Hawaii Yacht Club wins qualifier

Hawaii Yacht Club’s team of skipper Mitchell Woodrow and crew members Colby Curtis and Katherine Hughes won the Hawaii qualifier for the U.S. Sailing Junior Championships held Wednesday and Thursday at Pearl Harbor Yacht Club.

The crew posted seven points over six races. Kaneohe Yacht Club’s crew of Lindsey Andrade, Richard Wollenbecker and Leah Ford finished second with 10 points.

Hawaii Yacht Club will compete for the Sears Cup at U.S. Sailing’s Chubb U.S. Junior Championships to be held Aug. 14-18 in San Diego.

Junior Festival starts Monday

Waikiki Yacht Club and Hawaii Yacht Club will host the U.S. Sailing Junior Olympic Festival next week in waters off Waikiki.

The top sailors in the single-handed and double-handed regattas earn spots in the national championships. The double-handed regatta runs Monday to Wednesday. The Margaret Haig Invitational Regatta is set for Thursday and the Connie Smales Invitational will be held Friday.

Shooters medal at championships

Keanu Paikai, an incoming junior at Kamehameha Schools, won his age group while also helping the Venture Crew 123 Gold from Hawaii to a silver medal at the recent NRA Junior Air Gun Championships in Albuquerque, N.M.

Paikai, the defending Interscholastic League of Honolulu junior varsity champion, shot a personal-best 550 on the second day of competition to finish fourth overall and first in intermediate juniors. He earned a spot on the NRA’s National Air Gun Team that will compete in a match against the junior national team of South Africa in which results will be mailed and compared.

The Gold team finished second in sporter rifle category with a 4,223 out of 4,800, 44 points behind Maryland, which successfully defended its title. The team members were Paikai (Kamehameha ’12), Kristy Inouye (Kalani ’09), Christopher Lam (Saint Louis ’08) and Peter Mathre (Kalani ’09).

Venture Crew 123, a co-ed Boy Scouts of America unit, entered a second team that took the top award in the Club Team sub-category. Team members are Nicholas Hadap (Mid-Pacific ’10), Kelly Lam (Sacred Hearts (’13), Michael Loui (Pearl City ’13) and Alec Pura (Mililani ’12).

Also, Inouye finished second in the junior category (ages 18-20) and Lam third.

The coaches are Desmond Lam and Delwin Dang.