Nickerson Trophy 2018

The first time I got hypothermia was in the Spring of 2000 on the first day of practice when I flipped my Laser. We broke through the ice the day before, and that water was chilly.

The second time I got hypothermia was in the Spring of 2003 when we were delivering a fleet of FJs from BU to BC via the Charles River and Boston Harbor. Most of the sail was downwind, surfing big ocean rollers with lots of spray. My neck seal failed, and my core got drenched.

I'm happy to report that today was not the third time that I got hypothermia despite the cold and the wind and the rain, but mostly because we stopped sailing after the sixth A race. The wind was gusting well over 20 knots at that point, and we started to break things.

The course today was a Starboard Trapezoid. The wind was coming almost straight down the lake from the NNE, and we attempted to place the gybe marks in the lee of the shore, but there was no hiding from the wind as the breeze built from 15 to 20+ throughout the day.

Praise to the sailors. I heard no complaints, and the weather today was pretty bad. Much better forecast for Sunday.

Thanks, Reid Van Gorder

After Saturday’s high-energy day with breeze and some carnage, the sailors were greeted on Sunday to a calm, dry, albeit raw day on the Mystic Lakes. We delayed for about 30 minutes waiting for the whispers of wind to fill to something slightly more solid.

We started the day with 2 B division races to catch up. Overall, we sailed 5 B division races and 3 for A on Sunday. All of the courses (except for one) were Windward Leewards 2x finishing to leeward.

3-8 mph in a shifty Southwesterly with more Westerly shifts early in the day, and more Southerly shifts late in the day.

The freshman all sailed well, pushing the line, with small handful of individual recalls throughout the day, and only two general recalls because of big shifts. One race was abandoned after about 5 minutes because of a big shift at the start that saw the whole fleet approach the weather mark without tacking.

The racing throughout the day was close. There were some ‘discussions’ on the water, and a few circles, but no protests made it to the room. The second lap of the last race was painful as the wind had dropped to its lowest level since the start of the first race, but the fleet mostly retained their positioning with just a few place changes on the last lap.

David & Cindy Nickerson treated the sailors to homemade carrot soup, and awarded the Nickerson Trophy, a ship’s bell mounted on a wooden plaque donated by Davids grandfather, to the hometown Tufts Jumbos. Lots of recognizable names on the trophy!

All the sailors in the event should be proud of how they conducted themselves and represented their schools on and off the water in the diverse and challenging conditions throughout the weekend!

Stephen Braverman, PRO A ‘91

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.