Sailing Struggles In Nine Regatta-Weekend

It was a jam-packed weekend for the Harvard sailing team, which competed in six regattas along the northern Atlantic coast.

Lane Trophy

It was a tough showing for the Crimson, who failed to win any of its match-ups in this in-conference lark regatta hosted by Tufts. The Jumbos came out on top, winning 83.3 percent of the races.

Five teams from four schools came out for Sunday’s round robin. Racing for Harvard was senior captain Ames Lyman, junior Richard Bergsund, sophomore Daniel Leichus, and freshmen Bennet Capozzi, Emma Wheeler and Olivia Kjorlien.

The regatta had three rounds, each with 10 face-offs of two teams that had their six sailors split into three boats. Harvard’s scores totaled higher than each of its competitors in every set, ending its day at 0-12.

Yale Women’s Intersectional

The Crimson headed down to Connecticut for a two-day FJ intersectional regatta on Saturday, but racing didn’t start until 2:30 in the afternoon due to heavy winds that kept the sailors onshore.

Yale finished on top, while the women sailors of Harvard placed 14th out of the 18 teams competing.

Caitlin Watson ’14 and Kristina Jakobson ’16 were in the A division while Sophie Bermudez ’16 and Ashleigh Inglis ’15 competed in the B division. Both squads finished in 14th place.

Captain Hurst Bowl

The poor sailing conditions were echoed up north on Mascoma Lake in New Hampshire, where Dartmouth hosted this intersectional regatta. The sailors couldn’t compete until 12:30 in the afternoon on Saturday due to the lack of wind.

Their luck turned around on Sunday when the 18 teams were met with much stronger and consistent wind, and officials were able to fit nine more races in before the day was over.

Despite the change in weather, the Crimson finished in 16th place. Harvard sent some of its more routine competitors to the regatta: Michael Drumm ’15 and Luke O’Connor ’14 in A and Gram Slattery ’15 and Julia Lord ’17 in B. Senior captain Isabel Ruane bounced between divisions.

“I think in general the two boats that sailed [there] were disappointed this weekend,” sophomore Jacob Bradt said. “They were struggling with starts and didn’t perform as well in a fleet as they thought they would.”

Navy Fall Invitational

The Crimson finished in fourth place in this large, four-division regatta down in Annapolis, earning its highest ranking of the weekend.

Each division differed by the type of boat being sailed, and Harvard sent down seven sailors to bring home a fourth place overall finish.

The Crimson’s strongest performances came from single-handed competitors. In Division C freshman Juan Perdomo finished second sailing a laser. Sophomore Marek Zaleski also finished second in the D division, sailing a radial.

Bradt competed in the C division in FJs with junior Brian Drumm. They came in sixth place.

“Overall, while we’re happy with our fourth place finish, we know we could have done better,” Bradt said. “We felt like we made a lot of unforced and silly errors that got us more 15s, 18s, and 19s on our score line than we would have wanted.”

Norm Reid Trophy

At the first round-robin regatta of the weekend, Harvard faced a small, yet competitive pool of opponents in this in-conference meet of 420s.

In the two rounds and final four, the Crimson competed just 10 times in the three-vs-three match-ups, failing to win a single one.

Roger Williams finished first with a sweeping 13-0 performance. The two teams from Tufts finished in the middle of the crowd.

It was a young group for Harvard, which sent junior Richard Bergsund and sophomore Daniel Leichus along with four freshmen: Olivia Kjorlien, Bennet Capozzi, William Bloxham, and Victor Kamenker.

Firefly and FJ Invite

The Crimson finished near the middle of the pack in this in-conference regatta on its home waters of the Charles. Of the 17 teams present, Harvard came in eighth place with 152 points. Tufts took home first, leading the scores with 71.

The Crimson did show improvement during the day when it cut its score from 96 and ninth place in the A division to 56 and fourth place in the B division.

Racing switched between FJ and Fireflies in each division.

Sophomore Adam Brodheim and freshman Emma Wheeler teamed up in A while freshman David Mende sailed solo in B.

Looking back on the weekend, Permero shared his thoughts on moving forward.

“I think we just need to get more regatta experience and be more mentally focused,” Permero said. “I think the skill set we already have. It’s more a matter of getting accustomed to this racing mentality and making sure the skills we learn in practice translate to the race course.”

—Staff writer Tanner Skenderian can be reached at tskenderian@college.harvard.edu.