UC Irvine Club Sailing Team

McIntyre Team Race

Over the weekend of March 6th-7th, the UC Irvine Sailing Team traveled to Redwood City, CA to compete in the McIntryre Team race hosted by The Stanford University Sailing Team. Competing in 420’s and CFJ’s, crews Monica Orphan, Martha Davis, Blair Johnston and Frank O’Brien and skippers Jack Porter, Brian Hoover, Rex Cameron, and Chris Humphreys sailed hard to finish 2nd Overall out of 10 Teams. Conditions on Saturdayand the first part of Sunday provided light to medium breeze, which favored the Anteater Sailing Team. Through fantastic starting and awesome 3 vs. 3 team racing execution, UC Irvine went UNDEFEATED (9 wins-0 Losses) in the first Round Robin. After that, they sailed in the Championship-6 Team Round Robin which saw heavier breeze in the 15 knt. range. In this round robin, Stanford University and UC Irvine became tied for first overall with even 12 wins-2 loss records.  Stanford University was proclaimed the winner after UC Irvine picked up 2 more losses in the second, incomplete Championship 6 Round Robin.

Overall, The UC Irvine Sailing team recognized that the hard work at practice has paid off, but there are still areas to work on. At The Eckerd Team Race Intersectional in South Florida only just weekends earlier, the team finished 10th out of 14 teams and suffered losses to tough eastcoast opponents. From this experience, the team realized that they must step their game up and perform at a high level to have a chance at competing for a national championship this spring.  

A repeat second place at The McIntyre Team Race reveals good things to come.  As a matter of fact, almost all the teams present at this regatta were from the district except for one team: University of Washington.  A big thank you goes out to the Hoover Family, The Davis Family, the Humphreys Family, and the Porter Family for providing housing and food for the 8 Anteater Sailors present at the regatta.

-Rex Cameron

ZOT ZOT!!!