A Recap from the Weekend of April 7-8

Jan Friis/Lynne Marchiando Team Race

Seven members of the Michigan Sailing Team drove out to Boston for the Jan Friis/Lynne Marchiando Team Race at Tufts/MIT a few weeks ago. Ryan Seago, Matt Graham, Will Cyr, Kirsten Corneliussen, Karinne Smolenyak, and Scott Ismail sailed FJs and Fireflies at the event. The regatta is hosted jointly by Tufts and MIT, with racing in 2 separate fleets at both locations on Saturday. The top 4 teams from each fleet advance to sail at Tufts on Sunday and the remaining teams race at MIT.

Saturday sailing out of MIT on the Charles River was a little rough with strong team racing performances by the other schools, but the Michigan team learned a lot from the close competition and many races over the course of the day.

Sunday sailing was better and the team managed to keep the races much closer. The level of racing is much higher than what our team can practice for, but we had a strong showing nonetheless.  After sailing, the team was fed some good food and given Easter baskets by their wonderful hosts the Cove family. Overall the weekend was a success and an incredible learning experience for all those sailing.

Wet Your Willie

The same weekend as our team race group was sailing in Boston, an incredible twenty-one members of the Michigan Sailing Team made their way to Chicago for the Wet Your Willie regatta at Northwestern. Everyone who went got a chance to sail over the course of the weekend on one of the 3 Michigan teams competing. The sailors all left Friday during the day and arrived at one of three houses to stay the night.

Saturday morning, almost everyone sailed, and the weather was beautiful. There were medium winds around 8-10 knots with some chop on Lake Michigan and it was very sunny. All 3 teams did well with strong performances by our newer team members.  After sailing, the team went back to Rachel Barch’s house to shower, eat dinner as a group, and rest up for Sunday’s sailing.

Sunday morning, the rest of the gang got a chance to sail. The weather remained beautiful, but the wind built over the course of the day to the high teens. Many teams were struggling to keep control of their boats in the strong winds by the end of the day and the regatta ended a little early. Our team got 2nd, 3rd, and 8th overall.

MCSA Coed Championships at Grosse Pointe Yacht Club

Over the weekend of April 14th and 15th, the Michigan Sailing Team hosted the MCSA Coed Champsionship at Grosse Pointe Yacht Club. It was a large event, with 11 teams from the MCSA coming to race. Sailors came to GPYC Saturday morning with light rain and winds at 10 kts out of the SW. Throughout the day, the rain let up and winds built to around 15 kts. 5 and a half rotations were completed and at the end of the day Michigan was in fourth place. Thunderstorms and fog welcomed the sailors on Lake St. Clair Sunday morning. After the fog cleared and the thunderstorms passed, racing began at 10:15. Winds stayed around 15 kts out of the SW throughout the afternoon. One B rotation, one A race, and one B race were completed to finish the full rotation. Racing concluded around noon for the weekend. Michigan had a very good day on Sunday with no finish worse than a second. With tough competition at the regatta, Michigan was pleased to finish where they did. The MCSA Coed Championship was also a qualifier for the ICSA National Coed Semifinals with the top 5 teams qualifying. Michigan will be heading to the Naval Academy along with Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Illinois-Chicago.

 

Thank you to our volunteer teammates and the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club Junior Sailing staff for helping us to run a great event! It would not have run smoothly without you all. And also a thank you to Mosher's Jewelry for donating their efforts for our beautiful trophies!

Big Ten Team Race on Baseline Lake

      March 31-April 1 The Michigan Sailing Team hosted seven teams for our annual Big Ten Team Race Regatta on Baseline Lake! Teams arrived on Saturday morning to about eight knots of breeze from the NE.  We got thirteen races off before the wind completely died and we called racing at around 4pm.  Michigan was leading after the first day with zero losses!

     Sunday morning started even lighter than Saturday, with around 5 knots from the South.  We completed the remaining eight races in the round robin around noon.  We then ran a playoff-like elimination where the teams in first and fourth raced each other, as did the teams in second and third.  The winners of the two races (Michigan and Notre Dame) faced each other with Michigan coming out on top. Notre Dame came in second and Northwestern in third.  We had a great deal of volunteers on both days and rotated a lot of new sailors in for races! Thank you to all who came to help out and to our judges, race committee and umpires.  A special thanks to Mosher Jewelers for providing our beautiful engraved glasses for the winners! http://www.moshers.com/