RBR Team Sails to Victory at Battle of Monmouth Regatta

The varsity sailing team pulled off a come-from-behind victory in the Battle of Monmouth Regatta on Saturday, May 12 at the Shrewsbury Sailing and Yacht Club in Oceanport, besting tough competition from 10 other teams and winning the event by a slim 1-point margin in the last race after trailing Christian Brothers Academy and Rumson Fair Haven HS most of the day. RBR was a model of consistency, taking the crown without winning a single race but never finishing worse than fourth in any of the 12 races. The RBR varsity team sailors were Kendall Van Winkle, Caroline Garth, Max Neubelt, Dominique Neubelt and Gabrielle Neubelt.

The RBR freshman team of Derek Arnheiter, Robby Gearon and Andrew O'Brien finished a very respectable seventh place overall.

The regatta was sailed in FJ sailboats owned by the Monmouth and Rutgers Universities sailing teams, both of which are based at SSYC. Monmouth University President Paul Gaffney was the special guest at the competitors' meeting and he was joined by Athletic Director Marilyn McNeil and their new sailing coach Lee Di Rubbo. President Gaffney shared his vision for growing the Hawks team into a major college sailing program and becoming a host for major collegiate and high school regattas at SSYC.

The regatta was run by Stuart Van Winkle, Gail Van Winkle, Cathy O'Brien, Phil Arnheiter, John Gearon, Skip Swikart, Mike Neubelt and Jeff Jacobi. Several schools were allowed to send multiple teams due to last-minute cancellations by other schools whose sailors were out due to illness or injury.

Results:

1) RBR Varsity 32 points
2) CBA (1) 33 points
3) RFH 48 points
4) CBA (2) 54 points
5) Monsignor Donovan 58 points
6) Holy Ghost Prep 68 points
7) RBR Frosh 81 points
8) MonDon (2) 90 points
9) Southern 98 points
10) Summit 109 points
11) MonDon (3) 125 points