1st Annual Winter Fundraising Regatta

Thank you all and your families, friends, neighbors and acquaintances who contributed to this year's first annual Winter Fundraising Regatta! You all rock! With all of your help, we managed to raise almost $1000 which will go toward our capital campaign to purchase a new fleet of boats.

Freshman Sarah Sloan is this year's winner and recipient of a $25 gift card to the local eatery of her choice (Pizza House, Cottage Inn, or Frita Batidos) for her outstanding effort.

The Michigan Sailing Team would like to thank everyone for helping support the team!

-Jean Rafaelian '16

2012 Sugar Bowl Regatta

Over our winter break, 4 other Michigan Sailors including Taylor Landeryou, Evan Vowell, Heather Nowak, my brother Will Cyr and I took the opportunity to escape the cold and drive down south to sail a regatta on Lake Ponchetrain in New Orleans, Louisiana.  Most would think that a day and a half of driving in total isn't worth a two day regatta, but the Allstate Sugarbowl Regatta was conveniently scheduled for Decemeber 30-31, so we couldn't pass up on the chance to celebrate the New Year in downtown New Orleans.

All of us woke up before sunrise on Friday the 28th to meet in Ann Arbor and get on the road. At 2 AM the next morning, we finally arrived at our host family's home, near where we would be sailing come Sunday.  It is safe to say that southern hospitality is a real thing, Ive been housed by at least 20 families through high school and college sailing and the Gahagan Family was definitely the nicest family Ive ever had the pleasure stay with. With warm meals, late night pots of coffee, and their friendly dog Beamer, the Gahagan's were always making sure we felt at home.  Since the regatta didn't start until Sunday, we had all day Saturday to tour the French Quarter and enjoy some of the attractions that New Orleans had to offer.

Sunday morning we woke up early and got ready for what we came to New Orleans to do: bring back the Sugarbowl trophy home for the second year in a row.  Sunday was long and cold, the temperature didn't get over 60 and the sun didn't come out once.  We came out of the first day feeling good, we were in second place overall, with Massachusetts Maritime Academy ahead by only 1 point, and a full day of racing left.  Monday brought more cold breeze and winds around 18 knots through the morning. The heavier breeze worked to our advantage, Will and I both had our streaks of 1s and 2s, and we ended the regatta in first by 40 points!  We received some nice mugs for winning both fleets, Will in A and myself in B, Will also won an Allstate Sugarbowl Watch for winning overall, and, of course, we brought home the overall trophy as well.

Now, with more reason to celebrate the New Year than ever, we said our goodbyes to the Gahagan Family and headed to our hotel room that we booked for the night in downtown New Orleans, 2 blocks from Bourbon Street.  From firsthand experience, I can assure you that the chaotic rumors about downtown New Orleans are true.  Bourbon street is a wild place, doubly so on New Year Eve. They definitely know how to celebrate a holiday down there.

Leaving the city the next morning was bittersweet, bitter because it was the first day of 80 degree weather since we had been there, but sweet because we were leaving town with some great trophies, and even greater stories from our night on Bourbon Street. Our stay in New Orleans was well worth the trip, and we hope to keep the winning tradition alive next year.

Chris Cyr '16

Timme Angsten Memorial Regatta

Over the weekend of November 17-18, the Michigan Sailing Team traveled to Chicago to compete in the 66^th 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 7^th 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