ISSA Baker Team Race Nationals

Light winds and choppy conditions made for difficult racing on Day 1 of the 2015 Baker Championships. The race committee were busy with the tricky condition but managed to get 52 races of the 66 race round robin complete on Saturday. St.Thomas Aquinas High School leads going in to Day 2, with 8 wins.

Day 2 dawned with cloudy skies and glassy seas. The Race Committee found a few puffs of wind early on, and ran 2 very slow races, then the wind shut off. The sailors and RC waited around (somewhat) patiently, and finally the breeze filled in from the East at 10-15 kts. This allowed the committee to finish the initial round robin, but leaving no time for a gold, silver and bronze rounds.

In an exciting three race sail-off Shorecrest Preparatory (St. Petersburg, FL) bested its cross-state rival St. Thomas Aquinas (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) 2-1. National Champions are Shorecrest Prep with St. Thomas Aquinas in second and Newport Harbor (Newport Beach, CA) in third.

Sailing for Shorecrest Preparatory School was skippers Nic Baird ’15, Patrick Shanahan ’15, Hannah Steadman ’16, and Josh Dochoda ’16; crews were Kathryn Booker ‘15, Peninah Benjamin ‘16, Kyle Dochoda ‘17, and Andreea Ranney-Pace ‘16.

On another important note, the Baker Championship Regatta qualified as a Clean Regatta, in partnership with Sailors for the Sea, Chicago Yacht Club’s first and highly successful green initiative. Through the use of reusable water bottles presented to each sailor with water stations available on the rotation and umpire boats, zero trash on water lunch containers, and an electric powered spectator boat, the CYC hosted Baker Championship Regatta is going for a Gold level certification. Chicago Yacht Club proudly embraces keeping our waters clean for future generations of sailors.