The Washington College Open — Central #2
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.
| Scores | A Div. | B Div. | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. St. Mary’s | 44 | 13 | 57 |
| 2. Washington College | 46 | 39 | 85 |
| 3. Christopher Newport | 31 | 60 | 91 |
| 4. Navy | 38 | 72 | 110 |
| 5. Georgetown | 61 | 49 | 110 |
| 6. Ocean County | 67 | 59 | 126 |
| 7. Loyola | 79 | 56 | 135 |
| 8. Drexel | 69 | 67 | 136 |
| 9. Princeton | 106 | 94 | 200 |
| 10. Maryland | 95 | 106 | 201 |
| 11. UMBC | 92 | 113 | 205 |