CNU Sailing

Saturday had Easterly breezes all day with W 3’s & W 4’s.  8 races in each division completed. Two protests heard and both were disallowed. Sunday brought rain at report time and then a beautiful sunny westerly for nearly the whole day.  Breeze started SW and shifted right building to about ten knots. Fourteen races completed (all W 4’s) one protest resulting in a dsq.  Congratulations to top four South teams for qualifying for the War Memorial Oct 31-Nov 1st (St. Mary’s, Georgetown, UVA & ODU). Dan Winters, John Griffin & Mike Callahan heard protests.

Some events are fun on which to report, some are painful. This is one of the most pleasant tasks I have had in many years. First, here is why this event was so important. It was the first of two events at which we can qualify for the War Memorial regatta, in effect, the season’s championship. Four teams from the South Region may do so at this event. Also, the top four club teams from the south can qualify for the Club Championships on November 7-8. Two teams will qualify from those who did not next week at Georgetown. Note that Hobart, Washington, Navy, Fordham and USMMA are not from the south and participate only to give some of their team members experience.

IMAGE: Jessica Thal right after the final race

St. Mary’s, Georgetown, Old Dominion and Virginia qualified. That sets up a shoot out between CNU, Maryland, William & Mary, and Hampton for the final two spots. But the event has more significance for CNU because we have qualified behind Maryland most of the last few seasons. By beating them this week, we set ourselves up to do so again next week. Making the St. Mary’s performance of even more significance is the rapidly improving performance of our team that has many new sailors. The final plus for the weekend was the performance of Jessica Thal and Sarah-Daye Hand who went into the final two races of the weekend with Maryland a point up on us. Jess and Sarah gave us two points on Maryland in both races to let us finish in 10th place and three points ahead of Maryland. Next week is going to be exciting! But keep in mind that both Maryland and William & Mary are two of our favorite competitors and while the competition will be intense, it will also be a friendly competition that typifies our events in the South Region of MAISA.

IMAGE: Sarah-Daye, Jessica, Lynn, Taylor, and Brennan

Saturday had perfect weather, a blue sky with 70 degrees but light wind.  Nine races sailed in 420’s and nine in Tech’s.  Wind conditions were 3-7 knots with 30 degree shifts. Sunday no races sailed.  Wind was from the west 0-1 knots.

This event was a qualifier for the War Memorial Regatta later in the year for the teams of the Central Region. CNU, St. Mary’s, Queens, and Cornell were there to fill out the fleet and to give some of our sailors experience in a large fleet. It did exactly that for us, unfortunately for just one day. As it turned out, Tyler Myers, Brennan Russell, and Victoria Miller got to sail the infamous Tech Dinghies while Maxwell Plarr and Maghan Mageee sailed the 420s, Had we gotten the second day of sailing, they would have switched fleets. But Toms River was a mirror for all of Sunday and we at least got to leave for home a little early. Still, this was very valuable weekend. Sailed at the Toms River Yacht Club, the venue is great for watching our sailors at all points on the course and we get to make a good evaluation of how they are doing in a large fleet. We had our good moments and our bad, but Victoria, sailing in her first intercollegiate event got to sail to her first race win as Tyler’s crew in race B8. However, our up and down finishes show that we need to develop consistency.

It was a pleasure having Max’s parents Steve, and Becky, and Tyler’s parents, Wally and Lynn with us for the regatta. They are all great people and very supportive of the team. Their observations were often quite valuable to my thinking as we watched the regatta from the TRYC upper deck.

IMAGE: Max, Meghan, Brennan (back row) Tyler and Victoria

Saturday didn’t give us much wind, but Sunday was great – just the right wind to get sailors back on track after the summer. Still, the CNU team was quite rusty and our scores suffered due to some missed opportunities and mistakes. Jessica Thal and Tyler Million sailed the entire series in A Division. Tyler Myers and Amy Craven split the sailing in B Division with Maxwell Plarr and Kate Doyle. We are still looking for the best combinations of skipper and crew and this event served the purpose well. Next weekend’s two events, the Central Qualifier at Ocean County at Toms River and the Colony Cup at William & Mary will help further this effort.

IMAGE: Tyler Myers, Maxwell Plarr, Jessica Thal and Tyler Million between races.

At one time the Riley Cup (named for old timer, Riley Johnson) was a major regatta to which the top teams sent their best sailors. Now those sailors only go to major intersectional events. Still, this is a great event with which to kick off the season and the Old Dominion Team did a great job running the event. Former coach, KC Fulmer was on hand to oversee the events, but, as he said, he didn’t have to do much, so well prepared were the ODU team.

IMAGE: Amy Craven with her parents, Eric and Melissa Craven who drove up from Greenville, North Carolina for the event.