CNU Sailing

On Saturday there was lots of wind, becoming unsailable for the teams present with steep rollers coming in across the James River from Smithfield. Four races complete in each division in the morning. Winds gusting to over 30 knots with many capsizes.

Sunday saw good winds until they died completely just after 12 noon. Three races completed in each division with the last “A” race lost when the “B” came to a complete halt. Seven races were completed in each division with all being sailed on the CNU Box. Very shifty winds with all three of the weather marks being moved repeatedly.

IMAGE: Ben France and Johanna Faroe won A Division.

We don’t often win our home regatta because we usually try to be good hosts and sail our newer sailors. But with the fleet getting all new sails, we thought we would give our better sailors the tiller. Further, Ben France’s father flew in from Ohio and deserved to see his son sail. He didn’t realize that he would be pressed into service on the committee boat on Sunday!

Many thanks to all competitors for being such good guests and taking care of our new sails. Thanks also to Jim White for crash boat work, Taylor Gray for scoring, Bob France for committee boat work, Evan Miller, Maxwell Plarr, Pete Michalski, and the rest of the CNU team for all kinds of support. We do have a terrific group this Fall. Finally, thanks to Sam and Bret Winters for providing lunch for all the competitors on Saturday.

IMAGE: Jessica Thal and Lynn Ball won B Division.

Ocean County was excused from sailing on Sunday due to an injury. 20 points were added to each of their divisions due to failure to complete the R.P. Forms.

On Saturday 8 A division and 6 B division races were completed in a shifty and puffy 12 knot NNE breeze early that eased to 7 by the afternoon.  Two protests were filed Saturday and resulted in two DSQ’s. 3 A division and 5 B division races were completed Sunday, fulfilling the rotation.  The races were sailed in a still shifty and puffy 15 knot NNE breeze.  No protests were filed Sunday. U/Penn was a no show. Thank you to all the sailors for a great weekend of sailing and a thank you to the Washington College team members for running the regatta.

For the teams in the Central Region of MAISA, this was an important event, a qualifier for the War Memorial Regatta in two weeks. For the CNU team it was an opportunity to see how the team we expect to take to the War has been developing. And, the team has been developing well through the fall, from our very poor showing at Ocean County to our very good performance at Georgetown where we qualified.

IMAGE: Ben France, Jessica Thal, Johanna Faroe, Lynn Ball, and Tyler Million

Ben France and Johanna Faroe have polished their sailing skills and Jessica Thal and Lynn Ball have done nothing but improve by giant steps at every event. At Washington College, Ben and Johanna showed that they are ready to produce at their best. As you will note from the attached report of the event, they placed first in A Division by a good 7 point margin while Jess and Lyn placed a very creditable 6th in B Division, just one point out of 5th. Remember, Jessica is a freshman sailing in her first season of college sailing.

The winds were quite strong at Washington and, combined with the strong tidal flow, this made for some difficult sailing, but good competition. We were looking to determine just how strong the winds might be for Jessica and Lynn to sail competitively. Tyler Million is Lynn’s backup when her 99 pounds just aren’t enough. Tyler performed quite well, but we would have liked to have had more time with his pairing with Jess. Unfortunately, winds have been rather light this year and it was good to have some of the strong stuff at WAC.

We actually held the second spot in this event at times, but by the final races, we slipped behind the host Washington team. Still, we are now quite ready to sail at our best in the War Memorial in two weeks.

On Saturday the wind was ENE in the morning at 15-24 knots, decreasing in the afternoon to 10-15 as it went NE, while Sunday wind was ENE 10-17.  Courses sailed were modified goldcups and modified olympics.  All races were sailed in FJ’s. There was one protest on Sunday resulting in a DSQ.  Thanks to the Cukers for the use of their boat and assistance with race committee.

IMAGE: Becca Hornick and Scott Racette

The Hampton University Bay days Regatta was our best so far this season. This was not so much because we finished a strong 3rd in the event. It was because we saw so much improvement in our developing sailors. The combination of Jessica Thal and Lynn Ball have improved well beyond our expectations.

Going into the season we felt our top A Division team of Ben France and Johanna Faroe were going to prove strong and reliable. With the loss of Kate McClintock and Matt Lythgoe to graduation last spring, who would fill the top B Division slot for us was up for grabs between four skippers. It appears that Jessica and Lynn are going to be the pair we were seeking.

IMAGE: Tyler Million, Jessica Thal, Lynn Ball and Amy Polhemus

At the same time, Tyler Million has come from being a backup crew to prove he has what it takes to do well on the tiller. This event was used to compare his skills with Scott Racette. While Amy Polhemus crewed for Tyler, Becca Hornick crewed for Scott. We gave Tyler and Amy the B Division spot on Saturday and then to Scott and Becca on Sunday. As it all turned out our team proved to be remarkably well balanced. We place 4th in both A Division and B Division and 3rd overall. Both B Division crews finished with identical scores of 29 for a total in the division of 58. Since the winds were much the same on both days, we can assume that the crews were as well.

IMAGE: Some of the other team members and parents who came by on Saturday.

We were indeed fortunate to have good winds throughout the weekend. At times they were a little on the high side for our A Division pair, but they got good experience in stronger winds and proved that they will be a good pair well up into the wind range. All in all, this was a great event for the team and it was most impressive that we had many of the team members who weren’t sailing come by to watch as well as many of our parents. There aren’t many venues that allow for good viewing of the racing, but Hampton’s site is one of the better ones. The official report from Hampton is attached.