The waters of Penn Cove will be dotted with a fleet of sailboats this weekend as the Oak Harbor High School sailing team hosts the Northwest Interscholastic Sailing Association Double Handed District Championships Friday through Sunday, April 24-26.

The Coupeville Wharf will be the launching point for the tournament, which will feature about 160 sailors from more than 20 schools. The boat launch will be closed to the public during the regatta.

Practice races will be held Friday, then the competition runs from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. Sunday.

The NWISA championship is the final fleet race of the season for the district (one of seven in the United States). The winners of the district regatta will qualify to represent the NWISA at the national championships at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., May 8-10.

This weekend, each school will have two two-man (skipper and crew) boats, A division and B division. The A division pair will race twice, and then the B division will sail the next two races. Rotations continue throughout the regatta; the two boats’ scores are combined to determine the team score.

Varsity and junior varsity teams will be racing simultaneously during the regatta.

The Oak Harbor High School sailing team, coached by Erik Mann, put together a solid season heading into the district championship.

Oak Harbor’s best finish this season was March 21 and 22 at the combined division regatta at Sand Point in Seattle, where it placed fourth out of 19 teams.

Junior skipper Max Van Dam and crew freshman Dylan Angell guided the A division boat to six top-10 finishes (including a second, two thirds and a fourth) in eight races.

In the Islands Cup in Anacortes April 11 and 12, Oak Harbor finished 17th out of 32 teams. Freshman skipper Jordan Wood-Pina and crew junior Matt Hallahan tied for 10th with several top-10 finishes.

Van Dam and Angell also finished in the top 10 several times and placed in the upper half of the fleet.

“On Saturday in some of the windiest and toughest conditions we have seen all season, the team had a tremendous day, sailing very consistently and ending the first day of the regatta tied for fifth place,” Mann said.

Oak Harbor placed 16th out of 29 teams at the Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center March 28. Van Dam and crew Luca Fellows tied for 12th in the individual standings. Fellows, who is from South Whidbey High School, served as a guest crew member.

South Whidbey is attempting to form its own team, Mann said.