Rasmus Sayre, a senior at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, took home the championship title in the Kona One class on Wednesday, after five days of racing in Islamorada, Fla. Sayre, 17, won six of 12 races.
With her college sailing career finished, Solvig Sayre is now in Maryland focusing her efforts on windsurfing. And her goal is not the Chesapeake Bay, but Rio de Janeiro, where she hopes to compete in the Olympics in 2016.
Fifty windsurfers representing four different countries competed in three classes of racing Friday and Saturday at the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club. Races were cancelled Sunday due to no wind, but wind conditions for the first two days were gusty, challenging all levels of racers.
Three beeps from the race committee horn and the group of windsurfers competing in the U.S. Junior Windsurfing Championship pull up their sails, get settled on their boards and glide to the starting line.
Two beeps and it’s two minutes to race time at the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club.
One beep and 13-year-old Geronimo Nores from Miami, FL,, along with the rest of the fleet, is at starting line.
The starting horn blows. The sailors head east towards the first marked buoy, pumping their legs up and down on their boards.
The 20th anniversary of the Martha’s Vineyard Challenge was golden. The Saturday sailing and paddling event raised $14,423 for Martha’s Vineyard Community Services. High winds and bright sunshine made the day perfect for windsurfers and a challenge for sailors and paddlers.
The 43 registered participants and their friends set a record in fundraising.
She jets around the world with Olympic medalists, is gunning for her own chance at a medal in 2012 and she’ll even put you in touch with her publicist. It’s heady stuff for a high-schooler, but Solvig Sayre of Vineyard Haven remains grounded, having to balance the grueling demands placed on an athletic and academic all-star. While many of her classmates bravely fend off acute bouts of senioritis, Ms. Sayre has been windsurfing her way to the top of the national ranks, all while staying on the honor roll.
Vineyard Haven’s Rasmus Sayre added a few extra days to school vacation to win his age group at the Techno 293 Junior Windsurfing North American Championships held in Merritt Island, Fla. Raz, aged 12 and a seventh grader at Tisbury School, bested sailors from Mexico, U.S. and Canada to win the Under 15 age division. A series of eight races over three days determined the champions. The highlight of the event for Raz was competing against the Mexican team, which he had never seen before.
Eighteen-year-old Nicole Level, one of Mexico’s top junior windsurfers from Cancun, is alive today because of the quick thinking of 13-year-old Rasmus Sayre from Vineyard Haven.
The rescue took place last Saturday during a world-class windsurfing championship in Cozumel. The young teenage female sailor was found adrift amid four and five-foot seas, far offshore, without her board and not wearing a life jacket. Mr. Sayre happened to notice her while racing in a tight competition, and without hesitating he left the highly competitive race to make the rescue.
