AYC High School Sailing

Brianna Grenier, Junior Fleet Director

Over the weekend, two of the Annapolis Yacht Club high schools traveled down to Tall Timbers, Maryland, for the MDISA Fleet Race Qualifiers. This regatta is the first step in qualifying for this season’s national championships.

The teams got to see two very different venues and different weather conditions. On Saturday, they sailed in the Potomac River with winds from 7 to 15 knots, and a stable direction. On Sunday, due to large waves, the racing was moved to inside the creek. Here they saw mostly lighter and shiftier winds, until a squall hit and brought the wind up to 15-20 knots at times. All of the sailors did a great job handling the tricky downwind antics that FJ’s provide in heavy winds.

Severna Park finished the event in 14th place, making up a lot of ground on the second day. St. Mary’s finished in 2nd place, so they will be moving on to MASSA Gold Fleet Race in two weeks. Here they will have the opportunity to continue down the road to nationals.

The following sailors competed for their schools:

Severna Park: Camden Ward, Sophie Eitel, Carson Kraycik, Janie Powell, Connor Killeen
St. Mary’s: Juliette Troxel, Ameila Johnson, James Golden, Will Cornell, Trevor Davis, Chase Conway, Jessica Groblewski