Maine Maritime Academy’s “powerhouse” sloop sailing team (from left) Willy Leathers, Jonathan Kovach, T.J. Scott and Graham Fitch, with the academy’s waterfront operations director, Tim Leach, won the Intrepid Trophy Match Race Regatta at the U.S. Naval Academy last weekend.—PHOTO COURTESY OF MAINE MARITIME ACADEMY

CASTINE — When it comes to intercollegiate “big-boat” sailing, there’s a tough new crew on the block and it comes, of all places, from Castine.

Last weekend, four sailors from Maine Maritime Academy ventured to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis to race Colgate 26 sloops against crews from 10 other colleges in the Intrepid Trophy Match Race Regatta.

Sailing against top-notch crews from Navy, the Coast Guard Academy and the New York and U.S. Merchant Marine academies, the Mariner crew of skipper T.J. Scott, Graham Fitch, Willy Leathers and Jonathan Kovach compiled a record of nine wins and two losses during the two-day event — the same record as the teams from Navy and both Merchant Marine academies.

With the best match racing record against the other three top teams, MMA took home the trophy. Last month, the same MMA crew ventured to California and won the Port of Los Angeles Invitational Sloop Regatta, hosted by the California Maritime Academy. According to MMA sailing coach Tom Brown, the victories on both coasts have drawn attention to MMA’s sailing team.

“The Naval Academy sailing coach was really nice,” Brown said Tuesday. “He said, ‘There’s a new powerhouse in big-boat sailing, and that’s Maine Maritime Academy.’”

Brown was clearly pleased with his crew’s performance in Annapolis.

“They were able to execute the things we practiced,” Brown said. “In a penalty situation, they were able to force the other boat to tack, turn around and keep right on sailing.”

Brown was also pleased with the performance of another MMA Colgate 26 crew. Racing at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Charlie Yarnell, John Colburn, Robert St. Peter-Blair and Andy Davidson finished eighth in a nine-boat fleet. The University of Rhode Island crew finished first. Under the circumstances, the result was impressive.

Racing a sloop like the Colgate 26 requires precise teamwork, the kind that takes practice to develop. According to Brown, the regatta at Coast Guard was the first time that crew had raced a Colgate 26, and virtually the first time they had sailed one.

“They just got in the boat last week,” Brown said. “They’re dinghy sailors and we just threw them in the boat.”

Despite their inexperience, Brown said, the crew sailed well.

“I’m pretty pleased with what they did,” Brown said. “They had some great starts. It was just a boat speed issue. Next year, they’ll be fine.”

Weather conditions at Annapolis did not make for easy races. On Saturday, the fleet had to deal with a light southeasterly breeze and the strong current of the Severn River. On Sunday, racing was delayed 90 minutes to wait out a thunderstorm.

While the academy’s number one big-boat crews were showing their stuff in Annapolis and New London, the dinghy team was having a harder time in Boston.

Two crews traveled to Beantown to race in the George E. Morris Intersectional Regatta, hosted by Boston University. Sailing Flying Junior dinghies against 13 other collegiate teams on the Charles River on Sunday, MMA finished 12th overall. The Bowdoin Polar Bears finished first.

Sailing in Division A, captain Matt Stephens and crew Lori Berggren finished seventh, pulling off a third place in the regatta’s third race. In Division B, Matt Bourque and Tess Deutsch had a tougher time and finished at the back of the fleet.