ERAU Greg Popp Trophy

Saturday morning began with heavy rains across the Daytona Beach, FL area. There were numerous local road closures and coupled with the days of rain, full moon on Friday, and easterly flow that pumps water into Ponce Inlet, the Halifax river was very high. Sailors readied their FJs and a brief competitors' meeting was held to explain the course, sailing area, and procedures for rotations, which happened a short walk from the Sailing Center pavilion along the water's edge. Sailors, I'm sorry if this was less than optimal. When the river isn't so high the water presents a sandy landing area.

Sailing began as scheduled, with the first warning right around 10:31, with a northeast wind of 10-12, with rain showers (heavy at times) and gusts traversing the area.

The A division was aggressive, with multiple boats over early in race one and a general recall for the first attempt at race 2. With just two boats over in the restart, the I-flag rule served its purpose. Sailing was very competitive with waves of boats finishing overlapped, or nearly so.

Rotation to B occurred and the wind persisted. We had a single lightning event within 10 miles, but all strikes after that were much further away and the R/C breathed a sigh of relief. By the end of this set the sky cover was beginning to thin, and the wrinkles on the fingers of the R/C were starting to disappear.

Racing continued for two more sets of three races. This gave us two sets of six for each division, and brought us up to a point where the time line would have come into play. Throughout the day we have 15+ from the ENE, gusts in the 20's, 4-6 from the ESE and 8-10 from the ENE. The ERAU Mark Boat, skippered by Andrew Lam, did a fantastic job of adjusting the course throughout the day.

Congratulations to Eckerd College, University of South Florida and Jacksonville University for their dominance in the event. Other teams were well behind the points awarded to the top three, with JU Lady Fins getting fourth.

Todd Stebleton on the R/C boat was a key helper. The automated horn was our third crew member, playing a key role in setting the cadence for the starts. Record keeping in the rain was a challenge, as the PRO forgot his umbrella and ring-binder with finishing grids. Records were kept on a phone, with the rain often competing with a finger for tap recognitions. I hope there are no errors, as we worked to avoid that issue.

Thanks to the Halifax Sailing Association for sharing their pavilion with the SAISA Sailors and the Halifax Youth Sailing program that was waiting for us to clear the area!

Thanks to Andrew Lam who skippered the mark boat, and his helpers Max Fradkin and Rafael Zarzosa. As mentioned, Todd Stebleton made it possible for us to run this event on the R/C boat. We appreciate the help of all of our volunteers. Overall, we had happy sailors. One sailor applied for redress when they had jib tension issues. It was decided that the problem they described was one that would have been avoided if they had paid attention to the sail when they rigged the boat.

On behalf of the Sailing Club at ERAU, and the Halifax Sailing Association, Chris Herbster Sailing Club Faculty Advisor

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.