Apologize for no report yesterday.. Saturday, 4 races were run in a 4-7 knots of NE breeze on a most delightful fall day on the Chesapeake Bay off Annapolis. PRO Gene Gibbons and his RC team stayed on top of the shifts and significant ebb managing to squeeze in the full slate of races for the day. Saturday ended with NY Maritime in front with 12 pts, Maine Maritime in second with 13, Mass Maritime in 3rd with 14 and Navy in 4th with 15.
The wind outlook for today appeared grim as crews boarded their Navy 44s to get underway. However, 4-6 knots soon filled from the southeast and the RC was able to run two races in another strong ebb. Navy and NY Maritime traded positions a couple of times in the firsts race with Navy holding on for the win by 10 feet over NY. Maine was OCS but kept their heads together and pulled a fantastic comeback recovering to 5th to stay in the overall hunt. KP showed improvement taking a 3rd. The final race got underway with Mass Maritime OCS for the second race in a row, ending their hopes of a top 3 finish. Navy won the pin and led wire to wire to take another bullet. NY and Maine battled each other throughout the race and approached the downwind finish on opposite tacks essentially even with Maine owning the starboard tack advantage. The finish position between these two would determine the overall regatta winner. As the boats converged, hails were shouted and boats were feverishly maneuvered. NY Maritime managed to get their bow across the line just feet ahead of Maine to take second in the race and finish the regatta one point ahead of the resurging Navy crew. Maine's subsequent protest against NY was disallowed leaving NY Maritime as the overall winner. A huge thanks to PRO Gene Gibbons and his Race Committee, Chief Judge Dan Trammell and his jury and the others who helped make the 2009 Shields Trophy Regatta a great success. Final results: 1. NY Maritime 1,3,5,3,2,2 16 pts. 2. US Naval Academy 3,2,2,8,1,1 17 pts. 3. Maine Maritime Academy 2,1,3,7,5,3 21 pts. 4. US Merchant Marine Academy 6,4,6,5,3,4 28 pts. 5. Massachusetts Maritime Academy 4,5,1,4*,9,6 29 pts. 6. US Coast Guard Academy 5,6,7,1,7,7 33 pts. 7. US Military Academy 8,9,8,6,4,8 43 pts. 8. Great Lakes Military Academy 9,7,4,10,6,10 46 pts. 9. St. Mary's College 7,8,9,4,10,9 47 pts. 10. Queens University 11,10,10,9,8,5 53 pts. *I flag penalty assessed to Mass Maritime in race 4 Next up at Navy in Big Boats is the McMillan Cup 24 & 25 October. Jahn S. Tihansky Director, Varsity Offshore Sailing Team United States Naval Academy 410-293-5608 [email protected] ________________________________________________ icsa mailing list [email protected] http://www.collegesailing.org/mailman/?listname=icsa
