OCEANPORT – The Shrewsbury Sailing & Yacht Club (SSYC) and the Monmouth University Hawks Sailing Team co-hosted the Atlantic Coast Championships Regatta for high school sailors Nov. 8-9.
Eighteen teams from 12 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands qualified for the event, sailed in Monmouth University’s fleet of 18 FJ-class sailboats that are home-based at SSYC.
Racing started at 10 a.m. Saturday with the air temperature at a chilly 40 degrees and a northwest wind at around 8 knots that soon backed to the west and then southwest.
With the starting line only 100 yards from the end of SSYC’s docks, the sailors executed quick boat rotations between two-race sets. The breeze generally steady in the range of 7-to-10 knots. Several mark boats adjusted the racecourse rapidly as needed with the race committee managing to squeeze in 16 races by 4:30 p.m.
The competition was extremely tight with the top four teams separated by only 6 points and the fifth-place team only 12 points off the lead after Saturday’s 16 races.
Racing resumed at 9 a.m. Sunday with a 5-to-10 knot breeze that oscillated between northwest and southwest throughout the day. The race committee managed to squeeze in another 12 races before the 3 p.m. time limit for a total of 28 races over the two-day event.
In sailboat racing, each position in a race is scored via the low-point system, meaning first place receives one point, second place receives two points and so on. The team with the lowest number of points at the end of the regatta wins.
When not on the water between rotations, sailors enjoyed a close-up view of their teammates racing from SSYC’s upper and lower decks and also warmed themselves by enjoying hot lunches served by the club’s volunteers and the roaring fire in the clubhouse fireplace.
The 2014 High School Atlantic Coast Championship was won by the sailors from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. They finished the first day of racing in second place, only 1 point out of first, but came on strong on Sunday to win the event by 22 points over second-place finisher, The Severn School from Annapolis, Md. Third-place was earned by the team from Minnetonka High School in Minnetonka, Minn.
Also participating in the order of their finish were: Christchurch School from Christchurch, Va.; The Key School from Annapolis, Md.; Norfolk Academy of Norfolk, Va.; Annapolis High School of Annapolis, Va.; North Kingstown High School of North Kingstown, R.I.; Falmouth High School of Falmouth, Maine; Irondequoit High School of Irondequoit, N.Y.; Duxbury High School of Duxbury, Mass.; New Trier High School from Winnetka, Ill.; Wayzata High School from Pewaukee, Wis.; Antilles School from St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.; Yarmouth High School of Yarmouth, Maine; Pine Lake Prep School from Mooresville, N.C.; Arrowhead High School from Sussex, Wis.; and Academic Magnet High School from Charleston, S.C.
