A 15-year-old sailor from Carmel Valley has the competition on the run.

Over the weekend, the best high school sailors in the region swooped into Monterey to compete in the Northern California (NorCal) Sailing Association Championship Series. A young 15-year-old sailor from Carmel Valley named Nick Ward was the local favorite, and he didn''t disappoint. He and his teammate took third in a tough field that included the Women''s Junior National champion.

That strong showing was par for the course. At a recent race, says Ward''s coach, Cam Lewis, "He even passed a few boats in another class that started three minutes ahead of him. The kid is a good sailor."

Nick Ward started sailing when he was a very little kid. By sixth grade he was sailing for his brother''s Salinas High School team, even though he clearly was no high school student. Taking the helm improved his performance further.

"In seventh grade I started to drive the boat, so I got a lot better," Ward says. Watching his brothers-both in college, both competitive sailors-sail and hearing them talk about it has made him a better sailor. He learns from their mistakes.

Ward''s advantage is he''s smart-"Really smart," says Lewis. "Sailing is a pretty cerebral sport. He listens to what people are saying. He''s basically figured out what''s going on."

Ward''s one handicap is his size. He weighs 105 pounds and stands 5 feet 2 inches tall. Ward''s crew mate Lauren Hobson is also about his size, so they have to work a bit harder out on the water. Most high school crews have a captain who''s at least 150 pounds. These two combined barely make it over 200 pounds. When they have to hike out-leaning off the gunwale against the force of the wind on the sail-they have to hang out farther.

"We pretty much have to do that harder than anyone else to keep the boat flat," Ward says.

Although size doesn''t matter in sailing the way it can in football, it''s still important. Sometimes the boat has to be "manhandled," as Lewis puts it. Not having the natural ballast in a strong wind makes it harder to control the boat.

"It does hurt him when it gets windy, but he''s usually able to get by that."

So Ward relies on a few crafty maneuvers.

"Yeah I have some tricks, but they''re kind of hard to describe," he says. For example, during three-on-three team races, he gets ahead of a competitor''s boat and luffs his sails, letting the wind out so the sail flaps. That slows down the boat behind him. "Then your other teammate can pass them."

This summer Ward''s been whizzing past the competition. At a regatta in Alameda not too long ago he took first in every single race.

Lately he''s been sailing a new kind of boat, known as a Bite. It''s specially engineered for light people-those under 150 pounds. Weight figures prominently in the sport, as evidenced by Ward''s and Hobson''s reactions to the conditions on Saturday morning before the races. The Bay was encased in a thick layer of fog. There was no wind at 10am when the teams met to get the rules, but by 11 it was picking up. Still, nothing too heavy. Asked if no wind was a bad thing, Lauren Hobson says, "No. That''s good for us because we''re light."