Over this past weekend, April 19-20th, Penn Sailing competed in the Admiral’s Cup intersectional hosted by Kings Point in Great Neck, NY. With teams from MAISA, NEISA, and MCSA in attendance, Penn fought to a 14th place finish out of 20 teams.

In A Division, Jack Swikart ‘15 and Helen Boone ‘16 represented Penn. Mac Agnese ‘16 and Catie Hopkins ’17 sailed B division. In C division, Joe Farned ’17 sailed the Laser Full Rig.

On Saturday, we saw light winds building to about 15 knots. In all three divisions, the team posted mixed results, with more difficult races interspersed throughout top 5 finishes. Throughout the day, the start proved crucial, as strong current and a short trapezoid course heavily favored the leaders off the line. After a lunch break, the wind died and the race committee ultimately called racing around 5pm.

On Sunday, we were greeted by more consistent breeze. With this breeze, we were able to round out a 14 race regatta by 1:30pm. The competition on Sunday proved equally stiff. The line was heavily pin favored; the winner of the race was consistently the boat able to win the pin and tack off the line with clear air. With these challenging conditions, Penn was still able to post some strong finishes and concluded the regatta in 14th place.

Next weekend, Penn will be taking the America Trophy in its bid to qualify for Nationals.

A huge thank you goes to the Swikart family for housing us and feeding us a wonderful Easter dinner! Also, thank you to our coach Johnny Norfleet who helped us perform our best throughout the weekend.

Fair winds,
Joe Farned ’17