CASTINE — It’s been a long time coming, but last weekend both Maine Maritime Academy’s big boat and dinghy sailing teams swept their competition at major New England regattas.

In New London, Conn., Mariner sloop sailors won six out of 10 races, including the final three, to win the second annual Kruger Cup regatta at the U.S Coast Guard Academy.

“We’ve never swept a weekend like that,” MMA sailing coach Tom Brown said this week.

On Narragansett Bay, MMA’s two top dinghy crews crushed teams from nine other colleges to win the prestigious New England Dinghy Tournament. This weekend, they will head for Cambridge and the Charles River to sail in the New England Dinghy Championship Regatta hosted by Harvard.

Conditions were “really tough,” at Coast Guard, Brown said Tuesday. On both days the winds blew a steady 13 knots with gusts to 27 knots and 90-degree oscillations in Saturday’s northeasterly. Sunday’s northwesterly brought 18-knot gusts and 80-degree shifts on the Thames River course.

Sailing in Colgate 26 keel sloops, MMA was in second place at the end of Saturday’s seven races, two points behind Tufts. On Sunday, seniors John Joseph, Matt Butcka and Zack Vickers and sophomore Jake Newton came back to win all three races, and take the trophy by a five-point margin.

It was a fitting finale for the three seniors, sailing in their last regatta for MMA.

Before Sunday’s races began Brown urged his team to sail up to its potential.

“I told them, ‘You guys are national champs,’” Brown said. “These guys upped their level.”

For more maritime news, pick up a copy of The Ellsworth American.