High School Sailing: Newport takes third

The Newport Harbor High sailing team earned third place in the Interscholastic Sailing Assn. High School National Fleet Racing Championships last week.

Cathedral Catholic won, while Point Loma finished second at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich, Conn.

Twenty teams and 180 sailors representing seven districts throughout the nation qualified for the two-day event.

Twenty races were completed and on the final day of sailing, winds ranged from 15 to 30 miles per hours with gusts to 35 and a wind chill factor in the 40s.

Senior skippers Chris Segerblom and Randall Hause competed at the helm in every race and were fortunate to have experienced crew members Conner Bathen, Cooper Scott, Ryan Davidson and Daniel Segerblom.

Light crew members who attended and who also contributed to reaching the national championships were Nicole Grice and Francesca Cappellini.

Each qualifying team was allowed to bring eight sailors to the double-handed event and for good reason. Due to the changing wind conditions skippers were able to alternate between heavy and light crew members in their boats. However in this regatta only heavy crew members were used as the shifty and strong winds challenged each sailor’s skills.

The Newport Harbor sailors are competing in the 2010 High School National Championship Team Racing in Seattle, Wash. this weekend.

— From staff reports