Kennedy Cup

Two races were held for the Kennedy Cup in Annapolis today aboard the Naval Academy's fleet of 44 sloops. While the wind forecast for the day was not promising, PRO Paul Clissold and his NASS RC crew clung to hope that the variable southerly would stabilize sufficiently to get a race or two in.

After an initial postponement, they started the first race only to abandon after a 60 degree left shift came in halfway up the first leg.

The fleet returned to the start area and waited as the new breeze tried to settle from the south at around 5 knots.

Once it became reasonable, the race was restarted with Charleston winning the pin and favored left side followed closely by URI. These two dusted the fleet finishing well ahead for the 1, 2. Cal Maritime took third but suffered a 4 point I flag penalty for improperly reporting their rules infraction.

For race 2, the current was ebbing upwind but the fleet got off the line clean. This time Mass Maritime jumped out front while Charleston rounded the first mark last. Mass continued to extend and ran away with the race while Charleston sailed magnificently to get back to second. Cal who were also deep early, also made a nice comeback to take third. The second race finished well after 5 PM so racing was done for the day.

Racing continues tomorrow with a forecast for better breeze.

Sunday's racing will start an hour earlier than originally scheduled (0930 vice 1030) with the skipper's briefing also moved up from 0900 to 0800. So much for fall back on the time change...

Jahn Tihansky Regatta Chairman

Today provided a picture perfect day for college big boat racing as the predicted WNW breeze filled in right on schedule. NASS RC PRO Paul Clissold elected to start the day an hour early in order to make up for being able to run only two races in yesterday's light winds.

The wind started out in the high 200s favoring course left on most legs. Most teams managed to find their way there and cash in but it was quite difficult to do so with consistency. Coast Guard posted the best score line for the day with a 5,1,2,3 to move up to 2nd place while Mass and Cal Maritime stumbled at times and lost valuable points.

Navy finally found their stride posting a 3,1 to close out the regatta moving them from the cellar up to 6th, just 4 points off the podium.

The College of Charleston Cougars sailed incredibly strong with a worst score being a 6 which included a 2 point I flag penalty, to win the regatta by 7 points clear of second place Coast Guard. Mass Maritime beat Cal on a tie break for third.

Congratulations to Charleston who earned the right to represent the USA in next year's Student Yachting World Cup!

A huge thanks for everyone who helped out including PRO Paul Clissold, NASS RC Chairman Tom Stalder, NASS RC members Jan Richardson, Maureen Mills, Ed Kee, Ann Powers, Val Pendrick, Ralph Roberts, Mike Beaty, Bill Museler, Ursula Kuhn, Ken Liddick, plus our Midshipmen team members who assisted.

Thanks are also due to our jury; Dan Trammell (CJ), Maureen Mills, Taran Teague and Nelson Pemberton.

And our cadre of volunteer safety officers including Dan Trammell, Carroll Sparwasser, Peter Gibbons-Neff, Aron Axe, Bill White, Doug Dykman, Nelson Pemberton, Steve Cohan, Duane Geruschat.

And last but certainly not least, thanks to the Navy's Offshore Sailing Team Fleet Captain Frieda Wildey who greeted and coordinated with the competitors all the regatta materials throughout the weekend.

Jahn Tihansky Regatta Chair

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.