By Nick Judson
Contributing Writer
The sailing team scored its first win of the season this week while packing in four meets in three days, beating Chatham at Stage Harbor last Thursday. The Whalers hosted teams from Falmouth and Bishop Stang on Saturday and on Friday traveled to Dartmouth, the number-one ranked team in New England.
Against Chatham on Thursday, in race one, two of the Nantucket boats had horrible starts in light-air conditions. The third boat sailed by Annie Sager and Maggie Andrews was able to attack two of the Chatham boats and slow them down enough so that Brian Chitester with Tiffany Lee and Russell Bartlett with Sarah Erichsen could catch the pack. When the dust settled the Whalers had a two-three-four finish that scored them the win.
In the second race, Sager and Andrews had another great start and Bartlett and Erichsen did the same. The Whalers rounded the first mark one-two and kept their lead all the way to the finish. In race three Bartlett was able to force two Chatham boats out to the left side of the course, but after rounding with a lead both Sager and Chitester lost the boats they were covering and Chatham won the race.
Race four saw Nantucket win the race on the water, but two Chatham boats filed protests against Nantucket. Since the protest hearings are not held until after all five races are completed they still had to sail the fifth race.
In race five all the action occurred at the start with Bartlett and Erichsen winning the committee boat end and with such a great start they easily were first to the weather mark. Chitester and Lee started in the middle of the line and were able to blanket one boat while also forcing another to commit a foul and force them to have to do a penalty turn. Meanwhile, Sager and Andrews were late to the line but were also able to force a Chatham boat to commit a foul. All of the Chatham penalty circles at the start allowed the Whalers to jump to a one-two rounding at the first mark that they held on to until the finish. This guaranteed the Whalers a win for the series even if they lost the protest in race four.
On Saturday the Whalers fell 3-0 against Falmouth. It was a team that Nantucket should have matched up well against, but they had a difficult time adjusting to the light air and getting off the starting line as a team in clear air.
Bishop Stang, a much higher-ranked team than Falmouth, seemed to have more difficulty dealing with the Whalers and as the breeze increased later in the day the Whalers seemed to have much better starts.
Nantucket was strong off the line controlling the opposition, but Bishop Stang was able to gain control back after the weather and offset marks and defeat the Whalers, 3-0.
Friday against Dartmouth the weather was all over the place with quick rain showers coming across the racecourse. Surprisingly, there was almost no wind and Dartmouth, the number-one ranked team in New England, defeated Nantucket 3-0.
New skippers Ben Rives, Sarah Erichsen and Alex Strohmeier all showed great potential for the future this week. Skyler Lendway, Josh Morash, Jesse Lang and Meaghan Lynch were solid as crew in the ever-changing weather conditions.
The Whalers are scheduled to sail at Barnstable tomorrow and host Tabor, a perennial national championship team on Saturday for the first time in seven years.
Nick Judson is the head coach of the Nantucket High School sailing team and executive director of Nantucket Community Sailing.
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