Mariners Sailors Zachary York (Sewell, N.J.), Ella Beauregard (Southport Island, Maine), Edward Lenz (Deep River, Conn.), and Benjamin Mazzucco (East Haven, Conn.) traveled to the New England Match Race Qualifiers last weekend. These sailors reached a significant milestone for the Academy and Mariner Sailing. This is the first time in program history that the Mariners have qualified to a ladder event.
Saturday began with a Single Round-Robin to create the seeding for the Quarter Finals. A 10-15kt SSW breeze was persistent all day, gradually shifting right as the racing went on. As this breeze came over the hill onto the river, bigger holes were created and would open up across the course. Balancing these lulls with the current towards the middle of the river made for a tricky racetrack. Costly penalties and some spinnaker mismanagement lost the Mariners winnable races, as they entered into the Quarter Finals as the 8th seed. Matched against #1 seed, Yale University Sailing, posed a difficult battle for the Mariners. Though the pre-start sequences of both races left the Mariners in strong positions, Yale took both races, and would go on to be undefeated through the Finals, after beating Coast Guard & Tufts University.
Mariner Sailors Luke Healy (Lakewood, Ohio), Tristan Walker (Virginia Beach, Va.), Sean Caulfield (San Diego, Calif.), Nalu Ho (Lahania, Hawaii), David Estes (Searsport, Maine), Arden Astin (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Kenneth Deloe (Rochester, N.Y.), and Natalie Samuels (San Ramon, Calif.) traveled to Annapolis to compete for the McMillan Cup. Nine teams were on hand at the US Naval Academy sailing in their large and heavy Navy 44 sloops. Regatta conditions on Saturday proved to be challenging with solid Southerly breeze between 17-22kts, with 3-4ft waves. With a strong cold front approaching from the West, the race committee managed to run two races selecting 4 leg windward/leeward courses at a leg distance of 1.2 miles and sail limitation prohibiting use of #1 genoas but with a green light on using spinnakers. In race one, despite a late approach to the line, the Mariner team secured 4th place; their best finish in the regatta. After finishing in 7th in the second race, the Mariners were in 6th place at the end of day one.
On Sunday, there was a strong Northwesterly breeze between 18-24kts. The race committee was able to run three more races, the last two with spinnaker restrictions. The Mariners secured 5th place in the first race of day two but struggled on the downwind legs when the spinnaker was removed and scored two 8th places to finish off the regatta. The Mariners finished in 7th place overall, beating out the Maryland Terrapins and the Army Black Knights.
Maine Maritime sailing returns to action this weekend when they travel to the Loder Trophy hosted by the University of New Hampshire.
