Sept. 22, 2008
This past weekend, the Navy sailing team traveled to four different regattas on the East Coast and performed well in all of its events. The wind was light all over the east this weekend and our sailors excelled in the challenging conditions.
At the MAISA Central Fall # 1 at Ocean County College in New Jersey, Navy bested 17 other teams from the mid-Atlantic region and easily qualified for the MAISA fall dinghy championship. Over 15 races, Nat Sabatt and Bennett Geyer finished fourth in "A" division while Jason Carminati and Tina Pryne finished third in "B" to lead the Midshipmen to the overall victory.
At the SUNY Maritime Fall Open in Bronx, N.Y., Navy finished second overall out of 17 teams, with James Allsopp and Theresa James coming in third in "A" and Clark Hayes and Saverio Maldari fourth in "B". The wind was so light at SUNY on Sunday and the current was so strong, that no races were completed and the results from Saturday stood as final.
Competing against most of New England's top teams at the Hatch Brown Intersectional, hosted by MIT and Boston U., Navy finished an impressive fourth out of eighteen squads. Robert Vann and Juaquina Soland finished second in "A" division. Tim Murphy and Caroline Lockett were third in "B", and Mac Fletcher and Trisha Kutkiewicz came in seventeenth in "C". The talented group of Midshipmen that travelled to Boston showed great poise in mastering the tricky Charles River wind shifts and showed great consistency over 12 races per division.
At the weekend's major MAISA Intersectional, Navy came in a solid seventh out of 20 top teams at the Nevins Trophy at USMMA in Kings Point, N.Y. Andrew Vann and Christina Chance sailed a fantastic regatta in "A" division before a blunder at the weather mark in the ninth race dropped them to fourth in their division. Martin Sterling and Sara Burke sailed to 10th in "B" division and Al Ravelo finished ninth in "C". Just like at SUNY, the breeze never filled in on Sunday and no races were completed, leaving the Midshipmen without the opportunity to improve upon their Saturday results.
"Our weekend was a very successful one for Navy sailing and we were able to accomplish our goal of being one of the top teams at multiple high-level events on the same weekend," said Navy head coach Ian Burman. "While the year is still young and many challenges still await us, our team's performance in difficult conditions was very promising."
Navy sailing will host the Laser South #2 and Faye Bennett MAISA Women's Single-handed Championship next weekend. Navy will also have teams competing at St. Mary's and Hobart and a J24 regatta in Annapolis.
# GO NAVY #
