Shelter Island qualified on October 3 at the Northeast League Regatta, placing sixth out of the 16 schools that had competed in that event. Similar competitions were held for the schools in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., southern New Jersey and upstate New York. In all, 69 teams are registered in the MASSA district, many of which had raced in the qualifiers for a chance to attend the championship.
Shelter Island had a few firsts at the championship event. Not the racing kind, mind you, although there were some encouraging results. The team was shuffled a bit due to a scheduling conflict with Saturday's ACT college test, which forced a change in the teams' normal makeup.
The first change saw junior Mackenzie Needham step up to skipper the A-boat. Mackenzie has been the B-boat driver since the Shelter Island team was formed. The A-boat teams have the top skippers and crews, so this was a big step up for Mackenzie and teammate Rachael Heinze.
The next first, and this was a big one, was having Doug Binder take the helm for the B division. Doug joined the team last year with little-to-no sailing experience, and here he was, skippering the B boat for Shelter Island at a championship event! Doug's teammate, making his first regatta appearance, was freshman Mitchell Clark.
When the team arrived Saturday morning to rig the boats at the Tom's River Yacht Club the breeze was pretty fresh. The forecast called for a steadily increasing wind throughout the day, and it was already blowing 12 knots first thing. After the skipper's meeting the A-boats launched at around 9:30 a.m. with Heinze and Needham on board. They had a decent start for the windward-leeward course that had been set and rounded the top mark in about 11th place.
During the downwind run to the next mark a tremendous gust of wind exceeding 25 knots blasted down the course and immediately blew three boats over just before the leeward mark. Rachael and Mackenzie were toppled into the cold water. What a way to start the day! They immediately righted their boat and despite the rest of the fleet sailing by them, were able to pass the remaining flipped boats as those crews struggled to right themselves. They completed their two races and then sailed in to rotate boats with the B division.
We had worked out a safe starting strategy for Doug and Mitchell in the B division. This was an aggressive fleet; the chances of fouling another boat or getting shut out of the start were too great to push the line. We decided that a delayed approach at the committee boat end of the starting line would give the team a better chance of sailing in clear air. Doug and Mitchell followed the plan perfectly and were able to sail unimpeded up to the windward mark.
They were back in the pack, but for first-timers pitted up against veteran racers they were staying with the fleet respectably. They, too, succumbed to a mighty puff during one of their races and found themselves swimming in the river but they righted their boat and finished the race.
Doug and Mitchell hammered away at the starts. By their sixth race they were up on the line holding their own with the other boats and starting with good speed and positioning at the gun. By races 9 and 10 they were in the thick of it, rounding with the fleet at the marks, fighting it out on the downwind legs and sailing hard through the tacks to the finish line. They beat boats in several of their rotations, which is a tremendous accomplishment for first-time racers.
In the A division Rachael and McKenzie had their hands full. They were challenged not just by the best high school sailors from the mid-Atlantic, but also by extremely shifty, windy conditions with amazing gusts. They did great, however, and surprised us all with their best of 12 races on Saturday (6th, 7th, 8th and 10th). The other finishes were in the low- to mid-teens.
After the ACTs on Saturday Connor Needham headed west to help fortify his teammates. He arrived in time to don his dry suit for what should have been the last B rotation of the day. Instead the race committee sent the fleet in at 5:30 p.m. and would conclude the rest of the rotations the next day. What a long day of competition!
On Sunday Doug and Mackenzie sailed in the A division, with Connor and Mitchell taking over in the B fleet. It was still pretty windy and about 10 degrees cooler but unlike Saturday's rainy squalls it was at least sunny.
Doug and Mackenzie were again right up with the lead pack in their six remaining races with finishes of 6th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 16th and 17th. Mitchell and Connor found their groove, and with one extra two-race set, posted finishes of 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 10, 11 and 13.
Overall the team came in 16th, besting the two other schools from Long Island that had qualified for the regatta. It was a lot of firsts for the team for reasons other than the race results but more importantly the size of the team has been expanded in anticipation of losing the seniors after next spring.