2019 Atlantic Coast Championship

Twenty high school sailing teams, representing schools from MASSA, MISSA, NESSA and SAISA, arrived at Toms River Yacht Club on Saturday morning for the Atlantic Coast Championship regatta, and were welcomed to New Jersey by clear skies and freezing temperatures. As was the forecast, the wind was a very light northerly breeze, which promptly shut off and slowly worked its way to the right.

After a two hour postponement on shore, A Division launched and headed out to the course area, only to have the wind die off again. By 1145, the wind started to fill and build and A Division began racing at about 1200 hrs in a 5-8 knot shifty, easterly breeze. B Division launched and racing continued for the rest of the day. After several course adjustments and two major moves to accommodate the continued shift of the wind to the south, nine W4 races were completed in each division before the teams returned to shore as the wind died with a picturesque sunset in the background.

Several protests and a few redress requests for breakdowns heard by the judges Harry Foote and Pricilla Gettis, with one hearing to be continued Sunday morning.

Teams will resume racing with races 10A and 10B with expectation for more breeze from a westerly direction first thing Sunday morning.

The teams returned to Toms River Yacht Club on Sunday morning to slightly warmer conditions, but also very light air on the river. One protest hearing from late Saturday was completed before racing. Luckily, the breeze began to fill as the boats launched at 930, eventually steadying midday to a nice 6-10 knots from the south-southwest.

With just minor course adjustments, the RC was able to complete nine more W4 races in each division, which rounded out the regatta with 18 races in both divisions. The sailors were off the water right around 1500 hours, which was the cutoff time.

Thank you to PRO Dave Magno and RC officers John Barbano and John Paggi for getting all the races off in the cold and challenging wind conditions. Jason Lutz, with assistant Colin Guerrera on Saturday, served as the mark set boat on both days. Mitchell Nunn, Jordan Murphy (Saturday), and Tim Farrenetta (Sunday) worked the patrol boats. Helga Paggi kept the scores promptly updated all weekend. Harry Foote and Pricilla Gettis served as the US Sailing judges. Cindy Botwinick, Beth Harrison and Cheryl Walsh did a terrific job with breakfast, lunch, and much needed hot chocolate on both days.

A special thank you to Toms River Yacht Club for graciously hosting this national event and giving the sailors and spectators access to the entire facility. Another special thanks to the Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing Association (BBYRA) for supplying the FJs and to Ocean County College for supplying the 420s.

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.