The 39th Lynne Marchiando Regatta

Spectacular Spring sailing conditions with a gnarly W-NW beeze at 15-22 knots made for fun, non-stop sailing for the 39th Lynne Marchiando Trophy. Lynne was a former Presifdent of NEISA and expert sailor for the MIT sailing team who lost a battle with leukemia in her senior year of enrollment. Her classmates started this event as an all women's team race and it morphed into a coed team race over time. It is the only 16 team event on the college sailing calendar and was a festive atmosphere of non-stop rolling starts.

After 98 races the Roger Williams Hawks are on top with Yale, Stanford and Harvard all within striking distance. Tomorrow will finish the completion round and split the fleet into a top 8 and bottom 8. Many thanks to all of our umpires led by Tony Weiner along with Trevor Long, Emily Haig, Clinton Hayes, Scott Booth and Kay VanValkenburgh who invoked instant justice on the water. Mike Kalin organized the finish boat and tech score updates. Lucy Charles barked the signals and her first mate Fran called the line.

-Franny Charles MIT Sailing Master

Stunning team racing on the Charles River with sailors completing their first round robin with 16 teams battling it out. Roger Williams sailed very consistently. Eventually, when a four way tie was broken by a sail-off round, the competitors were split into a top 8, bottom 8 round. Unfortunately we were 3 races shy of 80% of those races so the final rounds did not count towards scores. Yes, after 172 races sailed, we were a little shy of the finish line. So, final scores resorted back to the completion round with the tie breaker races deciding ranking order on the teams tied at that time.

Spencer Cartwright '22, Rachel Holick '22, Riley Read '22, Emily Gildea '21, Aidan Hoogland '24, and Molly Matthews '23 did an outstanding job getting the Hawks on top in a victory over Yale on a tie breaker in the 15 races counted at 12-3. Stanford followed the Bulldogs at 11-4 followed by Harvard Crimson at 10-5. We have so much gratitude for the umpires who again volunteered their weekend to help out college sailing. Everyone left tired and smiling as that is the best result of a fun weekend of competition.