Central #1 at OCC Report

This weekend our team traveled to the Toms River Yacht Club to race in the Central #1 regatta hosted by Ocean County College.

On Saturday, a cold front brought high winds with gusts reaching 25 knots. Sailing in A Division, Amanda Johnson (’11) and Bri Morgan (’08), whose combined height was just over 10 feet and combined weight toped the scale at 220 lbs, made an outstanding achievement working through the day’s challenging conditions.

Sunday, had lighter winds starting from the North and clocking right through out the day, resulting in a shifty shore breeze. This made for exceptionally tricky conditions. In B Division, Garth Fasano (’08) and Kelley Millane (’09) finished the day with six straight bullets. Amanda Vecchione (’11) crewed in A division while Bri ran the half marathon in Philadelphia setting a personal best.

The team finished 3rd overall, 9th in A division, and 1st in B division, thus qualifying us for the War Memorial Regatta later this season. Also supporting the team at this regatta were alumni Skip Swikart, Drew Seibert (’56), and a member of the class of 1957. Thank you for all your support!

Events

We are very excited to get this season underway. Below is this week's schedule.

Be sure to stop by our table at the Student Activities Fair on Tuesday, September 4th between 12pm and 4pm.

Also, our first meeting will be on Thursday, September 6th.

Our first practice will be on Friday, September 7th at 3pm.

You can email me at aofsevit@sas.upenn.edu for more information about any of these events or for information about the team.

Preseason Ranked 18th!

I am proud to report that we are currently ranked 18th nationally going into the Fall season! Below is an excerpt from the full article in Sailing World.

"U/Pennsylvania will once again have a very strong coed team. Led by Pat Curran and Garth Fasano the Penn team will almost certainly be in the top 20 all year and has a chance to break into the top 5. Penn narrowly missed a chance to compete at Nationals last spring but with the new format they should be a lock to make it to the Nationals this season."

Also check out the complete rankings

Visiting Penn

If you are a prospective student, I want to encourage you to come visit us in the Fall. We will take you around campus, bring you to a class and you can sail with us during practice. Be sure to fill out the recruiting form on the website and we will get in touch with you. See you in the Fall!

The Beginning of Penn Sailing courtesy of Bill Callahan

When I came to Penn in 1948 there was no active sailing program. I heard, from a fraternity brother, Roy Robinson, that it was possible to sail at other schools since we had no boats. Roy had done this on occasion. We were able to go to Princeton, Annapolis, George Washington and Kings Point to participate in regattas. By my sophomore year, we had added a number of sailors and I remember Charley Stewart, Chuck Evans,Warren Eve from Bermuda, Austin Heath, Julian Magnus and Bud Halpert as the "regulars" who were very active. As I indicated previously we were very fortunate to have Dr.Britton Chance as a faculty advisor( as recantly as 2001, at age 88, he was still a staff member at Penn) and, through his efforts and financial help, we were able to buy our first boats, the sloop rigged Fairey Fireflies from England. They were far superior to the single sail dinghies most clubs used so we had lots of visitors when our program became known. Locally, Drexel sailed with us frequently. When we first got our boats we sailed on the river from boathouse row surrounded by rowers but after one year we moved to the Cooper River Yacht Club in Camden where we were made to feel at home and benefitted from a much nicer, sailing oriented situation. I'm not sure how long Cooper River remained as a base but I certainly enjoyed it. When I left in '52, the club was very active and I' m very pleased to see how well it has survived.

Bill Callahan

Schedule

Check out our packed schedule in the Fall with 15 scheduled regattas including big boats, single-handed and Women's regattas!

Results

Full results for the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 seasons have been posted on the News and Results page.