05/13/2025
Two quotes came to mind after watching our Anacortes Seahawks Sailing Team compete this past weekend:
“Water is soft and yielding; yet it has no equal for power.”
- Sun Tzu
“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”
- Jimmy Dean
Our Anacortes Seahawks Sailing Team felt both the sheer power of the water as well as the pure force of the wind this weekend and they adjusted their sails often. They, along with the other nineteen top-ranking teams from throughout the Pacific Northwest, competed in the NWISA Fleet Race Championships at Cascade Locks on the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon.
Saturday was a balmy 68-degree day with West Southwest winds between eight to ten miles per hour and gusts between 15 to 18 miles per hour and Sunday, was a 60-degree day with West Southwest winds between six to eight miles per hour and gusts between 12 to 16 miles per hour.
While every sailor loves the wind and they’re relatively happy flying by the seat of their pants, sometimes they can be caught off guard by a sudden, unexpected gust of wind and/or a swift running current, and the Columbia River runs at about a steady six miles per hour. There were many teams that capsized throughout the weekend from shifty, gusting winds, and many battles in the water as sailors from all teams attempted to right their boats while fighting the current. Mother Nature’s powerful elements are not to be trifled with, and water and wind, one could argue, are the most formidable. While our sailors will not be representing Northwest Interscholastic Sailing Association (NWISA) at the Interscholastic Sailing Association (ISSA) Fleet Racing Championships in New London, Connecticut at the end of the month, they showed their complete grit, absolute determination, and genuine camaraderie throughout the weekend. Our fleets scored as follows:
SEAHAWKS, FLEET A:
Skipper: Aeden Peterson (2025)
Crewmates: Will Peters (2025) and Will Prewitt (2027)
Score: 175
SEAHAWKS, FLEET B:
Skipper: Allison Lehmann (2026)
Crewmate: Juniper Reiss-Landreau (2027)
Score: 189
SEAHAWKS FLEETS A AND B COMBINED SCORE: 364, placing 17th.
Full Scores: https://scores.hssailing.org/s25/nwisa-fleet-race-championships/full-scores/
This was the very last competitive high school regatta for talented Skippers/Crewmates, friends, and seniors, Aeden Peterson and Will Peters, and it was extraordinarily tough to watch the emotion as they came to this realization. These two young men, along with seniors Cameron Furin and Lucas Cornelius, have been with the Seahawks Sailing Team for four years and most of them have chosen to sail both during the autumn and spring sailing seasons each year, sailing alongside and mentoring new, incoming, competitive, and ambitious sailors. They’ve grown a tremendous amount, through the trials and tribulations of both failure and success, and we wish them every success and good fortune in all of their future pursuits and endeavors. Gentlemen, audentes fortuna iuvat!
The Anacortes Seahawks Sailing Team would like to wish the Olympia High School Bears and the Roosevelt High School Rough Riders the best of luck as they represent NWISA at the ISSA Fleet Racing Championship on 31 May – 1 June. Bring home the Mallory Trophy!!!
The Anacortes Seahawks Sailing Team would like to personally thank the Anacortes Waterfront Alliance, Anacortes High School, Anacortes School District, Anacortes Yacht Club, Anacortes Youth Sports Coalition, and all of the other volunteers this year and throughout the years, for all of their support of our beloved team.
Finally, as this post is wrapped up, as volunteer parents, we have watched this team grow, become stronger, and rank higher each year it competes, and this is due to the efforts of all of the volunteers and coaches that spend their time with our new and more seasoned sailors. With that, we would like to personally thank all of our coaches, past and present, for their time, energy, expertise, and mentorship over the years – thank you to Coach Patrick J. Barrett, Coach Elise Murphy and husband, Austin Murphy, Coach Satone Haratani, and Coach Shawn O’Connor, it has been nothing short of an amazing adventure.
It has been our sincerest and most profound honor and pleasure creating this page, writing about, photographing, and sharing our Anacortes Seahawks Sailing Team’s efforts, learning, competition, camaraderie, and shenanigans over the past four years with both immediate and extended sailor families, friends, academic and athletic mentors, and local and extended community members. This has been both a labor of effort for an absolutely amazing cause (support of our high school sailing team), as well as a prideful, labor of love as volunteer parents of one of the team’s sailors.
We have been parent volunteers within our local community, as well as Oak Harbor’s, for over 25 years whether for t-ball, baseball, soccer, academics, music programs, or sailing, and one of us spent time on the Anacortes Waterfront Alliance (AWA) Board of Directors for two years working alongside another amazing volunteer on communications and community outreach on behalf of the AWA, advertising their youth sailing programs – most specifically, and closest to heart, the Anacortes Seahawks Sailing Team.
We believe three things are paramount to the success of our youth: involvement, commitment, and mentorship. It’s incredibly easy to be an observer or commentator on the sidelines, but we would say, volunteer! Everyone has a certain skillset whether on the front lines or behind the scenes doing the grunt work, so, whether it’s academics, technology, arts, or athletics, get involved with our local youth programs and become a mentor. It matters!!!
Locals, keep a watchful eye on our beautiful Fidalgo Bay for you may see our high school Seahawk sailors, wind, rain, or shine, pridefully wearing their purple and white as they represent Anacortes High School and our local community.
Seahawk sailors, past, present, and future – “May the wind [always] be at your back.”
GO HAWKS!!!
Photographs and write-up contributed by Anacortes Seahawk Sailing Team parent volunteers, Shannon and Rob Peterson.
Anacortes High School
Anacortes School District
Anacortes Waterfront Alliance
Anacortes Yacht Club
Anacortes Youth Sports Coalition
J. Barrett (someone please get this to him)
Elise Murphy
Satone Haratani
Shawn O'Connor
Rob Peterson
Shannon Peterson
