Sarah Newberry and Crew Win Gold in ISAF World Cup Miami
Sarah, at the helm, and crew John Casey training on the Cirrus R F18 in Miami’s Biscayne Bay last Fall. Photo by Marco Oquendo.
she never went back. She is the daughter of one of the first female Tornado sailors in Miami, Andrea Livingston, who is the sister of Tybee 500 and Worrell 1000 winning crew Jamie Livingston. Sarah has found a shared passion for winning with crew John Casey. This team dreams of becoming the best multihull sailors in the world. It’s a big goal, but they are a talented and driven team with a great love for the sport of sailing. Since their days as youth sailors, goal-setting, desire, and focus have allowed them both to rise to the top
Just before going to press in early February, Sarah and crew John Casey won a gold medal at the ISAF World Cup Miami, the successor to the former Miami Olympic Class Regatta. She won seven firsts out of ten races and finished five points ahead of the second-place boat. While winning the F16 Nationals and the US SAILING Multihull National Championship is an incredible combination, the World Cup win is just as significant for two reasons. It was the first major U.S. regatta using the new Nacra 17 catamaran, which is the class to be used in the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. The boat has curved dagger boards which provide a significant amount of lift to the leeward hull if the boat is sailed properly. Sarah has proven overwhelmingly that she has mastered the technique better than any of her competitors. Second, this is three major wins in three months sailing in two different classes of boat, in three bodies of water in a variety of wind and temperature conditions—and with two different crews. Sarah has made a powerful start to her Olympic bid. SOUTHWINDS will continue to report Sarah’s progress towards competing in Rio in 2016. of multihull sailing competition. Now they are pursuing a rigorous training program both on and off the water in the United States, and are looking forward to a European tour this summer to compete at the major Olympic Class events, including the Nacra 17 World Championship in The Hague, Holland, in August. Sarah muses, “As a youth, even while my dream and desire to race multihulls grew, there was no competitive one-design fleet to sail with in Miami, and very few girls were involved in the fleets that did exist.” Her dreams and desires have changed to include the pursuit of a medal at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Since her days as a child athlete, the climate of multihull sailing has shifted so much that the Olympic Nacra 17 class in which Sarah will compete is a required mixed-gender event that will bring female talent from around the world into multihulls to compete. “I know that the recent victories we have had are a result of the training that John and I have been putting in as a team. I know that they are a logical outcome to all of the hard work that we have been doing. So the thing is, it’s not the ‘wins’ that I feel like celebrating so early on, especially because I truly believe that ‘wins’ are only one thing: a good excuse to keep working harder. Instead, I want to celebrate the goal-oriented approach that we are taking as a team, and the passion for sailing that I have been gifted with that makes every day on the water a pleasure.” Go to www.usamultihull2016.com to donate and help support Sarah’s campaign. Tax-deductible donations to Sarah’s Olympic campaign may be made through the 501 (c)(3) Miami Yacht Club Youth Sailing Foundation, 1001 MacArthur Causeway, Miami, FL 33132. www.mycyouthsailing.org
News & Views for Southern Sailors
SOUTHWINDS
March 2013
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