2008 NESSA Women's Invite Herreshoff Trophy

The 2008 NESSA Women’s Invite Herreshoff Trophy was on DHS’s schedule for 5/11 from the start of the season and the team was looking forward to competing in the annual women’s only trophy event. But just five days before, when the sailing team qualified for fleet racing Nationals at Annapolis to be held the same weekend as the Herreshoff, varsity coach Hans Jensen announced that the top female skipper and three varsity female crews would be heading south instead of north to Portland. With enough time left to withdraw without penalty, jv coach Rob Knecht looked to his younger ladies and asked if they would fill the open slots.

Five girls accepted the challenge, and sailed their hearts out in Portland Harbor on Saturday, under the coaching of Sarah Hoyt, a senior on the Bates College sailing team and head 420 coach at DBMS. No stranger to the area, Hoyt was able to provide local knowledge and good advice as the girls faced stiff competition from experienced and top ranking teams like St. Georges and Tabor and a strong home team, Chevrus. The race organizers kept the A and B fleets on the water simultaneously which made for a long exhausting day for all of the teams. With only 20 minutes for a lunch break in 6 hours of sailing, endurance was a big factor with the Duxbury team. Freshman skipper Allison Shane started with Morgan Gould as crew who switched out to Emma Segalla after lunch while sophomore Ashley Magnuson and crew Liz Runci stayed in for the whole day. The sailing conditions were difficult with gusty oscillating winds at 12-18 knots and significant current with the incoming tide.

Eleven teams from New England competed and after the first four sets of races, Duxbury was in 5th place. As the day wore on the young team could not keep their boats flat or optimally trim their sails because of pure physical exhaustion but they stayed with the racing to the end, and completed 12 sets of races. Slipping only by one place to a 6th place finish behind St. Georges, Tabor, Chevrus, Hotchkiss and Rogers, the girls’ performance was indicative of the strength and depth of the DHS sailing team.

DBMS Policies. Photos by David Grossman and site design & development by Mark Lewis.