Team St Thomas Aquinas HS wins Atlantic Coast Champs

Oceanport, NJ (November 10, 2014) – The Shrewsbury Sailing & Yacht Club (SSYC) and the Monmouth University Hawks Sailing Team, which is home-based at SSYC, co-hosted the Atlantic Coast Championships Regatta for High School sailors November 8 & 9. 18 teams from 12 states and the US Virgin Islands qualified for the event that was sailed in Monmouth University’s fleet of 18 FJs.

Racing commenced at 10 am Saturday with the air temperature at a chilly 40 degrees and a northwest wind at around 8 knots that soon backed to the west and then southwest. With the starting line only 100 yards from the end of SSYC’s docks, the sailors executing quick boat rotations between two-race sets, the breeze generally steady in the range of 7 to 10 knots, and several mark boats adjusting the racecourse rapidly as needed, the race committee managed to squeeze in 16 W-4 races by 4:30 pm.

The competition was extremely tight, with the top four teams separated by only 6 points and the fifth-place team only 12 points off the lead after Saturday’s 16 races. Racing resumed at 9am Sunday morning with a 5 to 10 knot breeze that oscillated between northwest and southwest throughout the day. The race committee managed to squeeze in another 12 races before the 3pm time limit, for a total of 28 races over the two-day event.

When not on the water between rotations, sailors enjoyed a close-up view of their teammates racing from SSYC’s upper and lower decks and also warmed themselves by enjoying both the hot lunches served up by the club’s volunteers and the roaring fire in the clubhouse fireplace.

The 2014 High School Atlantic Coast Championship was won by the sailors from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, FL. They finished the first day of racing in second place, only 1 point out of first, but came on strong on Sunday to win the event by 22 points over second-place finisher The Severn School from Annapolis, MD. Third place was earned by the team from Minnetonka High School in Minnetonka, MN.

Event Website – Results

Report by Event Media