Crimson Overcomes Wind To Secure Spot at Nationals

With four spots at the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association’s Dinghy national championships on the line, the No. 4 Harvard co-ed sailing team found itself on the outside looking in after a sixth-place showing on a tumultuous Saturday at the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn.

But on Sunday, the Crimson stormed back, finishing the New England Dinghy Championship in second place and earning its second coveted nationals invite in as many weeks.

“Saturday was very interesting,” junior captain Kyle Kovacs said. “We had wind from every single geographical direction at some point during the day, and it made racing difficult. We only had four races on Saturday, and some that were sailed should not have been sailed.”

The 13 combined races over the two days resulted in 139 total points for Harvard, 12 behind winner Boston College. Dartmouth’s 164 points earned the Big Green a third-place finish, while Yale took the last spot at nationals with 177 points in fourth place. Brown rounded out the top five with 186 points.

“Just like the past few weekends, our main goal was to qualify for nationals,” senior skipper Clay Johnson said. “Winning would have been nice, but we wanted to sail conservatively, taking few risks, and be consistent at the top of the fleet.”

Both boats did just that, finishing in the top three of their respective divisions. In A, Johnson and senior crew Kristen Lynch assumed sole responsibility of the Crimson’s boat, leading Harvard to a third-place finish with 93 points, behind Brown and Boston College.

In B-division, Kovacs was skipper while junior Elyse Dolbec and sophomore shared crew duties. The Crimson finished as the runner-up behind Boston College with 46 points, just four off the winning pace.

Johnson echoed the sentiments of Kovacs, calling Saturday’s conditions “perhaps the weirdest sailing conditions ever.”

“A guy who’s been coaching for 40 years said he’d never seen anything like this,” Johnson said. “It was just absurd, and they got in four sketchy races. I didn’t do so well, and I had some bad luck.”

He credited all three crews’ ability to make important adjustments during the bizarre day as a key to the team’s success.

“I think our crews actually deserve a lot of credit,” Johnson said. “They always had to be making changes and adjusting things. Those that transition well are the boats that really sail fast and sail well at the top of the fleet.”

Particularly important was sophomore Jon Garrity. He took over for Dolbec when conditions were especially breezy, sailing three races and helping the B-boat to wins in every one of them.

“He has the best record in college sailing right now,” Johnson said.

The weekend also marked the selection of the annual All-New England team. All four of the regular competitors—Johnson, Kovacs, Lynch and Dolbec—were honored with first-team selections, marking the second and third such honors for Kovacs and Johnson, respectively.

“The regatta was basically decided on Sunday,” Kovacs said. “It was a lot like sailing on the Charles. It was a good solid finish, and it bodes well for nationals because we were in the same boats we’ll be sailing at nationals.”

The next regatta for Harvard will be the North American Women’s Championship at the end of finals period, while the co-eds get a break before taking back to the water for team race nationals beginning May 27 and dinghy nationals on May 30.

The Crimson will look to its performance on Sunday as the model to follow come month’s end.

“I was able to turn it around on the last day and we’re all really psyched about it,” Johnson said. “Hopefully we can take a few weeks here during reading period, sail hard, and get on track for nationals.”

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