Chris Kayda

Chris started sailing in Santa Barbara when he was 9, and quickly fell in love with racing sailboats. He learned to race through the Sea Shells Association and Youth Sailing Foundation before becoming a pivotal member of the Dos Pueblos High School sailing team. He came away from high school with 2 National Championship titles.

In college Chris attended UCSB where he earned a degree in physics and today works for an experimental physics lab researching shock physics. At UCSB, Chris was a key team member and leader during some of the most successful seasons in program history, helping the team secure a best-ever 6th-place finish at the fleet race National Championship and a 3rd-place finish in A Division. In recognition of his contributions and success, Chris earned All-American honors.

As of fall 2026, Chris has dedicated three years to developing his skills, building experience, and pursuing competitive excellence in the 470 class. Combining the analytical mindset of a physicist with a passion for making the boat go fast, Chris is driven to push the limits of his performance, rise to the top of the 470 fleet, and become a champion.

While Chris started sailing when he was nine, his story starts a few years before that, when Chris began his journey as a pirate...

Little Chris was obsessed with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, specifically the pirate ships. He wanted his own pirate ship, and as a little engineer he put together whatever he could find laying around the house, including cereal boxes, duct tape, straws, and string to make his tiny pirate ships. It was awesome, but Chris really wanted a big, wooden vessel. And so began his sailing journey, starting with an 8-foot wooden Sea Shell sailing with the Santa Barbara Sea Shell Association. But he had to learn how to sail it… so came Opti’s at the Santa Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation. And then the racing began… and he fell in love with competition!