On May 9, 2026, the St. Paul Academy and Summit School sailing club competed at a regatta at Lake Minnetonka.
The club team at SPA consists of kids from SPA, De La Salle High School, Minneapolis Southwest, Minneapolis Washburn and Edina.
Junior Adi Narayan describes the importance and the format of the regatta: “It was a local regatta for [the] Minnesota high school sailing at Lake Minnetonka Yacht Club. [We did] team racing. Instead of having just one boat competing against [others] for first place, it’s three on threes and you have to get a certain combination to win,” Narayan said.
Although Narayan and his team didn’t have much time to get acclimated to team racing, he remained confident: “We did pretty well with the amount we practiced. [We’ve] only practiced this format of racing for a week … I think my focus was really trying to get … first place,” Narayan said.
The Minneapolis Sailing Center competed in five races, despite the brutal conditions in Deephaven that day, featuring wind gusts up to 23 mph; the sails were flying everywhere.
Narayan has experience in fleet racing: “That fleet racing is more what I did, that’s [what] I went to Nationals for,” Narayan said.
Lake Minnetonka was full of coaches, spectators and workers making noise, but on the water, Narayan was calm, cool and collected. With a confident look on his face, he breezed through the wind and got the win. Not once, but twice, to help his team take home third.
Narayan didn’t just think about himself: “Once I was in first, then I could look at the race and see what I have to do to get our team into a winning combination,” Narayan said.
Narayan will compete to defend his state championship in what he knows best, fleet racing at the State Regatta next weekend.
