MISSA Cressy Trophy QualifierRadial

26 Laser Radial sailors and 13 Full Rig Laser sailors travelled from across the Midwest to compete for only four spots available to MISSA at the coveted Cressy championships to be held on October 31st and November 1st in Bellingham, WA later this year. I would like to thank Sheridan Shore Yacht Club for allowing us to use the facilities as our base of operations and the Wilmette Harbor Association for allowing us to take over the parking lot and the harbor for the weekend. I would also like to thank Cameron Bielat for allowing us to use his boat as our race committee boat, and volunteer PRO August Hernandez and the race committee for a perfectly executed regatta. Day one of the event greeted competitors with big breeze from the west with puffs into the mid-20s. All sailors exhibited tremendous skill and perseverance in trying conditions, but both divisions saw three boats excelling ahead of the pack. In the Radial division Belle Loosbrock ’15 and Jack Bitney ‘15 of Minnetonka battled for the top spot followed close behind by Carly Broussard ’17 of Kentucky Country Day. In the Full Rig division Wade Wagner ’15 of Walter Payton established a strong lead early on but Dirk Phelps ’15 of Travers City Central and RJ Porter ’15 of Loyola Academy remained in the hunt to qualify. Five full rig races were completed and six radial races were completed throughout the day along with dozens and dozens of capsizes.

Sunday brought similarly breezy conditions for the sailors. The top three boats in both divisions were all contention to qualify, but in these conditions a few bad capsizes could shake the results up significantly. Unfazed by this weather, Wagner opened up the day with a string of bullets and locked up his first place spot in the Full Rig fleet. Porter and Phelps battled it out for five races on Sunday with the qualifying spot coming down to the final race. In the Radial fleet, Loosbrock and Bitney extended their lead on Broussard throughout the day. Broussard all the while extended her own lead over the fourth place boat with a comfortable 21 points margin. The day concluded with Loosbrock and Bitney taking the qualifying spots in the Radial Fleet with 17 and 18 points, respectively. Wagner proved victorious in the full rig division with a commanding 11 point lead over second place boat Porter. Congratulations to Belle Loosbrock, Jack Bitney, Wade Wagner and RJ Porter for qualifying to represent the district at the 2014 National Championship Cressy Trophy regatta. Good luck to all of you and go make MISSA proud!

The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.

The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.