PT High School Sailing Needs your Support
If you visited the Wooden Boat Festival this fall, you may have seen some beautiful bouquets decorating the multitude of boats there, and if your boat was in the festival, you may have met some of the High School Sailing Team Members selling bouquets there to raise funds. This year, as covid began to wane, and the Wooden Boat Festival returned, we decided to rekindle the sailing team’s tradition of fundraising by selling bouquets to participants in the Festival. After the Festival, we realized that we wanted to continue to fundraise for multiple reasons. The first, and [...]
An Old Wetsuit Can Help a New Sailor
Sugar Flanagan contacted us to ask if anyone has an old wetsuit or drysuit or dinghy sailing accessorories to donate to the Port Townsend High School Sailing Team. It looks like we have a bunch of new sailors thinking about joining the sailing team and one of the big hurdles for them is gearing up for sailing/swimming in our 46 degree water. I was wondering if anyone has a sailing style wet suit in their closet that hasn't seen, and probably won't see, water in the near future that some teenage kid would enjoy it's use. Old wet or drysuits [...]
Strong Start for PT High School Sailing Team
Sugar Flanagan reports in on the PT High School Sailing Team’s season so far. We invite all our readers to join with the Port Townsend Sailing Association and many of our members to support this great program. Donations are accepted through the Northwest Maritime Center. Jonathan Parent, Chloe Dawson, McKenzie Ginther, Sean Westlund and Anda Yoshina. This years PT High School Sailing Team returning from Lopez Island and the Island Cup Regatta on the team bus, Head Coach Sugar Flanagan’s schooner ALCYONE. It’s time for an update on the PT High School Sailing team’s 2014 season. So far [...]
PTHS Sailing Team Headed to Chicago
A nice note from the PTHSST appeared in today's email... Darby Flanagan, Cody Kowalski, McKenzie Ginther, Chloe Dawson, Alethea Westlund and Sean Westlund. The PTHS Sailing Team is headed to Chicago and the support that we received from sailors, maritime trades, family and friends has made it possible! This weekend's hot dog fundraiser, sponsored by West Marine, was a great success. We appreciated the financial support, but most importantly the best wishes, congratulations, encouragement passed on by the community means a lot to the team. The team did not quite win the “Triple Crown”, but with a 1st [...]
PT Nationals Bound. Needs to Raise Funds ASAP!
Our kids have done a great job this years. Now it's our turn to step up. Sorry I have been behind on regatta reports, it's been crunch time! By virtue of great sailing and pure grit by the kids in what came down to a total nail biter regatta, Port Townsend has qualified for Nationals. We won by a mere 2 points over 32 races. The regatta was not decided until the final race (between Bainbridge and ourselves). Long story short, we are heading to Chicago Yacht Club in less than two weeks to compete with the best of the [...]
PTHSST Takes Big Bus to Island Cup and Wins
Start 2 at the Island Cup. High School sailing is taking off on the Salish Sea. Photo by Shawn Thomas Coach Erik Coburn reports on the Sailing Team’s most recent regatta. Port Townsend High School Sailing Team (PTHSST) extended their regatta winning streak to three at the Island Cup hosted by Friday Harbor High School Sailing Team at Roche Harbor Resort. This regatta was the most highly-attended regatta in PNW High School sailing history, with 28 teams and over 180 kids in attendance. The Port Townsend team sailed to the regatta in Port Townsend style aboard the PT-berthed [...]
Sailing Team Wins Silverdale Team Racing Regatta
PT High School Sailing Team at the Silverdale team racing regatta. Photo by Erik Coburn Saturday March 23rd the Port Townsend High School Sailing Team (PTHSST) traveled to mostly sunny Silverdale to a 17 team 2 boats vs 2 boats event. Light winds out of the south were adequate almost all the time and quite favorable most of the time for this format of racing, allowing a total of 61 races to be run. The course was the standard “Digital N” used for team racing in high school and college. Team racing “Digital N” course Races [...]
PT Sailing Team Sails To Victory in Seattle
Cody Kowalski and McKenzie Ginther putting the hurt on the fleet with a decisive bullet (the rest of the fleet is out of the picture!). Photo by Erik Coburn High school sailing has grown so much that the Northwest District (www.nwisa.org) may be splitting in to two regions. While the PT team has gotten a lot better, the whole district has as well, making every regatta a nail biter for the team. At a South Region Regatta March 9th in Silverdale, PT qualified one team for the Gold fleet and one for the Silver fleet. A similar regatta [...]
PT High School Sails Well at Season Opener
2013 Port Townsend High School Sailing Team The Port Townsend High School Sailing Team (PTHSST) looked well-prepared for the upcoming rigorous season at last Saturday’s season opener, hosted by Seattle Yacht Club on Portage Bay. The team will compete in at least another eight regattas before the end of the season, and practice at least three days per week. The season looks good for Port Townsend, returning a number of veteran skippers such as Darby Flanagan (Sr.), Cody Kowalski (Sr.), and District Singlehand champ Eliza Dawson (Jr.) who will also be competing in Doublehands. There are also returning [...]
PT’s Eliza Dawson Wins NW High School Singlehanded Championship and Qualifies for Nationals!
PTHSST sailor Eliza Dawson, winner of the NWISA Singlehanded Championship, qualified 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 [...]
PTHSST’s New(to them) FJs
The 2 FJs Friday Harbor just gave PT Hello All, Here is a photo of the 2 FJs Friday Harbor just gave PT. They are old and tired but with the help of Dan Newland and the NW Boatbuilding School hopefully we will have two FJ hulls that will be ready to make ready to sail. They come with two mast, booms and center boards and not much more but with the help of our sailing team and community I think we will be off perfecting our FJ sailing skills before to long. First step is to get [...]
Port Townsend HS Sailing Team Places 2nd at Districts
The last two beautiful sunny weekends there were two great high school sailing events held down at the Center for Wooden Boats. May 5th – 6th the NWISA Doublehanded Districts were held and May 11th – 12th the Mallory Cup, Doublehanded Nationals, were sailed under beautiful conditions. For the Doublehanded Districts on the water, dictated by persnickety winds, were 14 Flying Juniors and 14 Vanguard 15s manned by NW high school sailors. For the Port Townsend team it was a well sailed, but at the same time difficult event. After Saturdays racing they were in second place behind [...]
PT Sailing Team Takes Second at PT Regatta
One-hundred twenty-three high school sailors from around the northwest converged on the Maritime Center for the Port Townsend high school sailing team's home regatta. Port Townsend took second place behind North Kitsap. "Our sailors did a great job on the water with our varsity team proving we are a strong contender to go to nationals and the JV guaranteeing future possibilities." said coach Sugar Flanagan. Next weekend the team travels to Bellingham for Team Race Districts, then the following weekend is Doublehanded Districts in Seattle. Both are qualifiers for Nationals, which will be held this year in the [...]
PT High School Sailors Win Central Kitsap Regatta
Port Townsend High School sailors dominated the Central Kitsap regatta in Silverdale this last weekend April 14 & 15. Sailing two-person Vanguard 15s, the varsity team took first place in a highly competitive ten boat fleet. The varsity line-up was composed of skipper Eliza Dawson with crew Olivia Gibbons and skipper Cody Kowalski sailing with Serena Vilage. Port Townsend won more races than any other team taking first in nine out of the fourteen races. Most importantly, this was a District Qualifier. According to Coach Sugar Flanagan, "This was some really impressive sailing. It's the first step toward [...]
Port Townsend’s Teen Sailors are Out Front
'Home' race is April 21st on Port Townsend Bay The Port Townsend High School sailing team's excellent season continues April 21 with a "home" meet centered out of the Northwest Maritime Center. The teen sailors placed third of 23 teams during their sunny Westsound competition at the Orcas Island Cup Regatta on March 24-25. "We have a great group of kids who sail FAST and have fun," said coach Sugar Flanagan. The previous weekend the team endured frigid conditions and snow showers at the Lakewood Regatta on Lake Whatcom in Bellingham. Port Townsend placed first in four of [...]
PTHS Sailing Team Shines in the Season’s First Regatta
On March 3rd, the Port Townsend High School Sailing team competed in a season “kick off” regatta hosted by the Seattle Yacht Club. Sixteen races were sailed in shifty and gusty winds ranging from 5-18 knots. Port Townsend finished towards the back of the fleet in the first few races. Rather than allowing this to foretell their position in the regatta, team members chose to learn quickly and apply the lessons to the next race. Maintaining this philosophy of foreword thinking and constant learning, the team quickly positioned themselves towards the front of the fleet where consistency and calm nerves [...]
Sailing Team Ends Season at PT Regatta
70 high school sailors gathered at the Northwest Maritime Center to wrap up the season under surprisingly sunny skies Saturday and Sunday. The wind cooperated as well – at least on Saturday, allowing the Race Committee to bang off 18 races on Saturday over the course of about 7 hours. Sunday was to be less windy so the R/C, made up of three generations of the Daubenberger family made the best of Saturday. As it turned out, this was a good thing to do as only 2 races would be completed on Sunday. Out of 17 teams, Port [...]
Sailing Team Scores at Team Race District Regatta
Another report from Coach Erik Coburn. The final district qualifier will be May 28th and 29th in Port Townsend. The High School Sailing Team put forth another good effort at Team Race District Qualifiers finishing 4th out of 7 varsity teams. We did not field a JV team. The event, sailed on Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island, was conducted under sunny skies and light 5 – 8 knots of breeze this past Saturday and Sunday. As the first day’s round robin concluded the team went 3-3 which included an upset of Orcas Island. The next day the team went 4-2 [...]
PT High School Sailing Team Update
A quick update on our sailing team from coach Erik Coburn. As always, your financial support helps make it possible. We went up to Doublehand District Champs with the high school team and had a good showing. Varsity got a 4th out of 12 and we displaced one of the perennial powerhouses by 27 points over 24 races. We were 10 points out of 3rd. The 1st place team was head and shoulders above everyone but we had the youngest team by far, with two sophs vs all seniors in the top 5 teams besides us. We had a weird [...]
Port Townsend Sailors Perform Well in Bellingham
By Leslie McNish Despite having to cancel two of three practices last week due to high winds, the Port Townsend dinghy sailors made a strong showing on Bellingham’s Lake Whatcom, under partly cloudy skies and a reasonable steady 6 to 10 knot breeze. It was nice for the team to compete in some better breeze than they had experienced at two of the previous regattas. Since it resembled what the team often practices in, they were more comfortable sailing in it. The regatta was sailed in 13′ Flying Juniors (FJs) and 14′ Alphas. […]
PT High School Sailing Team Season Gets Underway
The hardy young sailors have begun their season despite cold temperatures, high winds and downpours of rain. While coaches have had to wisely call off a few practices due to gales, the team has managed to compete in two regattas which took place in Seattle. Both events ironically turned out to be light air affairs. The team’s first event was held under sunny skies at the Seattle Yacht Club on Portage Bay. Despite fickle winds, Port Townsend sailors managed to finish in 10th and 11th place out of 15 in the more competitive “Captain’s Fleet.” The following weekend, held at Sail Sandpoint on Lake Washington was sailed in a [...]
Port Townsend Youth Racers Sail Well at First Annual PT Youth Regatta
34 Youth Sailors took to the tricky waters of Port Townsend Bay this past weekend July 17th and 18th. The competitors ranged in age from 9 to 17, and were either in Optis, Laser (Full Rig and Radial) or Vanguard 15s. The is the first time that Port Townsend has hosted a non-high school youth regatta. Port Townsend was recruited to be a regular venue on the NW Youth Circuit all signs point to higher participation next year. Visiting families all commented on how sweet sailing out of the NWMC in PT was. Thanks to nice weather, good [...]
PT Sailing Team Season Ends on High Note
The Port Townsend High School Sailing Team just celebrated the end of the season with a BBQ and awards ceremony at Fort Townsend State Park. It was a great season with PT continuing to make strides in the district. We basically were finishing in the middle of the fleet very solidly all season long. We also had many great races by each competitor from our youngest to our veterans. This bodes very well, since we had only one senior, Team Captain Jackson Delagarza, and one junior, Team Captain Cooper Parish. The rest of the team is very young [...]
Consistency Helps PTHS Sailing Team Fall Regatta
A young sailing team representing Port Townsend High School upset 10 other teams to win its only regatta of the fall season. "This bodes well for us for the more rigorous upcoming spring season," reported coach Erik Coburn. "I think we were all surprised a bit. Consistency won us the regatta. These kids have been working hard and deserved the win." The regatta was hosted on Oct. 24 by Sail Sand Point on Lake Washington in Seattle. Six sailors represented the PT program - now in its third year - led by junior skipper Cooper Parish and freshman skipper Cody [...]