High school buddies team up for national youth sailing title
By Doran Cushing
Three Florida high school classmateswill have something more than the typical "school's out for summer" memories to carry them through their first day back at school this fall.
 Kevin Reali, Rick Korab, and Ryan Druyor Lakewood High School (St. Petersburg, FL) classmates Rick Korab, Kevin Reali, Jr., and Ryan Druyor teamed up to win one of the top honors in the sport of youth sailing--the Sears Cup U.S. Junior Triplehanded Championships sponsored by US Sailing and hosted by the New York Yacht Club at Newport, RI, August 14-20. Racing in unfamiliar waters, and in an unfamiliar 20-foot keelboat, the Lakewood seniors, who were representing the St. Petersburg Yacht Club, topped nine other youth teams from across the United States which had earned a berth at the finals by way of regional qualifying regattas. The 10-race series was sailed on Newport Harbor, which provided strong currents very different from the waters of Tampa Bay where the high school sailors train. Korab, who skippered the three-man crew, said, "It seemed like we really worked a lot on boat speed, but there was current and it was really shifty. I've sailed in Charleston in the high school competitions, and at the (Sears Cup) qualifier in Hilton Head (SC) where there was a lot of current., but it's very different from the bay." The finals for the Sears Cup were held in a fleet of Yngling, a class of boats not common in the South. "Some people call them a mini-Etchells," Druyor said. "It looks like a smaller Soling, but it's pretty cramped in the cockpit...pretty close quarters." The slender fiberglass boats were designed in Norway in 1968 and are more commonly found in racing circles in Europe. They use a conventional aluminum mast and are raced with three sails--a mainsail, jib, and spinnaker while relying on the crew to balance the boat with sail trim and their positioning on the five-and-a-half-foot wide boat. Druyor's role was bowman, taking care of the hoisting and dousing of the jib and spinnaker while Korab did the driving, and Reali helped with tactics and sail trim. Along with their love of competitive sailing, the trio also share similar objectives while completing their high school diplomas this school year. All three are enrolled in the Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) program at Lakewood, and each of the teens are planning to continue their sailing at the collegiate level. |
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"Technology, science, and math...those are the three things I'm interested in," Reali said, working toward a career in mechanical engineering.
He's already putting those interests to practical use as a volunteer, working on computers at the elementary school where his mom, Audrey Reali, is a teacher. Reali was drawn into the sport by a friend of his mom's about ten years ago and began by sailing Optimist dinghies at the St Petersburg Sailing Center. His teammates both got into sailing some six years ago, but neither Druyor or Korab grew up in a family of lifelong sailors. Korab said, "I've been involved in sailing about six years now. I first got involved when my mom met my stepdad...he sails." Each of the three young racers are usually in command of their own boats in the high school competitions, skippering double-handed 420 Class boats with other teammates as crew. So how does it work when three "bosses" get together to make tactical decisions on one boat? "We're normally all skippers...and it's worked out pretty well," Korab said. "Kevin's my middleman. We'll talk it over, then I'll make the decision." He added, "There's some yelling and screaming, but we're all good friends. We know it's all about sailing. When we get back to the dock, it's all forgotten." This was not the first win for a St. Petersburg team at the Sears Cup finale. Royce Rarik, Marty Kullman, Michelle Profant, and Chris Bardes won the honors for St. Petersburg Yacht Club in 1985 and Sean Doyle, Nick Hartney, and Andrew Nelson returned the cup to SPYC in 1997. The New Orleans-based team of Robert Conrad, Marcus Eagan, and Cardwell Potts took the honors in 1998, and the Pass Christian Yacht Club team of John F. Dane, Oliver Peneguy, and David Taylor won the Sears Cup in 1996. Since its inception in 1921, the Sears Cup has most often found its home at a yacht club in the northern U.S., but southern teams have brought the cup home seven times in the past 15 years. Korab, Reali, and Druyor were unanimous in setting their next goal -- the high school national championships in 2001. Beyond that, they each hope to compete at the collegiate level before launching their careers. And they are aware that there exist only rare opportunities for a career in competitive sailing, but their dedication to the sport keeps their goals high. "There are all kinds of 'draws' to sailing," Reali said. "It's a combination of being able to understand all the changes and being able to control the boat. It's a combination of physical and mental...there's nothing boring about it." |
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