Sailing Begins Spring Season

With the Harvard women's and coed sailing teams nationally ranked first and third, respectively, it promises to be another exciting season for the Crimson.

After an outstanding fall season, the teams headed south this weekend to

commence spring competition in the Navy Women's Intersectional in Annapolis and the Charleston Team Race Invitational. In unfavorable conditions, limited racing left the women's team 16th in a field of 17. The co-ed team tied with Old Dominion for 5th place among 8 teams.

St. Mary's, the College of Charleston, and Georgetown locked up 1-2-3 finishes in both regattas.

For the women, the weekend's meteorological cocktail of light wind and thunderstorms cut the number of races down to only eight per division.

"The weather was pretty undesirable," said women's captain Alex Beale. "After it was clear that people were really struggling to keep their boats upright, [the race committee] cancelled the second day of sailing."

The Crimson women were represented in A Division by first-year skipper Clemmie Everett with Beale as crew and in B Division by the sophomore-junior pairing of Daphne Reeve and Catarina Prince.

All eyes will be on the No. 1women's team as it heads to the St. Mary's Intersectional Saturday.

The coed team began its season at Charleston this past weekend, where wind and close racing deterred a Harvard victory.

In a field where two New England teams, Harvard and Boston University, battled those from more temperate regions, the race turned out to be a survival of the acclimated.

"We had a difficult first day mainly because this was our first regatta of the spring season, while the other teams were from warmer regions where they had already had several competitions," said sophomore coed captain Doyle. "We got better as a team as the regatta went on."

Next weekend, the coed team will head to Annapolis for the Truxton Umsted Regatta.

After getting a taste of the southern waters in variable conditions, Crimson

sailing will seek to improve on its performance from last weekend and regain its fall form.