Thursday, 28 May 2009 06:45 Last Updated on Monday, 01 June 2009 10:16 Written by Rob Hudson

There was a large LBYC contingent at the Womens double handed National Championship which was hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco.  Representing Beulah were Anne Haeger for Boston College, Christine Porter for UW, and Stephanie Roble for ODU with John Porter there as coach for UW. For those that haven't been or sailed there, you can count on big breeze and lots of current in San Francisco.  These days did not disappoint on either subject.

The format was a one day semifinals between 18 teams for the final 9 spots in the finals which would start day 2.  UW had already qualified for the finals by winning their region but BC and ODU would have to qualify.  Stephanie was in solidly as a starter for ODU but Annie was the 3^rd skipper for BC so she wouldn't be starting.  The B sailor for BC got off to a rough start with a poor first set and the coach put Annie in for the second set and she responded with two bullets and the coach never sat her again.  Meanwhile, ODU was putting together a solid Semis to win it and stamp themselves as one of the teams to beat with BC also qualifying in 5^th.

Day 2 would be the start of the finals for the National Championship.  The format is to start the B sailors first and they sail two races followed by two races by A and so on until they are out of time.  Each race was about 25 minutes.   Christine would sail A for UW while Steph and Annie would sail B for ODU and BC respectively.  Anne got off to a good start with a 3,5 in the lightest breeze of the event while Steph struggled a little with a 13, 11.  Next up was a well rested and excited Christine Porter.  She started out with what would be her best set of the event with a very competitive 11,6.   The breeze, starting out at an unusual 8-12 would continue to build throughout the day before peaking in the mid 20's.  Annie would continue to put single digits on the board to lead in B after day one while Steph would have a nice run of 3 3's in a row but finish with an 8,10 to be in 8^th going into day 2.  Luckily for ODU, their A skipper was having the series of her life and lead A so ODU was right there to win the event going into day 2.  BC's A had a series of rough races so while they were in it going into day 2 they were a little behind the leaders.  Back in A division, Christine had her top race in race 5 with a 5^th.  It looked as if the crew on the UW boat was struggling a little with the amount of hiking that was going to be required to handle all the breeze.

Standings going into day two found ODU 6 points out of first and BC 15 out in 3^rd.  B had 8 races in day one and would finish with 6 more while A would sail 8 more after 6 the first day.  Breeze started out strong and only built from there to 20-30 by the last set.  In the A section Christine was struggling with the wind, waves and fitness level of her crew.  A is a tough game and she worked really hard without the results to match.  Meanwhile, ODU's A got off to a rough start but Steph picked her up with a solid 3,3 in her first set.  Annie also continued her strong performance with a 6,1 and that combined with a good A set put BC back in the hunt, but Yale also had strong sets to now extend their lead.  In the next set, Annie was over early and that lead to her only double digit score of the whole event with a 12 and that hurt a lot with her A team having 3 bad races in a row it would take some very good racing and mistakes by the other teams near the top for BC to win.  Meanwhile Steph was sailing very solidly and her A had gotten back on track.  At the top of the leader board as the breeze continued to build the B team for Yale was putting up some very poor results and it was game on for ODU.  Going into the final 4 races ODU had snuck into 2^nd only 3 points out of first.  BC was 26 points out and needed a miracle.  Now things became interesting.  The breeze was way up and Yale decided to switch their B sailor to former a former US Sailing team member in the Laser Radial who stands a whole foot taller than Steph.  B would go first followed by A.  What happened reminds us of a comment attributed to Archie Griffin when they asked him whether his smaller stature would preclude him from playing in the NFL.  "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."  Stephanie lead around the first mark and finished 2^nd in the race.  Yale flipped at least twice and only was able to avoid last due to other multiple flips.   Race 2 of the B set was similar as, again, Steph got around the top mark right at the top and Yale was well back.  At the finish of the last B race of the event,  it was Beulah 1,2 with Steph putting another 2 on the board to take control of the event for ODU.   Leading by 15 points with only two races to go it looked great for ODU but it was not to be.  Yale's A was sailing great but ODU just needed to stay close to win it.  Rounding the first mark Yale was right at the lead with ODU rounding in about 5^th and seemingly safe.  A groan went up from the spectators as ODU flipped and turtled, finally finishing last.  That 15 point lead had vanished in one race and turned into a 2 point deficit.  The next race was no contest from the start as Yale's College Sailor of the Year sailed away from the fleet for her second win of the last set and the championship for Yale.

In the end, Annie won her second National Championship with a comfortable 25 point win in B with Stephanie (who won the second day) finishing 3^rd.  Christine finished 17^th in A as crew physical fatigue took its toll on day two along with some wipeouts and poor starts.  The final standings showed BC 3^rd, ODU 4^th and UW 18^th.

But, the fun was just getting started.  At the awards presentation Womens' College All Americans would be announced.  Stephanie Roble was announced as an Honorable Mention All American as a Sophmore.  Anne Haeger was announced as a first team All American as a Freshman.  College sailing has a few more years to think about these girls.

Finally, Joe Kutsch will get into action for UW starting today, Friday, in the Team Racing Championships and Christine will be a crew in that action.  Steph will also be in action for ODU in the Team Racing Championships and may also see action at the Co-ed finals.  If you want to follow all the action look at either collegesailing.org or sailgroove.com.

Great stuff for LBYC!