Season Wrap-Up

I'd like to send out a massive thank you to all of the people on the team who have driven groups to regattas, gone grocery shopping for them, sailed in them, shown up to meetings or participated on any level in the team this season.

Another to any sailors from the other teams who have allowed us to sleep on their floors for regatta weekends. Hopefully we'll be hosting regattas soon and we can return the favor!

We participated in 5 regattas this season, got 4 people out sailing for their first time and had tons and tons of fun. It's been a great season!

See you again in the Spring...

Frosh/Soph

We had our final regatta of the Fall season last weekend. We sent 7 sailors up to Bellingham to race on Lake Whatcom for the Frosh/Soph Regatta (first- and second-year sailors only). Saturday saw a SSE breeze, building from 6 to 15 knots throughout the day. We had good racing, getting 6 races off in both fleets. Sunday was very windy, over 20 knots with large gusts. After attempting to hold a race, the conditions proved too unmanageable and the races were called off for the day. The winds were patchy and unpredictable, making it incredibly difficult to keep the boat upright. It was lots of fun to sail under such extreme conditions; we haven't seen winds like that all season so it was good for our sailors to experience it. Our boats finished 9th and 12th this weekend.

Many thanks to Western Washington's upperclassmen sailors for all their help from the support boats during the racing and Sunday's blustery madness. Also thanks to Western's alternate sailor Kirsten for crewing for our B fleet because we didn't have enough people.

Outlaw

Eight of our sailors spent Halloween weekend in Eugene, OR for the Outlaw Regatta. The first day the winds were very light and by the afternoon the wind had dropped off completely, making the downwind leg of B fleet's final race last roughly one hour--a true test of patience. On Sunday the weather changed dramatically and it was actually very windy, making for some exciting sailing. Our boats finished in 16th and 19th place overall out of 19 boats.

Thanks to the Eugene Yacht Club and the U. of Oregon sailing team for hosting the regatta and the Ramsing family for feeding us an amazing dinner.

Complete list of results from the regatta here:

http://regatta.mit.edu/f09/outlaw/

Jackson Alexander Regatta

The weekend of October 24th, six University of Puget Sound sailors traveled to Portland for Jackson Alexander, which was hosted by Portland State University. We sailed at Willamette Sailing Club against University of Victoria, Lewis and Clark, Western Washington, University of Oregon, and Oregon State sailing teams. Saturday was sunny and clear but unfortunately wind was very light. These conditions tested sailors’ attention and knowledge of shifts, current, weight distribution, and rig tension. We fit in a few rotations on Saturday, but most of our time was spent hanging out on the docks or floating in FJs on the river in the gorgeous October sun. On Sunday, wind failed to build so the Race Committee called it. We performed well and had fun at this great JV regatta even though wind was absent for the most part. Thanks to Willamette Sailing Club for making their facilities available and to Portland State for their hard work and organization.

Our boats finished in 3rd and 8th out of 13. More detailed results can be found at http://collegesailing.org/nwicsa/results/jack%202009%20RESULTS.pdf