Racing got underway on time at 1030 this morning on the Chesapeake Bay with what appeared to be a solid post cold front westerly breeze and sunny skies. It was so nice that some competitors were still attired in shorts despite the calendar suggesting otherwise.
Entering the day, URI led Navy by 3 points with Maine 3 back of Navy. Coast Guard lurked an additional 2 points back. For the first race of the day, both URI and Coast Guard found themselves buried at the start while Navy and Maine got away clean and to the left. Maine led Navy by a length at the first mark and extended slightly on the run. At this point the breeze began to falter with what appeared to be a southerly thermal attempting to establish. Navy worked left but got caught in a dead zone while Maine worked the right corner and approached the second weather mark apparently well ahead. However, the breeze began to shut down and the trailing boats closed the gap. Maine still led at the rounding while Navy had slipped to 5th. URI came blasting in from the right with a big right hand puff but was still in 7th with Coast Guard 9th. The leaders set and promptly sailed into a hole while Navy jibed into fresh breeze and did a huge end around to take the win. Coast Guard seized the same breeze and did the same to pass the fleet for a second. URI surgically picked their way down the run and managed to move up to 3rd while Maine suffered the most misfortune falling back to 5th. After a lengthy postponement, a light and fragile sea breeze filled enough to start another race. Coast Guard led early but Navy and URI got left on the second beat where there was more pressure. URI led at the second top mark and held on to take the win with Navy in second and Coast Guard 3rd. URI now held a 2 point advantage as well as the tie break. Race 8 got underway in sporadic breeze and a max flood making for an interesting time at the pin end. Navy and Coast Guard both did not make the pin and were forced to jibe around. Meanwhile URI blasted off clean from mid line avoiding the trouble and headed left for what had been the better breeze on most similar occasions. Navy bee-lined to the right corner, pretty much their only hail Mary option. As the wind gods would have it, the wind veered a little and apparently there was current relief on the right as Navy came out of the corner crossing everyone leaving URI gasping a long was back in 6th. The race was now against the per-leg time limit. Enough breeze filled allowing Navy to get around with just over a minute to spare and leading by 8 lengths over Cal Maritime. With URI deep, it looked like the tables had turned in Navy's favor. However, approaching the first leeward mark, Navy sailed into a hole and allowed Cal Maritime and St. Mary's riding in on new breeze to get inside for the rounding. Cal and St. Mary's headed to the right corner never looking back while Navy desperately maneuvered to find clear air. URI brought new breeze down the run and rounded the leeward mark nary a length behind Navy who finally found enough wind to get their boat moving. Cal won the race by a large margin with St. Mary's taking second. Meanwhile Navy and URI rounded the second upwind mark with Navy a length ahead. Navy however need two boats between to win which at this point were nowhere to be found. The two battled down the last run with Navy getting 3rd by a nose and URI holding it together to take 4th and the championship. Congratulations to the URI team of Jesse Fielding, Alex Baittinger, Jeremy Henry, Weston Barlow, Rob Kane, Scott Millard, Carl Merrill, Nat Tingley and Russ Miller who earned the honor of representing the United States in the 2009 Student Yachting World Cup. A huge thanks to all who helped put on this year's Kennedy Cup including PRO Mark Murphy and his RC crew, Chief Judge Chris Petracco and his panel and the many volunteers who gave us their weekend. 1. URI 5,3,2,4,1,3,1,4 23 2. USNA 2,4,3,6,3,1,2,3 24 3. Coast Guard 6,11,1,3,2,2,3,10 38 4. St. Mary's 3,2,7,9,7,4,5,2 39 5. Maine Maritime 1,5,10,1,4,5,8,5 39 6. Cal Maritime 7,6,9,2,5,7,6,1 43 7. Kings Point 11,9,5,10,6,6,4,7 58 8. Mass Maritime 4,7,8,8,10,8,7,6 58 9. NY Maritime 8,1,4,5,8,11,11,11 59 10. Queens University 9,8,6,7,9,9,9,11 68 JT Jahn S. Tihansky Director, Varsity Offshore Sailing Team U.S. Naval Academy 410-293-5608 [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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