 |
Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Nantucket sailors Adam Ceely and Jesse Lang, center, finish ahead of Dartmouth (5) and Harwich (8) during the first race of Sunday’s Figawi High School Invitational. The Whalers finished third overall.
|
By Nick Judson
Contributing Writer
The Whalers sailing team wrapped up its season last weekend with two big regattas. On Saturday the five seniors on the team, along with one junior, raced on Nantucket Community Sailing’s J-105 Prima in the 39th Annual Figawi race. On Sunday two Nantucket sailors competed in the 11th Annual Figawi High School Invitational hosted by Nantucket Community Sailing and the Figawi Committee, where Nantucket placed third overall.
Saturday’s crew on Prima included Tori McCandless, Rachel Foulkes, Sorrel Gregoire, Morgan Jones, Jesse Lang and Adam Ceely. Nantucket High School coach Mike Fleischut, Community Sailing board member Dan MacKeigen and Nantucket Yacht Club past commodore Matt Judson were the chaperone/coaches for the day and helped the Whalers place eighth out of 18 in the sport class and fourth among the other J-105s. This was a great showing since Prima is a shallow-draft J-105 and quite a bit slower than the traditional keeled J-105s in the race.
At the start of the race MacKeigen was skippering for safety reasons, but once the boat was on the open sea the high-school team members switched off acting as skipper and crew of the 34.5-foot sailboat. It was a pretty intense day as conditions were on the extreme side with big seas at the start and winds varying from 15-25 knots. Senior co-captain Jesse Lang drove Prima for almost the entire leg sailed with an asymmetrical spinnaker and other than one slight broach, had a pretty clean day. Prima completed the 25.2-nautical-mile course and arrived on Nantucket in three hours and forty-nine minutes.
To read the entire story, pick up the print edition or register for the I&M's online edition by clicking here.
|
