The 2015 ONE Regatta–Offshore New England Championship—was held August 28-30 in Marblehead, MA. The event hosted 11 classes consisting of PHRF, IRC, ORR, One Design and shorthanded. Competing in PHRF Class 6 was the Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team, a new all women’s J/24 team based out of southern Maine. Sailing for the women’s team was Erica Beck Spencer (skipper), Charlotte Kinkade (trimmer), Marina Carlson (mast), Jess Harris (bow) and Kim Calnan (tactician). This was the first regatta since J/24 Midwinters in February that the full team was back together and everyone was sailing their assigned positions. Racing began Saturday for Class 6, with 7-8 knots out of the south/southeast building to 12 knots by the end of the day. After winning the first two races, John Denman and crew of the J/24 Airodoodle broke the ladies streak winning the third race. The ladies came back and finished the fourth and final race of the day with another bullet. Sunday brought light winds, and after an hour postponement, the Race Committee was able to run one race for the day. The ladies were over early and forced to clear themselves, but managed to fight their way back to a second-place finish. After only one race, racing was abandoned for the day, and the Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team secured their first win as a team. “Our competition was tough, and we had to work hard on Sunday to hold our lead, but I am so incredibly proud of this team, and it’s amazing to see our hard work over the past several months pay off. We are still a new team in an incredibly competitive Class, but if we sail half as well as we did on Saturday, we are going to be very successful at North Americans,” said skipper Erica Beck Spencer. One of the new team’s traditions is to set daily goals on the way out to the race course–a ritual that started at the 2015 Newport Regatta in July. “It makes us each accountable for not only our goals as a team, but our personal goals as well. The ultimate goal of the weekend was practicing for North Americans. A lot of the discussions we had on the boat were whether we would make the same decision in a 50-boat fleet,” said tactician Kim Calnan. For complete regatta information, visit http://www.oneregatta.org/.

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