Boca Raton youth wins Orange Bowl regatta

Saint Andrew’s student takes first in Laser Radials

Eighteen-year-old Philip Alley of Boca Raton sailed away with first place in Laser Radials at the Orange Bowl International Youth Sailing Regatta, held on Biscayne Bay Dec. 27-30.

In the laser radial class, 140 sailors, male and female, eighteen and under from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, the Caribbean and Finland competed in a nine-race series.

Finishing with a score of 31, Alley was 20 points ahead of 2nd place finisher, Chris Barnard of Newport Ca. the current USA high school champion.

This past summer, Alley competed in Holland at the 2007 World Youth and Open Men’s Laser Radial Championships. He was the top USA sailor in both events. Starting competitive sailing at age 10 he also has sailed in; Italy, Bermuda, Argentina, Mexico, Virgin Islands and across the USA.

His coach Anna Tunnicliffe of Fort Lauderdale, is ranked No. 1 in the world and will be representing the USA in Women’s Laser Radials at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Alley will age-out of the 2008 Youth World Championships but has been selected for one of four positions representing the USA in the Open Men’s Championships to be held in New Zealand in March of 2008.

He will be competing against his coach’s fiancé, Brad Funk, also a former laser radial world champion. Funk and Alley are currently training in the ocean out of the Fort Lauderdale Yacht Club to prepare for conditions in New Zealand.

Currently, Alley is a senior at Saint Andrew’s School. He has been nominated for the Palm Beach Post’s Pathfinders Award and has been accepted to Cornell University. Alley plans to pursue collegiate sailing and a degree in engineering.
Also competing at the Orange Bowl Youth Regatta was Niklas Anderson, 18, of Boca Raton; sailing in the Laser Full Rig division he took sixth place. He is also a senior at Saint Andrew’s and a competitive sailor.

Alley and Anderson are best friends and have been sailing together for nine years, starting in the Optimist Pram class. They have both been members of the US National Sailing Team and travel to many regattas together.

Laser Radials are the largest high school age, single-handed sailing class in the world.

The Orange Bowl Regatta is one of the largest youth regattas in the world, with 630 sailors from 17 countries.

In Laser Full Rigs, David Hernandez of Miami was first and Colin Smith of Fort Lauderdale placed second. Smith will be competing in the youth division of the World Championships in New Zealand.

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