MASSA Fleet Championship and Mallory Qualifier

We had a beautiful 70 degree sunny day on the Rappahannock River. Seas were initially 1.5 foot waves that settled to near flat by the end of the day. Northwest winds in the mid-teen mph’s with gusts into the low twenties, declined gradually throughout the day, and clocked slightly to NNW in late afternoon as winds diminished to unsailable by 4:30 PM when sailors were sent in.

A handful of hearing requests resulted in two boats being penalized with DSQ’s in race 6A and a redress being granted for a breakdown in race 4B.

The day ended having completed 11 A races and 10 B races on a W-4 course. Christchurch held first place with 67 points, followed by Severn School in second with 80 points, Southern Regional was in third with 116 points and Christian Brothers Academy in fourth with 130 points.

Launching the race committee boat was delayed due to the missing PRO. At 8:41 the following message was received : “ I’m locked in the ccs gym. Was using the bathroom. Can you please send someone to unlock the door? Mary locked me in accidentally. No cell signal either.” After a half hour of being incarcerated in the gym bathrooms, the PRO was able to join the regatta.

The committee boat launched shortly after 9AM in search of wind, spent an hour hoping it would fill in, and returned to shore when it was so still that flies were landing on the boat. Sailors enjoyed all manner of paddle sports while on delay. The regatta waited ashore until 12:30PM and given the consistent lack of wind, the event was called.

The eleventh A race was deleted in order to give an even number of races in the divisions. Final scores for the regatta ranked Christchurch School in first place with 62 points. They were followed by Severn School in second place with 79 points. Southern Regional High School secured third place with 113 points. Very closely following was Christian Brothers Academy in fourth place with 118 points. These four teams will move on to the Mallory National Fleet Race Championship.

Hampton Roads Academy, Severna Park, Norfolk Academy, Stony Brook, and Donovan Catholic are ranked in places 5-9 and are offered berths to the Phebe Corcoran King Memorial Regatta.

Greatest thanks are offered to those who gave their time to make this event a success, especially PRO Alex Jacob, along with judges Jerry Thompson and Admiral Pete Fanta. Thanks also goes to the Christchurch School community for rolling out the red carpet to welcome all to the event.

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.