Severn School wins Team Race Nationals

The 2023 spring high school nationals began with the Team Race Championship scheduled for May 20-21 on Lake Minnetonka near Minneapolis, Minnesota. Due to anticipated light winds on day two, a revised format had Severn School (Severna Park, MD) take the title on the first day.

With the forecast, race officials agreed that it was a priority to make sure that Saturday’s racing ended at a point where a champion could be determined if no racing were to take place Sunday.

Throughout the day, the goal was to complete an entire 66-race Qualifying Round on Saturday, which would have left a possibility to do Championship, Silver, and Bronze rounds on Sunday, but also would have provided a fair ranking of all teams if no further racing were to be possible.

However, at 4 pm, the PRO, Chief Umpire, and ISSA reps met to evaluate the options. At this point, 35 more races would have been needed to complete the Qualifying Round. In consultation with individuals with local weather knowledge, the race officials deemed that it was doubtful whether this could be accomplished before either the wind or the daylight gave out.

The Sailing Instructions specified that if completing the entire Qualifying Round within the allotted time is deemed unmanageable, then the regatta would proceed based on the two-division round robin that had been completed in the first thirty races.

Based on this, the decision was made to follow Sailing Instruction 4.5.2.1. and shift gears to complete a double round-robin Final Four of the top two teams from each division. This was completed at 7:20 pm. A total of 42 races was completed Saturday, and the wind was dying as sailors came in from the final race.

Topping the 12-team field, Severn School was undefeated with second place going to was Mater Dei HS (Santa Ana, CA), The Hotchkiss School (Lakeville, CT) came in third, and Brunswick School (Greenwich, CT) finished fourth.

The 2022-23 high school season concludes on June 3-4 with the Doublehanded National Championship at Toms River, NJ.

Details: https://scores.hssailing.org/s23/2023-baker-national/