Astwood claims High School championships
Four Bermudian teen sailors went head-to-head at the New England High School Fleet Racing Championships for the O’Day Trophy in Hyannis, Massachusetts last weekend.Former Optimist sailors Conner Astwood (Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, Connecticut), Mackenzie Cooper (Tabor Academy, Marion, Massachusetts), Kelsey Durham and Ryan Powell (Brewster Academy, Wolfeboro, New Hampshire) represented three of the fifteen high school teams that qualified for the event at regional contests the day before.Sailing out of the Hyannis Yacht Club, organisers were able to complete two heats of eight races with each school fielding an A-boat and a B-boat in each of the heats.Skippers and crews are completely interchangeable between races, with the top four teams automatically qualifying for the National Championships to be held in Seattle, Washington next month.When all the scores were tallied, Astwood’s team from Hotchkiss ended up on top with the young Islander steering all races for his school’s A-boat.Astwood won the A-fleet helping Hotchkiss capture the O’Day trophy for the second consecutive year.Hotchkiss sailing coach Roger Rawlings summed up his team’s day: “We sailed cleanly with very few mistakes. We were not in any protest hearings and completed a couple of penalty turns on the racecourse.”Hotchkiss’ record currently stands at ten wins, three losses for the regular season and will be competing at the Connecticut State Championships this coming weekend.Cooper sailed Tabor’s B-boat well in races three to eight but Tabor was only able to finish in fourth place after a sluggish start and a DSQ for their A-boat in Race seven.Tabor’s Varsity sailing team is currently 13 - 2 halfway through their regular season with their only losses so far coming from St George’s School.Durham sailed the Brewster Academy A-boat in all the races while countryman Powell skippered the B-boat.Durham finished 10th in the A-fleet while Powell finished eight in the B-fleet for a combined eighth place overall.Both are leaders of the sailing team at the New Hampshire school. The sailors hope to all qualify and meet again at the Baker Trophy regatta which is the High School Team Racing New England Championships.The regatta takes place on the Charles River on May 19.