MASSA Fall Fleet Silver Championship

Eighteen high school sailing teams, from throughout the district, arrived at Washington College for the MASSA Fall Fleet Silver Championship. It was a beautiful fall day with clear sunny skies, but unfortunately there was not enough wind to sail, especially against the Chester River's challenging current. Teams were held in postponement on shore until around noon before a light southwesterly breeze gradually filled in and they were sent out to race.

A Division was able to get one race completed, but the ebbing tide and dying breeze resulted in the second race being abandoned and the teams were sent back to shore. After waiting again for more than an hour, A Division headed back out and was able to complete a second race in the intermittent and very light beeeze.

B Divison then headed out to sail but once again the tide, now flooding, and the dying breeze combined to the point the race was deemed unsailable and was abandoned even though the current had carried a few boats across the finish line.

Teams worked their way back to the docks and the boats were stowed. Racing was ended for the day with only two A Divison races being scored.

Racing is scheduled to begin tomorrow at 0930 with Race B1 in a forecasted 7-9 mph southwesterly breeze.

Mother Nature was much more cooperative today with a nice SW wind filling in with a 7-10 mph velocity and relatively consistent direction throughout the day. The sailors dealt with a strong ebbing tide for most of the races, but today's wind direction and pressure made for good sailing in spite of the current.

B Division started racing on schedule at 0930 sharp and sailing went right through until the 1400 hrs cut off time with the last sequence beginning at 1356 hrs. W4 courses were sailed all day, with A Division completing five races and B Division sailing all seven of their races today.

There were two protests filed and one request for redress; both protests were disallowed and the redress was not granted.

The St. Mary's Saints held on to a close lead throughout the last two sets to win the regatta with 54 points, with the Donovan Catholic Griffins close behind in second with 58 points. The Summit Hilltoppers rounded out the top three with 71 points.

Many thanks to Tom Pierson and his Washington College Sailing Team members Maura Matthews, Matt McDermid, Paul Hart and the waterfront staff for hosting and running the races. Although the lack of wind on Saturday left much to be desired, Sunday's full day of races made up for it and everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather all weekend, tailgating in the field and enjoying the views from the banks of the Chester River.

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.