High School Sailing Championship to be held at SSYC

The Shrewsbury Sailing & Yacht Club (SSYC) and the Monmouth University (MU) Sailing Team will be hosting the Mid Atlantic Scholastic Sailing Association (MASSA) Fall Fleet Championships Regatta on Saturday October 19th and Sunday October 20th. The regatta will be contested in the Shrewsbury River in front of SSYC. It is one of the premier high school sailing events in the Mid Atlantic region; each of the participating schools earns the right to compete via qualifier regattas in their home districts, so the competition will consist of the top 18 high schools from Norfolk, VA to Shelter Island, Long Island to Rochester and Buffalo. The New Jersey District will be well represented by local favorites Rumson Fair Haven HS and Christian Brothers Academy, both of which include current and former SSYC junior program sailors, as well as Monsignor Donovan HS from Toms River. The sailors will compete in MU's fleet of 18 Flying Junior (FJ) sailboats that are home-based at SSYC. 

SSYC is host to both the MU and the Rutgers University Sailing Teams. Together, SSYC and MU actively support high school sailing because it is a natural progression step for SSYC’s junior program sailors and because it provides excellent preparation for the transition from junior sailing to racing at the collegiate level for all local youth sailors. SSYC and MU are home to several area high school sailing teams, including 2009 and 2010 NJ State Champion Rumson - Fair Haven High School, 2013 State Champion & 2013 Girls’ State Champion Red Bank Regional High School, and Red Bank Catholic High School. These teams often practice together at SSYC in the FJ sailboats and frequently practice jointly with the MU team as well. They include many current participants in, and ‘graduates’ of, the SSYC Junior Program, juniors from other clubs, and novices with no prior sailing experience but a desire to learn. Also, SSYC and MU have co-hosted several major HS regattas, including the 2013 NJ State High School Championships. We anticipate hosting our first collegiate regatta in 2014.