The Boothbay Region Sailing Team won its first regatta of the fall 2018 season at the Southern Maine Open held in Portland Saturday, Sept. 8. It was a busy weekend for the young sailors as they followed this victory up Sunday with a strong second place finish at the Polar Bear Open at Bowdoin College. Both days saw tight competition with cool temperatures, clear skies, and winds ranging from 2-12 knots.

At Saturday’s Southern Maine Open seventeen teams competed from Boothbay, MDI, Portland, Marblehead, Northern Vermont, and the Champlain Valley. Six BRHS team members sailed in the event led by team A Division veterans Ella Beauregard, and Hamilton Barclay and B Division skipper Nate Rideout with new comer Alton Coolidge as crew. The Boothbay team started out winning the first two races in the A Division followed by two seconds in the B Division as Rideout and Coolidge faced MDI’s regular A Division boat sailing in the B Division. JV Sailors Bobby and Toby Clarkson gained valuable experience substituting for Beauregard and Coolidge in the last three races of the day. Beauregard/Clarkson and Barclay finished (1, 1, 3, 2, 2) with 9 points for a 1 point win over Cape Elizabeth’s team in A Division. Coolidge/Clarkson and Rideout finished (2, 2, 1, 8, 1) with 14 points just 1 point behind MDI sailors for second place in B Division. Combined the 23 points for Boothbay was 17 points better than MDI leading Boothbay to win the first regatta of the season.

Sunday’s Polar Bear Open regatta at Bowdoin College give the sailors a chance to race in a college venue with Bowdoin head coach Frank Pizzo and several collegiate sailors eyeing prospective talent. It was also the first opportunity of the season to qualify for the Atlantic Coast Championships held in Annapolis in November. Junior National Championship competitors Grant Adam and Bradley Smith, sailing for Marblehead and Beauregard and Barclay sailing for Boothbay went head to head again in spirited competition. As the lead swung back and forth between the two A Division boats Marblehead’s B Division sealed the win with a series of low and first place finishes. In the end, the Boothbay team won the A Division by 11 points finishing (2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 7, 2, 1) with 20 points to Marblehead’s 31 points, while the B Division sailors Coolidge and Rideout came on strong towards the end finishing tied for 5th with 45 points (8, 7, 7, 3, 9, 2, 5, 4). Marblehead won the event and qualified for the ACC’s, with Boothbay placing second.

This weekend the sailors compete in Portland at the Bulldog Open and at Rockland in the Pen-Bay League opener. The Boothbay Region sailing team is supported by the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club and the BHYC Junior Program Foundation.