2021 Kennedy Cup

Kennedy Cup 2021

Saturday Summary 10 teams are on hand to contest the 2021 Kennedy Cup for ICSA’s Big Boat Championship.

Much to the delight of competitors, two-time College Sailor of the year Gary Jobson graciously kicked off the pre race briefing by recounting the regatta's history along with a few anecdotes on intercollegiate big boat sailing and the America's Cup. It was a great way to start the day!

The wind gods smiled on Annapolis for the day and treated the fleet to a beautiful (albeit chilly) NNE breeze that started in the mid teens then diminished slightly and backed a bit as the day went on.

PRO Paul Clissold from Sail Canada came down from Toronto to run the on-water racing supported by the Navy Sailing Race Committee.

The conditions allowed for four windward/leeward races around a 1 mile course.

Cal Maritime came out of the blocks fast and led race one all the way around with URI taking second and Navy third. For race two, URI was dominant to take the win while NY Maritime sailed fast for second and Mass Maritime rounded out the top three. In race three, URI again showed great form going wire to wire for their second win with Cal Maritime bouncing back for second and Navy again in third. For the fourth race, the University of Toledo crew found their mojo and snatched the win with URI coming from behind to steal second from Navy and Mass Maritime in a photo finish.

At the end of the day, URI has a commanding lead with six points, ten ahead of Cal Maritime. Toledo is one point back of Cal in third and Navy is a point back of Toledo.

Racing continues tomorrow with more breeze on the forecast.

Jahn Tihansky Regatta Chair

Sunday Summary

After taking advantage of the extra hour of sleep, Kennedy Cup competitors arrived at the Naval Academy to see another delightful day for sailboat racing. The breeze was solid from the north northeast in the 10-14 knot range allowing three races to be completed.

Kings Point got out of the blocks strong in race 5 winning the left and ultimately the race with Navy not far back in second and Mass Maritime in 3rd.

In race 6, Cal Maritime regrouped and sailed away from the fleet for the bullet with Mass Maritime taking second and Navy third.

Going into 7th and final race, both Navy and Cal were just a point apart and had closed a bit on URI but URI’s lead still seemed insurmountable. Cal controlled what they could and won the race with Navy in second. Meanwhile, at the second weather mark, URI was struggling a bit but was still close enough to take the overall win.. or so one would have thought. Misfortune struck and URI’s spinnaker went up with a tight wrap which took forever to shake out. The three boats close behind immediately pounced and URI slid to 8th which did a serious shake up of the standings.

Once the dust settled on the water, there were a number of protests and I flag issues to resolve forcing the jury into action.

When the protest room smoke had cleared, URI was disqualified from Race 5 for delaying flying their I flag until near the finish for an earlier incident, and Navy was disqualified from Race 6 for a weather mark altercation with Mass Maritime.

After rescoring everything, Cal Maritime emerged the overall winners with 24 points, URI finished second with 29 points and Kings Point took third with 32 points, one ahead of Navy who won their tie breaker with Mass Maritime for fourth. Yet again, the sailboat racing cliché of it not being over until it's over proved true..

Congratulations to Cal Maritime on their victory earning them the right to represent the United States in next year’s Student Yachting World Cup in France.

A huge thanks to our Race Committee which was led by PRO Paul Clissold and included NASS Chairman Tom Stalder, Jan Richardson, Maureen Mills, Ann Powers, Steve Small, Joe Conway, Karen Yeigh, Kimberly Todd, Eenee & a bunch of Navy Midshipmen who contributed a day of their weekend to help out.

Thanks also to our cadre of safety officers who rode along with the competitors; David Andril, Ray Wulff, Bill Krafft, Glendon Bartlett, Cecily Walsh, Mark Maglin, Jason Yauman, Aron Axe, Nelson Pemberton, Steve Cohan & Don Worm.

And lastly to our jury headed by Chief Judge Dan Trammell who was assisted by Maureen Mills and Nelson Pemberton.

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.