Grosse Pointe South hosted a sailing regatta for Earth Day at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club. With shifty winds and weather, the conditions were all but good. In the morning, the regatta was delayed for light wind conditions. However, the team persevered and got underway right before lunchtime.
“The wind was pretty light in mid-morning but we got some races in,” Colin Hexter ’23 said.
With a light wind, the boats have trouble steering and have no power whatsoever. This caused problems with races being generally recalled for On Course Side (OCS), meaning boats were over that start line before the horn was called.
On the positive side, the sailors were provided with a lunch of Mr. C’s pizza and breadsticks, and to keep themselves occupied with the light wind, the South sailing team turned to yo-yos.
“Multi-sport athletes,” said Gavin Webster ’24.
With the wind and waves picking up in the afternoon, sailing took off. South, placing higher up in both fleets, was on a roll.
“We were so fast,” said Eric Brieden ’24.
Later into the evening, the weather took a turn for the worse, a storm front moving in on the regatta. A weather warning was issued, but there were still boats on the water when it all went down. The wind picked up 20+ miles an hour in 20 seconds, bringing freezing, needle-like rain and hail down with it. With boats still on the water, the race committee was worried for the safety of sailors and called the regatta to a close.
“It just came down all of a sudden,” Addie Kimmel ’25 said. “The hail hurt really badly, and then the boats were running into the docks trying to get in,”
Out of 12 races in both the A and B fleet, only 3 races were completed in each, leaving 75 percent of the regatta unfinished. When the scores were tallied, West Bloomfield came first, and South came in second.

Gallery|5 Photos

STORMY SAILING- The A fleet sailing out in the afternoon