2019 SailPack Oriental Intercollegiate

With an opening ceremony on Saturday morning including a welcome from the Mayor of Oriental and breakfast provided by the three dinghy clubs of Oriental, the Oriental Dinghy Club, the Sailing Club of Oriental, and the Neuse Sailing Association, the 2019 SailPack Oriental Intercollegiate Regatta was underway. This year’s regatta once again delivered on outstanding sailing, excellent conditions, great fun, and unrivaled hospitality. As college sailors descended on the Sailing Capital of North Carolina, the town welcomed them with signs and open arms. Together with the Oriental In-Water Boat Show, it was a very busy weekend at the mouth of the Neuse River.

In lighter morning conditions, Jacksonville University and Clemson University set the pace for the first rotation. As the wind built later in the morning through midday, the home team NC State Wolfpack started to surge into the podium mix with a string of bullets in A and B-divisions, overtaking Clemson for the regatta lead by the start of the third rotation with JU in lock-step. As the afternoon continued, the wind died, and storms began to roll in across the Pamlico Sound. Just after 1630, the RC sent sailors back to shore for the day after completing race 4B and Jacksonville holding onto a 1-point lead overall.

Sunday morning offered a more relaxed shoreside as sailors filed into Bow to Stern Boating Center after a Saturday evening of hospitality in Oriental including a BBQ and live band, as well as a celebration bonfire. Breakfast was once again provided by ODC, SCOO, and the NSA and very few if any food remained by launch time.

As sailor, coaches, and spectators lined the shoreline at the historic Stallings House to Lou Mac Park and all the way down South Avenue for the start of Sunday racing, a southerly breeze began to build. With hints of whitecaps showing, Jacksonville and NC State continued to battle it out for the lead in A-Division, while the Captains of CNU began their own ascent in B-Division leaving 4 teams within 5 points of the division win going into the final rotation.

This would prove to be one of the closest and more exciting regatta finishes in recent memory. With Clemson, CNU, and Jacksonville in close range, capsizes and some gnarly conditions made for suspenseful finishes. In the end, host NC State would earn the overall win followed by JU, and Clemson rounding out the podium.

Many thanks to the hard-working race committee, mark boats, and regatta organizers, especially our friends at Bow to Stern Boating Center. Thanks to the organizers of the Oriental Boat Show for their generosity providing each sailor with free passes to the boat show, and helping regatta organizers with this year’s event. Thanks to the volunteers in Oriental, generous housing hosts, and members of the NC State team who put in lots of hours to make this event possible. Lastly thanks to all of the teams who came to sail with us and enjoy the great hospitality of Oriental and Pamlico County, North Carolina. See you next year! #bestregatta

Photos can be found in the SAISA Media Folder (http://bit.ly/SAISA_media). Don’t forget to include an attribution if using photos! TownDock in Oriental has a story up about the event: https://towndock.net/news/2019-sailpack-regatta

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.