##Photo by Ted Morgan
Top Five Finishers
A Stellar Turnout for SSA’s Snipe Colonial Cup
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hirty-six teams from as far as Miami, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii attended the 2022 Snipe Colonial Cup, the highest attendance since 1988 and included 19 teams from Severn Sailing Association (SSA). “This is a testament to the work we have done over the last 10 years to grow the fleet,” said fleet captain and longtime Snipe sailor Lisa Pline. “Also, most of our growth has been in the U30 segment, showing the Snipe is the place to be for post college sailors looking for a ‘Serious Sailing, Serious Fun’ experience they can continue with despite busy lives.” Big shout out to Nikki Bruno, SSA member and SpinSheet Century Club member, who stepped up to chair her first regatta and also to the great sponsors she got for the regatta: Dunkin’ Donuts who provided coffee, bagels and donuts for breakfast both days, Helly Hansen Annapolis, Princeton College Consulting, and Student Coaching Services for swag bag contents.
There were multiple current and former College All-Americans (including winning local crew Andrea Riefkohl fresh off her A-division win at College Nationals and her skipper Raul Rios, 2017 Snipe World Champion, from Puerto Rico), several national and international Snipe champions, quite a few current college coaches, and of course our most famous former Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, Augie Diaz. There were also four teams training for the Snipe Worlds in Portugal in August: two teams of SSA junior associates competing in the Junior Worlds (Trevor Davis/Rees Tindall and Cole Amaral with a substitute crew from Guatemala), as well as Augie Diaz/Katie Bornarth and new Annapolitan Arthur Blodgett sailing with Grace Howie in the Senior Worlds. Even with all that talent, the organizers were equally pleased with the number of new Snipe sailors (and even one crew who had never been in a sailboat of any kind!).
##Regatta winners Raul Rios and Andrea Riefkohl. Photos by Ted Morgan
1. Raul Rios/ Andrea Riefkohl 2. Arthur Blodgett/ Grace Howie 3. Augie Diaz/ Katie Bornarth 4. Trevor Davis/ Rees Tindall 5. Trevor Long/ Shallom Fadullon
Top U30 Award Trevor Davis/ Reese Tindall
Top Women’s Team Carol Cronin/ Kim Couranz The weather gods were kind, and even though the forecast was for light wind both days, the actual conditions were a little bit of everything. Saturday morning was glassy so PRO Mark Bennett postponed ashore for Saturday. After about an hour and a half postponement onshore, the signs of a thermal began to appear followed by a filling easterly that eventually built to around 12 knots and shifting to the south, enabling three races to be completed. The Saturday regatta party featured fantastic drinks and a taco bar upstairs, followed by Harp music from SSA’s own Flora Cole, who at 12 years old was also the youngest skipper! Thanks to the presence of Tropical Storm Alex off the East Coast, Sunday morning started out with almost 20 knots from the east. However, even though the bottom dropped out as predicted, teams were able to complete three more races allowing a discard. By the time all was said and done at the end of the day the breeze was essentially zero. Fortunately, the race committee made the smart call to finish the last race before what would have been a very painful final downwind leg. Check out snipefleetannapolis.com for more information. # SpinSheet.com July 2022 75