10/28/2025
The Bulldogs were able to field a team to the 2025 SAISA Fall Open Fleet Race Championship hosted by Jacksonville University this past weekend despite ROTC FTX training being rescheduled to the very same weekend. Due to the circumstances, The Citadel ended up fielding a boat that had a skipper, Ben Stevenson, who had never driven before along with a future walk-on of The Citadel Football Team, Daniel Mckenzie, who had only stepped foot in a sailboat twice prior (and both totaled an impressive combined crew weight of over 425 lbs). They put in a valiant effort and went from still sailing upwind, while the rest of the fleet finished the first race to finishing right behind the pack & nearly beating other competitors by the final race. Our other of sophomores Reese Blackwell & Chloe Whitesell boat held in there and had a couple of impressive races to finish 14th in their division. The team was still able to finish 17th overall and nearly pick off a few opponents ahead of them in the standings. Great effort by all.
This was also our head coach Nick Johnstone’s final regatta with The Citadel Sailing Team after helping revitalize the team with a group of our amazing alumni back in the Fall of 2020. The team has qualified for their conference Open Fleet Race & Team Race Championships every semester under coach Johnstone as a consistent Top 10 team within SAISA, finishing as high as 6th in Fleet Racing and 7th in Team Racing over that period.
The team is looking forward to its next chapter and can’t wait to get back on the water this spring!
