CR:X Inaugural North American Championships

Author: Brendan Healy

The Inaugural CR:X North American Championships went down this past weekend (November 17-19) in spectacular conditions on Miami’s Biscayne Bay.  Adventure Sports USA, in collaboration with the Coral Reef Yacht Club, hosted the 18 registered competitors for what will go down as the first EVER major championship for a one design kite class.  The racing occurred in a frothy 18-20 knots out of the North/Northeast just off of Miami’s Coconut Grove.  In total, four races were completed on a Windward/Leeward course with gates.  Racing was extremely tight with only one competitor, our eventual North American Champion, winning more than one race – even then, no competitor was able to win more than two races total, and the top three overall finishers were separated by only 3 points!

The field was made up of a healthy mix of seasoned kite racers and quite qualified one design sailors in their own rights, with several world, national, and North American championship victories shared among the fleet.  Racers came from all over North America, from Canada to the West coast of Florida, Boston, Michigan, South Carolina, East Florida, and Maryland.  Lead changes were quite frequent with tactics playing an enormous role in the shifty and puffy conditions.  Our overall winner, and 2017 North American CR:X Champion, Jason D’Agostino, had this to say about the racing, “I had an awesome time racing one design kite this weekend.  I’ve never raced kites within a one design format, but it’s pretty awesome.  So cool to see how you can out sail your competitors, and not just beat them by going faster on newer or better gear.  A fair amount of kite racers lack sailing skills and it was so rewarding to combine my sailing knowledge with kite skills at this event.”

Our overall North American Champion, Jason D’Agostino from St. Pete, Florida.

Second place goes to James McGrath of Jupiter, Florida.

In third overall was Brian Kamilar of Miami, Florida.

Coral Reef Yacht Club did a phenomenal job of running this inaugural event and has set a precedent for kite regattas to be run within a yacht club environment.

Aside from all of the on-the-water fun and success, sailors were also treated to a welcome party at the Coconut Grove Adventure Sports retail shop on Thursday evening, highlighted by DJ Enrique Quintero of Natural Selection.

Full results from the weekend can be viewed here at Regatta Toolbox.  Stay tuned for more events to come from the CR:X class!