Sailing Shifts Focus to Team Races at Start of Spring Season

Heading into its first race of the spring, the Sharpe Trophy Team Race in Providence, R.I. on Saturday, the Harvard sailing team looks to build off its No. 6 ranking in the co-ed division of Sailing World’s College Rankings last fall and set the tone for the new semester.

Transitioning to team racing events for the early portion of the season, the Crimson must begin to become more of a unit.

While the subtleties of the sport do not alter an extreme amount from season to season, team racing requires a shift in a squad’s mindset compared to what it was in the fall. Individual racers must think more in terms of group tactics and dynamics than they had previously.

“We’re taking the same attitude, but [we] have been applying it differently because team racing is more complicated than fleet racing,” junior crew Zoe Kessler said. “It’s the same skills, but in a quicker, more advanced setting…. [It’s] much more about strategy and working together with the other boats on your team.”

In recent years, Harvard has been led by its youth. But looking at the composition of this year’s squad, most of the Crimson’s contributors have been sailing for the team for quite some time. As a result, heading into the team component of the season, the amount of time the group has practiced and raced together should only help its cohesion and fluidity of movement on the water.

“When I got here as a freshman, most of the team was really young,” junior skipper Juan Carlos Perdomo said. “Most of the starters were sophomores or juniors, and I think that group has developed a lot since then…. We all have a lot of experience and have spent a lot of time sailing together, so I think that we can try to do better at nationals than we have ever done in the past.”

The Crimson will likely be led by the stalwarts of previous seasons, spearheaded by a deep class of seniors in Andrew Mollerus, Jacob Bradt, Marek Zaleski, and Sydney Karnovsky. Having been integral members of the squad for three and a half years, this group will look to polish off their respective Harvard careers with strong performances throughout the spring.

“I’m excited to see what the seniors do,” Kessler said. “I would say that we have quite a few exceptional seniors, and [this] being their last semester, I’m sure they’ll be extremely motivated to do great. At the same time, [we’ll see] how the juniors develop, knowing next year they’ll be the oldest ones—the top leaders.”

Although the older team members have the edge in experience, Harvard’s rookies and walk-ons are not to be forgotten. Freshmen Nicholas DiGiovanni, Christine Gosioco, Nicholas Karnovsky, Andrew Puopolo, Alejandra Resendiz, and Jackson Wagner all posted promising results in the fall in their first action for the Crimson.

From top to bottom, the squad appears primed to set out on the right path.

“I think that there’s a lot of promise in the freshmen this year,” Perdomo said. “Not only the recruited freshman that have had a lot of sailing experience beforehand, but also the new walk-ons, especially in terms of crews. So I definitely see them performing well and making an impact their first year on the team.”

The unseasonably warm weather in Cambridge this winter has only helped the group, as it was able to get in practice sessions on the water weeks earlier than in years past. Additionally, the lack of ice floes on the Charles in March can only bode well for the sailors headed into the season, as their preparation, especially that of the younger members of the team, will be much more comprehensive.

“Thankfully the river has thawed out earlier this year because last year and the year before we didn’t even get to practice until after spring break in Boston,” Perdomo said. “If we did, it was very limited practice. So we’re excited to get back to regular practice schedules and get more time on the water.”

While the extra sessions early in the season serve as invaluable aid, the team believes that the racing experience it has gotten through national competitions and their qualifiers over the past year will provide even more of a boost in terms of performance.

“Having done pretty well at singlehanded nationals—and last year we qualified for fleet racing nationals—now that we’re starting team racing, I think that the experience we had at the qualifiers and at the events themselves provided valuable lessons that we’ll use this semester,” Perdomo said. “So I think we’ll learn off our mistakes and experiences from years past.”

—Staff writer Jackson M. Reynolds can be reached at jackson.reynolds@thecrimson.com.