Waikiki YC Teams Traveled to California to Compete for the 2025 Sears Cup Trophy
- hysaboard
- Sep 11
- 6 min read
September 11, 2025
Two teams from Waikiki Yacht Club represented Area-H (Hawaii) to compete in the 2025 Chubb U.S. Youth Triplehanded Championship for the Sears Cup Trophy at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, California, August 7-10th. This remarkable group of sailors, including some who are new to crewing, trained intensively with all the sailing opportunities available in the weeks leading up to the event. Discover more about their experiences from Liam Chattergy and Haruko Nagai as they share their teams' perspectives.
By Haruko Nagai
Every summer, the Chubb US Youth Triple-Handed Championship brings sailors from 11 areas to compete for the Sears Cup. This year, the regatta was hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco, with 80 sailors competing in teams of 4. During our 4 days of sailing, we had the privilege to receive advice from the local sailors and national-level coaches. We learned a lot from sailing J22s for the first time, and in new conditions with currents and choppier waters. The colder weather was really nice, and it was incredible to be able to sail between the two iconic views of the Golden Gate and Alcatraz.
Our two teams from Waikiki Yacht Club, including Liam Chattergy, Gaby Delgado, Henry Rhee, Corey Farah, Lily Nomura, Calum Lu, and I had a lot of fun throughout this whole journey, from practicing, competing in qualifiers, and traveling to San Francisco together. In preparation for this event, our main goal for my boat was to become familiar with keelboat sailing, since it was relatively new to us. We were able to practice on Rhodes 19s, C420s, Cal 20s, and the Colgate 26.
During the regatta, one of the more challenging moments for my boat was when we were fixing things on our boat before a start after switching into a new boat. We had drifted below the pin with 30 seconds left to the start. Once we noticed, we were able to split up and have some of us always stay focused on sailing even when fixing things. We made it back by communicating to make sure that we knew who was doing what, and that we were all prioritizing the right things to get to the end goal of finishing the race. In the end, we found it as a funny experience to learn from, instead of just a bad start.
I was able to learn a lot in preparation for this regatta, as well as compete in my first HYSA and ‘away’ regattas, which was one of my goals for the summer. While practicing, I was able to improve my starts, be more comfortable with spinnakers, and work on reading the wind thanks to my coaches and teammates. For the future, I would like to work on hiking out for longer and getting more control over sheets, especially in windier conditions. There were definitely times where hiking out a little more or sheeting in faster would have made a difference.
Here are some thoughts from my teammates:
Corey Farah - Skipper
Thank you to the race committee, coaches, parents, sponsors, and teammates; the expertise, support, and dedicated teamwork made the National 2025 Chubb U.S. Youth Triplehanded Championships an unforgettable experience. I am incredibly grateful for our community that helped us get here, and for the one that made this competition a learning experience and a chance to compete against and alongside such talented teams from across the country.
Lily Nomura
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to compete in the Chubb U.S. Youth Triplehanded Championship for the Sears Cup. I learned so much from incredible coaches, other teams, and my own teammates during this experience that also pushed me out of my comfort zone and challenged my abilities. I will remember the kind and skilled people and the lessons they taught me for years to come.
Calum Lu
Despite the struggles we faced in the race, our team's spirits remained high, turning a challenging race into a memorable and fun experience. We walked away from the competition not with the memory of struggle, but the amazing memories we've made during our time there.
While we were there, we were able to receive the F. Gardner Cox Sportsmanship Trophy. We were also able to meet many new people from around the country who also really enjoy sailing, which was really cool. Overall, this was a great experience that could not have been possible without many people, including HYSA, Hawaii Sailing Foundation, St. Francis Yacht Club, Pearl Harbor Yacht Club (as well as our camerawomen, umpires, and race committee), generous donations from Kahala (matching aloha shirts) and Hawaiian Host (chocolates), our WYC coaches, my teammates, and parents. I am grateful for them and everyone else who helped to make this opportunity possible.
By Liam Chattergy, Skipper
This past summer, two teams from Waikiki Yacht Club flew over to San Francisco to sail in the 2025 Youth Triple-handed National Championships for the Sears Cup hosted by St Francis Yacht Club. This trip was an amazing experience for all of us, seeing sea lions groaning and moaning on Pier 39 and taking this weird cab called a Waymo for the first time. We trained for the Sears Cup in Waikiki’s Cal20 races and in Rhodes19s at Rainbow Bay Marina, and we were lucky enough to get some practice on our Commodore Michael Buelsing’s Colgate 21. Going into the regatta, my team worked on improving our boat-handling skills so that we would have an overall improvement throughout the regatta, saving our best race for last.
Understanding the strong San Francisco currents was incredibly challenging; the strong morning flood switched to an ebb after lunch, and there were essentially two different racing strategies based on the current. Awkwardly, one of my starts had an incredibly strong flood current, and we accelerated too slowly, making it very obvious that there was room for improvement. On the other hand, we had the best race of the regatta on the last day. There was a flood current with a pin favored start; however, the left side of the course was heavily favored. Taking into account the current, we started at the boat and barely made it past the pin upwind. Having a strong start set us up perfectly for a fast upwind, and we held onto our position throughout that race, finishing in 3rd place.
Here are some takeaways my team had:
Gaby Delgado, tactician and Jib trimmer:
Traveling to San Francisco was my first introduction to a mainland regatta, and I couldn’t have had a better experience. Becoming a part of the broader sailing community, meeting other teams and playing games, and competing with each other on the water was so much fun. Not only did we broaden our knowledge of sailing in new boats and a new venue, but we also made friendships to take with us moving forward in our sailing journeys.
Henry Rhee, main trimmer:
I feel very fortunate to have participated in this year's Sears Cup. Through both training for the event and competing in it, I gained a wealth of new knowledge about keelboat sailing, along with tactics and techniques that apply to dinghy sailing as well. I am deeply grateful to my family, the coaches, my teammates, and everyone else who helped to make an amazing Sears Cup experience.
Kazu Fowler, bowman:
During the trip to San Francisco, I got the opportunity to have unique experiences, enjoy the beautiful San Francisco environment, and compete on a national level. Overall, my favorite part of it was having the opportunity to learn and grow from seeing and trying out new strategies from the other competitors, improving as we went.
The Sears Cup was an incredible experience for all the Hawaii sailors, and we are grateful to Waikiki Yacht Club, the Hawaii Youth Sailing Association, the Hawaii Sailing Foundation, and Kahala for supporting our experience. In addition to the sailing, both Hawaii teams won the F. Gardner Cox Sportsmanship Award!! I believe the award acknowledges the culture that we all grew up with, and our excitement to meet other impressive and fun sailors.
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