CNU Sailing

In spite of some concern for the weather, even that cooperated to make this a very productive event. The plan and the format was changing right up to the start as we tried to determine what subjects and what approach to learning would serve best.

The CNU hosts were particularly fortunate to have John Griffin from William & Mary, Sam Ficksman from Hampton, Gene Williams from Salisbury and Skip Kovaks from St. John’s attending and helping with their hands-on instruction and on-the-water commentary.

IMAGE: Sam, Skip & John

For Christopher Newport, Matt Lythgoe, Lynn Ball, Taylor Gray, Amy Polhemus, and Becca Hornick were absolutely great with their help. CNU Assistant Coach, Jim White, as usual went far above what was expected of him to make this a most productive event. Taylor was our CRO and during the races, all the coaches were on the water offering specific comments directly to the sailors when such help could be most effective.

The Greater Richmond Sailing Association was our financial sponsor for this event that provided T shirts and pizza for Saturday’s lunch. Their support of this purely instructional event was most generous and appreciated.

IMAGES: Becca Hornick & Amy Polhemus

A very special thanks goes to our two ladies who managed the Sailing Center and took care of all the little odd jobs, Amy Polhemus and Becca Hornick. Their upbeat attitude and good humor were infectious.

Finally, thanks to all the participants from St. John’s, Salkisbury, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Hampton, William and Mary, and Christopher Newport. I know all the participating coaches appreciated your hard work and cooperation. I think we are on our way to defining how these events can be beneficial to the teams of the south in the future. We at Christopher Newport will certainly be taking much of what we learned into the Fall for our next CNU Clinic.

Even before we arrived on Saturday, we knew we were going to have trouble and there would be no way we could run a 2-on-2 event at which you must have a particular number of races. So, we had already planned to switch to a fleet race event. Sunday morning came with predictions of thunderstorms and a tornado watch until noon, both of which made racing impossible. Fortunately, the center was equipped for DVDs and the sailors watched a WWII submarine movie while we waited for better weather. After lunch, supplied by regatta sponsor, Wachovia Securities of Hampton, the weather looked better and we hoped to get in a race or two in Deep Creek before the 40 knot winds that were predicted for the afternoon arrived. Half way through the first A division race all hell broke loose with a blinding squall and hurricane force winds. With 12 of the 16 boats upside down, the rest of the day was devoted to collecting boats and crews.

Sunday was to have 20-30 knot winds and temperatures in the 50s. The 50s never arrived but with winds consistently in the teens, we got six races in each division run on the “CNU Box” course at the entrance to the Warwick River. The racing was good, but the cold winds made the relatively early conclusion to racing quite welcome. This also allowed Cornell, Army and Ohio, all with long trips ahead, more time to get home.

Many, many thanks to Bill Saunders of Wachovia Securities for sponsoring the regatta which included a Saturday lunch of beer simmered hot dogs and all the fixings. Sam and Bret Winters handled the food prep. Ben France, Becca Hornick, Taylor Gray, Lynn Ball, Kate McClintock, Max Plarr, Matt Lythgoe, Jim White and the entire CNU team all did an excellent job of dealing with the difficult conditions, including the prompt replacement of a 420 center board.

We were especially pleased to have the team from Ohio University sailing with us. Our conditions were tough, but back home they had more than a foot of snow. They were all great guests and we will be most happy to have them return in the future.

On Saturday the First A Div. race was sailed in 15-25 from the SSW. Picked up to 25-36 in the middle of the second race.  7 boats finished among a yard sale of boats and bailers. We postponed until 2:15; breeze moderated to 14 -18 from the west, before dropping to 5-8 knots. Sailed 4 races in A & B.

Sunday was quite different from Saturday.  2 A division and 2 B division races were sailed in a shifty NNW at 7-9 before shutting off near the end of race 6B.  Races were sailed on a windward leeward course with a gate.

With so many of our team members from the Fall out of sailing for the Spring due to scheduling conflicts in afternoon classes, we were starting the Spring season with many questions to be answered. We went to ODU with the idea that the ODU Spring Open was to be a “fact finding mission” and that is just what it turned out to be. We saw some things of which to be concerned, but most of what we learned was to the good. In particular, we found several good skipper/crew combinations that will let us get the best performance from our relatively small team. We are expecting Becca Hornick to be Kate McClintock’s primary crew, but she is on the “DL.” This gave us a chance to see how Patrick McCabe-Marcell and Kate could work together and their consistent single digits was just what we wanted to see. We know that Matt Lythgoe and Amy Polhemus are going to be an excellent light to moderate wind pair. But the off-the-scale winds in the first race of the weekend confirmed that Matt will need a heavier crew in the heavy stuff. But Matt and Amy were not the only ones with their hands full as only seven of the 16 teams finished one race. Maxwell Plarr stepped into the front of Matt’s boat for the rest of the series and proved to be just what we needed to balance Amy. Taylor Gray and Lynn Ball sailed a B Division series on Sunday and confirmed that they are still developing well. So, our tenth place wasn’t bad, but what we learned for the rest of the Spring was even better.

IMAGE: Amy Polhemus, Patrick McCabe-Marcell, Becca Hornick, Kate McClintock, Lynn Ball, Max Plarr, Taylor Gray and Matt Lythgoe