CRANSTON, RI - The Tufts women's sailing team struggled to a 17th place finish out of 18 teams at Brown University's Dellenbaugh Trophy over the weekend.
With six races in two divisions, the Jumbos compiled finishes totaling to 78 in A Division and 68 in B's for a 146 total. They were six ahead of 17th place South Florida (152) and two behind 15th place Hobart/William Smith (144).
The Jumbo B boat with first-year skipper Molly Pleskus and senior crew Kate Levinson won their fifth race and placed 14th overall in their division.
In A's, junior skipper Katie Shaner with sophoomomore crew Julia Fuller lost a head-to-head tie-breaker with South Florida to place 18th.
Saturday was a beautiful day in Rhode Island with temps around 50 degrees and sunny. However, the wind really came on strong after just one A-division set, causing a postponement ashore until 3 pm when racing was cancelled for the day. Winds were 14-16 knots out of the WNW for race 1A and quickly built to 18-25 knots for race 2A. A few boats capsized and a few DNF's were given.
Conditions were terrific for day two as teams showed up early for a 9:45 am first start and a chance for some good practice in the new fleet of Brown Z420s, which will be used at the 2015 Spring Nationals in Newport, RI. Temps were in the 40's, with a little sunshine, and a mainly west breeze ranging from 10-18 knots with some puffs in the low 20's.
It came down to last beat of the last race in B-division between Brown and URI for first overall, with the host Bears winning.
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