By Holly D’Addio, Harbor News Sports Writer:
On Aug. 11, teams
from around the state gathered at Yale Corinthian Yacht Club in Branford to
race in the annual ECSA Team Racing Championships. This year’s weather proved
to be a major factor, as only some of the races were sailed due to afternoon thunderstorms
in the area that forced the grounding of the boats.
“There were 21 races
that were completed in difficult sailing conditions,” said Maria Mahler-Haug,
head of sailing at Yale. “Thunderstorms made it difficult to get many races in
at one time, so they were completed sporadically throughout the day …. Four
protests were held, but in general, the races were sailed with great
sportsmanship.”
Sixteen teams—all
with kids anywhere from ages 8 to 17—started out in the team racing series,
with less than half advancing to the championship at Yale. The 16 teams are
divided up into east and west. The west teams include Yale, Pine Orchard
(Branford), Sachem’s Head (Guilford),
Madison Beach, Niantic, Pettipaug Yacht Club (Essex), Pilot’s Point Marina
(Westbrook), and Quassapaug (Southbury). The east teams include Watch Hill
(Rhode Island), Weakapaug Yacht Club (also Rhode Island), Wadawanuck
(Stonington), Stonington Harbor, Mason’s Island (Mystic), Ram Island (Noank),
Groton Long Point, and Thames Yacht Club (New London). Among these 16 teams,
only six advanced to Yale including Pettipaug, Pilot’s Point, Ram Island, Niantic Bay, Weakapaug, and Wadawanuck.
The teams began the
day with a clean slate record. Each club had three teams sailing the
triangle-shaped course, which began at a 200-foot-wide starting line. The first
mark was sailed straight into the wind, the second mark off on reach, and the
third mark jibe and reach, then windward. Each club sailed against the other
clubs at least once and sometimes twice. When the sailboats crossed the finish
line, they were given points based on their placement, i.e. one point for first
place, two points for second, etc. The club with the lowest amount of points
won.
Results of the day
saw Ram Island
coming in first place, Niantic
Bay coming in second and
a three-way tie for third- which was broken on a who-beat-whom basis, as time
did not allow for sail-offs-with Pettipaug ultimately taking the spot. Sailors
for Pettipaug included James Baker, Myles Gibbs, Logan Floyd, Chris McCann, Ben
Gibson, and Nick Roberto, all under Coach Sean Andrew.
“We had a very close
race,” said Paul Risseeuw, head of sailing at Pettipaug. “We had that
thunderstorm in the middle of the day that really messed with things. Team
racing is a very intense sport and there’s a lot of action—you have to see how
much havoc you can cause with the other team you’re competing against, which
makes it more fun.”
Sailing for Pilot’s
Point, which also sailed a very competitive race and were affected by the
storms, were Dan Sylvestre, James Camperchioli, Mike Fox, Tyler Schultz, Robbie
and JoAnna Suriani, Alex Tragekes, and Paul Leonard, all under Assistant Coach
Rob Newcomb.
“On the day of the championships,
a couple of our usual racers were away and our assistant coach, Rob, did a
great job stepping up to take our head coach’s place,” said Hilary Loftus, head
of sailing at Pilot’s Point. “Our head coach was away sailing his U.S. Sailing
‘Sailorship’ boat in the Lightning North Americans. Even though we did win some
races, we were definitely out-sailed at the championships by the more
experienced teams. Considering that Pilot’s Point Sailing never even had a
racing team until six years ago, I am very proud that our racers’ record in the
qualification series was again 6-1—they just need to work a bit harder to get
more experience and more confidence to improve their performance at the
championships. Some of our first-year racers got to sail and observe on Monday,
which was very exciting, while the experienced racers had a great time sailing
with each other and competing with their peers in the region. The YCYC staff
did a phenomenal job of coping with the stormy weather and getting in enough
races. Congratulations to the winning teams and bravo to Yale for being able to
pull it all off that day.”