MASSA Fall Fleet Championship

The MASSA Fall Fleet Champs on Mill Creek at Fort Monroe welcomed 18 MASSA teams to sunny skies, temps reaching just over 70 degrees F, choppy water. Winds were initially northerly in the high single digits, building to NE mid-teens with gusts a bit higher throughout midday. The Race committee tirelessly managed the course through significant oscillations until the wind finally stabilized easing to just over 10 for the afternoon.

The regatta completed 10 A races and 8 B races before calling it for the day. The RC boat docked at 5:18. Four protests were heard resulting in 4 DSQ's. Three requests for redress were granted.

At the end of the day, Christchurch was leading in first place with 59 points, followed by Hampton Roads Academy in second with 73 points, and Severn in third with 73 points.

Racing will resume tomorrow with launching at 9:00AM.

On the water at 9:00, we started with race 9B under another beautiful day. The breeze was moderate, waxing and waning between 5 and 9 mph generally northerly with gusts slightly higher. Shortly after 11 it clocked to ENE. The oscillations were significant and challenging, often 45 degrees each side of center, keeping the PRO and mark boats busy with almost constant adjustments.

Overall the regatta accomplished 15 races in each division with the last start 1 min before the no start after time. Sailors pushed the line in an attempt to cause a general recall and just go home. To the chagrin of some coaches who were rather noisy on the radio, the committee clearly sighted and called 15 boats over. Only boats 11, 12 and 13 were not OCS. The boats who were over all dipped the line, cleared and sailed on.

Congratulations to the top 6 finishing teams who are offered berths to the ACC's at SSA in Annapolis on Nov. 2-3, 2024. Christchurch School finished in first place with a remarkable 87 points. They were closely followed by Severn School in second place with 115 points, and Hampton Roads Academy in third place with 119 points. In fourth place is Norfolk Academy with 212 points. Southern Regional finished fifth with 213 points. Christian Brothers finished sixth with 231 points.

Sincere thanks go to Youth Sailing Virginia, the race committee, and all of the volunteers who gave their time to make this event a success, especially PRO Arielle Darrow, Judge Carter Little, and Regatta Chair Jacob Raymond.

The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.

The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.