Sailing Maintains No. 1 National Ranking

Of all the Harvard teams competing for national recognition this spring, the No. 1 Harvard sailing team may have the most desirable championship venue—Hawaii.

Honolulu is hosting the three spring national championships of sailing this week. With high finishes at the Team Racing and Coed Dinghy national championships, Harvard can defend its claim on the Fowle Trophy—college sailing’s highest team honor.

But the road to the all-around sailing national championship didn’t begin and end in Hawaii. The Harvard sailors had three national championships to race for in the fall, in addition to intersectional regattas and qualifiers throughout the fall and spring.

Harvard’s results this season, as predicted, have been exceptional. When a team doesn’t graduate a single key sailor from a national championship team the year before, nothing less can be expected.

“The season has been one of the most successful in recent history, where we have won almost every major regatta we entered,” said senior Sean Doyle, who was recently voted the northeast’s top skipper for the second straight year.

The Crimson started off the fall championship season auspiciously by defending the Sloops national title, led by the two-time All-American Doyle, who had special motivation to win the event in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Fla. Junior Dan Litchfield and sophomore Cardwell Potts were the other competitors.

The championship, as usual, was shockingly close, as Harvard edged out Charleston 34 to 36. The regatta came down to the final race.

“It was possibly the most exciting race I’ve ever been in in my entire life,” Doyle said. “It came down to surfing one wave in the last 10 seconds to pass three boats. I had more highs and lows in that race than I’d like to have again.”

With one national championship under their belts, the Crimson sailors looked for two more at the ICSA men’s and women’s Singlehanded championships.

Senior Margaret Gill, a two-time women’s national champion, fell short of defending her title and finished fifth. On the men’s side, junior Clay Bischoff and Doyle finished third and fifth, respectively.

Those results were more than enough to give Harvard the lead in the Fowle Trophy standings at the end of the fall. The Sloops and Singlehanded championships gave Harvard 36 points. Old Dominion, with 29 points, was the closest competitor.

The final Fowle Trophy standings will be decided by the three championships in Hawaii this week.

Harvard qualified for two of the spring championships—Team Racing and Coed Dinghies. The Crimson finished second at each last year, which was allowed it to wrap up the Fowle Cup, despite not qualifying for the Women’s Championship.

Results of the national championships were not available at press time.

SAILING

RESULTS No. 1 ranking all season

COACH Michael O’Connor

CAPTAINS Sean Doyle, Susan Bonney

HIGHLIGHTS Doyle leads team to Sloops National Title in his hometown of St. Petersburg. Senior Margaret Gill places fifth in women’s singlehanded nationals. Junior Clay Bischoff places third on the men’s side.