Without organized competition, most sailors take the opportunity to teach the sport, intern or work your run-of-the-mill summer jobs.

But not freshman Charlie Buckingham. He worked on his laser sailing.

Buckingham won the Navy Laser Open this weekend in his first regatta at Georgetown, and in doing so, he qualified for the MAISA single-handed championship Sept. 29 to 30.

“That’s great for Charlie,” Head Coach Mike Callahan said, “to win that regatta as a freshman. I didn’t expect that.”

The top five finishers at the Navy regatta qualified for the AISA race and the top four finishers at the end of September represent the conference at the national championship.

Buckingham is the first Georgetown freshman to win so early since Andrew Campbell (SFS ’06), who went on to win three single-handed national championships.

Two other sailors, freshman Scott Furnary and sophomore Marco Teixidor raced Lasers but to limited success.

Furnary finished ninth in a field of 20, an acceptable finish for his first race, according to Callahan. Furnary had the opportunity to place higher after sailing well early but fell off late in the day.

Teixidor, from whom Callahan expects top finishes, placed 12th.

“Marco could have sailed a lot better,” Callahan said. “He’ll have to put some work in but he’ll have his chances.”

In their second competitive regatta of the weekend, the Hoyas finished fifth of two dozen teams at the nationally-competitive Harry Anderson regatta in New Haven, Conn. Most of the top-25 teams in the country participated in the Harry Anderson, including champion Boston College.

The Eagles took the regatta with 59 points but Callahan was impressed with the Hoyas’ fifth-place finish.

“I thought it was going to be tough going into Yale,” he said. “We hadn’t really sailed there before, so to come out in fifth place when you’re ranked eighth in the country is great. We beat some teams ranked ahead of us.”

The team was also out of practice for the event, having just begun fall practices and working very little on the 420 boats used in the regatta. The team has just completed freshman tryouts and has not fully begun serious practice.

At the Harry Anderson, Georgetown sent one of its top boats, senior Chris Behm and junior Carly Chamberlain in the A division. The pair finished in seventh place with 90 points over nine races.

The B division boat of senior Zach Kavanaugh and up-and-coming sophomore Alexandra Taylor tied for sixth place. The B division crews at the Harry Anderson were superior to most local-regatta B boats.

At Old Dominion University’s Riley Cup, Georgetown dominated.

Freshman Evan Aras and sophomore Caila Johnson were the class of the B division, amassing just 29 points in 12 races. The lowest the pair finished was sixth place, and they outpaced the second-place boat by 26 points.

In the A division, junior Nik Holtan and senior Leigh Fogwell performed well, but not up to their B counterparts. Holtan and Fogwell took second behind Kings Point but kept Georgetown far enough in the lead for the easy win.

Georgetown sent a crew and skipper to the Spirit Rider Regatta on Long Island, N.Y., a benefit race in memory of Patrick J. O’Keefe, a firefighter who perished on Sept. 11, 2001 in the north tower of the World Trade Center. His wife attended Georgetown and the race has been held each year since 2002.

Georgetown’s next races are this weekend when the team heads to four regattas in Hanover, N.H., Ocean County, N.J., Throggs Neck, N.Y., and Kings Point, N.Y.