A young Maine summer resident won the State of Maine Optimist Trophy at the Maine State Optimist Championship in Boothbay Harbor last week.

Thirteen-year-old Jacqueline “Jax” van der Veen, a Spruce Point summer resident from Chester Springs, Penn., was rated best overall and top girl at the race, winning in her boat Jax Attack.

“I was already in first, and [everyone] told me I could sail if I wanted to and it could just be the race I didn’t count, but I raced, and it was actually a big one,” van der Veen said. This is her third summer participating in the youth sailing program at Boothbay Harbor’s Yacht Club. 

Her coach for the past few years has been Gray Ferris, but for the event, 14-year-old Ian MacDiarmid, who won the race last year, coached van der Veen. He had outgrown the boats and felt he should share his knowledge instead of competing again. After winning, he went on to try out and qualify for the U.S. National Team in 2009, sailed 10, 11, 12. Sailing for the National Team, he has had the opportunity to travel and race all over the world in the past year. He said van der Veen’s progress as a sailor over the past three years was “pretty good – better than most.”

“She has natural speed,” MacDiarmid said.

Van der Veen was modest about her accomplishments, saying that her coach debriefed her on the general area and how to handle the course. “All I had to do was sail fast and listen to them,” she said, though MacDiarmid and her other mentors disagreed, saying it was her skill and natural pension for speed that enabled her win.

Van der Veen is also an accomplished field hockey player. This year, she was accepted to an exclusive field hockey team that went on to compete in and win nationals, and she and her family had to choose between competing for the team or staying in Boothbay to sail.

Van der Veen won the last two races (out of seven total at the competition) by a foot, which rarely ever happens in the world of sailing. “I’ve never seen such a dramatic finish,” her father, Mike van der Veen said.

Van der Veen didn’t immediately know if she had won. She found out later in the day, after which there was a celebration at the yacht club.

Van der Veen usually only sails in the summers, but after her success in the Optimist Championships, she and her family are planning on having her participate in some winter sailing in Florida, including the Orange Bowl, a large national regatta in Miami that takes place two days after Christmas.

Her father says that she aspires to sail at the high school and college level, and hopes to be part of the U.S. National Team like her coach. “At her age, her dream is to sail on the Olympic team,” he said. “But that’s a long way off.”