NEISA Open Team Race Championship/Fowle

It was a very challenging first day of racing at the NEISA Open Team Race Championship for the Fowle Trophy, co-hosted by Brown and Roger Williams out of the Ted Turner '60 Sailing Pavilion at the Edgewood Yacht Club. 46 Round 1 races out of 66 were completed in extremely shifty conditions out of the West all the way to the Northeast with big velocity differences throughout each race. Over a half dozen races were abandoned. A nice 6-10 knot Seabreeze filled in around 5:30pm for the last 6 races of the day, sailing until the 6pm cutoff. 2017 Zim FJs and 2022 Zim 420e's were used. One redress were heard at the end of the day.

It was another tough day for racing at the NEISA Open Team Race Championship for the Fowle Trophy. The Race Committee attempted to start racing on time at 10:00am in a light easterly.  A Brown vs Yale resail was abandoned to begin the day as the easterly completely faded.  We sat around all day waiting for something to materialize and by 2pm it was determined that we were not going to be able to finish Round 1. The seabreeze out in Narragansett Bay could be seen just a few miles out, and finally reached the course by 3:00pm to start racing.  With the field having been pre-seeded into two groups of six, the only way to get the regatta in at this point was to advance the top three from each group to a Gold Round/Top 6 in FJs and Silver/Bottom 6 in 420s.  Everyone's first 5 races of Round 1 were sailed against teams in the groups of 6. Group A Results: 1. Yale 4-1 2. Dartmouth 3-2 2. Tufts 3-2 4. Brown 2-3 4. Conn College 2-3 6. MIT 1-4  

Group B Results: 1. Roger Williams 4-1 1. Harvard 4-1 3. Coast Guard 3-2 4. Bowdoin 2-3 4. BU 2-36. Boston College 0-5

Once we finished the remaining races by 4:30pm, we had some sail-offs to break ties for 3rd overall (a four way sail off) and between Brown and MIT for 8th place and Conn College and Bowdoin for 10th place.  Once the seabreeze filled, the racing was nearly perfect, with South/SW winds around 10-15 knots.  Because of the sail-offs we sailed until almost 6pm on Easter Sunday.  Then there were 3 hearings afterwards for a black flag and two redresses.  It's was a long day and weekend for everyone involved.  A tremendous thanks to everyone who was involved this weekend: PRO Jack Reiter (Roger Williams) and support from Roger Williams on the water. Amanda Callahan (Roger Williams) for helping with the format, rotation, and on-land help. David Thompson (Coast Guard) for being the NEISA Rep and helping with format, rotation, and SI's. Greg Wilkinson (Boston College) for help with the rotation. All of the Brown sailors who helped with scoring, finishes, and on-land support. Our terrific umpire team, led by Chief Umpire Pearson Potts, Trevor Long, Sam Patterson, Julia Reynolds, John Mastrandrea, John Pratt, John Mooney, Jimmy Kennedy, Luke Ingalls, Abby Cook, Mike Campbell, and Sterline Worrell. They went above and beyond this weekend. Thanks to everyone who was able to lend us powerboats: the Moses Brown School, Connecticut College, Roger Williams, and Dartmouth. And finally, to Rob Migliaccio for the incredible pics from throughout the weekend.

Congratulations to Yale on winning the NEISA Open Team Race Championship for the Fowle Trophy!