This past November, 9 members of the URI Sailing team traveled to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland to compete for the US Collegiate Keelboat Championship, the prestigious Kennedy Cup. After three days of racing, the URI Sailing Team came away with first place, winning the 2008-2009 Kennedy Cup, and earning the URI Sailing team the right to represent the United States at the 2009 Student Yachting World Championships, held in Marseille, France, during the last week of October.
Congratulations to the team of:
Jesse Fielding
Alex Baittinger
Robbie Kane
Jeremy Henry
Scott Millard
Russ Miller
Carl Merrill
Westy Barlow
Nat Tingley
REGATTA HIGHLIGHTS:
Friday: The wind gods managed to crack a hint of a smile today and a zephyr of a seabreeze filled in sufficiently to allow 2 races in the 2008 Kennedy Cup at Navy. Ten crews are in Annapolis sailing aboard USNA's 44'sloops to contest the ICSA Big Boat National Championship. PRO Mark Murphy and his RC team patiently waited until the breeze settled in (settled may be a generous word here) then got off two races as the ebb got underway. Maine Maritime got off to a great start leading the first race wire to wire. KP had a strong showing finishing second but got disqualified for an incident at the start. Navy finished 3rd but moved up a notch with KP's misfortune. St. Mary's was next back. For race 2, NY Maritime bounced back from a tough first race to win #2 also leading all the way around. There were a number of place changes behind them as well as a few scrums and red flags. Coast Guard ended up being disqualified after finishing 4th dropping them at least 3 spots in the overall standings. Racing continues Saturday and Sunday with the winner earning the honor of representing the United States in the 2009 Student Yachting World Cup in France.
School Scores Pts.
1. St. Mary's 3,2 5
2. Maine Maritime 1,5 6
3. Navy 2,4 6
4. URI 5,3 8
5. NY Maritime 9,1 10
6. Mass Maritime 4,7 11
7. Cal Maritime 9,6 15
8. Coast Guard 6,11 17
9. Queens U 9,8 17
10. Kings Point 11,9 20 Saturday: The Naval Academy Sailing Squadron Race Committee ran 3 races today in the 2008 Kennedy Cup Series.
The first race started following a brief postponement in a patchy southwesterly and sporadic light rain. URI recovered quickly from a poor start opting to tack and duck most of the fleet. The move paid big as they led at the first weather mark by a large margin. They maintained position downwind but on the 2nd beat, they let Coast Guard and Navy get to the right where stronger veering breeze filled dropping them to 3rd at weather mark 2. Coast Guard held on to win while URI got back by Navy downwind for second. Fortunately, the flood current was along the downwind axis nursing all but Maine Maritime across the finish before the time limit expired.
Maine put their misfortune behind them and came out swinging in the second race of the day leading wire to wire by a good margin. Cal Maritime found their Mojo pulling off a second and Coast Guard stayed close with a 3rd. Meanwhile Friday leader St. Mary's struggled for the second race in a row and Navy carded a 6th. Conditions for the third race remained amazingly consistent albeit light with a course axis of 175 at 4-5 knots. URI had another outstanding race leading from start to finish for the bullet with Coast Guard second and Navy nipping Maine Maritime at the finish line for 3rd.
1. URI 5,3,2,4,1 15
2. USNA 2,4,3,6,3 18
3. Maine Maritime 1,5,10,1,4 21
4. Coast Guard 6,11,1,3,2 23
5. NY Maritime 8,1,4,5,8 26
6. St. Mary's 3,2,7,9,7 28
7. Cal Maritime 7,6,9,2,5 29
8. Mass Maritime 4,7,8,8,10 37
9. Queens University 9,8,6,7,9 39
10. Kings Point 11,9,5,10,6 41
Sunday: Racing got underway on time at 1030 this morning on the Chesapeake Bay with what appeared to be a solid post cold front westerly breeze and sunny skies. It was so nice that some competitors were still attired in shorts despite the calendar suggesting otherwise. Entering the day, URI led Navy by 3 points with Maine 3 back of Navy. Coast Guard lurked an additional 2 points back. For the first race of the day, both URI and Coast Guard found themselves buried at the start while Navy and Maine got away clean and to the left. Maine led Navy by a length at the first mark and extended slightly on the run. At this point the breeze began to falter with what appeared to be a southerly thermal attempting to establish. Navy worked left but got caught in a dead zone while Maine worked the right corner and approached the second weather mark apparently well ahead. However, the breeze began to shut down and the trailing boats closed the gap. Maine still led at the rounding while Navy had slipped to 5th. URI came blasting in from the right with a big right hand puff but was still in 7th with Coast Guard 9th. The leaders set and promptly sailed into a hole while Navy jibed into fresh breeze and did a huge end around to take the win. Coast Guard seized the same breeze and did the same to pass the fleet for a second. URI surgically picked their way down the run and managed to move up to 3rd while Maine suffered the most misfortune falling back to 5th.
After a lengthy postponement, a light and fragile sea breeze filled enough to start another race. Coast Guard led early but Navy and URI got left on the second beat where there was more pressure. URI led at the second top mark and held on to take the win with Navy in second and Coast Guard 3rd.
URI now held a 2 point advantage as well as the tie break. Race 8 got underway in sporadic breeze and a max flood making for an interesting time at the pin end. Navy and Coast Guard both did not make the pin and were forced to jibe around. Meanwhile URI blasted off clean from mid line avoiding the trouble and headed left for what had been the better breeze on most similar occasions. Navy bee-lined to the right corner, pretty much their only hail Mary option. As the wind gods would have it, the wind veered a little and apparently there was current relief on the right as Navy came out of the corner crossing everyone leaving URI gasping a long was back in 6th. The race was now against the per-leg time limit. Enough breeze filled allowing Navy to get around with just over a minute to spare and leading by 8 lengths over Cal Maritime. With URI deep, it looked like the tables had turned in Navy's favor. However, approaching the first leeward mark, Navy sailed into a hole and allowed Cal Maritime and St. Mary's riding in on new breeze to get inside for the rounding. Cal and St. Mary's headed to the right corner never looking back while Navy desperately maneuvered to find clear air. URI brought new breeze down the run and rounded the leeward mark nary a length behind Navy who finally found enough wind to get their boat moving.
Cal won the race by a large margin with St. Mary's taking second. Meanwhile Navy and URI rounded the second upwind mark with Navy a length ahead. Navy however need two boats between to win which at this point were nowhere to be found. The two battled down the last run with Navy getting 3rd by a nose and URI holding it together to take 4th and the championship.
Congratulations to the URI team of Jesse Fielding, Alex Baittinger, Jeremy Henry, Weston Barlow, Rob Kane, Scott Millard, Carl Merrill, Nat Tingley and Russ Miller who earned the honor of representing the United States in the 2009 Student Yachting World Cup.
A huge thanks to all who helped put on this year's Kennedy Cup including PRO Mark Murphy and his RC crew, Chief Judge Chris Petracco and his panel and the many volunteers who gave us their weekend.
Boats: Navy 44
2008 Kennedy Cup
U.S. Naval Academy
November 8-9, 2008
FINAL RESULTS
1. URI 5,3,2,4,1,3,1,4 23
2. USNA 2,4,3,6,3,1,2,3 24
3. Coast Guard 6,11,1,3,2,2,3,10 38
4. St. Mary's 3,2,7,9,7,4,5,2 39
5. Maine Maritime 1,5,10,1,4,5,8,5 39
6. Cal Maritime 7,6,9,2,5,7,6,1 43
7. Kings Point 11,9,5,10,6,6,4,7 58
8. Mass Maritime 4,7,8,8,10,8,7,6 58
9. NY Maritime 8,1,4,5,8,11,11,11 59
10. Queens University 9,8,6,7,9,9,9,11 68
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