Spring Break Brings Smooth Sailing for Crimson

With an entire spring break to devote to practice at the site of Nationals this year, the Harvard sailing team took advantage of the training during the time off, competing in four regattas over the weekend and finishing no lower than fifth in any event. The Crimson earned the squad’s second first-place finish of the spring, in addition to a runner-up finish and as a fourth-place nod.

“We had our practices all week at Navy,” freshman skipper Drew Robb said. “I’ve been sailing non-stop for the past week. We’ve had a lot of practice lately.”

OBERG TROPHY

Northeastern played host to the Oberg Trophy on the Charles River, providing the No. 5 co-ed team with a bit of home-water advantage against the rest of the 18-team field. Harvard capitalized, cruising to a decisive first-place finish, totaling just 153 points in the easy win.

“We were really consistent in our fleets,” Robb said. “We had a really large lead compared to everyone else.”

Salve Regina was 48 points behind in second-place with a 201-point total, while Dartmouth, the Coast Guard and Boston University rounded out the top five.

“It was on our home waters, so we were really familiar with the conditions and there weren’t a lot of teams that had sailed there very much,” Robb said. “The conditions were pretty much the same throughout the whole regatta—light and shifty—and it was easy for me to have consistent results.”

It was Robb’s boat that was most consistent, as he and freshman crew Hyunjin Kim won the B-division by 33 points. In A-division, sophomore skipper Jon Garrity and senior crew Ashley Nathanson took second-place for the Crimson, finishing with just a single point more than the Big Green in first.

“Hyunjin has really improved a lot lately,” Robb said of his crew. “We’re talking more now about the tactics of the boat, and we’re thinking our way through the race now. We’re using two people instead of one, and things are getting better.”

A cooperative weather weekend helped fuel the dominating performance.

“It was fairly warm and sunny,” Robb said. “On Sunday we had to wait an hour or two for the winds, but it filled in nicely.”

JOSEPH DUPLIN TROPHY

The No. 8 women also stayed close to home over the weekend, traveling to Tufts for the 28th Duplin Trophy. The Crimson took fourth-place overall in the nine-team field, with host-Tufts taking top honors.

A single division saw each team race an A and B boat, with Harvard’s best finish coming from its A-tandem of skipper Roberta Steele and crew Lauren Brants. The sophomores took sixth overall, while freshman crew Liz Powers and sophomore skipper Margaret Wang weren’t far behind in ninth-place for the Crimson’s B boat. Just three points separated the teams, and only ten separated places five through 11.

SOUTHERN NE TEAM RACE

Connecticut College and the Coast Guard Academy were the sites for the Southern New England Team Race on Saturday and Sunday, in which a strong Crimson showing earned the co-ed team a second-place finish.

Each team sent six sailors to compete in the two-day event, where the best performers from the first day battled it out on Day 2 to determine the winner.

“There were eight teams the first day, and eight teams at another venue, so they took the top teams from each [on the second day],” junior Elyse Dolbec said. “It was like a championship bracket.”

It was Harvard’s quick start that helped the team to the stout finish.

“The first day went very well—we were undefeated,” Dolbec said. “This is our first real big regatta with the team, and I was really happy with the way everyone worked together.”

Dolbec served as crew to junior captain Kyle Kovacs, while senior skipper Clay Johnson and senior crew Kristen Lynch also competed. The other all-senior boat was comprised of skipper Matt Knowles and crew Emily Simon.

“We sailed really well today,” Dolbec said. “We had a few losses and a couple of bad starts, but all in all, it was a successful regatta. I’m pretty pleased with our performance.”

CENTRAL SERIES 3

The weekend’s final regatta was hosted by the Crimson, and the Harvard co-eds took fifth-place in the season’s third Central Series. The Crimson took seventh-place in A-division thanks to the work of senior skipper Robby McIntosh and freshman crew Michelle Konstandt. In B-division, senior skipper Marion Guillaume led Harvard in a third-place showing, and though sophomore Kerry Ann Bradford served as crew in the regatta’s first 12 races, Powers took over duties for Sunday’s final two races.

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.