Sailing – Yale Daily News https://yaledailynews.com The Oldest College Daily Fri, 26 Jan 2024 06:57:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 181338879 SAILING: Yale’s Team USA legacy continues with two sailors on the way to Paris 2024 https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2024/01/25/sailing-yales-team-usa-legacy-continues-with-two-sailors-on-the-way-to-paris-2024/ Thu, 25 Jan 2024 06:47:14 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=186810 Ian Barrows ’17 and Stuart McNay ’05, both Yale Sailing alumni, qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics at trials.

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Both past and current Yalies competed in the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team Trials from Jan. 6-13, with two alumni, Ian Barrows ’17 and Stuart McNay ’05, successfully securing spots in Paris this summer. 

The five sailors — Ian Barrows ’17, Stuart McNay ’05, Louisa Nordstrom ’20, Carmen Cowles ’25 and Stephan Baker ’26, all competed in the eight-day event in Miami, Florida. Although not Olympics qualifiers, current sailors Cowles and Baker put on strong performances in the mixed 470 class event and the 49er class event, respectively. Nordstrom placed fourth in the mixed 470 as well. Barrows and McNay will compete in Paris in a couple months with their respective non-Bulldog partners. 

Miami boasted sunny conditions for Barrows to add another accolade to his belt: qualifying for Team USA. After being in second place for the first two days of the event, he and his partner, Hans Henken, took the lead on day three and carried it all the way to the end of the race, securing their Olympics spots. 

During his time at Yale, Barrows was a leader and top competitor for the Bulldogs. Not only was he a four-time ICSA All-American Skipper, but he was also named NEISA Sailor of the Year twice, and ICSA Sailor of the Year in his senior year. Now, Barrows will continue to go for the gold in Paris.

Similarly, McNay is a two-time All-American, the 2002-03 NEISA Sportsman of the Year and a finalist for the 2004-05 College Sailor of the Year. However, he is also a seasoned Olympics competitor, with these qualifiers leading him to attend his fifth consecutive Olympics.

Down South, he and his partner — Eckerd College graduate and fellow seasoned Olympian Lara Dallman-Weiss — placed first in the mixed 470, never dropping down from first place over the entire eight-day period. 

McNay has competed with Team USA in both Beijing and Tokyo and even helped the team secure ninth overall in 2020 in the 470 men’s race. When not training for an Olympics, he has been an assistant sailing coach at his alma mater during the fall semester of 2005 and 2009, as well as during the Spring of 2006. 

Now, he is serving his third season as the Davis Emma Assistant Coach Chair for Brown University Sailing in 2022-24.

These seasoned competitors were not far ahead of Cowles in the mixed 470, as she placed only one point behind the two, just enough to barely miss qualifying. 

Once a NEISA Women’s Rookie of the Year, Cowles has since been Ivy League Women’s Champion, Quantum Women’s College Sailor of the Year Finalist and Women’s All American Skipper. Soon, she may be able to add an Olympic qualification to her accolades.  

Similarly, Baker, who finished fifth in the 49er event back in his hometown of Miami, was named NEISA Open Sailor of the Week, earned First Team All-NEISA and was honored with an All-American Honorable Mention all last season.

Nonetheless, McNay and Barrows will proudly represent the United States in Paris from July 26 to Aug. 11, hoping to take home the gold on the world’s biggest athletic stage.

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Sailors partake in weekend of competitive fleet racing https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/04/26/sailors-partake-in-weekend-of-competitive-fleet-racing/ Wed, 26 Apr 2023 05:33:20 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=182921 The co-ed sailing team headed to Boston and Kings Point this weekend, while the women’s team cruised into fourth in Rhode Island.

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The Yale sailing teams have continued to sturdily sail the Charles and Providence rivers, looking towards postseason fleet and team training.

The weekend allowed sailors to get back in the fleet racing mindset, as they placed third at the Admirals Cup and tenth at the Boston Dinghy Club Challenge Cup. Kings Point saw a light breeze on Saturday, but anticlimactic winds the next day led to only one race taking place. Nearby in Rhode Island, the women’s team came by in fourth place, despite a precarious eastward wind.

“This past weekend was a challenging weekend with tricky conditions, but I was able to learn a lot and continue to get better moving forward,” Nathan Sih ’25 said. “As we near the end of the season, I will continue to keep practicing hard and trying to improve all the way up until nationals at the end of May and beginning of June.”

In Kings Point, the Bulldogs started off by staying in the top five, but ultimately fell out of first place towards the end of the day. 

Although overall Yale placed tenth in Boston, Jessi Avila-Shah ’25 and teammate Mateo Farina ’25 placed second in their division, taking advantage of the lighter and shiftier winds that Sunday brought to the Charles. 

“This weekend was a pretty classic weekend on the Charles River with a shifty breeze,” Avila-Shah said. “I thought our team was good in terms of maintaining good boat speed and fleet race starts.”

The No. 2 ranked women’s team competed with higher stakes this past weekend at the NEISA Fleet Race Champs, a week after their win at the NEISA team race championship

The team came out in fourth out of the top 16 teams, so they did not receive automatic qualifying berths for the ICSA Women’s National Championship. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University received this honor as they placed first and second in the races. 

Battling the shifty conditions for the Reed Trophy were skippers Mia Nicolosi ’25, Emma Cowles ’25 and Megan Grimes ’24, with crews Helena Ware ’23, Sarah Moeder ’26 and Carmen Berg ’26.

Regardless of the weekend’s results, all the Eli sailors are looking forward to their postseason practice from May into June.

“I’m looking forward to postseason practicing and really refining our skills before nationals,” Jack Egan ’25 said. “Everyone can always improve their boat handling, so that’s what we will be working on.” 

According to Sih, once the academic year ends, the team will be practicing twice a day without worrying about schoolwork. 

This weekend will see the Bulldogs compete for an automatic berth to the coed fleet race nationals at the New England Dinghy Champ. The breezes will be shifty, but the team will look to be shiftier.

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SAILING: Bulldogs dominate final in-season team races of season https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/04/18/sailing-bulldogs-dominate-final-in-season-team-races-of-season/ Tue, 18 Apr 2023 04:13:12 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=182753 The Yale co-ed and women’s sailing teams put in strong performances to set themselves up for success in their final fleet races of the season.

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Over the past two weekends, the dominance of the Yale sailing teams has been on full display. Both the co-ed and women’s teams turned in strong performances in their final in-season team races of the season. 

The Bulldogs began the stretch with a strong first-place finish at the New England Team Race Championship on April 8 and 9, going 4–1 in their races.

“Winning the New England Team Race Championship was great as it auto-qualified us for the ICSA Team Race National Championships in Kings Point at the end of May,” Nathan Sih ’25 told the News.

The auto-qualification is an important one for the co-ed team, as the Inter-collegiate Sailing Association National Championships are the biggest of the season. 

The Bulldogs also took some satisfaction in defeating Ivy League rivals Harvard University and Dartmouth College behind strong performances in light wind conditions from skippers Teddy Nicolosi ’24, Jack Egan ’25 and Stephan Baker ’26.

“Conditions were very light and tricky which made it difficult to race and led to the regatta being shortened,” Baker said. “Despite having less races, we were still able to close out the victory with a race to spare. While this victory helped us clinch a spot in the National Championship in King’s Point Academy, NY and the one seed, we are going to continue working extremely hard to defend the national championship title this May.”

The focus then swung to the women’s team as they competed the next weekend in the New England Women’s Team Race Championship. 

The women turned in an equally impressive performance, as they went 15–2 with their only losses coming from Dartmouth. The strong performances earned the Bulldogs another first-place finish and auto-qualification for Nationals.

“The team will now be shifting more towards fleet racing, although team racing will still feature prominently, especially for our women’s team, as they have Women’s Team Race Nationals in two weeks,” Egan said. 

The Bulldogs finished out their in-season team races with the Oberg Trophy, a three-division race in a festive Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the weekend before Marathon Monday.

The Bulldogs turned out strong performances yet again, but came up just four points short of another first-place finish. The team was led by Mateo Farina ’25 and Jessi Avila-Shah ’25, who won the B Division. 

All ICSA National Championships will be held in Kings Point, New York, in late May.

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SAILING: Bulldogs prevail on the Charles River https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/04/04/sailing-bulldogs-prevail-on-the-charles-river/ Tue, 04 Apr 2023 05:11:38 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=182426 The team sailing boats dominated the Marchiando Team race event on the Charles River over the weekend.

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The Bulldogs stayed focused on the windy Charles River this weekend, winning the Marchiando Team race despite shifty conditions.

The Marchiando Cup marked the Bulldogs’ last weekend before the New England qualifiers in Providence, Rhode Island. The sailors in Boston faced windy conditions but still pulled out a first-place finish against notable teams such as Brown University and Tufts University. The win boosted the team’s morale going into the most challenging and important part of the season. 

“I feel myself, along with the rest of the team, performed very well this weekend,” said Jack Egan ’25. “For me personally, each weekend my crew and I are getting more and more in sync and performing better and better.”

Egan races with Nathan Sih ’25 and Catherine Cheung ’24, and both members of his crew helped him deal with the shifty wind conditions during the competition. 

The difference in wind velocity throughout the day made it hard for the team to stay consistent in all their races. Egan commented on the increased competition due to this “significant aspect of randomness.”

“In these conditions, significant emphasis is placed on the crew to keep the boat going as fast as possible, and our crews are some of the best, so I attribute this win to our crews,” Egan said.

Saturday marked a slow start because of the lack of wind, but in the mid-afternoon, there was a full round of round-robin sailing. The following day, significant oscillations in the wind made the balancing and overall maneuvering of the boats much more taxing. However, the Bulldogs stayed undefeated all day on Sunday, placing above second-place Brown, who had four overall losses. 

The Bulldogs had only one loss, which was to Tufts, throughout the weekend of races. 

“Jack and I were able to sail fast and smart, allowing us to only have one loss all weekend, with a final dominating Yale score of 13 wins and one loss,” said Sih, Egan’s crew member.

Fellow northeastern schools Harvard University and Roger Williams University were not in the same division as Yale at the Marchiando Team race. For this reason, Sih said he is “excited” to face these competitors this weekend at the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association team race championships.

The women’s team has also been producing results while racing against their Rhode Island competitors.

At the Dellenbaugh Women’s Team Race this weekend, the Yale women’s sailing team took second behind fellow NEISA competitor and rival Brown.

“At this point in the season, we’re looking to build consistency,” skipper Emma Cowles ’25 told Yale Athletics. “It was definitely a necessity in the shifty conditions at Brown. Saturday had lighter and very shifty winds, while Sunday had much heavier winds. Overall as a team, we are happy with our performance.”

The women’s team will return to the water at the Yale Women’s Team Race in Branford next weekend as they try to get back to their winning ways.

“There is still room for improvement, but we have shown that we are one of the strong NEISA teams,” Megan Grimes ’24 said. 

Both teams are heading into crunch time as the New England Team Race Championships come up for the women and the NEISA Team Race Championship comes up for the team racers. 

All of Yale Sailing is looking to end their season on a solid note at the ICSA Open Team Race National Championships at the end of April. 

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SAILING: Sailors overcome windy conditions to win St. Mary’s and the Friis team races https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/03/30/sailing-sailors-overcome-windy-conditions-and-win-st-marys-and-the-friis-team-races/ Fri, 31 Mar 2023 03:09:07 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=182324 The sailors won their second regatta in a row as their team racing season starts to come in full swing.

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Varied wind conditions and competing teams were no match for the Bulldogs at their recent two races, the St. Mary’s Team Race Inter-Conference and the Friis Team Race. 

The Bulldogs took victory over Harvard University, Georgetown University, Brown University, Navy, the University of Pennsylvania and University of Charleston at the St. Mary’s river, led by skippers Jack Egan ’25, Stephan Baker ’26, Carmen Cowles ’25 and Teddy Nicolosi ’24. The following weekend, the Friis allowed for some close calls, but at the end of the day, Yale came out on top. Additionally, Baker and Benjamin Markert ’23 were named the NEISA Open Sailors of the Week for their critical roles in team racing.

“As is usual for New England Spring, both of these regattas were pretty cold, even getting some hail while sailing at the Friis,” said Egan. “It can be difficult to keep focus when your extremities are losing feeling, but I think we did a good job at staying in the game.”

The team trained together in St. Petersburg, Florida over spring break to prepare for the mid-season regattas. Egan felt that the training down South helped them get rid of “most of the winter rust.” 

The Friis team event, hosted by Roger Williams University, saw Yale go undefeated in all 12 races Saturday. The next day, Yale suffered a loss to Roger Williams during the second round robin and the Coast Guard during the final four. However, their wins the previous day kept them in first overall. 

“The last two regattas had tight competition all the way to the end of Sunday, with our back to back wins to seal the win over Harvard at the end of the St. Mary’s regatta being a highlight there,” said Nathan Sih ’25. 

Sih also expressed how “proud” he was of Markert and Baker for their recent recognition, calling them “a key factor in [their] successes at the past regattas.”

At St. Mary’s, the two aided in four of the final seven races, helping bring the team to success. Last year, senior crew member Markert was crucial in the team’s first-place finish at the NEISA Team Race Championship.

Egan also commented on the pair’s award, stating he was “happy to see them receive that award.” 

“It’s always nice to be recognized, but I think it speaks to the whole team and our collective improvement over the past weeks,” Egan said.

As the team looks forward, they hope to place well at the ICSA Open Team Race and Dinghy National Championships at the end of May.

“We’ve had some great successes in the first few events and are working hard to continue on our momentum from last season,” Mateo Farina ’25 said. “The conference is extremely competitive this year with some new faces but with spring break training and our consistent practice schedule we are in a great place!”

The teams will head to Cambridge this weekend for the Marchiando Team race and to Rhode Island for the Jumbo Team race.

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SAILING: Sailors aim to “stay sharp” during first regattas of the spring https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/03/06/sailors-aim-to-stay-sharp-during-first-regattas-of-the-spring/ Tue, 07 Mar 2023 04:13:02 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=182062 Following a successful fall season, Yale coed sailing took up the tiller again this weekend in Providence after four months off.

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Yale sailors returned to the helm this weekend, placing second at their first regatta of the spring season as they look forward to more team-based racing. 

Sunday, March 5 saw the coed sailors race in two regattas — the Sharpe Trophy Team Race in Providence, Rhode Island, and the Thames River Team Race in New London, Connecticut. The largely successful day of racing marked the start of the spring season for the sailors, who will now focus on more team race events. 

“I’m very excited to finally get back on the water after a long break during winter,” said skipper Nathan Sih ’25. “I am looking forward to getting back into a regular rhythm of practices and regattas as we lead up to nationals at the end of the school year.”

The sailors missed out on the first-place title at the Sharpe Trophy Team Race behind rival Harvard, who ranked first in the ICSA Fall 2022 Rankings, where Yale ranked second.

As the spring season starts up, the team will be focused more on team racing, which is primarily three-on-three races, rather than the fleet races seen in the fall. However, the national championships for both types of races are at the end of the academic year, so they must “stay sharp” in both events, said Jack Egan ’25. 

The team in Providence included Carmen Cowles ’25 with Ben Markert ’23, Egan with Catherine Webb ’23, and Teddy Nicolosi ’24 with Anisha Arcot ’23. The Bulldogs won six of their races, but their loss to Harvard forced them to settle for second place on the day. Sih joined Egan in Providence towards the end of the day, but the planned races were not finished due to a protest that delayed the seeding of the Final Four. 

According to Egan, the spring season brings more wind, challenging conditions and even more competitive racing, so he and his teammates have been practicing on the water whenever warm weather permits. 

“Hopefully, we don’t have to keep the dry suits on for too long this year!” the skipper said.

The group in-state had a more difficult time and earned fifth out of eight teams.

Megan Grimes ’24 noted how much more “technical and strategy-oriented” team racing is than fleet racing. For this reason, the team will be headed to St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday to train over spring break. 

The Sunshine State’s warm weather will allow the team to “get some more time on the water and kick start [our] season,” Sih said. 

This will be their second team trip to Florida this academic year, as they also trained there after the fall season. That training trip was characterized by “numerous team meetings to talk about team racing strategy,” said Grimes.

This season’s viewers should expect the coed A team to place consistently on the podium, led by Egan, Webb, Nicolosi and Arcot. The team is also expected to have a highly competitive B team at many other events. 

Both teams will be back in action in Maryland during spring break at the St. Mary’s Team Race, followed by the Friis and Boston University Team Races the following weekend. 

“We are hoping to improve upon our season last year as the team matures,” said Grimes. “The competition in NEISA is high, so we should have competitive meets on the weekends leading up to Nationals at the end of the spring.”

Nationals will take place in Kings Point, New York.  

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Yale sailors become Match race national champions for second year in a row https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/11/14/yale-sailors-become-match-race-national-champions-for-second-year-in-a-row/ Tue, 15 Nov 2022 04:46:32 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=179792 A team of four Yale sailors won the 2022 ICSA match race championship this past weekend for the second-straight year.

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Four of Yale’s coed sailing team members snatched first place at the ICSA Match Race National Championship for the second year in a row and the second time in program history.

Jack Egan ’25, Megan Grimes ’24, Christophe Chaumont ’23 and Nicholas Davies ’24 competed together for the second year in a row at the match race championship at the San Diego Yacht Club this past Sunday. Under leadership from coaches Thomas Barrows and Hall of Famer Dave Perry, the team coordinated in unison to beat out the University of Charleston and Brown University and win the match. 

“It felt really special to win this event with this team, especially for the second year in a row,”  said Chaumont, who will leave the team of four when he graduates. “Couldn’t have asked for a better way to end my senior fall season.”

The team’s skipper Egan, was the overall brains of the operation as the one making a lot of the stressful decisions as commander of the vessel. He mentioned that there were a couple of times he put the team in a bad situation, but the group’s teamwork was able to “bail them out of it.”

“Being able to defend the title is a special feeling,” Egan told the News. “The field this year was certainly tough, but we were able to overcome it.” 

The team opened the three-day race weekend with a win against Tulane and then Georgetown in the semifinals. Then, in the final round, the team swept the waves and defeated Charleston 3–0.

Although not the match race coach, head sailing coach Leonard commented that, since the team has worked together for two years now, they have “really gelled into a cohesive unit.” He said the great result was a way to repay the sailors’ hard work. 

Grimes, one of the three crew members, said that the win meant a lot to the group of four because this was Chaumont’s last year of racing. It was the last time the four would be able to compete together, making the two-year win even more meaningful. 

Chaumont said that although they didn’t have much practice in the boats they raced in as they did for nationals last year, the team “did a good job of taking each race as a learning opportunity and improving as the event went along.”

Grimes also attributed most of the success to Egan’s “composure under pressure” as a skipper. 

According to Davies, the three days had champagne conditions, a light wind condition typical of San Diego. This allowed for more stands and less time pressure than the regattas in the past. 

“We proved ourselves to be resilient in close matches in the knockout stages and adaptable to the J22s, boats in which we had only been able to practice for a day prior to the regatta,” said Davies. 

The sailing season will resume in 2023. 

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Sailors close out dinghy season in a breeze https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/11/03/sailors-close-out-dinghy-season-in-a-breeze/ Thu, 03 Nov 2022 05:56:26 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=179335 Sailors won the New England Conference Championship as the fall season comes to an end.

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The Bulldogs made remarkable closing waves at the New England Conference Championships this past weekend, winning their first team race event at the Dave Perry Trophy.

In the face of difficult wind conditions, the Yale coed sailors won the Schell Trophy at Coast Guard, which served as the New England Conference Championships. They placed 15 points ahead of second runner-up, Brown, and are looking ahead with bright eyes towards the spring season.

“I feel proud about the team’s fall season,” Emma Cowles ’25 said. “We’ve been able to demonstrate our potential all the while seeing where we have room for growth as a team.” 

Cowles sailed alongside Mia Nicolosi ’25, Anisha Arcot ’23 and Ben Markert ’23. The trio finished second in Division B. That effort, coupled with a decisive margin of victory by Division A sailors Jack Egan ’25 and Catherine Webb ’23, gave the Bulldogs the overall win. 

Egan and Webb, who finished first in the A division, earned their impressive fourth dinghy sailing win this season alone. 

Head coach Zachary Leonard believes the team has “improved a lot” this past season, and thinks that “the team is hungry to keep improving.”

Additionally, Yale secured second place at the Victoria Urn Trophy at Brown. The event, which functioned as this year’s New England Women’s Fall Championship, featured winds reaching up to eight knots.

Cowles, who sailed with Helena Ware ’23 and Carmen Berg ’26 in Division B, mentioned the difficulty of maintaining their consistency as the wind conditions were not only high-velocity, but also “changing constantly.”

Division B never fell outside of the top 10 and won three out of the total 12 races. Mia Nicolosi ’25, Ximena Escobar ’25, and Sarah Moeder ’26 also fought their way to third place in Division A, very close behind second. 

Overall, the team took the silver, trailing first-place Dartmouth by just seven points. The strong finish to the season showcased the potential of this year’s Blue and White squad.

The Bulldogs also raced at the first and only team racing event of the fall at the Dave Perry Trophy, where they took home a first-place win at the McNay Family Sailing Center. The event marked a hopeful beginning to the spring’s season, which focuses more heavily on team races. 

“The spring brings a different type of racing, team racing,” Leonard said. “Our team really likes team racing, so we are really looking forward to starting the process.”

Cowles expressed this excitement as she emphasized that the team will need to practice “the plays and game strategy needed for this style of racing,” referring to team racing and three-on-three, best-combo-wins events. 

The spring season will allow the coed team to practice both fleet racing and team racing regattas, leading up to the National Championships at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. 

Last spring, the Bulldogs accumulated an impressive number of awards, including the Fowle Trophy, awarded to the best overall team in the nation, as they won both the women’s and open team race nationals. Nathan Sih ’25 explained the team’s mindset as they look to replicate that success. 

 “As we prepare for this spring season, we will continue to work on taking advantage of every opportunity on the water to improve our speed and tactics in order to come out strong after winter break,” Sih said.

The coed team will officially finish the fall season in the single-handed nationals this upcoming weekend, but the majority of the fall season is complete. 

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SAILING: Bulldogs finish third in Atlantic Coast Championship bid https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/10/25/sailing-bulldogs-finish-third-in-atlantic-coast-championship-bid/ Tue, 25 Oct 2022 05:08:24 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=178963 The Bulldogs qualified for and competed at the coed ACC championship, where they earned a third place finish. They also sailed the Charles River once more to compete in the Oberg Trophy event.

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The Yale Sailing team came in third in the coed Atlantic Coast Championship this past weekend, placing behind Harvard University and Dartmouth College.

The sailors earned an invite to the ACC Championship by finishing among the top nine teams at a qualifying event on Oct. 8. Wind pressure throughout the qualifiers made each race unique, resulting in the Bulldogs being unable to maintain their lead but still earning a second-place result. 

“It was an awesome experience to be a part of the team as we qualified for the Atlantic Coast Championship,” Carmen Berg ’26 said. “Our feedback and observations during practice and post-review were a crucial part of our team’s preparation.”

Berg was a part of the dinghy sailors that competed at the Captain Hurst Bowl and the Savin Hill Invite at Dartmouth and Boston College, respectively, the weekend before the ACC Championship. At these events, they aimed to practice fleet racing for the more significant championships up ahead. 

At the Savin Hill Invite, the Bulldogs brought home the win, finishing nine points ahead of second-place winner, Boston College. Up at Dartmouth, the lack of wind prevented Division C from sailing, and the team ended up in third overall. 

“With light wind conditions we experienced at Dartmouth, getting the most power out of the boat was crucial for us,” Berg said. “It was important to focus on tacks and gybes to achieve this via synchronicity between the skipper and crew as well as powerful and well-timed movements to create speed in the boat.”

This same weekend, the coed team raced at the New England Match Race Qualifiers, where they ultimately ranked second overall, losing to Brown University in the finals. Now, whether or not they compete in the Match Race Nationals in San Diego, California will be decided at the Inter-collegiate Sailing Association Committee

Sophomore Nathan Sih ’25 believes that the team’s “productive” practices and “quality leadership” by their coaches and upperclassmen enabled them to qualify for the ACC. 

Sih helped the team qualify for the ACC at King’s Point by crewing for Jack Egan ’25. This meet was crucial as it allowed the team to qualify for the ACC and will be the venue for the Spring National Championship at the end of this academic year. He also aided the team at the Savin Hill Invite alongside Catherine Cheung ’24, Mateo Farina ’25 and Jessi Avila-Shah ’25. 

Coming up on the end of the fall season, Sih said that they “plan on continuing [their] hard work and improving [their] game every day on the water.”

The Bulldogs gave the ACC their all during the weekend of intense competition and varied weather conditions. Sailors Egan and Catherine Webb ’23 pulled Division A into first place, while Carmen Cowles ’25 and Ben Markert ’23 in Division B performed well in the 420 fleet. 

Changing wind conditions proved difficult as the Bulldogs trailed closely behind fierce competitor Harvard, but they ultimately ended up in third behind Dartmouth. 

In Boston at the Oberg trophy this weekend, the team came in ninth overall, sailing on the Charles River for the third time this season.

Head coach Zachary Leonard said he was “really happy” with the entire team’s progress this season. He told the News that the coed team is doing the same preparation they always do for the end of the season. 

“Our focus is on improving our skills and refining our partnerships,” he said. 

Yale coed sailing is set to end the Fall season this coming weekend at the Schell Trophy, Dave Perry Trophy and Nickerson Trophy.

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SAILING: Bulldogs making waves at windy weekend races https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/09/28/sailing-bulldogs-making-waves-at-windy-weekend-races/ Thu, 29 Sep 2022 03:25:18 +0000 https://yaledailynews.com/?p=178218 The Yale Sailing Team competed at four events this past weekend, coming away with a first-place win at the Hoyt Trophy.

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Yale sailors encountered difficult weather conditions this weekend at four regattas. However, that did not stop the team from snatching a win at the Hoyt Trophy, ninth at the Hood Trophy, sixth at the Salt Pond Invite and first and third at the Mrs. Hurst Bowl. 

The Bulldogs dominated at the 25th Mrs. Hurst Bowl, hosted by Dartmouth College, as they prepared to qualify for the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship. Winning by 60 points, Carmen Cowles ’25, Sydney Zoehrer ’24, Sarah Moeder ’26, Emma Cowles ’25 and Carmen Berg ’26 took first by a wide margin; the other Yale team finished third, only two points behind second place. 

“On Saturday, Carmen [Cowles] and I focused on clean, low-density starts, boat speed and limiting our number of tacks to the windward mark,” Zoehrer said. “Going through the motions to control what we could and making small adjustments along the way helped us power through a heavy-wind day and stay out in front of the pack.”

Emma Cowles mentioned that her boat had a rough start to the event, but they managed to make an impressive comeback. To deal with the varied wind conditions, they “focused step-by-step on passing one boat at a time and staying in phase with the wind shifts,” she said. 

Saturday’s forecast boasted strong winds, which allowed the team to practice heavy air sailing, while Sunday’s wind conditions were lighter and consistent with what the team has seen in the past, Jessi Avila-Shah ’25 told the News. Communication was key for both the skippers and crews over the two days and 14 races. 

“We had very different conditions between Saturday and Sunday,” Emma Cowles said. “I’m happy with how Carmen Berg and I were communicating in the boat and executing our strategy.”

In addition, Rhode Island experienced some up-and-down wind conditions, but the Bulldogs managed the challenge with ease. At the end of day one of the Hoyt Trophy, the Bulldogs were able to land first in Division A and second in B. Day two proved to be more challenging as wind directions changed, but the Bulldogs managed to stay first in Division A, fifth in Division B, and first overall, winning the event.

Notably, Jack Egan ’25 and Catherine Webb ’23 won their division by 25 points. 

The conditions in Massachusetts at the Hood Trophy were equally challenging. Sailors of all years and talents attended this race for Yale, and they finished in a solid ninth place. The second Yale team finished right behind the other in tenth place. It was essential to start the races strong, stay in the proper phase and have sturdy handling of their boats. 

Stephan Baker ’26 continued to make a splash this weekend as a new addition to the team, earning first place next to Meredith Ryan ’23 in Division A at the same regatta.

Emma Cowles expressed how pleased she is with the team’s improvements this particular week, and she is looking forward to putting in the effort at practice so that the following regatta results can showcase their hard work.

Lastly, the Bulldogs placed sixth overall out of 15 competing boats at the Salt Pond Invite, also set in Rhode Island.

Yale Sailors are set to stay in-state for the Danmark Trophy next weekend, as well as travel to Rhode Island and Massachusetts once more for the Moody Trophy and Lark Invite, respectively. 

The post SAILING: Bulldogs making waves at windy weekend races appeared first on Yale Daily News.

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