Oct. 9, 2009
This past weekend Stanford sailing traveled to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT to compete at one of the fall's premier regattas - the Danmark Trophy. With 17 of the top 20 teams in the country at this event, competition was tight throughout the event, but in the end Yale was able to pull out an impressive 36-point victory over the competition. 15 races were sailed in a variety of conditions throughout the weekend, making consistency tough for even the top competitors.
Representing Stanford was Nick Dugdale and Alex Dunlap in A-division and Cole Hatton and Rebecca King in B-division. Despite a DSQ in race 10, Hatton and King sailed to a 7th place finish in B-division. Dugdale and Dunlap were able to get something going at the end of the event, finishing with a 2, 4, and 3 in three of their last five races.
On the home front, Peter Stemler, Oliver Riihiluoma, Megan Grove, and Justin Doane competed at the PCCSC Sloop Championship hosted by Cal Maritime in J-22s at Richmond Yacht Club. With only seven teams competing for one spot at the ICSA Sloop Nationals at Coast Guard in two weeks, competition was tight down to the very last windward leg. Most of the races were sailed in a light 5-8 kt westerly, except for races 5 and 6 at the end of Saturday, which saw 2 capsizes and gusts into the high 20s. Once Stemler and his crew had figured out the course and current on Saturday morning they sailed to an impressive 1st place finish in race 4. UC Irvine won the event and the birth to represent PCCSC at ICSA Sloop Nationals.
Stanford Sailing will compete this coming weekend in the first in-district intersectional, the Stoney Burke, hosted by UC Berkely. This will be a great chance to see where the Cardinal sit in the district, and scope out the competition before PCCSC Fall Champs at UCSB in November.