High School sailing team starts season with Port Jeff regatta
What a day on the water! Our first regatta of the spring season and the weather couldn’t have been any nicer.
Shelter Island’s High School sailors traveled to Port Jeff on St. Paddy’s Day to participate in the New York League’s spring warm-up regatta. Making the trip were juniors Melissa Ames, Jill Calabro, Alexis Gibbs and Morgan McCarthy, sophomores Drew Garrison and Macklin Lang and freshman sailor Olivia Garrison.
Shelter Island had only two days of practice before the regatta, the cobwebs and rust from the long winter showed in their racing for the first couple of rotations. Little by little, each Islander began to remember the important components they needed to be competitive and by the fourth or fifth race they were well up with the leaders going around the course. Of the 17 teams racing, Shelter Island managed to place 10th in the A and B division.
Racing got underway at about 11 a.m. in a warm 6- to 8-knot easterly breeze. The wind was very shifty throughout the day with a few strong gusts blasting down over the bluffs now and then.
The sailors needed to be alert to take advantage of the wind shifts. Sailing into the puffs usually lead to a nice shot of speed for the boats lucky enough to be near the gusts. More than a few times, the Shelter Island sailors sought out and took advantage of the increased wind, hiking out fully to get as much power out of the sails as they could.
The schools raced on a triangle course that took about 18 minutes to complete from start to finish. Teams were made up of A, B, C and D divisions. Each division sailed two races and then handed their boats off to the next division of sailors.
After the A sailors completed two races, the B division teams were rotated in as the A teams took a break. Racing continued in this way, switching teams in and out throughout the day. Six races for each division were run including the second team C and D divisions. One little problem: all of us neglected to protect our skin from burning by wearing sun block. Who would have expected the sun to be so bright in the middle of March?
