Admiral Moore Open Team Race

A cold rain greeted competitors upon arrival at the Maritime waterfront and persisted through the rest of the day. After a brief postponement while Race Committee waited for the breeze to fill in, a weak but seemingly improving northerly materialized and prompted boats to launch and a course to be set. The wind did end up becoming stronger and stronger to the initial benefit of the regatta, however the direction proved to be shifty enough to keep mark boats active and all regatta staff on their toes. Competitors did well to make the most of conditions that ended up becoming fairly miserable. Fate was not on their side, though - race six between Coast Guard and Penn had to be restarted multiple times thanks to escalating wind and current velocities creating issues for starting line anchors. The effort to rectify this issue proved futile and as a result the whole regatta was sent in for a break while next steps were assessed. RC went back out a short while later and made an attempt to properly set the starting line and to reset the course with longer legs to match the stronger winds. It looked as though they had been successful, but right as teams were about to launch and head back out the breeze picked up significantly. The call was thus made to end the day and give it another shot tomorrow.

Sunday morning brought sunnier conditions, a more stable northerly breeze, and colder air temperatures. The Maritime team and race committee headed out early to set a course that would hold up in the East River currents and their determined efforts proved fruitful. Racing started right on time at 10AM and RC + the umpires kept things ripping along at brisk pace until the round robin had been completed. With only 2.5 hours remaining until the 3PM deadline for starting sequences, the call was made to go to a top 4 and bottom 3 format. Things got even more interesting from that point, as the racing got even tighter and the East River current once again began testing the mark anchors.

In the end it would be St. Mary's that emerged as the clear victor with an unblemished 9-0 record. Congratulations to them.

Many thanks to the umpires! Chief Umpire Tony Weiner led the legendary crew of Britt Hall, Cormac Murphy, Annika Ekholm, and Warren Costikyan that braved both the freezing rain of Saturday and the frigid cold + rapid tempo of the RC on Sunday. They were joined on Sunday by Sweta Shervegar and Ryan Squires from Oakcliff. All did an excellent job keeping things fair and ensuring high quality team racing throughout a variety of conditions and challenges.

Thanks as well to the Maritime regatta staff. Waterfront Director Rob's work behind the scenes on Saturday was crucial. James J and Nick C were mark boat heroes throughout both days. Jeremy L and Noah K put in excellent work as a start boat/finish boat team during a difficult first day before getting called into action at the USCGA J/70 regatta on Sunday. Madison, Garner, Oscar, and Fordham from KP were critical in a variety of roles on Saturday. Chris Z, Arseny T, Brendan B, and Rebecca acted as invaluable reinforcements on the second day, with the latter three turning out to be a remarkably efficient start boat/finish boat team.

Respectfully Submitted,

HM