Over the weekend of November 17-18, the Michigan Sailing Team traveled to Chicago to compete in the 66th annual Timme Angsten Memorial Regatta hosted by the Chicago Yacht Club. The regatta is also the fall co-ed championship for the MCSA, which provides an added incentive for teams to perform well. Although Chicago is nicknamed “The windy city,” conditions throughout the weekend were predicted to be exactly the opposite. With high pressure systems surrounding the Midwest, the regatta was predicted to have 5-10 knots of breeze for both days of competition and unseasonably warm temperatures.
On Saturday morning sailors were greeted by the friendly atmosphere generated form a fantastic breakfast provided by the Chicago Yacht Club and the smiling faces of our other MCSA friends. Of the 13 total teams competing, all were from the MCSA except for Bates College and the University of Buffalo. The Timme Angsten regatta is held inside of Monroe harbor in downtown Chicago, which is possible because in mid-November all of the boats usually connected to mooring balls which fill the harbor are gone. This provides a fantastic view for people on shore and enables fast on-the-water rotations. Sailors were greeted with sunny skies, upper 50 degree temperatures and 2-6 knots of breeze from the southwest in the morning. These conditions provided a shifty and puffy race course, which forced competitors to keep their eyes out of the boat as much as possible. As the day wore on, an easterly thermal from Lake Michigan ranging from 4-7 knots began fighting the onshore wind which totally shut off the wind inside the harbor. This forced race officials to move the last 2 races of the day outside of the harbor wall to sail in the new easterly breeze that was unable to reach the harbor. Despite the fickle conditions, race officials were able to run 6 races for A fleet and 4 for B fleet. At the end of the day both our A fleet (Ryan Seago ’14 and Evelyn Hull ’13) and B fleet (Will Cyr ’14 and Sophie Lucente ’16) were in first place!
After competing on Saturday our team went back to the house of current team captain Rachel Barch(’13) whose mother hosted the team for the weekend. The team enjoyed a fantastic dinner and then headed over to the semi-formal “Butter Ball” which was held on the second floor of the Chicago Yacht Club. The Ball comprised of light appetizers, music, and the chance to socialize with a few other teams that were in attendance. After a couple hours of fun the team returned to the Barch’s house and enjoyed some needed rest after the long day.
Sunday, started off once again with sunny skies, warm temperatures and a 2-5 knot southerly breeze with choppy seas. Two races for B division were completed outside the harbor wall in these tricky conditions, 2 races inside the harbor for A division. However, at 1 pm the thermal once again began to fight the southerly breeze and the wind totally shut off for good after the end of the 7th B race. This meant that for first time since 1977 the University of Michigan won the Timme Angsten trophy! In addition we also won both A and B division’s and the annual MCSA fall championship trophy. Needless, to say our team performed very well all weekend from the very first to the last race, and had a lot of fun throughout the entire weekend. Congratulations to the seven Michigan sailors Alex, Evelyn, Heather, Kendall, Ryan, Sophie, and Will for their great performance and Go Blue!
-Ryan Seago '14
