Midd Panthers compete in New England Dinghy Tournament and Tyrell Trophy!

After a week in Vermont following our Spring Break training trip to Eckerd College, eight Middlebury sailors traveled to Connecticut for two different regattas. Both regattas treated the sailors with difficult blustery conditions not uncommon to early Springtime on Long Island Sound.

This year’s New England Dinghy Tournament was hosted by Sacred Heart and Fairfield University in Bridgeport, CT. Twelve teams from across New England traveled to Bridgeport for two long days of difficult competition. Knowing that the top two teams from the regatta would qualify for the New England Dinghy Championship at Dartmouth at the end of the season, each team sent their best sailors to the regatta in hopes of qualifying. The level of competition at this qualifying event truly demonstrates the growing depth of NEISA. Despite six teams from this weekend’s event making a strong push to qualify, all twelve teams sailed excellent regattas in variable and difficult (not to mention frigid!) sailing conditions.

At the Dinghy Tourney, Middlebury was represented by Ben Brown (’18) + Alden Cowap (’17) in the A Division and Megan Colwell (’16) + Nick Jaszco (’19) in B Division. Saturday’s conditions were classic early April in New England, featuring grey skies, North-Northeasterly winds with an imminent threat of late afternoon snow and rain showers from the Northeast. Despite the potential for races continuing until 5pm, all sailors were pleased to be sent in before the snow squalls and were treated to warm pizza and Regatta Ginger Beer. Good races by Middlebury were intermixed with difficult races with multiple 90 degree wind shifts and dying breeze.

With sunny skies, Sunday promised to be a much better day for sailing on Long Island Sound. Middlebury came out strong and finished with a second place overall finish in A division. As the wind increased from the Southwest all day, conditions became trying and difficult.  With multiple capsizes and time running out, the races were called just prior to 3pm.

Middlebury finished in 5th place overall. Thanks to Fairfield/Sacred Heart for hosting and congrats to Mass Maritime Academy for winning the event. Johnson and Wales University took second place.
Full scores and write up here: http://scores.collegesailing.org/s16/ne-dinghy-tournament/

On Sunday at Avery Point, seven teams experienced similar racing conditions. From NEISA’s site:

After some confusion about the location of the regatta was resolved, sailors hit the water at 11:00am ready to have a great day of sailing and burgers. With a consistent west wind, we were able to get off a set in each division before moving the course to adapt the breeze as it clocked SW and picked up a bit. A division sailed a great second set enjoying the conditions, but B division was foiled in their attempts to match this as the wind picked up to 30 knots, and boat began to drop like flies on the downwind; the third B race was abandoned and racing was called off due to these conditions. Sailors left in good spirits, a little soggy but fueled by delicious food. 41 Husky burgers were served.

Thanks to UCONN for hosting. Full scores and write up: http://scores.collegesailing.org/s16/tyrell/ 

 

 

This weekend, the Middlebury Panthers travel to Boston College to compete in the Savin Hill Central. BC sails out of Savin Hill YC. Thanks for everyone’s continued support of MCSC as we continue our Spring 2016 season.
The following weekend (April 23-24), Middlebury will compete in the Reed Trophy at Yale (an all women event) and the Morris Trophy at Boston University. Our final weekend of competition will be split between the Tufts (April 30) and Williams College (May 1).


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