Student Yachting World Cup - California Maritime are Team USA

by Peter McGroarty/California Maritime Academy on 20 Oct 2010 Student Yachting World Cup, La Rochelle, France from October 24-29th.

California Maritime Academy is a school of less than a thousand students based in Vallejo California, their sailing team under director Charlie Arms carte and coach Jessy Cartee have just pulled off the biggest upset in college sailing.

They beat out all the competition which included Navy and Coast Guard to lift the right to be Team USA and represent the country at the Student Yachting World Cup in France from October 24-29th.

The team is coached by Jesse cartee and won the Davis Cup for the honor of representing their country as team USA.

Said Charlie Arms Cartee,'The team are thrilled what a great reward for their efforts, going to France is like having the icing in the cake but the beat part of a cake is the eating that will be winning the championship.

'We are the smallest school represented but their is no size qualiications in a boat crew. We are their to win.'

With entries for the 30th Annual Student Yachting World Cup (SYWC) at La Rochelle, France (Oct. 24-29) nearly finalized, it is clear that for the U.S. team from The California Maritime Academy in Vallejo, it will truly be a case of David vs. Goliath.

With its enrollment of about 850 students, Cal Maritime will be by far the smallest school among the 11 international universities entered from the U.S., Canada, England, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Japan. The official listing of schools with completed entries and their enrollments (as taken from posted web data) includes:

The California Maritime Academy, Vallejo, CA USA 850 - www.csum.edu
Pôle Léonard De Vinci, Paris, France 6,400 - http://english.devinci.fr/formations/english/homepage.1387.html
EPFL, Lausanne, Swizerland 7,000+ http://www.swissuniversity.ch/university-description?universityId=12
Limerick University, Limerick, Ireland 11,000+ http://www.ul.ie/
CUS Brescia, Brescia, Italy 14,000 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Brescia
Solent University, Southampton, UK 16,000 - http://www.solent.ac.uk/aboutus/about.aspx
Universidade Técnica De Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal 20,000+ http://www.utl.pt/
Queen’s Univerisity, Kingston, Ontario, Canada 21,600 - http://www.queensu.ca/
RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany 31,400 - http://www.rwth-aachen.de/go/id/xql
CUS Milano, Milan, Italy (Defending Champions) 62,800 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Milan
Takanedai, Tokyo, Japan - ?

Cal Maritime Sailing Director Charlie Arms Cartee says she and her team don’t worry much about those figures. 'We have a history of doing well against much larger competitors. We took the Kennedy Cup in the 2009 National Intercollegiate Offshore Championships last fall to win the right to compete in France, and we recently beat Navy to take our fifth Shields Trophy in seven tries at Annapolis, MD, against teams from the U.S. service and maritime academies.'

Arms Cartee says Cal Maritime’s small size can be an advantage. 'Many on TeamUSA have sailed with each other for two and three years in a variety of boat classifications and conditions. Going to France to sail on a brand new class of boat (Grand Surprise 32s) and the unfamiliar waters and wind conditions at La Rochelle doesn’t faze us. As the first team from the West Coast to compete for the U.S. in this event in its 30-year history, we think we have some demonstrated strengths in sailing in the kind of heavier winds we’re told are the norm in late October on the Atlantic Coast of France. Many on our team are comfortable with the stronger winds we often find in northern California and especially on San Francisco Bay. But we’ve also got team members with skills in light winds, as we demonstrated with our recent Shields victory.'

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Husband and TeamUSA Coach Jesse Cartee will have his hands full over the six days of competition, trying to select the best combination of sailors for each race. 'The boats carry a crew of eight and we have ten TeamUSA cadets ready to sail, two of them women. Rules require that there always be two women in a crew so Jessica Bernhard and Sara Himes will have to be on board for every single race, and with two or more races per day that is going to be physically demanding, especially if there are more windy days. They did very well at the Shields Trophy and clearly held their own, so we’re confident they will add real strength to the team.

'After that we’ll have to make choices on who takes on other key roles for each race, depending on team dynamics and conditions at the time. We’re fortunate to have some great strengths in the cockpit – at the helm and tactically. John Gray and Matt Van Rensselaer are both excellent drivers, and John and Sean Kelly both function well as tacticians. As we head into the last few weeks before the World Cup, I think we’re in great shape.'

Cal Maritime’s special website click here lets you follow Team USA every step of the way in their quest for the title in the 2010 Student Yachting World Cup. It will include reports from France, including photos and videos throughout each day of competition.