Squalls Buffet Crimson Sailors

A squall. Capsized boats. The Navy. Such words conjure up images of a disaster response.

For the Harvard women’s sailing team last weekend, it was just part of a day at the races.

The Crimson competed in the Navy Women’s Intersectional in Annapolis, Md. last weekend and placed 12th in a field of 19 teams with 194 points. St. Mary’s took first place with 76 points, winning nine of 20 races.

The participating squads had to contend with harrowing weather.

“The conditions were very, very weird on Saturday,” freshman Meghan Wareham said. “In fact, they were borderline ridiculous.”

Saturday started off with thick fog for the Harvard crew. Wareham and junior skipper Megan Watson helmed the A division boat, while sophomore skipper Liz Powers and freshman crew Quincy Bock were on the B division team.

The fog, which rolled in and out of the region throughout the day, pushed the start of races to the early afternoon and forced the abandonment of the first B division race.

After the intermittent delays, action finally resumed at 3 p.m.

Then came the squall.

“For about an hour and a half, it was constant high winds,” Watson said. “Just about everyone flipped over. I don’t know if that’s ever happened, at least not in my time here.”

A strong, sustained disturbance capsized 36 of the 38 boats on the water during the fourth race of the A division and the third race of the B division.

“All we could see were the white bottoms of the boats,” Watson added. “I’ve never seen that before.”

The Crimson A division boat finished the stormy race in ninth place after righting the boat. The B division crew, after placing third and second in their first two races, did not finish.

Races were suspended for the rest of the day following the squall, which damaged several of the boats, cutting down the size of the fleet to 16 for Sunday.

“They did an amazing job getting one fleet together so we could race again on Sunday,” Wareham said. “Some boats had parts missing and broken masts.”

The weather was more agreeable on the second day of the regatta, allowing for a solid day of sailing which saw the lone first place finish for Harvard, a win for the B division boat in their eighth race of the event.

“The B division team did an amazing job,” Wareham said. “They had one really good race. I watched it with Megan [Watson]. We thought they were way too far right.”

The B division boat took some chances in their Sunday triumph, starting the race as the lone boat on the right side of the river, anticipating a favorable shift in wind direction.

“We did a few things that the coach didn’t exactly approve of,” Bock said. “Luckily, it paid off. Technically, that shouldn’t have worked.”

Bock and Powers, who are sailing as a pair for the first time, only see room for strengthening in the future with three home contests remaining on the season.

“I think we need to focus on consistency as much as we can to improve our results,” Powers said. “A big thing we’ve been working on is making sure to get off the starting line. We need to be in good position for the rest of the race right from the start.”

Two sixth-place finishes were the highest marks for the A division boat.

The women’s team, hungry to improve, heads back to Maryland next weekend for the St. Mary’s Intersectional in St. Mary’s, Md. The team still will compete twice on the Charles River betweeen now and the end of the season.

With any luck, the squalls will stay away for the rest of competition.

“Hopefully the conditions will be a little more normal,” Watson said. “We only have four more regattas before the national qualifiers, so we’re looking to be disciplined every weekend. We have to do well. We have to fix our problems and move forward.”