In December, Steven Hardee raced in the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championships held in Mussanah, Oman. In a field of 24 boats, Hardee and J.J. Klempen of Christchurch School raced to a pair of top-five finishes and seven top-10 finishes over 13 races to secure 107 total points and a 10th place finish.

This week, Michael R. Ebert of Newsday profiled Hardee and his outstanding performance.

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Way to Go! Student Places in ’29er’ Sailing Competition

A Stony Brook student recently made a splash at an international sailing competition.

Steven Hardee, a senior at The Stony Brook School, placed 10th this winter in the 29er Male category of the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championships, a multi-day competition that featured more than 350 sailors from 55 countries in Oman. A “29er” is a two-person high-performance sailing skiff.

Hardee, who is from St. Croix, represented the U.S. Virgin Islands in the competition with fellow sailor J.J. Klempen, who attends Christchurch School in Virginia. To reach this year’s World Championships, the pair placed first among teams from the U.S. Virgin Islands at a qualifying event last summer in Rhode Island.

“There was a lot of work put in before the event that really set up that good result,” Hardee said of the team’s top-10 placement. “I was just really grateful for all the coaching and support I was given.”

Hardee, who started sailing when he was nine-years-old, began competing internationally three years later and has since participated in competitions including four World Championships, three Youth World Championships and three European Championships. He was also part of a crew named the Top North American Team at the Youth World Championships in 2018.

Hardee, 18, is also captain of his school’s sailing team and a member of the school’s Honor Council.

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29er Male Top 10 Results

Rank	Country	Helm	Crew	Total
1st	France	Hugo Revil	Karl Devaux	46
2nd	Spain	Mateo Codoner Alemany	Simon Codoner Alemany	51
3rd	USA	Ian Nyenhuis	Noah Nyenhuis	59
4th	Finland	Simon Karlemo	Lasse Lindell	73
5th	Argentina	Maximo Videla	Tadeo Funes de Rioja	75
6th	Italy	Alfonso Palumbo	Domenico Palumbo	85
7th	Denmark	Jens-Christian Dehn-Toftehoj	Carl Emil Sloth	87
8th	Japan	Ryotaro Udagawa	Kaito Suzuki	90
9th	Brazil	Lorenzo Ballestrin	Pedro Breternitz	95
10th	Virgin Is.	J.J. Klempen	Steven Hardee	107

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