ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The 2016 Offshore Sailing schedule began this past weekend with the Maritime Privateers finishing in sixth position of eight teams at the event hosted by the United States Naval Academy.
 
The host Midshipmen won the event in convincing fashion with four first place finishes in the six races to finish the weekend with 12 points. Coast Guard came in second with 20 points, while Queen's College of Ontario, Canada taking third place with 21 points. Army-West Point finished fourth with 28 points.
 
The Privateers finished in sixth place, after a tiebreaker loss to Mass. Maritime as both squads finished the weekend with 30 points apiece. Maine Maritime finished in seventh, while the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy rounded out the field with a last-place finish and 43 points.
 
Maritime was skippered by junior Riley Kernan (Manasquan, N.J./Wall), who led a crew of seniors, juniors and sophomores to the finish. Serving aboard the Navy 44s as crew this weekend were seniors Alex Haim (Youngstown, N.Y./Lewiston Porter) and David Yonks (Mount Sinai, N.Y./Mount Sinai); juniors Christian Perez (Warwick, N.Y./Warwick Valley), and Jack Ryder (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck), and sophomores Jeffery Ellington (Ft. Myers, Florida/Fort Myers), Peter Mosconi (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) and Gregory Ferguson (Center Moriches, N.Y./Center Moriches).
 
Competing in all six rounds of racing, Maritime finished sixth in their first race of the season before three consecutive fifth place finishes. Their weekend-best race came on the first race of Sunday, as the team finished in the top-half of the field in fourth position, before wrapping up the weekend with another fifth place finish later in the day.
 
Maritime will be racing in the American Yacht Club Fall Series in nearby Rye, N.Y., each of the next two weekends. In addition, the Privateers will be returning to intercollegiate competition on October 1-2 at the Intrepid Trophy hosted by Navy once again.