Penn fields first Women’s Team in over 2 years

This weekend Meaghan Harding, Caroline Garth, Patricia Andrade Chevres and I headed up to the North Country to compete and MAISA Women’s Championship at Cornell. MAISA Women’s Championship serves as a qualifier for Women’s Nationals. Our weekend of ‘dreams coming true’ did not quite reflect in our scores, but Penn women’s sailing had an incredible weekend in terms of learning and development. Caroline Garth skippered the A division with me as her crew, and the multi-talented Meg Harding skipped B with Pati Andrade Chevres as her crew.

On Saturday morning, we arrived at Lake Cayuga and started racing around 9:45AM. The wind, roughly breezing at 12 knots, was solidly coming in from the North West. Although the air was cold and the water was colder, there were no delays in the competition and in total 10A and 10B races were held. On Saturday night the gals ate a lovely dinner in Cortland, New York, then returned to the hotel to rest up and prepare for tomorrow.

Easter morning we returned to Lake Cayuga and found an egg hidden underneath our boat (a gift from the easter bunny, perhaps). We sailed two more sets in a light, shifty and unpredictable wind coming from the South. A few races were restarted and the sets were long, but after finishing the day at 4PM the Quaker Ladies were both proud and pleased with the progress they made. In Caroline’s best race she came in 7th and Meg’s best race she also came in 7th.

Thank you to the Cornell Sailing team as well as the racing committee for hosting and managing the event.

Best,
Nina Smeallie Kaledin ‘16