17 Oct World Class Sailors Come Together for Oakcliff Doublehanded Offshore Race
Kate Bjerregaard and Wesley Bright scream downwind at sundown.
October 16, 2020 (OYSTER BAY, NEW YORK) – Oakcliff’s second Doublehanded Offshore Race of 2020 was won by Ethan Johnson and Barbara “Baisa” Karpinska in the toughest race yet. Johnson, Oakcliff’s Training Director, also won the inaugural Doublehanded Offshore Event in 2019.
“It feels great to come back and win this event for the second time,” said Johnson. “We were able to manage our sleep and nutrition well, allowing us to stay alert and focused throughout the whole race.”
Although this was Karpinska’s first time offshore in a Melges 24, she has a multitude of doublehanded offshore experience in other classes, including having placed sixth at Mixed Offshore Europeans last year in the L30, which was another test event for the 2024 Olympics.
This running of the race had the tightest competition in the event’s history, with the four top boats finishing within 42 minutes. It also had the most challenging and athletic conditions yet, with winds consistently in the teens and twenties.
In second was Cat Chimney sailing with Patrick Gavin-Brynes. Chimney won last year’s event with Johnson,. “We mostly made sure to get rest when we could so we could focus on the big picture,” said Gavin-Brynes. “They’re difficult little boats to sail with two people, but we had a great time.”
Oakcliff Winter Sapling Wes Bright and Graduate Kate Bjerregaard took third in a close tacking duel to the finish with Chimney and Gavin-Byrnes. Read the full results here.
Action was broadcast continually through Oakcliff’s live streaming media package. Spectators got to see the good, the bad and the comical from the warmth of their own homes. Viewers enjoyed over 120 hours of live content plus text and photos updates on multiple channels, including Facebook. The team also implemented hourly check ins from each competitor, leading to some funny moments on camera.
The in-house innovation using rented phones, hotspots and streaming apps has been developed over the past year for this event and is being used at Oakcliff’s Match Racing Regattas as well. Anyone interested in having Oakcliff share the economical and creative live streaming details can schedule a consultation by emailing pr@oakcliffsailing.org.
Additionally, Oakcliff has been helping with the development of Offshore Doubles, the newly introduced community connecting doublehanded sailors across the world and across different boat classes. Offshore Doubles is committed to helping grow the popularity of doublehanded sailing ahead of its debut in the 2024 Olympics. The site provided yet another platform for Oakcliff’s in-boat live streams.
Oakcliff also provided data for a beta test of SAP’s new race tracking app, Sail Insight. Each media phone ran the app, which gave speed and location data in real time, presented on an interactive map online.
Oakcliff thanks the sponsors who helped make the running of this race possible: Melges Boatworks, North Sails, Vesper Marine, and KVH. We’d also like to thank the team at Vernon Computer Rentals, especially Robert Park, for their outstanding customer service in getting us the right streaming devices.