The CEHS Sailing Team wrapped up a historic season with another big success at the New England Girls’ Fleet Racing Championship (Herreshoff Trophy) in New Bedford, MA. The top 16 girls teams in New England earn berths to the Herreshoff—which dates back to 1988—based on their performance in one of three qualifying regattas. The Cape team earned an invitation to the Championship for the second year in a row after placing first among all Maine teams in the qualifying round, only the eighth time a Maine squad has qualified for the Herreshoff since 2015 (the start of modern record keeping).
The day opened with clear sunny skies and an ideal 10-knot breeze out of the south. Cape shot out of the gate on the first race of the day, with skipper Tess Straw (’24) and crew Shiloh Doody (’27) taking second place in the fleet of 17, tying the best finish ever by a Maine boat set by Lincoln Academy in 2022. Skipper Story Straw (’25) and crew Norah Shroder (’25) then jumped in on the action, racking up two 6th place finishes in the B-fleet before skipper Sage Evans (’25) swapped in, adding a record-tying 3rd place to the B-fleet’s collection. When the smoke cleared after 16 races, Cape found itself sitting in 8th place overall—its first Top 10 finish at the New England Girls Championship in the team’s recorded history.
The regatta consisted of “fleet racing,” where each team has a boat sailing in an A-fleet and a B-fleet. Cape’s final placement of 7th in the A-fleet tied the best result ever by a Maine team, while its B-fleet had the second-best finish ever by a Maine team. Cape’s consistency between the fleets tied the high water mark for Maine set by Falmouth in 2016, but further exceeded their performance as Falmouth never managed a 2nd place single-race finish and no Maine B-fleet boat has ever racked up 3 top-6 finishes. Moreover, Cape pulled off its placement despite sailing without a coach at the event (a very rare situation in high school sailing that significantly handicaps the team).
With this achievement, the 2024 Cape Sailing Team arguably cemented its place as the best girls' sailing team in Maine history. In a sport dominated by boys and private preparatory schools, a collection of such talented girls in a public school the size of Cape Elizabeth (the smallest public school at the Herreshoff) is a rarity.
Cape’s performance at the Herreshoff concludes a record-breaking season. Earlier in May, the team qualified for and attended the Co-ed New England Fleet Racing Championship (O’Day Trophy), where it placed 10th in New England. This achievement occurred after the team ended its team racing season ranked 14th in New England—the highest placement ever for CEHS, which earned them their first ever berth to the New England Team Racing Tournament (Terk).
The Herreshoff marked the end of senior captain Tess Straw’s high school sailing career. Straw—the Maine State Doublehanded Girls Sailing Champion in 2022 with Shroder—helped lead the team to the Atlantic Coast Championship last fall in New York. Cape—the top exclusively girl-skippered team at every NESSA ACC qualifier—was the only Maine team to receive a berth to the ACC, which covers the region from the Dakotas to Virginia to Maine. This June, the Straw sisters will sail together in the US National Youth Championship. After that, Straw will continue her sailing career at Harvard University.
(Story and photo courtesy: Chris Straw.)