UVM Sailing Team Wraps Up Great Season with 6th Place Finish at the Atlantic Coast Tournament On November 11-12, 6 University of Vermont Sailors made the long trip down to Georgetown University for the Atlantic Coast Tournament.  Powered by the fantastic accomodations and meals at the Hellmuth (P 08) residence, Ryan Brown 05 and RJ Bouchard 07 finished 6th in A fleet, and Matt Clark 08/Grayson Hellmuth 08 finished 3rd in B fleet, for an overall 6th place finish, just one point behind host Georgetown.  Alternates Cleveland Rueckert 06 and Caitlyn Connolly 08 provided excellent pit crew assistance, helping to ensure that we were always ready to go fast.  The prior weekend, the Cats finished the Horn Trophy in 6th place, just one point behind Tufts.  Full results for the fall season are available on the webpage. Catamounts attend nearly 70 regattas this fall! With a young, aggressive team the UVM Catamounts sailed nearly 70 regattas this fall!  This has given many of our sailors excellent regatta experience which they in turn bring back to UVM practice.  We had sailors qualify for both Men's (Chris Doyle 05) and Women's (Tiffany Spencer 05 and Andrea Petronello 06) Singlehanded Championships, and we finished in the top 5 at many trophy events. Most importantly, commitment to practice was solid all around.  With 18 new boats and an enthusiastic young class of freshmen, the UVM team is alive and kicking, and attending as many events as any New England program! Final NEISA Performance Rankings With the 6th at the ACT, a 2nd at the Sharpe Trophy Team Race (Brown 05/Ben Kahn 07, Rueckert 06/Connolly 08, Clark 08/Hellmuth 08), and a 2nd at the Lake Champlain Open (Ted Chwalk 05/Heidi Denton 07 and Rueckert 06/Debora Bedin 07), our coed team finished in 14th of 44 in the NEISA power rankings.  The Women's Team, powered by Gabrielle McCoy 06, Kim Petritz 07, Kim Murtha 08, Laura Eichorn 05, Kate Massey 05, Andrea Petronello 06, and Tif Spencer 05, finished 9th overall.  This season saw two Cats women in the NEISA Singlehanded finals at CGA for the first time in many years. Alumni Regatta A Success! The annual alumni regatta and dinner was a huge success this fall.  With 20-30 knot winds from the south, 11 of the 14 boats leaving the dock made it to the race course, but the racing itself was excellent and ruled by alums.  We all look forward to another great regatta next year! UVM to host New England Men's Singlehanded Championship UVM was selected as the host for the 2005 New England Singlehanded Championship for the monotype trophy.  Now a BYOB event with a limit of 5 entries per team, this could bring 40 or more Lasers to Lake Champlain next fall.  We are very excited to host this prestigious event.  It will be run in conjunction with the Lake Champlain Open, which will hopefully bolster attendance at the latter. Finally, we'll look to host a major New England spring championship in 2006. Spring Break trip planned for Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL We have secured 12 420s and 8 FJs from Eckerd College for what is sure to be a productive and exciting spring break trip next spring.  Look for a spring break preview in our print newsletter, arriving sometime in January. New photos on website! We have some excellent new photo galleries on the website; check them out at www.uvm.edu/sailing!  In addition you'll find a full roster, full results, and more info about our program. Boat Naming Opportunities Still Available! Give your college sailor a lasting presence at UVM practice - name a boat in their honor!  Pledges and naming packages are still available.  The gift is $3500 (on "sail" from $5000) and it can be made either in one gift or through several pledged gifts.  We are working hard to pay off the loans on the new fleet and to gather support for a new fleet of sails in 2006 and a second safety boat in the near future; please assist us in these ventures!  Thirteen Boats remain to be named, as well as all of our season-ending awards. Thank you again to all of the families that have provided continued support for us this fall.  UVM Sailing is once again breaking ground in the New England district, and it is your help that allows us this forward movement.  We look forward to a very competitive spring. ---------------------------------------------------------------- sail hard. study hard. play hard. Justin Assad Head Coach University of Vermont Sailing Team ph: 917.846.6852 contact info available at: www.uvm.edu/sailing