pontchartrain Yacht Club
1977 Pelican Yacht Club Then Per USYRU Appeal To Southern Yacht Club
1978 Southern Yacht Club
1979 Bay Waveland Yacht Club
1980 Bay Waveland Yacht Club
1981 Southern Yacht Club
1982 Southern Yacht Club
1983 Southern Yacht Club
1984 New Orleans Yacht Club
1985 Southern Yacht Club
1986 Southern Yacht Club
1987 Pass Christian Yacht Club
1988 Southern Yacht Club
1989 Pass Christian Yacht Club
1990 Southern Yacht Club
1991 Southern Yacht Club
1992 Gulfport Yacht Club
1993 Pontchartrain Yacht Club
1994 Southern Yacht Club
1995 Gulfport Yacht Club
1996 Bay Waveland Yacht Club
1997 Southern Yacht Club
1998 Pass Christian Yacht Club
1999 Pass Christian Yacht Club
2000 Southern Yacht Club
2001 Southern Yacht Club
2002 Pensacola Yacht Club
2003 Southern Yacht Club
2004 Pontchartrain Yacht Club
2005 Pontchartrain Yacht Club
2006 Southern Yacht Club
2007 Southern Yacht Club
2008 Southern Yacht Club
2009 Pensacola Yacht Club
2010 Fairhope Yacht Club
2011 Southern Yacht Club
2012 Pass Christian Yacht Club
2013 Southern Yacht Club
2014 Southern Yacht Club
2015 Mobile Yacht Club
2016 Pass Christian Yacht Club
2017 Pass Christian Yacht Club
In closing, the Gulf yachting Association had ten different clubs participate in the first Junior Liptons sailed in Viper 640's after decades in the Flying Scot and the Fish before the Scot. There was talk before the event about smaller spinnakers, smaller mains, smaller jibs, sailing the boat non-spin, etc etc. It was decided not to change anything. The kids handled the Viper 640 very well.
Teams were skiff gybing, popping chutes on the lay into the offset mark, gybing on each other, snuffing chutes inside a boat length at the leeward mark, check out the start vids, they were on each other. The tops winds were 14-16 with a few puffs at 17 and a few at 20. The kids had a blast. Best comments I heard were that some of the kids have never gone that fast on a sailboat before. All the kids were happy to be in the Viper and not in the Scot or 420. Kids were learning about rig tension, using blocks, moving leads, playing the GNAV skiff gybing (blow through gybe) etc. Many of the teams were putting the boat in and out of water by themselves with no adult help. On all my interviews I did not hear one negative comment by an adult, nor youth sailor about the boat, nor the class. In fact, all I heard were positive comments about the boat and Class Association. Big news was Long Beach Yacht Club , Mississippi, picked up their first club owned Viper. Another GYA club is getting ready to pull the trigger on another club owned boat, another clubs is looking at two useds ones, and a private buyer is getting ready to pull the trigger on a new one or very late used one (#259). GYA is getting close to 50 Vipers in the region if not sixty soon.
I wish I could have done a better job on videography. The spectator and support boats were boxed out of close proximity by regatta management, and rightly so to keep things fair and powerboat chop non-exisiting to the sailors. Also my Fort Walton Team had a main halyard break (check the top of your mast for sharp main track) so we followed them into the club after they sailed back jib only during the first race on Sunday. So I missed a lot of on water footage Sunday. Sorry.
There is a facebook page for the Viper 640 Gulf Coast fleet, and other stuff is on there as well. I encourge you all to chek it out or join up to follwo along with what is happening along the GYA Viper stuff : https://www.facebook.com/groups/1912474155654277/
Also search youtube with tags like Viper 640 Youth, or Viper Junior Liptons, etc
Check out Mobile yacht Club Women's Viper Sailing Team : https://www.facebook.com/MYCwomensvipersailingteam/?hc_ref=ARTaTbKp_Xe66I9LjGZc27U7UNLlNmSR8TVCQdlLOuxEc46DxU-GwjnWh0uh64jPMSQ&fref=nf
Great comments made in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMetj8Q8Q0s
Video of just how happy the GYA is with the Viper 640 in the GYA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMetj8Q8Q0s
One of the bottom mark roundings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABMgHnBon7U
Start of race 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c2SdqrYCrM
Craig pulling a prank on his Fort Walton YC Viper Youth Team:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp4r8CmJC4c