Last week amidst the cold, rain and snow, the Boothbay Region Sailing Club team started its spring sailing. Team members Gabby Boord, Nate Graves, Nolan Conlin, Henry Currier, Della Hahn, Ella Beauregard, and Hamilton Barclay prepared and launched boats through Thursday. On Sunday Ella Beauregard and Hamilton Barclay traveled to Portland for the early season Latchstring Regatta hosted by Yarmouth High School.

The sailors had to shovel Saturday's 10" of snow off the boats and be careful not to slip into the water. All wore drysuits to keep warm and dry while the parents of the Yarmouth sailors served up lunch between flights of races. Due to previous commitments and travel, Boothbay was shorthanded and picked up two Yarmouth sailors for the B Division.

The races started at 11 a.m. in a puffy northwest breeze ranging between 6-12 knots. Ella Beauregard and Hamilton Barclay did not get as clean a start as they would have liked with the Isleboro ladies right to windward, and the MDI team just to leeward. The Pen-Bay rivals eventually tacked away or on top of each other. Boothbay rounded the windward mark in second with Isleboro just ahead and MDI just behind, but soon jibed away to port as the fleet behind disturbed their air to create much slow going. As two boats passed the Boothbay boat, Beauregard and Barclay aggressively came back on starboard at the fleet, bunching up at the right gate mark. They chose to go left for clear air but it didn't work. The pair finished mid fleet in the first race. They came right back bursting off the start line with speed to obtain a lead at the first shift. They kept their lead the entire way for a first place. Afterwards the skipper acknowledged keeping clear the middle of the course was worth fighting for.

The B Division boat sailed by the Yarmouth ladies had similar trouble compounded by sailing into headers. Early season rustiness as the teams would soon see.

The Boothbay team made nearly a carbon copy of their first flight finishing mid fleet in race 3 and winning race 4. The B Division improved with two top 4 place finishes.  

Races 5 and 6 proved to be decisive for Boothbay as Beauregard and Barclay started in the middle of the line and used superior acceleration to control the fleet on the center left side of the course. They won race 5 and took second in race 6 finishing with 19 points just 2 points behind Southern Maine. The B Division had their best races yet finishing second and third and ending with 23 points good enough for second in the division behind Southern Maine who won the regatta with 29 total points to Boothbay's 42. MDI was third 10 points back with 52 points.  

Sailing continues Monday through Thursday afternoon at 3:30-6:15 in Boothbay Harbor thru early June. The sailing team will travel to Portland this coming weekend and to Rockland, Castine, and MDI throughout the season.

Contact Coach Barclay at (207) 633-5750 or at office@bhyc.net if you want to get your sailor on board.