On Friday, April 13, 8 members of the Northwestern Sailing Team, plus our coach Sam, filled two cars and headed off to Grosse Pointe, MI, for the 2012 MCSA Coed Fleet Racing Championship. Despite the ominous date, and the fact that this weekend was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we were relaxed and confident in our chances going into the regatta; we only needed to get top 5 to qualify for ICSA Semifinals at Navy a month later.
The forecast for the weekend wasn’t great, but we were all able to gear up for the first real competitive MCSA event of the season. Cornew and Megan sailed A’s with Geoff and Kim in B’s. They got off to a slow start, being over early in the first race and fouling someone immediately in the second, but were able to climb back to mid-fleet finishes in both races. From then on they stayed in the top three for the rest of the day while Cornew and Megan were finishing 3-5 in A’s. After almost eight hours of racing on Saturday, we were in third place behind Wisconsin and Minnesota. Geoff and Kim were tied for first place in B fleet.
Many of the Michigan team members have family in the Grosse Pointe area, and they hosted a regatta dinner for us on Saturday night. Salad, lasagna, garlic bread, and delicious desserts awaited the sailors. Both Kim and Geoff had been observing Passover for the previous week and greatly enjoyed finally getting to eat normal bread again. Everyone had a great night socializing with the other teams before getting to sleep in anticipation for a windy Sunday.
We woke up to rain. Just what everyone wants when they’re about to go sailing. Fortunately the large storm on radar was staying north of us and the skies started clearing at around 930. But that just made room for the breeze to build. Our heavy crews, Zack Bannon and Matt Zampa went in for Sunday and helped us hold onto third place overall and secure first place in B’s. We had a great weekend of sailing and performed well in difficult, tiring conditions. We’re going to semifinals!
If you’re in the Chesapeake Bay area on May 12-13, come watch us at the Naval Academy for the 2012 ICSA semifinals.
