Weather as predicted was cold and very wet on Jan. 30. Winds did not start out at the 11 knots originally predicted and after two races, the sailing was postponed on shore. By 1 p.m. racing resumed as good wind returned, accompanied by rain.

In A division, the Richmond Hill team of Devon Rohde, Tradd Stephens and Ashley Kennedy finished in a tie for 2nd place and were awarded 3rd place after losing the tie breaker. In B division, Kathryn Johnson and Austin Schneider sailed to a 2nd place finish.

The team traveled to Brunswick this past Saturday, Feb. 20 to compete against 8 other coastal teams. Again they took home the gold.

Finally the weather was warm but with a high pressure system sitting over the area the teams faced conditions in the morning more conducive to rowing. Nine teams sat on the shore from the scheduled 9 a.m. start until about 1:30 in the afternoon, waiting for some sign of breeze. The Host however was well prepared with a nice barbeque lunch set up and plenty of frisbees and soccer balls.

When a light sea breeze began to fill in about 1:30 p.m., the A division sailors hit the water. The first set for both divisions were sailed in very light shifty breeze. Richmond Hill’s A division team of Devon Rohde and Austin Schneider after a slow first set finished the regatta in 1st place, winning their final four races. Richmond Hill’s B division sailed by Kathryn Johnson, Tradd Stephens and Ashley Kennedy also started off a bit slow but came back strong as the wind increased and sailed to a 5th place finish. The team finished in first place overall and solidified their spot to sail in the Gold Regatta in Charleston next month.

The Richmond Hill team has one more regular season regatta to go, in Charleston this weekend. They plan on using this as a very important practice for the Gold Regatta scheduled for March 20 in Charleston. There are several of the Inland North Carolina and Tennessee teams traveling to this weekend’s regatta which will give the RHHS team a chance to look at the competition for the following month.

The Gold regatta next month will determine which seven teams from the North Points of SAISA advance to the District Championships. Richmond Hill Sailing, Savannah Sailing Center and Brunswick will be hosting the District Championships this year at the Sunbury Crab Company on April 10 and 11. Districts will bring the top 7 teams from Florida plus the top 2 teams from the Virgin Islands up to compete against the 7 top North Points teams (which includes North Carolina through Georgia). The top 3 teams from this event advance to the National Championship. Plans are being made now to welcome all these sailors into our community.