A cold and windy day at Lake Glendale could not stop the Penn State sailing club from having a successful third-place showing in its own regatta on Saturday.

The club finished with a score of 43, 17 points behind Georgetown's first-place total of 26 points and eight points behind second-place Webb Institute in Saturday's Nittany Lion Open.

It wasn't the 40-degree temperature but the harsh winds that presented the biggest problem during the race.

According to the club's race captain, Mike McLaughlin (graduate-engineering mechanics), 20 knots (about 23 mph) is the maximum wind the boats can handle. Because of this, the high winds caused two of the boats to suffer some damage during the race, McLaughlin said.

"The wind was 20 knots at its maximum for the day. It made things rough for a lot of teams," said Heather Noel (senior-electrical engineering), one of the club members that raced on Saturday.

Noel was one of three other members that raced for the club. The other three were Alfredo Vargas, Mike Pulaski and Dawn Beachy. These members worked together to finish ahead of Virginia, Salisbury State, Drexel and Delaware, in that order.

Going into the race Noel said that she and the other team members were not certain what to expect as far as their performance was concerned. She said the club was excited about the way it finished.

"The fact that we finished third was great," Noel said.

The regatta was the first of what is expected to become an annual event. It is something that senior members such as Noel and club commodore Adam Lauver (senior-biology) have been hoping for since they were freshmen. The club had a few problems putting on the regatta due to the fact that the event was new.

"It was a little hectic because it was the first time we hosted a regatta," Lauver said. "But everyone pulled together."

Even with the slight problems they experienced, the club views the regatta as a very successful endeavor.

"It made people more aware of Penn State sailing," Lauver said. "I talked to each team after the race and they all said they had a lot of fun and are going to try to come back next year."

As for the more immediate future, the team will focus on creating its Homecoming float. The club is also looking to have a successful finish to its season.

The final regatta in which the club will compete will be held on the first weekend in November. The positive showing in the Nittany Lion Open has given the club something to build on as it proceeds through the remainder of the season.