Sailing Dominates in Spring Regattas

The Harvard Sailing team has built up a tradition of success the equal or better of any other Crimson team, earning the Fowle Cup as the national champion last year.

This season is no less promising for the Crimson sailors, who have finished in first or second place any time they’ve put their rudder to the water.

The most recent example of this came last weekend in the Boston Dinghy Club Cup, where Harvard took advantage of the friendly Charles’ waters to dominate 15 other local sailing competitors.

Facing off against local rivals such as Tufts, Yale, Dartmouth and MIT, three of the four Crimson boats placed first and Harvard won the competition comfortably. The Crimson’s lone disappointment was not much of one, as the only boat to finish outside the winner’s circle finished as the runner-up.

The A boat of composed of senior Sean Doyle and junior co-captain Michelle Yu captured a first place finish, while Harvard’s B boat of junior co-captain Clay Bischoff and junior Loma Kikiuchi finished second behind a boat from Tufts.

The combinations of junior Cardwell Potts with senior Laura Knoll and junior Dan Litchfield with senior Rehana Gubin took first place in the C and D boats respectively.

The win came as an affirmation of Harvard’s ranking as the best sailing team in the country, reported earlier in the week by Sailing World magazine. Even before the Crimson’s most recent win, though, there were still many accomplishments from the spring sailing season.

Harvard beat a 20-team field at Navy in the Truxtun Umsted Regatta and captured another first-place finish in the Southern New England Team Race Intersectionals.

In competition against skilled teams outside Harvard’s northeast base in the Charleston Team Race Intersectionals, the Crimson took home a second-place finish. In fact, since the sailing season resumed in early February, Harvard has taken first or second place in every regatta in which it has competed.

“We’ve had a pretty successful record in the regattas this year,” Bischoff said.

Yet the major test for the Crimson is still to come. If Harvard wishes to repeat as national champion and bring another Fowle Cup back to Cambridge, the Crimson will have to qualify for the spring national championship regattas.

Those regattas, in Team Racing, Women’s Dinghy and the Coed Dinghy, will take place in Hawaii later this year.

Qualifying regattas takes place during the last two weeks of April and the first week of May at the New England Championships. The Crimson looks likely to qualify in Team Racing and the Coed Dinghy, and possibly also in the Women’s Dinghy.

Last year Harvard clinched the Fowle Trophy through second place finishes in the Coed Dinghy and the Team Racing events. The Crimson did not even qualify for the national championships in Women’s Dinghy last year, and any national championships hopes this year will be helped by the chance to win points in all three events.

“The last regatta is what we’re training for all the time,” Bischoff said. “Our focus is to keep improving in order to prepare for qualifiers and nationals.”

“We’re trying to improve on last year,” Yu added.

But before thoughts of national championships or even qualifiers can be concretely entertained, the Crimson must continue to impress with its week in and week out consistency. This weekend Harvard will compete in two events, the Team Race Intersectionals at Yale and the Friis Trophy Regatta at Tufts.