The High School Regatta

The first weekend in March we held a high school sailing regatta at our marina facility.  I mentioned this in a previous post and there seemed to be quite a bit of interest in the event.  It’s been hard for me to get around to posting the pictures because, as usual, I shot way too many to post and it was very time consuming to sort through all of them and decide which ones to use.  I ended up making a collage just to get more of them included in this post.

 

I was not privileged to attend a high school while growing up that had a sailing team and I’m sure most of you were not, either.  Most of the high schools participating were private schools, however, public ones were eligible, too, and there were some of those that attended.  Here’s how it that would be possible in my area.

 

We have a wonderful facility on a fresh water lake in Savannah called The Savannah Sailing Center.  It is a non-profit organization set up for the purpose of furthering Youth Sailing Programs in the area.  The center is located within one of our county parks on Lake Mayer and kids, families, and local schools can pay an annual fee to belong to and use the center’s sail boats and training facilities.  If you sign up for their program, they will train you to sail and race their sailboats.  Here is a link to their website:  http://savannahsailingcenter.org/

 

 

This sailing event was an official SAISA sponsored event.  That stands for the South Atlantic Interscholastic Sailing Association.  The South Atlantic District encompasses Florida (except the panhandle), Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Northern Alabama and outside the continental boundaries, islands in the Caribbean. Note this and other districts in ISSA are very similar to the collegiate districts in both sailing format and geographic area.  For those that are interested in checking it out, here is the link to their website:  http://www.saisa.org/

 

This was the second year for our facility to sponsor and host this sailing regatta.  We were descended upon by 180 kids from around the South Atlantic District along with their parents and other observers.

 

 

We had plenty of wind for the event so the racing was brisk and competitive.

 

 

In each race, each boat has a crew of two.  Every School entered in the event has at least four teams of two.  The boats were identical in accordance with the SAISA rules and were not owned by the individual sailors.  Most of the boats were provided by the Savannah Sailing Center.

 

 

 

After each race, the boats would be sailed back to our front dock and one team would hop off and another team would hop on and sail out for the next race.  By rotating the boats and the teams, the competition was kept fair with no team having a particular advantage over another one.

 

 

 

These kids were good and very competitive.  Because of the favorable winds, the races were able to be held right off of our docks and gave the spectators an almost unprecedented view of the entire regatta.

 

 

 

 

I love seeing this kind of event.  It restores my confidence in the younger generations.  These kids are polite, well mannered, clean cut, and dedicated to their sport.  The competition was stiff and the race results were close.  There were several mid-race collisions and close calls and the viewing audience was kept well entertained keeping up with it all.  I look forward to next year when this event will once again return to our docks here in Savannah.