MHS Fishwagons Tie for Fourth Place in Mass Team Racing Championships

On Sunday, May 6th with a nice breeze and clear skies, the MHS Fishwagons traveled down to the Duxbury Bay Maritime School to compete in the Mass Bay League Team Race Championships.  This was the first time that Marblehead has been asked to compete in the Team Race Championships.  The team sent nine people (along with coach Nick Burke) to Duxbury to race.  For team racing, the every team had three boats and the boats had to work together to earn the lowest amount of points (points were based on finishes: 1st place got one point, 2nd place got two points...).  The team that won two out of three races, won the set.  There were eight teams at Duxbury in total, and Marblehead got to race against every one of them.

For the regatta, nine sailors traveled to Duxbery. They were (skippers): Nick LaChance, Hannah Lynn, Renee Torrie, and Peter Lynn along with crews: Ryan Hoey, Dylan Mace, Margo Blagdon, Ryan Aikman, Sarah Krypel. The team was then split into smaller “teams” for each set against the other schools. The Fishwagons switched in skippers and crews following every race or set, which resulted in everyone getting a fair share of sailing.

The team ended up finishing tied for fourth place, however, after a tiebreaker, they came in sixth.  Marblehead had some good racing, but ended up losing some crucial races that ended up costing them in the end.  Coach Nick Burke said, “All in all, it was a good effort by all the Fishwagons and a good day on the water. The lesson of the day was that we were closer to the front end of the group than we thought and that every race in a round robin format is critically important." As of right now, the team’s next regatta is for the weekend of May 19-20 where they will travel to Maine to compete in the DownEast Sailing Championships.  Until then, they will back in the harbor, practicing, from Tuesday to Thursday.  So grab your shades and come watch us on from any spot in the harbor!