BAINBRIDGE – Fickle winds greeted sailors from Bainbridge High as the team hosted its first team racing regatta of the season Saturday, March 24 in Eagle Harbor.
Nine teams from the western portion of the North West Interscholastic Sailing Association district of the Interscholastic Sailing Association competed in the regatta. Southerly winds across Eagle Harbor on race day were extremely variable in both direction and velocity, making the successful playing of the wind shifts a bigger factor than teamwork at times.
Bainbridge Island High School Sailing entered two teams in the event, and also helped to fill out a team from Olympic High that was short a few sailors so that they could compete.
Other schools racing included two teams from Olympia High and one team each from Kingston, Gig Harbor, Central Kitsap and Capital.
Races were sailed in three flights (sets) of six boats, pairings of schools matched against each other, with three boats for each school. The sailboats are six 420 E-class Bainbridge boats, and six Bainbridge and six Olympia/Central Kitsap FJ-class boats.
The team racing regatta last weekend followed two early season fleet racing regattas. BHS had a third-place finish in the previous regatta with their top entry, and this past weekend BHS again divided their team pretty evenly for maximum impact from two teams, and placed an encouraging second and fourth of the nine after a full rotation. This accomplishment shows the continuing depth of the Bainbridge team and augurs for a great showing as the season progresses.
Sailors representing Bainbridge included captains Sophia Kasper and Banning Jones, and Olivia Mitchell, Lindsay Campbell, Zach Cooper, Dane Petrakis, Parker Hutchinson, Sophie Crandell, Camden Lee, Hunter Johnston, Chase van Derrick, Jack Bennett, Laine Pickell, Noah Maher, Ari Fiore, Trevor Royset and Gus Beer.
Coach Susan Kaseler said she is very happy with the effort all the sailors made to execute skills that they have been practicing, and encouraged to see that the learning process continued during the competition.
