Bainbridge has 11 top-three finishes at Cascadia Cup
Published 5:25 pm Thursday, October 23, 2014
SEATTLE – Seventeen sailors from the Bainbridge Island Parks & Recreation Fall Competitive Sailing class raced Flying Junior sailboats (FJs) in the 2014 Cascadia Cup regatta on Oct. 11-12.
Co-hosted by the University of Washington sailing team and Sail Sand Point at Magnuson Park in Seattle, this unique event brings together sailors from several regional colleges and high schools to compete together in a mixed fleet. One traditional highlight of this regatta is a college sailing forum after racing on Saturday in which representatives from college sailing teams describe what it is like to sail in college and on their particular teams.
The Bainbridge team sailed 18 races in an aggressive 32-boat fleet with a variety of challenging conditions. Sailors had to adjust to both light and strong winds, big wind shifts, a downpour followed by sunshine, and multiple general recalls (in which too many boats start before the signal and everyone has to restart). Sailing strategically around the course while using boat handling skills practiced this fall, they achieved 31 finishes in the top 10, and 11 finishes in the top three.
In the very last race, Bainbridge Island placed second, fourth and sixth, with senior Hannah Harrison switching positions to skipper the fourth-place boat (Maddie Ekin crewing) and freshman Olivia Mitchell helming the sixth-place boat (eighth-grader Roark Coggon crewing) — an impressive result in a race against experienced college sailors. Overall, Bainbridge Island had one boat tie for second in B division; one boat win third in A division; and two boats finish fourth and seventh with A and B scores combined.
The sailors representing Bainbridge Island at Cascadia Cup (including two sailors from North Kitsap High School) were Will Brown, Francine Brownell, Stasi Burzycki, Roark Coggon, Diana Curtis, Maddie Ekin, Hannah Harrison, Anna Held, Banning Jones, Caelan Juckiness, Taylor Lhamon, Jackson McCoy, Olivia Mitchell, Quinn Ring, Nicole Sanford, Liam Sherry and Kat Smith.
