MASSA District Mallory Qualifier

At the 2014 MASSA District Mallory Qualifier, eighteen teams met at the Norfolk Yacht & Country Club to compete for the Schneider Trophy and the four available berths to contest the Mallory Trophy at the ISSA High School Doublehanded Championships, to be held at San Diego Yacht Club on 10-11 May 2014.

Due to light winds in the morning, racing was delayed until things filled in a bit. Eventually enough wind built out of the north to get the racing started. The direction gradually shifted to the east, before clocking around to the south, necessitating several course shifts throughout the day. The committee set a W-4 course for the first race of each set, while the second races finished upwind with W-5s. The race committee, ably led by PRO Brady Stagg, got off a great day of racing, completing four full rotations of each division for sixteen total races, with the final race of the day, 8B, concluding shortly after 1800.

Weather was fantastic: a clear, sunny sky with a building breeze all day.

A number of general recalls were issued, though only one OCS late in the day as boats with individual recalls did a great job of returning and starting properly.

The protest room, led by Committee Chairman Matt Lawler, was far too busy, hearing nine protests and issuing six DSQs. Many thanks to Cori Radtke, Dillon Paiva, Isaac Clark, Brady Stagg, and Alana O’Reilly who all helped hear protests. There were also three requests for redress due to boat breakdowns.

Many thanks to all the coaches, parents, and volunteers who helped the first day run smoothly, including Scott Williams and Jill Layne on the upwind finish boat, everyone on the mark boats, and finally to our hosts at the Norfolk Yacht & Country Club.

With a cloudless sky and steady winds from the south to southwest clocking at 8-12 knots, Sunday proved to be another beautiful day of racing. Hitting the water at 0930, the sailors completed two additional rotations for each division, finishing the regatta with twelve races each, for twenty-four total races over the two days.

Sunday’s courses were all W-4s, and although no major course shifts were required as they were on Saturday, the race committee worked hard to tweak the location of marks throughout the day in order to maintain races of consistent duration and to keep the course square and clear of obstructions. Again, many thanks to those who helped out both on the mark boat and the committee boat.

Finally, and most importantly, congratulations to the four teams who qualified to compete for the Mallory Trophy in the ISSA High School Doublehanded Championships! Annapolis sailed a strong and commanding regatta, winning the Schneider Trophy and finishing in first place by nearly fifty points. Christchurch, Norfolk Academy, and Broadneck rounded out the top four finishers. Thanks to all the sailors who participated, whether they saw action on the water in Norfolk or not, and again to all the coaches, parents, volunteers, and officials who helped make the 2014 MASSA District Mallory Qualifier a success.

Good luck to our MASSA teams in San Diego!

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.