Augusta Sailors to Race in Sarasota and San Diego

Appling Georgia, March 14, 2013 – Four crews from Augusta are racing sailboats in regattas on opposite sides of the country this weekend. Kaitlyn and Alex Bagnoni are sailing in the O’pen Bic North American championship in San Diego, California. Markus Kraemer and Cliff Russell are sailing E-scows at the One Design Mid-Winter Regatta in Sarasota, Florida.

Kaitlyn and Alex Bagnoni attend Aquinas High School and started sailing two years ago after attending sail camp at the Augusta Sailing Club. They both race single-handed on the O’pen BIC class sailboats. The O’pen BIC is a small, fast boat with a modern, carbon rig and Mylar sails. It was designed specifically for kids and is a machine for real excitement on the water. This is a rapidly growing international class, with 10,000 boats worldwide. This will be Kaitlyn and Alex’s first national championship regatta. Kaitlyn won the 2018 Junior Grand Prix Championship series sponsored by the South Atlantic Yacht Racing Association.

Alex said he “can’t wait to sail in San Diego. We are so thankful for our club’s support and for all the members that have volunteered their time coaching us.” Alex and Kaitlyn are members of the Augusta Sailing Club.

Teams from the Augusta Sailing Club are also travelling to Florida to race in Sarasota Bay.

Markus Kraemer and Cliff Russell are skippering E-scows at the Sarasota Sailing Squadron One Design Mid-Winter Regatta. The E-scow sailboat is 28 feet long and weighs just under a thousand pounds. Originally designed in the early 1900’s with a wooden hull and mast, the class has kept up with changes in technology. The boat now flies an asymmetrical spinnaker on a carbon fiber pole and has an aluminum mast and a fiberglass hull. It is the fastest monohull sailboat for its size, making it the most competitive high-performance racer on the lakes and bays of the United States. The ten boats at the Augusta Sailing Club form one of the largest E-scow fleets in the South.

The E-scow needs a crew of three or four to provide the exhilarating ride for which it is known. The Augusta boats are crewed by seasoned sailors. Mr. Kraemer learned to sail as a child in Germany, while Mr. Russell has been sailing on the Clark’s Hill lake for 10 years. Mr. Kraemer’s crew is Tyler Finch and Palmer Russell on GA-87. (In one-design racing, since all boats are the same, they are identified by their sail numbers.) Mr. Russell’s crew on GA-27 is Stanton Bost, Kate O’Donnell, and Josh Putnam. Everyone on the boats are amateurs except Mr. Putnam, who grew up sailing in Augusta and races professionally around the world. He most recently competed in the J-70 World Championships.