70 Year Old Monomoy Referbishment

The Kings Point Monomoys have made it through 70 years of hard- pretty good for a boat that was likely designed to last long enough to train WWII Merchant Mariners. New fiberglass versions are on their war this winter, but we decided to give one of the old ones a makeover. The wood is in great shape, and once the paint was removed the scent of cedar from the planking filled the boat bay!

A Rare Calm Winter Day

Holidays With Alumni

Joined Captain Walter Gautier '95 and family at their North Carolina Mountain "cabin." Walter is a Pascagoula Harbor Pilot, and was on the Offshore Team at KP. With him are wife Lanee, Isabelle, Noah, Petey the dog, and Orange the Cat.

Blizzard at KP

It's been a long time since I remember watching a full on blizzard- but keeping tabs on the Waterfront last night gave me a new taste. Sustained 45 knot winds, and blinding snow- not a good day for boating! Here's some video and pictures-

It's Official- Summerwind Awarded U.S. Sailing Hanson Medal

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jake FishUS SAILINGjakefish@ussailing.org

PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (December 22, 2010) - US SAILING’s Safety-at-Sea Committee has awarded an Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal to the crew of United States Merchant Marine Academy’s (USMMA) sail training vessel Summerwind for a rescue made off the coast of Maine. A 100-foot Alden schooner built in 1929, Summerwind was recently restored and donated to the academy in Kings Point, N.Y. With a crew of 16 USMMA midshipmen and staff, Summerwind was competing in the Castine Yacht Club’s Castine Classic Yacht Race on August 8, 2010. As the schooner sailed closehauled in a thick fog off Islesboro, Maine, another boat crossed Summerwind’s bow on the other tack. At just that moment, a sailor fell overboard from the other boat. Several midshipmen spotted the accident and shouted, “Man overboard!”As the schooner’s helmsman altered course to avoid the swimmer, Midshipman Tim Higgins secured a life jacket from deck stowage and tossed it to the man in the water. Well trained in rescue procedures, the midshipmen lined the rail and pointed at the swimmer as Summerwind’s navigator plotted the positions of the boat and the swimmer. A “pan-pan” alert was broadcasted over the vessel’s radio to signify urgency on the craft. Summerwind’s Sailing Master was Chris Gasiorek, a Commander in the United States Maritime Service and the director of waterfront activities at the Merchant Marine Academy. Determining that the nearly 200,000-pound schooner would be unable to turn back quickly, he jumped into the 12-foot wooden tender that Summerwind was towing in accordance with a rule of the Castine Classic Yacht Race. Only after casting off did he discover that the oars had been removed, so he paddled the tender to the swimmer.After several minutes in the 58-degree water, the swimmer was exhausted and needed a short rest before he felt strong enough to be rescued. Commander Gasiorek rolled the rail down to the water and pulled him into the tender. When the man’s sailboat reappeared and came alongside, he stepped up on deck and went below to get into warm clothes. Borrowing oars from the crew, Commander Gasiorek rowed over to Summerwind, which had returned to the scene under power, commanded by Captain Jonathan Kabak. As dangerous as it was, the incident did have one humorous moment. Worried that the man in the frigid water might become unconscious, Commander Gasiorek started a conversation to keep him alert. “I introduced myself, and commented that I felt a bit of a fool for having to paddle to him without oars,” Gasiorek recalled. “When he replied that he felt a bit of a fool for falling off his ship, I remarked that he had me beat.” Commander Gasiorek praised the crew: “I believe that the training and practice that our midshipmen receive made this rescue a success. All hands stepped up and performed admirably.”The Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal is awarded by US SAILING’s Safety-at-Sea Committee to any person who rescues or endeavors to rescue any other person from drowning, shipwreck, or other perils at sea within the territorial waters of the U.S., or as part of a sailboat race or voyage that originated or stopped in the U.S. Since it was established in 1990 by friends of the late Mr. Hanson, an ocean-racing sailor from the Chesapeake Bay, the Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal has been presented to more than 150 boats. Any individual or organization may submit a nomination for a Hanson Rescue Medal. For more information, including nomination forms, please visit the Hanson Rescue Medal site. For the most authoritative daylong seminar on safe seamanship, heavy weather tactics, weather forecasting, communications and boat preparation, register for an upcoming US SAILING Safety-at-Sea Seminar. Please visit the US SAILING Safety-at-Sea Seminar site for details on these certification opportunities.

Full Release here-

Liberator on the Railway at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard

After a 30 hour voyage from KP in westerly gales, Liberator is on the hard for routine maintenance in snowy Maine

Kings Point Finishes ICSA Match Race Nationals 6th in the Nation

Congrats to our team for finishing #6 in the USA in the inaugural ICSA Match Race National Championships

Check out Pictures Here, and an interview with the crew below-

A Beautiful Fall Day at KP for the First Day of the ICSA Match Race National Championships

Forecast is for 15-20 knots of wind out of the Northwest - Watch the action LIVE!

Interview with our Match Race Team

Gary Jobson Presents US Sailing's Hanson Medal to Schooner Summerwind

Captain Jonathan Kabak and Commander Chris Gasiorek aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach California receiving Hanson Medal for this summer's rescue in Maine.

Excitement Builds for KP Match Racing Team

Match racing is a new challenge for the Kings Point sailing team that has been enjoyed by everyone that was involved in the training process. We are proud that our efforts have led us to be a nationally competitive match racing team! At the beginning of the season a combination of offshore and dinghy sailors competed in several drills and races to determine who would be chosen to represent Kings Point at the MAISA Sloop Race Championship. Since two of the members on the sloop team are also members of the dinghy team we knew we would have to manage our time wisely in order to be competitive not only at MAISA Sloops, but also during our normal dinghy season.

Once the real training had begun, we started putting in time to learn to sail Sonars well, since it was a new boat to the tactician and the skipper. To accomplish this, our team started participating in local fleet regattas in Manhasset Bay to help our boat handling and straight line speed. The next part of our training was learning the ins and outs of the Match Race Call Book so we would be comfortable sparring with our opponents in the pre-start. This aspect took a much longer time as this was the first time any of our team members have been involved in match racing. Our new offshore coach, Jon Singsen, was a tremendous help with getting us up to speed because he has been match racing for a long time and is very knowledgeable in the sport. In most of our practices he skippered the B boat, which was comprised of the back up team for MAISA Sloops, and sparred against us doing small drills to full on races. Other coaches, Blaine Pedlow, Michael Collins and Rick Dominique, took turns skippering the B boat during several practices took give us a look at different styles that we might see at the MAISA and ICSA Match Race Championships. The USMMA Sailing Foundation was also a huge asset to us in our training and preparation for the regatta and their support of six new Sonars is a huge part of what is allowing us to run a top-tier event.

Along with the many hard hours we put into match racing in Sonars, our coach paralleled them with opportunities in exciting boats on several occasions. During one of our practices we traveled to Larchmont Yacht Club when it was blowing twenty knots outside and sailed on shields. One of the coolest boats we got to sail on were Swedish Match 40s at Oak Cliff Yacht Club one weekend in a mock match race regatta. This helped everybody on the team just relax and enjoy sailing on fun boats.

Hopefully Match Racing will take off on the college scene, because our entire team has loved participating and learned many new things about sailing along the way. Match racing also gives college sailors something to look forward to after graduating due to the fact that you do not need to own a boat to be able to compete in most of the match racing events.
We are excited to play host to the 2010 ICSA Match Race National Championship and even more thrilled to be competing in this prestigious event. With our hard work and the support of our teammates and coaches, we hope that we can bring home a championship to the Academy!

- Chris Herring ’12, Joe Hoffman ’11, Misty Harris ’12 and Evan Siepert ‘13

ICSA Match Race Nationals Press Release

The Press Release for the ICSA Match Race Championships, hosted at KP
November 19-21! Our team is getting excited!

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kings Point, NY 11/10/10 - ICSA Sloop National Championship takes a new
direction.

Starting this year the Cornelius Shields Trophy will take a new
direction and 2010 will be the inaugural ICSA Match Race National
Championship. Instead of being a fleet race in sloops, the championship
will be contested in as a match race; this new format, although new to
college sailing, is not a new discipline in sailing. Organized match
racing started with the America's Cup in 1851 and has been growing ever
since. Now, throughout the country, there are weekly match race events,
regional match race centers, and even women's match racing in the
Olympics. The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) realized
interest was growing in this exciting discipline and decided to make a
change.

The actual format of the Shields Trophy is the same; teams still need to
qualify in their conferences to advance to the National Championship.
The new conference match race qualifiers have proved to be very
competitive and this change gives a great opportunity to bring head to
head competition against schools. Due to the match race format, the
regatta will now have a qualifying round, semifinals, and finals to
determine the champion. This format replicates that of many other
sports, such as the NCAA Basketball National Championship bracket and
the FIFA World Cup.

There will be ten teams from the seven different conferences in ICSA and
each team has qualified for the event by sailing in their conference
championship. The championship is being held at the U. S. Merchant
Marine Academy on November 19th -21st, 2010 in a fleet of Sonars. Each
team will have a crew of either 4 or 5 sailors and at least one female.

The ICSA Match Racing Championship is made possible by the support of
the USMMA Sailing Foundation, the Chicago Match Race Center and the
Intercollegiate Sailing Association.

The teams that qualified for the championship are:

Mid Atlantic (MAISA): St. Mary's College of Maryland, US Merchant Marine
Academy - Kings Point
Mid West (MCSA): University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota
New England (NEISA): Boston College, Brown University
North West (NWICSA): University of Washington
Pacific Coast (PCCSC): California Maritime Academy
South Atlantic (SAISA): College of Charleston
South Eastern (SEISA): Tulane University

Follow the regatta at www.collegematchrace.com and
www.collegesailing.org

For more information, please contact Michael Collins, Assistant
Intercollegiate Sailing Coach, US Merchant Marine Academy
(collinsm@usmma.edu)

KP Match Racing Team Qualifies for National Championship

Congrats to Our Sailors for qualifying for the first ever collegiate match race national championships to be held at Kings Point November 19-21. Competition was tight at the MAISA Championships, and our team had to win two races in a row on Sunday to finish in the top two to qualify- and they did!

Dinghy Team Has a Great Weekend

Another great weekend for the team! At the War Memorial regatta we finished 6th, qualifying us for the ACC's. At the Top Nine Invitational we finished 1st and 3rd overall and finished top 2 in A division! After a 4 year break, KP makes a comeback in women's events! This weekend we are heading down to ODU for MAISA Womens Regatta.

Chris Branning '09 Wins Rolex Middle Sea Race aboard Lucky

Lucky at the Malta start of the Middle Sea Race

Coast Guard Ensign Chris Branning, while on leave from the Coast Guard between flight training courses, crewed aboard the Transpac 52 Lucky in the Rolex Middle Sea Race in the Mediterranean Sea last week, and came out on top. The 606 nm course is considered one of the worlds most challenging yacht races.