Midshipman Third Class Nate Bramwell, a 2020 graduate of West Plains High School, was awarded the Robert S. Williams Award for the Most Improved Fourth Class Sailor at the United States Naval Academy’s Spring Sailing Awards Ceremony. Bramwell, an assistant navigator assigned to the Farr 40 sailing vessel, Ranger, earned a spot on Navy’s Varsity Offshore Sailing Team after competing in team tryouts in the fall of 2020. After limited practice and race time through the fall sailing season due to COVID-19 precautions, the crew of the Ranger has seen much success this spring and summer season.
Summer competition for Navy's offshore sailing team launched on June 5 with a 500-mile, four-day race from Annapolis to Newport where the crew of the Ranger won the Surflant Trophy for the best performance by a service academy team. Ranger also earned the Gerber Trophy for best performance by a Naval Academy boat. The race featured a host of challenges for the crew, which included navigating through pea-soup fog for more than 300 miles of the competition.
Ranger competed in the 167th New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta June 11-13 near Newport, Rhode Island. In the ORC D class, Ranger finished in third place out of 13 boats in the Race Around the Island on the first day of competition and finished in fifth place cumulatively after three days of racing.
The crew of the Ranger will stay in Rhode Island for Block Island Race Week, a five-day competition which begins on Monday, June 21.
