Sailing Competes in Three Weekend Regattas

Harvard sailing saw action in three regattas over the weekend. The A team traveled to Roger Williams to compete in the Ted Ferrarone Team Race, while the B team set sail at Tufts in the Mystic Lake Team Race Invitational. Meanwhile, the women’s squad participated in the Dellenbaugh Women’s Trophy at Brown.

TED FERRARONE TEAM RACE

The A team performed out of its skin for the Crimson, winning 17 of the 18 races—five more than the number of victories of second place Vermont Catamounts.

“We’ve definitely been getting better at team racing but we definitely weren’t expecting to do as well as we did,” sophomore skipper Gram Slattery said. “No one could have expected to win 17 out of 18 races. I mean everything was on today.”

After a disappointing season thus far compared to usual standards, the hard training that Harvard put in over spring break seems to have paid off.

“There was a lot of really good communication between all three boats,” Slattery said. “All the plays we had on paper we were able to execute well.”

The Crimson was out of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association rankings going into the weekend but still managed to snag an honorable mention. While the ICSA predicted that “in one year [Harvard] will move from spoiler to force,” the squad of one junior, four sophomores, and one freshman appears to be a year ahead of schedule based on the results of this weekend.

“It’s no secret that [the team] hasn’t been as strong as it has been in years past,” Slattery said. “But we’ve been progressively getting better through the fall and through the spring and so I think [the win] marks a stepping stone to an upward trend.”

DELLENBAUGH WOMEN’S TROPHY

The women were unable to replicate the success of the A team, finishing sixth in the Dellenbaugh Women’s Trophy against an extremely competitive field. All of the five teams that beat the Crimson were in the top 11 of the ICSA rankings before the regatta, providing an opportunity for Harvard to test itself against the best of opposition.

“This was a tough regatta,” junior captain Isabel Ruane said. “This is probably the toughest [group of] fleets we will face until nationals, maybe. It was an intersectional regatta so there were teams from every part of the country, and most teams sent their A game. So we were pleased that we could hang and compete and do well with a competitive group.”

The weather conditions were reasonable on Saturday but got tough on Sunday as the wind picked up. Nonetheless, the B division was able to pull out an effort worthy of garnering 93 points over the weekend.

“We did well [on Saturday], it was medium air,” Ruane said. “We could handle [it] well. [Sunday] was tougher because it was really windy. We don’t sail in heavy breeze often but we were pleased that we could keep up. Especially our B division of Caitlin Watson and Kristina Jakobson, pulled off some really good races in the heavy winds, so they were really pleased that they could do well and we were really proud of them.”

This is the type of performance the team will look to capitalize and improve on in the upcoming weeks, according to Ruane.

“We’re very pleased with the sixth position,” Ruane said. “We know it’s a keeper, and we’re looking forward to having more finishes like that—[those are] the kinds of finishes we want.”

MYSTIC LAKE TEAM RACE INVITATIONAL

At Tufts, the B team competed in a tough regatta. Against many of the top crews in the nation, the Crimson finished seventh out of the eight teams.

Harvard knew it was up against some of the best boats around who had brought their A teams no less, and thus the team went into the weekend with an open mind.

“There wasn’t big pressure on the team,” freshman Marek Zaleski said. “Our goal was simply to learn.”

“We have a relatively inexperienced squad when it comes to team racing,” Zaleski added. “So we didn’t perform that well but we did the best that we could and we lived up to expectations."