Redwood High School Sailing Travels East to Annapolis

Redwood High School’s Northern League champion sailing team red-eyed to Annapolis in early June to race the Phebe King Memorial Regatta, a high school invitational for 18 teams, most of them from the Atlantic region and all of them except Redwood from east of Berkeley. Redwood’s sailors had won their foundation-sponsored adventure in two days of racing in May, solidly defeating 17 other Bay Area schools.

In Annapolis, Rhett Krawitt, Mark Xu, Akira Bratti, Morgan Headington and Henry Vare had their first taste of racing in C420 dinghies, to them an unfamiliar class, and nobody expected the sailing to be like home. It wasn’t. Over 36 light- to moderate-air races for A and B divisions, Redwood’s scores included first-, second- and third-place finishes and a few to make you wish that high school regattas would allow drop scores, but they don’t.

Redwood wrapped up sixth in the regatta in a whirlwind three days that included tours of the Maryland State House and the US Naval Academy. Winner of the 2024 Phebe King was Stony Brook Academy, a boarding school on the north shore of Long Island, NY, that proudly dotes on its sailing team. Redwood High does not officially recognize its sailing team, but the Northern League Championship trophy found a place there, and that makes a statement too.

Look for the full story in the upcoming July issue.