VISA Team Race Championship

VISA welcomed a 8 school teams to the Lafayette river for our team racing championship. Seas had a light chop. Drizzle moved in mid morning and waxed and waned until about a half hour before racing ended at about 4:00, when we saw patches of blue. The morning started with westerly winds of 5-8mph and gusts slightly higher and clocked north building to a short period 17 mph wind with at 11:00 with a gust at 25mph, and then slowly eased and settled to NNE by 1:30 at 6-10mph with gusts to 16.

On the digital N course we we saw some great racing and tight competition. Teams completed a round robin of 28 races around 1:00 and were reseeded into silver and Gold with Christchurch, Norfolk Academy, and Hampton Roads holding a three way tie for first, and Norfolk Collegiate rounding out the gold division. That place Maury, Kecoughtan, Grafton, and Hague in Silver. One interwoven silver and gold round was completed again leaving a three way tie for first. Time did not allow for a final four. The tie for third was easily broken by the first tiebreaker rule. The two teams left tied for first elected forego a sail-off due to social commitments (homecoming). The tie-breaker rules resulted in Hampton roads Academy taking first place, followed by Norfolk Academy in second (lost tie-breaker on head to head points), and Christchurch school in third place (lost initial tie-breaker on points when tied teams met). Congratulations to these three well matched teams who along with Norfolk Collegiate will move on to compete in the MASSA Fall Team Championship.

Greatest thanks to the race committee. It takes all of the crew (start, finish, marks, breakdown, scoring, dock support, etc.) to run a successful event. Special thanks to alum parents Scott Robertson and Levi Thomson (PRO) for coming back to run the start boat.