Sailing Picks Up Three Top-Five Finishes

The Harvard sailing team took to the Northeastern waters three times this weekend, earning a third-place finish and two fifth-place finishes in three regattas to carry the team to berths at the Atlantic Coast Championships next month.

With two of the regattas taking place on the nearby Charles River, the Crimson got a bit of home-water advantage during the weekend.

“It’s kind of our home course, it definitely feels familiar,” senior co-ed captain Kyle Kovacs said. “We seem to be able to predict it a little bit better.”

ERWIN SCHELL TROPHY

Known to sailors as the unofficial fall New England Championship, the 67th Erwin Schell Trophy, hosted by MIT, featured 18 races in two divisions for a field of 18 teams. Harvard’s best performance this weekend was had by the A-division boat consisting of skipper Kovacs and senior crew Elyse Dolbec.

Though MIT won the regatta for the first time in 27 years with a total of 230 points, the Crimson’s top boat earned top honors in its division with the low score of the weekend. Harvard’s two-division total of 261 points was good enough to secure third place behind Yale and MIT.

“At the end of Saturday, we won the last two races,” Kovacs said. “We put ourselves out in first and then had a couple incidents and managed to rally and finish on a really strong note and set the tone going into Sunday.”

According to Kovacs, hitting marks and being forced to restart races set the team back significantly.

“We definitely could have done better,” he said. “We won the division but made a number of mistakes that I was frustrated about.”

In B-division, Harvard limped to 11th place due to inconsistent races after having to switch boats mid-regatta. Junior John Garrity and sophomore Drew Robb split skipper duties and junior Kerry Anne Bradford and sophomore Michelle Konstadt shared time at crew.

Despite the setbacks, the performance earned the team a berth at the Atlantic Coast Championships at Eckerd College in two weekends.

WOMEN’S VICTORIAN COFFEE URN

Also on the Charles Saturday and Sunday, the women hosted their own regatta featuring 17 teams and 12 races in each division. The Crimson placed fifth overall with 172 points—sixth in A-division and fourth in B-division, 64 points behind first place Yale.

“We had some typical conditions for the Charles River,” women’s captain Megan Watson said. “The wind was shifty and difficult to sail in, the direction was coming through the buildings from the shore, swirling and doing unpredictable things.”

Watson shared time at skipper with sophomore Liz Powers in A-division. Freshman Meghan Wareham served as crew for both sailors.

“The crew did a particularly great job, the wind was shifting between not a lot to moments of very heavy wind,” Watson said. “A lot of performance is dependent on the crew’s skill.”

In B-division, junior Roberta Steele was skipper with two different crews over the weekend, helping the boat to a strong finish that secured the women a place at the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championships at Yale. Despite the tricks of the Charles, the women will still travel to New Haven in two weeks.

“It came down to three opportunities [to qualify] and this was our last chance,” Watson said. “That’s our river. Even though we’re out there every day, we still don’t understand it.”

NEW ENGLAND FRESHMAN CHAMPIONSHIP

The Nickerson Trophy, the New England championship for freshmen, saw 15 teams in 20 races over two divisions. Harvard locked down fourth place with a point total of 87, behind host Boston College. The finish came after a wind delay that brought the tide into play on Saturday.

“It was a really great weekend especially in comparison to last weekend,” said freshman Teddy Himler, the A-division skipper on Sunday. Last week, the division took 17th place at the Sherman Hoyt Trophy.

“There were really great conditions [Sunday] with white caps and winds of 20 to 25 knots,” Himler said.

In fact, the official results called Sunday a “perfect sailing day.”

The A-division soared to third place, a testament to the joint effort of Himler and Saturday’s skipper, Alan Palmer. Grace Charles and Matt Donelan split crew duties.

Skipper Jon Stokes piloted his way to fifth place in the B-division with the help of crew Matt Donelan on Saturday and Colin Sanlangelo on Sunday.

This solid effort catapulted the team to the Freshman Atlantic Coast Championships next weekend.

“I was pretty uncertain, every year there’s a new breed of competition,” Himler said.