Harvard Struggles Through Four Regattas

It was an unpredictable weekend for the Harvard sailing team, as poor weather conditions caused the sailors to compete under unfavorable circumstances and forced several regattas to call off entire days of racing.

SHERMAN HOYT TROPHY

The Crimson sent a youthful contingent to the Sherman Hoyt Trophy, at Brown and co-hosted by nearby Boston College. The sailors fought breezy shifts of 90 degrees on Saturday, which died down on Sunday, but an on-land postponement caused a very late start, limiting the amount of completed races to six.

Freshman Gram Slattery and sophomore Sarah Pierson battled these conditions as skipper and crew respectively to take 14th in the A-division, taking four top-five finishes on the weekend.  The two finished the weekend with 70 points.

In the B-division, the freshman duo of Michael Drumm and Richard Bergsund found a bit more success than their A-division counterparts, placing in the top five in six of their races and earning 49 points on their way to an eighth-place finish out of the field of 18.

“We have figured each other out, and we trust each other a lot,” Drumm said.  “We are pretty comfortable with each other, and we were able to make decisions well.”

Harvard finished the regatta in 13th place overall. The Eagles would narrowly edge out Yale and College of Charleston for the overall victory.

STU NELSON TROPHY

The Crimson started off strong in the Stu Nelson Trophy, a women’s event hosted by Connecticut College, but Mother Nature had other plans. After a full day of racing on Saturday, the regatta was called off on Sunday due to a lack of wind.  With severe limitations due to the weather conditions, the results of the event will not be considered official, as the required three races in each division were not completed.

Harvard did have a strong showing on Saturday, the only day of sailing for the event. The senior pair of co-captain Alex Jumper and Emily Lambert finished Saturday sitting atop the A-division scoreboard. The tandem earned three top-five finishes out of its four races and ended the day with 18 points.

In the B-division, sophomores Morgan Russom and Isabel Ruane had a disqualification in their second race of the regatta that pushed them to the bottom of the scoreboard. With no wind on Sunday, the B-division was only able to complete two races.

Overall, the Crimson finished the regatta in seventh place with a score of 52 points, taking the tiebreaker over MIT, and only two points away from a three-way tie with the U.S. Naval Academy and Tufts.

138th RUDOLPH OBERG TROPHY

Harvard also competed at the 138th Rudolph Oberg Trophy—in-conference regatta—hosted by cross-town rival MIT. Light, shifting breezes on Sunday made conditions difficult, and long postponements interrupted the races as the sailors hoped for stronger winds.

The Crimson took ninth in the A-division behind freshman Brian Drumm and junior Nicholas Gordon. With four top-five finishes, Drumm and Gordon gave a very steady performance throughout the day, earning 93 points.

Sophomore Caitlin Watson and freshman Emma Smith sailed in the B-division, tallying one top-five finish. The pair did not start in the final race of the regatta, which hurt their score and gave them 117 points on the weekend and a 14th place finish.

In the C-division, the sophomore pair of Alice Kenney and Luke O’Connor took home one first-place finish, but eventually ended the weekend in 11th place.

At the end of the weekend, Harvard took in 12th place overall of the 16 teams, as Tufts, Dartmouth, and Vermont snapped up the top spots, respectively.

BC INVITATIONAL

The BC Invitational started under overcast skies and breezy conditions, continuing the trend of difficult weather conditions for the competitors from Cambridge. For yet another regatta, the racing was canceled on Sunday due to a lack of breeze.

“There was definitely a solid breeze, which was better for those who had bigger pairs,” sophomore Ames Lyman said.  “There was a ton of current, and it was a factor that I had personally never raced in a high-current situation like that.”

In the A-division, Lyman and sophomore Catherine Philbin earned three top-10 finishes, earning 116 points and finishing eighth.

Freshman Ansel Duff and classmate Ashleigh Inglis won a top-five finish in the B-division and ended the day with 135 points and an eighth place finish.

Yale won the regatta, edging out Dartmouth and Boston University. Harvard finished eighth overall.