Shields Trophy Regatta

17 Sept 2016 Shields Trophy Regatta at Navy

Eight teams are on hand in Annapolis to contest the Shields Trophy Regatta, Intercollegiate Sailing’s Championship for service and maritime academies aboard the Naval Academy’s fleet of Navy 44s. With multiple regattas being hosted in Annapolis this weekend, Navy Race Committee PRO Tom Stalder found a narrow lane in which to squeeze the race course. Race 1 was started in a light and fluky southerly which showed promise but did not solidify beyond +/- 6 knots while the current was ebbing south at about half knot.

For race 1, the fleet split with no definitive advantage seemingly apparent for a few minutes. However, the right came in and Coast Guard seized an advantage they didn’t relinquish and won convincingly. Army sailed a great race to finish second while Navy recovered from a poor start to take third.

For race 2, similar conditions continued. This time the left filled in strong. Army nailed the pin end and never looked back taking a wire to wire victory. Mass Maritime managed to find good pressure as well to post a second while Coast Guard took 3rd.

For race 3, the tide went slack and the breeze solidified across the race course. Navy found their stride and got off the line at the pin end with clear air and good speed but overstood from the left which allowed KP to lead at the first mark. These two skirmished the next three legs with Navy managing to get by on the last run for the victory. KP crossed in second but suffered a DSQ for an unrelated issue.. Army sailed a consistent race to stay in the hunt and snag 3rd.

For race 4, the breeze remained the same, about 9 knots from the SSE, but the current started to flood hard. Navy nailed another nice start and used their familiarity with the Navy 44 to full advantage jumping out to a commanding lead which went unchallenged giving them their second win of the day. Queens sailed strong to post their second 2nd place in a row while Army suffered a poor leeward mark rounding and fell back to 6th.

At the end of the day, Navy leads by 3 points over Army with Coast Guard two points further back.

Racing continues tomorrow with fingers crossed for better morning breeze.

Jahn Tihansky Regatta Chairman

Sunday Summary 18 Sept. 2016

Today started out with a soft WSW breeze which was well right and lighter than forecast.

Following a short AP, PRO Tom Stalder setup another 4 leg course which had its axis diagonally across the building ebb.

For race 5, Navy nailed the pin end with speed and protected the left side while a few teams split right. Navy led at the first mark but the fleet closed downwind and were tightly packed for a difficult leeward mark approach; super light wind and sailing against up current. Most competitors opted for early spin drops which only sharpened the pain and made for an agonizing spectator experience. Navy led to the right turn (course left) and never looked back to secure the win while Coast Guard rounded clean in 4th but were able to hold a lane and move up to second which they too held for the race. Queens worked their way through the carnage to grab 3rd.

For the 6th and what turned out to be final race of the regatta, a start timing error brought the fleet back. With the ebb current building in strength (moving dead upwind) the fleet maneuvered over-aggressively and forced a general recall. At the next start four boats were again very aggressive including Navy and Coast Guard who consequently were part of the OCS contingent. Both were able to restart cleanly though and worked feverishly to get back into the race. Queens meanwhile, had started cleanly and won the left side to run away with the race while Navy and Coast Guard scrambled to recover. Navy got back to second while Maine Maritime finally found their mojo taking third. Coast Guard held on to take 4th.

With a score line of 3,4,1,1,1,2, Navy came out on top to win this year’s Shields Trophy Regatta. Coast Guard posted 1,3,7,3,2,4 to take second while Queens came back from a couple of early deep races to post scores of 7,6,2,2,3,1 to take 3rd, one point back of Coast Guard.

A huge thanks to all the volunteers who helped out on the Race Committee as well as those who served as safety officers aboard each boat.

Next up at Navy Offshore is the McMillan Cup, slated for 22 & 23 October.

Jahn Tihansky Regatta Chairman

The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.

The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.