Coach Pizzo's Report - April 12

The Polar Bears hosted the NE Dinghy Tournament this past weekend at Bethel Point and dominated the 11 team event.  Overall 22 races were sailed over the weekend in breeze that ranged from SW to NW from 5-18 knots.  Many thanks to all the Polar Bear Sailors that helped run the event and to Stuart MacNeil ‘08 for running the mark boat and handling breakdowns on the water.

The team comprised of Alex Takata ‘12, Laura Heyl ‘10, Billy Rohman ‘11, and Caitlin Beach ‘10 won A division with 20 points and Charlotte Williams’10 sailing and Ben Berg ‘12 won B division with 23 points.  Bowdoin defeated UCONN which finished second overall by 27 points. The Polar Bears combined to win more than half of the races held in the event. The victory qualifies Bowdoin for the NE Dinghy Champs hosted by Connecticut College next weekend. This is the third time Bowdoin has won the NEDT since 2000.

This event was the last to be hosted in our fleet of Larks which will begin to get pulled and prepped for their new homes. Bowdoin will return next fall with a brand new fleet of FJs. Bowdoin has won 4 of the 6 trophy events hosted at Bethel Point since 2005.

Around the conference, the Bowdoin women’s team competed in a small but very competitive President’s Trophy hosted by Boston University.  Katie Doble ‘13 along with Coco Sprague ‘11 sailed A division and two first years including Sarah Fiske and Isabel Low sailed B division.  Charlotte Williams will join the women’s team for the remainder of the spring to make a strong push for the Reed Trophy hosted by Brown University which is our qualifier for nationals.

The Polar Bears also competed in the Longfellow Bridge Invitational hosted by Harvard.  The team finished 9th of 16 teams overall.