PT’s Eliza Dawson Wins NW High School Singlehanded Championship and Qualifies for Nationals!

Local high school sailor Eliza Dawson won the Northwest District of the Interscholastic Sailing Association (NWISA) Singlehanded District Championship this weekend at the Columbia Gorge qualifying to sail at the High School Singlehanded National Championship, Nov 9-10, in Long Beach California!

In the high school singlehanded competition the sailors race in Lasers, either full-rigged for the larger sailors or radial for the lighter sailors.

Coach Sugar Flanagan said, “ Eliza has spent her summer teaching sailing for the NWMC during the week and her weekends competing on the youth racing circuit. Her hard work paid off. There was some good competition for her in the radial class, she was consistently finishing in the top three and after a three way tie going in to the final race she came away winning the regatta by sailing smart and avoiding protest situations. “

PTHSST Fund Raiser

This weekend the high school sailing team will have a fundraising booth at Wooden Boat Festival. The fundraising will be to raise money for the team’s yearly budget and also to help raise money to send Eliza to Nationals. There will crafts and goodies that the sailors have made and also a raffle – 1^st place is a painting that was generously donated by Luke Tornatzky. Luke is a Port Townsend artist well known in the art world for creating striking maritime images. The 2^nd place prize is a ride for two on the Schooner ALCYONE for the Wooden Boat Festival’s “Sail By” (Sunday Sept. 9). The drawing for the raffle will be held at the music stage at the Festival Sunday, Sept. 9 at 11:30 AM. The raffle tickets are $5, you do not have to be present to win the first prize painting, but you need to be present to win the sail on the ALCYONE.

Stop by the booth and meet the sailors, find out about the team and help support the next generation of Port Townsend sailors!