PHOTO BY
TIM WILKES
YOUNG GUN AT KEY WEST
The J/70 class boasted 54 boats at
this year’s Key West Race Week—
impressive, given that the event saw
146 boats, total. Equally impressive
was Gannon Troutman—age 12 and
believed to be the youngest skipper in
the race’s history—and his Pied Piper
crew (including his dad, Dan) who
finished fifth overall, smoking plenty
of great one design sailors. All told,
Pied Piper racked up first, second and
third-place finishes, and seven other
top-20 finishes. Bravo!PARALYMPIC SAILING
CUT FROM 2020 GAMES
One of the greatest aspects of sailboat racing
is that it can be enjoyed and loved at almost
every phase of life, be it as a wide-eyed
junior, a gray-haired tactician, an able-bodied
deckhand or as a disabled skipper competing
against a stiff international fleet for national—and personal—pride at the Paralympics. Until
now, that is. The International Paralympic
Committee (IPC) recently announced that
it was dropping sailing from the Tokyo 2020
Paralympic Games so that it could make way
for badminton and taekwondo. Stay tuned for
more news next month about this misguided
and ill-conceived decision.2014 ROLEX WINNERS
Each January, a panel of top U.S. sailing
journalists convenes to determine the
recipients of U.S. Sailing’s coveted Rolex
Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year
Awards. The awards recognize American
sailing’s proudest racecourse accom-
plishments of the previous year, and this
year’s winners are no strangers to fans of
grand prix sailing. Terry Hutchinson, 46,
won his newest Rolex timepiece for his
dominant performances as tactician in
the Farr 40 class, the TP52 class and the
RC44 class (as well as his success in the
J/70 class as skipper). Stephanie Roble,
25, won her first Rolex for her stand-out results
in the Etchells class, the J/70 class, the Melges
20 class and the Women’s Match Racing circuit,
where she won the U.S. championships and
placed third at the Worlds. “Hutch” beat-out
nine other nominees for his award, while Roble
bested a talent-packed group of seven yachts-
women.—DSShort Tacks
12-year-old Gannon
Troutman at the helmExperience the Diff erence
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