CNU Sailing

We had six teams in attendance at the Spring 2on2 Clinic at CNU; Salisbury, Hampton, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Drexel and CNU. Neither Webb nor Army was able to get out of the frozen north to attend.

The event consisted of three sessions, a morning classroom session and afternoon on-the-water session on Saturday and an on-the-water session on Sunday morning. The wind on Saturday was just about perfect for sailing in “the Creek.” This was necessary in order to allow for fast rotations. On Sunday morning what wind we had was out of the worst direction possible. However, team race practice isn’t so demanding with regard to winds. We simply wanted to create the situations teams have to deal with in 2on2 racing. We mixed and matched sailors to create seven teams. Though we didn’t get a full rotation, we got he practice we wanted.

With many of the spring events now 2on2s, we hope this instructional event will elevate the skill levels to provide better racing as more sailors understand the subtleties of this discipline.

We really didn’t keep scores other than for curiosity since we didn’t get a full rotation and many Sunday teams were made up of several schools. One CNU sailor crewed for one guest school and skippered for another. It was all a lot of fun.

The CNU team would like to extend its thanks to all the participants for their cooperation and contributions that helped make this a productive effort.

Good luck to all in this expanded season of 2on2 racing.

Every season is different. Each brings its disappointments and its triumphs. The team we have each season is unique. If we focus on the failings we can call it a poor one. But if we concentrate on the positives it can be a good one.

We had expected this season to be the one in which we returned to the top ten in the Middle Atlantic InterCollegiate Sailing Association. When we lost our number one skipper even before the season started to academic problems, our entire focus changed to developing our new people and getting the best from our returning sailors. Rather than team goals, we gave our attention to individual successes. In this we were quite successful. Jessica Thal stepped up her game and improved dramatically all season long. Taylor Gray and Lynn Ball took up the slack and filled out our best A & B crew paring.

IMAGE: The team at the 2009 Christmas Party.

Tyler Myers, Maxwell Plarr, Amy Craven, Taylor Morgan, Sarah-Daye Hand, Meghan Magee, and Brennan Russell represented the team at most of the other events.

However, what was probably the most fun we had all fall was at the Central #2 Qualifier held at Washington College to which we took all women. This was an important event for the Central Region teams as it was one of their two qualifiers for the War Memorial. For CNU it was all fun and a great opportunity for our women to show what they could do. Not surprisingly, Jessica and Meghan posted a very creditable 4th in A Division. We rotated two pairs, Maggie Gore & Amy Craven and Victoria Miller & Katlin Kitchen in B Division where they took 8th of the 13 teams. Maggie and Amy finished up with a very well sailed 5th place. For both pairs, this was their first major event. We will certainly do the “all-girl” thing again in the spring.

Perhaps the most improved sailor we had in the fall was Taylor Morgan. Unfortunately, Taylor has gained admission to the Savannah School of Art & Design, one of the top schools of its type in the country. We are going to miss Taylor, but we are also happy with his good fortune and we will see him back at our Alumni Regatta one of the these years.
We were unable to qualify for the Wear Memorial, one of the few times we have not and sailed instead in the Luce Regatta that was held close to home at Hampton University. Our third place finish there was a very good showing.

One of the most interesting and welcome developments that began last spring, continued through the fall, and will go farther in the spring is the increasing number of events being run by CNU, Hampton, Virginia, and William & Mary. This means that more of our events will be close to home, less expensive to attend at a time when budgets are being cut, and we’ll have stronger relationships with other Virginia teams. It is one of the goals of MAISA leadership that we develop a series of events in each of the three regions to provide added goals to which teams may aspire.

We wrapped up the fall season with the SAISA/MAISA Regatta at Charleston, our traditional finish to the season. The fleet was strong this year and we were fortunate to place 12th of the 15 teams using most of the sailors we expect to have back in the spring. We do expect to have Amy Polhemus, Becca Hornick and Dara Gruber rejoining the team after lost semesters in which their academic schedules kept them out of competition.

The late news is that Jessica will not be able to sail due to class scheduling problems. But, as they say, “Every one else will have to step up their game. I have no doubt that they will do so.

Dan Winters, Coach

This was our last event of the Fall season and the team we took was one put together for several special reasons. Our team consisted of Taylor Morgan, Maxwell Plarr, Meghan Magee, Tyler Million, and Lynn Ball.

Taylor Morgan was taken because this would be his last event at CNU. He is transferring to a most prestigious school, the Savannah College of Art and Design where we wish him the best of luck. It is a great opportunity for him while a loss for the team. Taylor has only been sailing competitively since last spring and he has shown great potential. He had damaged his shoulder a few weeks ago and we limited him to a few lighter air races in which he scored a 4th and a 8th. Max and Lynn were included as our incredibly hard working co-captains who do everything of which a coach could ask of his officers.

Meghan has been one of our most reliable crews and a regular crew with Max. Finally, Tyler has unfortunately had too many required afternoon classes to be able to sail regularly since last fall. So, we took this opportunity to give him some time in competition. Tyler is still having problems with scheduling his classes to let him be more active with the team. We’ll be working to arrange practices in the spring to keep him active. His 5 single digit finishes at Charleston were quite impressive.

We really didn’t expect to be a major force at this event and our goal was to do well against the other local teams in attendance, Hampton and William & Mary. We ultimately finished 12th beating William & Mary but losing to Hampton, although we led them for some a good bit of the regatta.

The SAISA/MAISA at the College of Charleston has been a regular on our schedule since its inception years ago. However, the trip has become ever more expensive and the event is moving to the same weekend as our Alumni Regatta. So, this may have been the last time we make the trip south. Aside from that, the venue is not one of the better ones and the tides are as difficult to deal with as any to be found on the east coast.

However, this is Charleston, a great place to visit and the food is great. This year our Saturday dinner was at Tommy Condons. Tyler’s father manages one of the chain and he supplied us with a $75.00 gift card that meant we could enjoy some of the best the restaurant had to offer – and we did. The team pronounced the food as good as any and we extend to Jack Million our most sincere thanks.
The Annual MAISA Draft of events will be held on December 5th where we will learn what events we will have for the spring. We’ll be picking 15th out of 44 and expect to get all the events we want.

The boats have been put away for the winter and the only team activity left is the Annual Christmas Party at the sail loft. Regardless of how the season has gone, this is always a way to end the season on a most positive note.