Rough Waters Impede Sailing

Harvard sailing took to the water again this weekend, sailing in three races around Boston. All three were two-day events, so the drastic weather change between Saturday and Sunday made things more difficult that usual for boats as they adjusted on the fly.

“I think it was hard this weekend. The conditions were really fluky,” freshman Meghan Wareham said. “There were some races where it was really confusing, where it looked like you were doing horribly, and then you looked up and you’d be winning.”

The sailors will be in action again next weekend, splitting between the New England Dinghy Championship, the Oberg Trophy, and the Gibb Trophy.

CENTRAL SERIES 3

At the Central Series 3 race, the Crimson took fourth as a team, spearheaded by a first-place finish from the A pairing of freshman John Stokes and sophomore Winston Yan. The two overcame a twelfth-place finish in the sixth of eight races on the weekend to take the top spot by two over Yale’s A boat.

But the Bulldogs took the team title, as their B boat finished fourth overall, while the Crimson’s B-boat finished twelfth.

The B-boat also underwent a crew change midway through, with junior Olivia Volkoff replacing freshman Grace Charles after the third race, with each working alongside freshman Matt Donelan. That team had a total placement of 83, highlighted by a fourth-place finish in the second race, leaving Harvard with a team total of 126.

LYNNE MARCHIANDO TROPHY

The Crimson’s co-ed team defeated the Coast Guard Academy in a sail-off to take the Lynne Marchiando Trophy in brisk wind on Sunday.

After a Saturday on which a young Harvard squad struggled, falling into the second group for Sunday’s finals, the Crimson finished strong, taking down the Coast Guard with ease to win the lower division of the tournament.

“It was, ironically, one of the easiest races we had all day,” senior Kyle Kovacs said. “We got out to an early lead and sort of ran away with it. We didn’t have to do much racing.”

The tournament, which featured a round-robin format with three boats from each team facing the other school’s three boats, was won by Yale, who took home the Jan Friis Trophy by going 12-2 in its races.

WOMEN’S PRESIDENT’S TROPHY

Harvard sailed to a fourth-place team finish in the Women’s President’s Trophy, led by the A-boat of Wareham and junior Megan Watson. The pair took second in the A division over ten race, tallying just 41 points, including a victory in the seventh of the weekend’s ten races.

“I was happy that we sailed so consistently,” Wareham said. “We definitely had to change how we were handling the boat. On Sunday, it did get light again by the end of the day…so we had to be quick to adjust.”

The B-boat of sophomore Liz Powers and freshman Quincy Bock finished fifth in the B-division, rebounding from a tenth-place finish in the eighth race to win the ninth contest.

“I think the great thing about Quincy and Liz is that they really keep a positive attitude and they work really well together as a boat,” Wareham said. “They can have that one bad race…and they’re able to let it go and I think that’s what makes them really good sailors.”

Yale won the event, totaling 86 points to Harvard’s 96.

—Staff writer Brad Hinshelwood can be reached at bhinshel@fas.harvard.edu.