High school sailing teams compete in Bay Area
The sailing teams from Newport Harbor High School and Corona del Mar High School traveled to San Francisco to sail in the fourth Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Assn. Regatta of the school year, called the Golden Bear Regatta, on Feb. 25 and 26. This year the regatta was hosted by the UC Berkeley sailing team, rather than Stanford University, and was held off of Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay.
There were 29 teams in the Gold division and 30 teams in the Silver division. Most teams traveled from Southern California for the event, and both Newport Harbor and CdM were well-represented, with three teams each in the Gold Division.
Mater Dei High in Santa Ana and Sage Hill in Newport Coast also had teams competing in the event. The teams from the San Diego area dominated in the lighter-than-usual wind in the bay.
The varsity team from Newport Harbor — which consisted of Ryan Davidson, Greer Wattson, Chase Wells and Sally Fuller — placed sixth overall, and the CdM Varsity team — which consisted of Michael Madigan, Chloe Dapp, Connor Kelter, Christophe Killian, Brooke Donahue and Katie Donahue — placed seventh.
With light winds, but chilly air and water, the conditions were not conducive to a great regatta. The teams at one time had to wait hours for the wind to fill in. Over the two-day regatta, the A division and the B division were only able to sail seven races each, and the regatta was called early Sunday afternoon.
Newport Harbor’s second team placed 10th, and CdM’s second team placed 15th.
The second teams consisted of: sailors Daniel Segerblom, Jack Martin, Bayley Davidson, Campbell D’Eliscu, and Victoria Lewis from Newport Harbor; and Jack Thompson, Ainsley Henderson, Jimmy Madigan, Alex Colcott and Caitlyn Johnson from CdM.
Newport Harbor’s third team — with sailors Andrew Mather, Keenan Chung, Megan Roach, Lea Russell and Davis Hanscom — placed 21st, and CdM’s third team placed 26th with sailors Alex Ivory, Mackenzie Perkins, Jack Donnell, Clare Dahl and Sera Alptekin.
Mater Dei’s varsity team placed 23rd out of 29 teams, with sailors Charlie Welsh, Kimberly Rowe, Megan Kenney and Madeline Chadwell. Mater Dei also had a Silver team that placed 22 out of 30 teams in the silver division, with sailors Alexander Schneider, Lau, Alec Farrage, Nicole Vasquez and Johnny Bonar.
Sage Hill had one team in the Silver division which placed 29th and consisted of sailors James Mather, Max Weinberg, Jodie Horowitz and Finn Dobkin.
Heading into this regatta, Newport Harbor was second in the PCISA standings behind Point Loma, with Corona del Mar in seventh place. After this regatta, Newport Harbor is now in third place in the rankings behind Point Loma and Cathedral Catholic, both from San Diego. CdM is now in fifth place, moving up behind Coronado in fourth.
The next PCISA High School Regatta will be held in Santa Barbara on March 17 and 18 and is sponsored by the UCSB Gaucho Sailing team. This will be the last PCISA regatta before the Gold and Silver PCCs in April to qualify for nationals.
Editor’s note: Mary Cappellini is the mother of Newport Harbor High School skipper Francesca Cappellini.