Breezy Regattas Bring Mixed Results

The Harvard sailing team stayed local for the first weekend of spring break, competing in two regattas in New England on March 22-23.

Though the results were somewhat mixed, both Crimson contingents came away from the blustery weekend happy with their results.

The co-ed sailing team took fourth place out of 18 teams at the Boston Dinghy Club Cup, held on Harvard’s home turf of the Charles River.

Meanwhile, the women’s team competed in the Mosbacher-Knapp Trophies in Branford, Conn., a co-ed regatta.

The Crimson placed 13th in the 16-team field in the event that also served as the Ivy League championship.

BOSTON DINGHY CLUB CUP

Harvard’s co-ed squad sailed to a fourth-place finish at the Boston Dinghy Club Cup, led by a first-place finish in the C division.

Sophomores Drew Robb and Michelle Konstadt beat out the MIT tandem to win their division, finishing in the top 10 in 15 out of 18 races.

“Our C-division boat was very consistent. [Robb] had a really great regatta,” senior Elyse Dolbec said. “It was really great to see him step up and do well.”

The Crimson’s A-division pair of senior skipper Kyle Kovacs and crew Elyse Dolbec sailed to a third-place finish, but a few poor finishes offset the team’s five race victories.

“Our boat specifically had some races that were disappointing,” Dolbec said. “We had a lot of unforced errors and double-digit finishes which prevented us from winning the division.”

One of those errors came in the regatta’s 11th race, when a pin flew off of Harvard’s boat, dropping them to a last-place finish.

“We’re not allowed to get breakdown points for that, but we rotate boats every two races and it can get very hectic,” Dolbec said. “It came back to haunt us and we went from fourth to last which was pretty unfortunate.”

The conditions also hampered the Crimson’s efforts.

“Saturday was pretty windy, which is one of our weaknesses as a team, but we did fairly well,” Dolbec said.

Harvard was represented in the B division by a pair of juniors, skipper and captain Jon Garrity and crew Kerry Anne Bradford.

The tandem was able to record four top-five finishes, but finished 13th in the division.

Yale was the regatta’s overall winner, followed closely by St. Mary’s and MIT.

MOSBACHER-KNAPP TROPHIES

The women’s team was challenged at the Yale-hosted Mosbacher-Knapp Trophies, sailing in heavy winds against co-ed competition.

“It was a higher level of competition than we’re used to. Every single boat on the starting line was very good,” junior captain Megan Watson said. “We had to fight hard the whole race.”

The Crimson was looking for experience, not the Ivy title, in sending its women’s team to a co-ed regatta.

“We sent our women’s team because in three weeks our qualifiers for nationals are going to be sailed at Yale,” Watson explained. “The purpose of the regatta was to get us the time and experience for qualifiers.”

“In sailing, only about half the Ivy teams have competitive teams, so [Ivy championships are] actually not that big a deal,” she added.

Skipper Watson and freshman crew Meghan Wareham placed 10th in the A division, a good result considering the conditions.

“We were encouraged by the results because it was windy,” Watson said. “We were on the smaller end so we did decently.”

The A team finished very strongly, notching top-eight finishes in four of its last five races.

The B-division team of freshman Quincy Bock and sophomores Liz Powers, Ali Beyer, and Kate Harris placed 14th. Their weekend was highlighted by a second-place finish in the second race of the regatta.

Overall, the host Bulldogs barely edged out Brown to take the team title.

The heightened level of competition and familiarity with the course will be beneficial to Harvard as it prepares for qualifiers.

“We’re definitely positive coming away from it,” Watson said. “We learned what to do and we’ll remember what we learned and bring it to qualifiers.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.