2022 Kennedy Cup

1920 Saturday, 5 November Kennedy Cup Day 1

Ten teams are on hand at the Naval Academy in Annapolis competing for the Kennedy Cup, Intercollegiate Sailing’s Big Boat Championship. The farthest traveled is last year’s champions and perennial contender California Maritime Academy representing PCCSC. MCSA is well represented by University of Michigan and University of Toledo. NEISA is represented by Massachusetts Maritime Academy, University of Rhode Island and the US Coast Guard Academy. SAISA is represented by College of Charleston and MAISA is represented by SUNY Maritime, US Merchant Marine Academy and the Naval Academy. PRO for the regatta is National Race Office Bruce Bingman and Chief Judge is National Judge Dan Trammell.

The conditions for today’s racing were ideal with warm south-southeasterly breeze in the 12

Competitors of the Kennedy Cup were greeted again with ideal conditions for the final three races of this year’s regatta. It was gray and rainy when everyone showed up but the rain cleared and another southerly was awaiting on the Chesapeake Bay.

After a brief postponement, PRO Bruce Bingman and his race committee team got the first race of the day (race #5) going in approximately 12 knots of wind on an axis of 170 on the tail end of an ebb. Cal Maritime left picked up where they left off and were near the front at the first mark just back of URI. They made a pass downwind and didn’t look back to take the win. URI was second and Navy third. For race #6, the course axis was shifted left 10 degrees and the current has gone slack. Cal got launched at the start and led wire to wire for their fourth win of the series, clinching the regatta with a race to spare. Coast Guard recovered their top form from yesterday and took second. KP too found the gas pedal and grabbed third.

For the final race, teams were fighting for the remaining podium spots with Navy, URI, KP and Coast Guard all in contention. KP won the race convincingly while Cal stayed out of trouble but remained in the top tier around the course. Coast Guard finished with another impressive performance taking second with Cal close behind in third. Navy finished fourth but took a penalty for hitting a mark incurring an extra point as a consequence.

In the end, Cal Maritime won the Kennedy Cup by an impressive 12 points over Navy who took second and also earning the Jeff Stanley Memorial Trophy. Coast Guard finished third lamenting what could have been after suffering foul trouble in two races Saturday.

A huge debt of gratitude is owed to the many volunteers and helped make the regatta such a success including Jan Richardson, Tom Stalder, David Shaeffer, Bill Museler, Steve Small, Karen Yeigh, Dana Howe and a bunch of midshipmen from the Offshore Sailing Team who all served on race committee. Thanks also go to our volunteer Safety Officers who rode aboard with each team. These included: Dan Trammell, Aron Axe, Bob Girrier, David Andril, Steve Cohan, Tom McCarthy, Nelson Pemberton, Ken Schneider, Don Worm and Jon Wright.

Lastly, a huge thanks to Frieda Wildey the Offshore Sailing Team’s Fleet Captain who helped manage many details and organization of the event and ensured it all ran smoothly. Congratulations to repeat winner Cal Maritime! They earned the right to represent the US at next year’s Student Yachting World Cup in France.

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.