MISSA News

BRANT BEACH, NJ - The MASSA Cressy qualifier was held at the Brant Beach Yacht Club on September 22nd & 23rd.   Fifty seven sailors, 15 lasers and 42 Radials, came out to try to qualify for one of the four spots that MASSA has allocated for the National Championship to be held in Long Beach, CA November 9th to 11th, 2012.  On Saturday the conditions were challenging for many of the sailors.  We started the racing in a southerly seventeen knots and the winds built to twenty with gusts to twenty-four before racing was called for the day.  There were many breakdowns and several injuries, so the Race Committee ended racing short of the targeted eight races.  The Lasers completed seven races, and the Radials six.  After racing the host school, Southern Regional High School, hosted a barbacue for the sailors.

On Sunday the sailors arrived to a fresh twenty-knot breeze out of the northwest.  Many sailors chose not to sail on Sunday due to the early breeze. The first race was started in seventeen knots and by early afternoon the breeze had dropped out to eight to ten knots.  On Sunday the 8 Lasers and twenty Radials that did sail had some great racing.  The top four in both fleets were decided on Sunday in perfect laser sailing weather.

Congratulations to Laser sailors Colin Kennedy, Daniel DelBello, Ben Wilkinson and Matt Schofield as well as Radial sailors Gary Prieto, Andrew Puopolo, Zac Hill and Conrad Roos who qualified for the National Championship regatta. Many thanks need to go out to Brant Beach Yacht Club and Southern Regional High School Sailing team for hosting the event.  Thanks also to PRO Newt Wattis who was assisted by MASSA Director of Sailing – Scot Ellis, and Northeast League Director – George Linzee as well  MASSA & ISSA Representative Randy Nunn, and the parents and sailors of Southern Regional HS as well as other East League teams for all their assistance with the regatta.