New England Team Race Championship/Fowle Trophy

Challenging day for all including competitors, race committee, umpires, scorekeepers and dock crew. Winds were NW 8-28 knots and quite shifty. A few breakdowns, the worst being spreader bracket rivets pulling out causing one mast to bend. To prevent a second bent mast, the rotation dropped six boats from 24 boats to 18 boats. Despite the reduced boats, all 66 races in round one were completed by exactly 1800. One race between BU and USCGA will be re-sailed at 0940 Sunday. Should BU prevail, the same two teams will sail-off for the 8th and final spot in the gold round of eight. Time permitting, a third championship round of six will also be added to determine the champion and three other qualifiers for nationals.

All 12 teams were quite competitive though Yale stands alone atop the leader board losing only their first race. Still much to be decided tomorrow probably in less wind than today.

Many thanks to the ten umpires led by Jeff Dusek, race committee Reid Van Gorder, Pierre DuPont, and Casey Gowrie (all Tufts grads), and to the Tufts undergrad dock crew led by Cam Holley (Lark repair) and Bobby McLaughlin (motorboats).

Umpires were Jeff Dusek, Kelsey Wheeler, Sam Madden, Peter Bailey, Matt Cohen, Alec Ruiz-Ramon, Will Bailey, Dan Nickerson, and Peter Tarlin.

Yet another challenging day except less windy so less breakdowns. First BU and Coast Guard had a resail, then MIT and Coast Guard had a resail, with Coast Guard getting eliminated from the Gold eight. Winds were generally WNW 5-15 most of the time but a couple North shifts caused a couple races to be abandoned. As the wind got lighter, the course got a bit shorter and further from the windward shore. For the final round the wind was W 3-10 and ten minutes after the final race, the wind went down to 0-4 right at 1630.

In the 28-race Gold round, Yale went 5-2 to keep the lead while MIT went 6-1 to move into second. BU and Harvard went 1-6 and 0-7 respectively and were eliminated from the championship round of six. Tufts dug the biggest hole among finalists with a 2-5 record for a distant 6th with five flights to go.

In the finals Yale went 3-2 to win by three wins. Meanwhile Tufts prevailed in all five of their final races in the lighter winds, all close, to vault all the way to second. MIT's 2-3 finals launched the Engineers into third place and their first bid to the ISCA Team Racing Nationals ever. Only one race behind second were the Eagles of Boston College in fourth hanging tough. Dartmouth lost a few early in the last round to drop to 5th. Roger Williams was right there the entire regatta but lost a heart breaker in their final to Dartmouth. Despite a disastrous start, The Hawks clawed back only to get nipped by the Big Green at the finish.

Super job throughout by Jeff Dusek's umpiring crew that included Kelsey Wheeler, Sam Madden, Michael Drumm, Dan Nickerson, Peter Bailey, John Pratt, John Moulthrop, Pearson Potts, Matt Cohen, Will Bailey, and John Pratt. Thanks also to Cam Holley and his large and diligent Tufts crew keeping the 24 Larks going. Casey Gowrie handled the complex scoring throughout, Reid Van Gorder started 112 races, and Pierre DuPont took every finish When Ken Legler buzzed around moving marks.

Congrats to the four qualifying teams but really to every team given the high caliber of competition among all 12 teams.