Portsmouth Abbey School Sailing Competes at NE Championship

On May 12, the varsity sailing team competed at Manchester Essex RHS in the semi-final round of the New England team racing championship.  The team went into the event ranked 10th in New England.

Racing was extremely close throughout the series. After three rounds of races, Portsmouth Abbey was tied with a 6-3 record with Moses Brown and Manchester Essex. All three teams faced off in a tie breaker in which Portsmouth Abbey won both races to win the day and advance to the NESSA Team Racing Championship series (the Mark Trophy). Our Abbey student sailors who advanced to the New England finals were Nolan Banky '14, Abby Byrne '14, Marguerite Crandall '12, Andrew Godfrey '12,  Andrew Sheerin '13, Peter Barlow '13, Graham Kilvert '15 and Hugh MacGillivray '14.   

The sailing Ravens continued on to face off against seven teams at Connecticut College for the NESSA Team Racing Championship on Sunday, May 20.  Wind was NE at 10 knots switching to SW at 10-12 for most of the day.  Teams competed in a qualifying double round robin, with Portsmouth Abbey placing sixth overall.

Coach Suzi Duncan said of the team, "We all began this season thinking that this was a "building year."  After graduating so many seniors last season we were unsure of how we would do in New England this year.  I have to attribute much of our success to the hard work and dedication of the entire team, but especially to the leadership of our captains, Marguerite Crandall and Andrew Godfrey.  They really helped lead this young group and prepared them for this level of competition."

Congratulations to Coach Duncan and to our Portsmouth Abbey sailing team for another great season!

To see full results for the regatta, visit http://www.nessa-sailing.org.

View team photos here: http://www.portsmouthabbey.org/page/5215/3013/