2022 Women’s Snipe Nationals
USNA Sailing Alums win 2022 Women’s Snipe Nationals
21 teams from across the country attended the 2022 Snipe Women’s Nationals, including 12 teams from Severn Sailing Association as well as teams from Miami, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Norfolk and California. The strength and depth of this year’s fleet was the strongest in recent memory, including multiple current and former College All-Americans, several former Women's National Champions, an Olympian, and a few current college coaches. There was also an impressive range of ages (12 to 62) and experience, including 4 boats that were made up of sailors new to the Snipe as well as 3 skippers who had attended the first Women’s Snipe Nationals in 1997!
Leading up to the event, the forecast showed multiple days of thunderstorms, though none negatively impacted the sailing. Instead, the nearby storms brought WIND! The conditions on Saturday morning looked “champagne”, but soon built to “challenging” by the end of the day, building to 16-18 knots from the south with 2-foot rolling chop, compounded by large yacht wakes heading up the Chesapeake.
USNA Alum teammates Mary Hall Baker (USNA '15)/Marissa Lihan Milliken (USNA '14) came out strong with a 2-1-1 on the first day, followed closely by veteran Miami Snipe sailor Taylor Scheuermann with Boston crew Julia Marsh Rabin with a 3-2-2. Gracie Howie/Katja Sertl ended the day in 3rd with 4-4-3 with locals Sarah Alexander/Shira Golub (who had won the first race of the day) in 4th. Scheuermann and Howie were in peak training mode as they will be leaving in a week to represent the USA at the 2022 Snipe Worlds in Portugal, Scheuermann as a skipper, Howie as a crew.
On Sunday, the ladies faced another day of big breeze and challenging chop. The southerly maintained a consistent velocity of 15 kts with a few gusts in the high teens, making for some epic reaching conditions on the double triangle courses! Gracie Howie/Katja Sertl, Taylor Scheuermann/Julia Marsh Rabin and Morgan Collins/Patricia Cantero each won one of the three races of the day, but it was not quite enough for anyone to overtake Baker/Milliken, whose consistent top 3 finishes earned them the top spot and a berth at the 2023 Western Hemispheres in Algarrobo, Chile. At the end of the regatta, the top U30 team was Gracie Howie/Katja Sertl and the top Master’s team was Tarasa Davis and Kim Calnan. Final Top 5:
Mary Baker/Marissa Milliken (9 points)
Taylor Scheuermann/Julia Rabin (11 points)
Gracie Howie/Katja Sertl (17 points)
Tarasa Davis/Kim Calnan (21 points)
Lorie Stout/Sunny Sturmer (22 points)
In addition to the Serious Sailing, Regatta Chairs Devon & Lauren Feusahrens made sure there was equally Serious Fun. Regatta festivities kicked off Friday evening at Brad and Marissa Milliken’s house and backyard for the cookout and blender party. Alex Pline hit a homer with his program of blender drinks (start with tart and end with sweet) and our friends from Botanas Fajardo surprised us with their famous queso and crema verde! Even with a little rain, the welcome party was a fun way to kick off the weekend. Thankfully, none of the competitors appeared to have been overly blenderized due to social events of Friday night.
The Saturday Luau party kicked off with rounds from the bar donated by generous members of Snipe Fleet 532. Upstairs, Lauren Feusahrens outdid herself with the luau decor, with real bamboo (courtesy of Casa-Pline), votive centerpieces, disco balls and enough leis for all participants. Special thanks to Flora Cole for helping with the decor and setting up for the luau. Saturday’s dinner was catered by Uncle’s Hawaiian Grindz out of Fallston, MD. Dinner was followed by the Kona Ice Truck’s shaved ice, which was much needed after a hot day on the water! The Raffle Drawings were held with lots of folks taking home great prizes from Athleta, Harken Derm, Hummingbird Farms Botanicals, and more. Isaiah Sanders, who made a special trip down from NYC, DJ’ed us into the night!
A big thank you must go out to the Race Committee team of Barbara Vosbury, Mark Bennett, Chris Ryan, Mark Furhman, Brad Milliken, Steve Podlich, Matt White, Kim Studeman, Henry Filter, Brett Davis, Sandy Adzick, and the SCIRA representative, Alex Pline for running 6 races in breezy, shifty, and lumpy conditions. Thank you to our boat boys as well - Arthur Blodgett, Bradley Adam, and Brendan Flinton for providing shore/on the water support - it was great having coaches on the water! Thank you to Gavin O’Hare for hosting the clinic Friday afternoon and Marjorie Fuhrman for Registration.
Thank you also to our sponsors: CBYRA for being the Media Sponsor, Athleta for providing samples and raffle items, Maritime Coffee Time for for providing Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, bagels and donuts for breakfast both days, Harken Derm for skin care product donations, and Annapolis Snipe Fleet members for donations for beverages and raffle prizes.
Link to Ted Morgan’s photos: https://tedmorganphotography.zenfolio.com/p60316750 (expires Sept 1)
Link to Ted Morgan’s photos: https://tedmorganphotography.zenfolio.com/p60316750
(expires Sept 1)