• Sport Home
• |
• Roster
• |
• Schedule
• |
• Archives

May 2, 2006

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Navy's Varsity Offshore Sailing Team topped nine other crews from around the country to claim The Kennedy Cup, Intercollegiate Sailing's Big Boat National Championship for the first time in nine years. The three-day event was held on the Chesapeake Bay off Annapolis on April 21-23 aboard the Academy's fleet of matched 44-foot sloops. Conditions for the regatta ranged from light to moderate winds and allowed for a total of nine races to be completed.

Led by senior team captain Greg Storer, Navy's crew got off to a good start winning the first race on Friday and posting a second and third in the day's remaining races. However, at the end of the day, Cal Maritime was atop the leaderboard with Rhode Island and Navy tied one point back.

Saturday featured 10-17 knots of wind and sporadic rain showers. Four races were completed and the leaderboard saw a big shuffle. The Merchant Marine Academy scored 1,4,1,2 to take the lead while Navy struggled with a 4,2,6,3. However, Cal Maritime and Rhode Island suffered worse allowing Navy to remain close at the end of Saturday just a point behind the new leader, the Merchant Marine Academy.

Sunday dawned with little wind and a dismal forecast. After a short postponement, the day's first race got underway in a six-knot southwesterly breeze. Navy and USMMA started close together but the breeze shifted dramatically and both teams rounded the first weather mark well back in the pack. Navy struggled to a sixth while USMMA slipped to ninth. This left Navy with a two-point lead over USMMA and three points ahead of Cal Maritime. A final race was started in what appeared to be a building northwesterly breeze. Navy got off the line in good shape while USMMA and Cal Maritime were stuck in traffic. But the wind again shifted significantly and dropped in velocity turning the race into a "follow the leader" parade. Navy finished second in the race behind a surging Rhode Island team, who won both of the day's final races, while KP and Cal Maritime could not recover finishing seventh and fourth respectively.

Navy's winning crew was led by Storer and included Jeff Parker trimming main, John Casilio on bow, Colin Chandler as primary trimmer, Leigh Loesel as tactician, Nick Goddard also trimming, Jared Webster in the pit and Mark Picinich at the mast.

The same crew also won the Intercollegiate MacMillan Cup and US Sailing's Offshore Championship for the Lloyd Phoenix Trophy last fall.

For more information, contact Navy Varsity Offshore Sailing Team Coach Jahn Tihansky at 410-293-5608 or Tihansky@usna.edu.

# GO NAVY #