Priddy Trophy

Wow, what a start to a regatta. Sailors and spectators were greeted on their drive to UNH with a mix of snow and cold rain. Then the rain came down harder, and turned to a snowy slush to a depth of about a half an inch, making docks and boats slippery.

Hosting the Priddy was fitting for our first home regatta after the fire, in new boats and with new sails. We all restart someplace. It was a freshman event in a multiple sense.

There was no consistent breeze until about 12:30. Four races were sailed in rain until the breeze began to shut down leaving holes around the course.

Thanks to the Marks who bought out Dunkin' Donuts' coffee machine for all competitors, trying to add a bit of warmth to an otherwise cold day. Thanks also to the Wildcats who helped in the mark boat and on shore with scoring. No protests were filed.

MMA was a no show, and Colby dropped early Sat. am, leaving us with seven teams. No coaches therefore no NEISA rep.

Tomorrows forecast is for 60 degrees, 5-10mph and 30% chance of rain. The warmer temps will be welcome. Courses were W4 and W3. Leading are the Bears with the Jumbos close behind. The Catamounts and Wildcats are nipping at their heels. Tomorrow should be a great day.

Sailors arrived to sun and breeze. Chris Loder brought chocolate bunny rabbits for all teams and off we went. We completed a double rotation. Breeze ranged from 6-10 from the west which made the course shifty as all get out. Higher gusts registering several at 14 plus, made for some crazy down wind legs with two capsizes. Mark rounding in breeze was challenging. There were three protests resulting in Dartmouth DSQ'd for not giving room. The other two protests were disallowed.

Competitors need to remember that contact requires exoneration. Several hails of protest were heard with no spinning. Several other contact fouls were observed with no protests hailed nor filed. Not a good way to start a college sailing career.

Thanks to Neal Drake, Chris Edwards and Terry Clarke for mark boat assistance and scoring this weekend. Thanks also to Clark Dhien who did duty as judge.

Congratulations to the Brown Bears' Tyler Rice and Louisa Chafee who schooled the rest of the sailors with a total of 9 bullets to win the Priddy Trophy!

Video was shot of many starts, beats and runs.It can be viewed on the UNH Community Facebook page.

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.