This weekend, Christina Johns, Jose-Maria Barrero Patty Andrade, Meaghan Harding, Foster Collins and I returned to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point for the 2012 War Memorial Regatta- a regatta that serves as the MAISA Fall Championship and the 2012 Atlantic Coast Championship Qualifier. Similar to last week, the regatta was split between FJs and 420s. A-Division started in FJs with B sailing in 420s. After 9 races the fleets swapped to ensure equality among the sailors.

With Hurricane Sandy on the horizon, our Coach, Jack Kerr wanted to field the best heavy air team possible. Foster Collins (SEAS ’16) made his Penn Sailing debut joining the team to heavy in the FJ.

To our surprise, Saturday morning was calm and sunny. I started the day sailing with Patty as the wind was out of the east at approximately 5 knots. Overall, Patty and I sailed well. We were a little shocked at the aggressive starting tactics but we were able to stay in phase and finish around 10th throughout the day. The highlight of the day was when we won the start of the 5th race in a huge left phase. After the “tack and go” near the pin we led the fleet around the course and won the race. In B-Division, Christina team with Meaghan for all twelve races. Their results were similar as they battled with the strong current and shifty breeze. Once we swapped fleets Meg and Christina were able to end the day on a high note by sailing the FJ well and posting three strong finishes. We ended the day in 11th overall excited to finish the last six races of the regatta in more breeze.

On Sunday, Kings Point was beginning to experience the outer bands of Hurricane Sandy. When we arrived the breeze was sustained around 15 knots and building. I started sailing with Jose in the 420. Christina sailed the first race with Meg but opted to go with Foster after the breeze picked up to 20 knots. By the last two races, the breeze was well over 20 knots and the chop was around 2 feet. Jose took over B-Division Skipper and Meg jumped in my boat to help post two strong finishes.

All 18 races were completed by 1PM and all 36 boats were derigged and removed from KP’s docks by 3PM. While we didn’t reach our goal of qualifying for the Atlantic Coast Champs we now look forward to defending our MAISA Club Team Championship Title next weekend at Old Dominion University.

For full results: http://scores.collegesailing.org/f12/war-memorial/full-scores/