March 4, 2009
This past weekend was a busy one for the Navy intercollegiate sailing team, with two regattas and a practice hosted in Annapolis. Navy's performances showed a lot of promise but also proved that there is still much work to be done to get where its needs to be before the qualifiers in April.
The major event of the weekend was the Bob Bavier Team Race at The College of Charleston. Ten of the top teams in the country came to play with their best sailors to make this the first big team race regatta of the season. The event was made even more challenging by strong winds and currents that even the most experienced sailors in the fleet had a difficult time managing. Navy started out strong, tying for first in the initial round robin of competition on the way to an 8-2 record before it hit a losing skid that left us with at 8-7 at the end of the day on Saturday. On Sunday, the conditions were even more extreme, with heavy rains and thunderstorms and winds gusting up to 52 mph. Navy sailed three more races to finish with an overall record of 10-8 after two round robins to finish in fifth place overall. Andrew Vann, Robert Vann, and Tim Murphy served as helmsmen while Christina Chance, Caroline Lockett, Juaquina Soland, Clark Hayes and Saverio Maldari crewed. The winter weather hit Navy on the ride home and we were forced to pull over for the night in southern Virginia, delaying our return to Annapolis until midday Monday.
At the Tom Noble Team Race at Washington College, a young Navy team gained valuable experience while squaring off against some quality in district competition. James Allsopp, Jason Carminati and Nat Sabatt were our skippers with Theresa James, Alice Hong and Bennet Geyer serving as crew. Navy finished the regatta with a 6-8 overall record to come in fifth out of eight teams.
The rest of the team that was home this weekend competed in a Quad practice with sailors from Georgetown University, St. Mary's College and Old Dominion University. Practice was cancelled on Sunday due to inclement weather, but a solid 21-boat fleet got some good time on the water in on Saturday. Andrew Hotchkiss and Maggie Boyle had a terrific day on Saturday and were the top boat in the fleet, winning the series of fleet races that were contested.
# GO NAVY #
