ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Navy's Offshore Sailing team won the 2019 US Offshore Championship this weekend, which was the first time the Midshipmen have won the event since 2005.
 
Navy played host to the biennial national championship, which included civilian amateur teams from various regions of the country. This year, teams from California, Illinois, Michigan, Texas and Louisiana joined the Midshipmen and Mid-Atlantic teams from Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake Bay.
 
The Midshipmen earned a clutch victory on Sunday to win the last race of the event right in their own backyard as the finish line for the last race was set up right off the seawall of the Robert Crown Sailing Center.
 
Over the three-day event, Navy posted three wins over five races and compiled scores of 4,1,1,6,1 to finish seven points better than the team from Detroit, Mich.
 
Navy's crew was skippered by Jonathan Hitt and included tactician Ben Van Duyne, helm Sean Caraher, main trim Zackary Bauer, jib trim Matthew McClelland, pit Christian Hoffman, mast Ethan Falsone and bow Hayden Espericueta.
 
Navy's second event of the weekend was at the AYC Doublehanded Distance Race. The Midshipmen had two teams compete in the event where each team had a midshipman skipper along with a coach. Don Poirier, accompanied by assistant coach Nancy Haberland led Avenger to a second-place finish in the J/105 class after completing the event four minutes back of the lead boat. Katie Boyle skippered Dreadnought to a fifth-place finish in the same class. 
 
The Midshipmen will stay in Annapolis this coming weekend to compete at the AYC Fall Series.