Cal Maritime wins college big boat title

Ten teams were on hand at the US Naval Academy competing for the Kennedy Cup, Intercollegiate Sailing’s Big Boat Championship, on November 5-6 in Annapolis, MD.

California Maritime Academy sought to defend their 2021 title against Michigan and Toledo from the Midwest, with Massachusetts Maritime, Rhode Island, and Coast Guard from the New England region, College of Charleston from the South and Mid-Atlantic representatives Maritime and Merchant Marine alongside fellow conference member US Navy.

Opening day conditions were ideal with warm south-southeasterly breezes, with Cal Maritime winning two of the four races to lead over the Midshipmen by five points. Hoping to leverage their local knowledge on the venue and their Navy 44 boats, the Keelhaulers went 1-1-3 to take the title by 12 points over Navy.

The winning team was led by Kyle Collins ’23 with crew Justin Zmina ’23, Django Knafo-Tomlinson ’25, Brock Paquin ’22, Clay Myers ’25 (1-4), Cyrus Khaleeli ’24, Cooper Smith ’24, Ben Louttit ’26, Madeline Rivera ’22 (5-7), and Cianna Coyle ’26 (reserve).

Details: https://scores.collegesailing.org/f22/2022-kennedy-cup/