Sailing Pushes Through Frigid Weather Conditions For Top 10 Results

Bracing near freezing temperatures, rain, snow, and bouts of gusting wind that caused many events throughout New England to forego any Sunday racing, the Harvard sailing team competed in four regattas over the weekend en-route to producing top 10 results in each of the events.

The fact that the Crimson has produced consistent results like these throughout the spring bodes well heading into next weekend’s New England Team Race Championships at the Coast Guard Academy.

“Overall, I think we did really well…, but his weekend showed we still have work to do, and that we haven’t peaked yet,” sophomore Kevin Coakley said. “[Our] finish at the Marciando is a good omen headed into the New England Championship.”

THE 35TH LYNNE MARCHIANDO TROPHY

In anticipation of Sunday’s forecasted snow and gale force winds, the event’s hosts, MIT, compressed the racing into a fast-paced Saturday. With each team sailing in both Fireflies and turbo FJs, the Charles River basin was crowded to say the least, as all of the 91 individual round robin races were completed on the day.

The compressed schedule, along with the rainy conditions on Saturday, had the potential to cause issues for the sailors, but with Harvard’s most experienced sailors at the helm, the team put forth a concerted effort.

“On Saturday, there were pretty good winds for most of the day and it was actually really nice conditions for team racing,” junior skipper Juan Carlos Perdomo said. “It was unfortunate we were unable to sail [on Sunday], I would’ve been nice to go out again and keep going for more, but all in all I think [the race compression] wasn’t too much of an issue.”

When racing was completed, the Crimson sat in seventh out of the 14 inter-conference schools in the event with its 8-5 record.

“We had a bit of a rough start, but I think we were able to get things together half way through the event,” Perdomo said. “After we got through the first couple of races…the team was sailing well, making good decisions, and making good plays. We lost a couple races against some teams we should’ve beat, but we also beat some of the better teams in college [sailing].”

Although rival Yale was able to sweep the field in its first place, 13-0, finish, Harvard’s 8-5 result was more competitive than meets the eye. The Crimson tied fourth place Bowdoin in aggregate record, and Brown and Dartmouth also finished with the same results as Harvard, 8-5, in their respective fifth and sixth-place performances.

CENTRAL SERIES 3

The Crimson hosted it’s own multi-divisional in-conference regatta on the Charles for the first time of the current spring season. The group of young sailors sent to the event represented the hosts well. They collectively put forth a 91-point performance over twelve total races, en-route to an eighth-place finish of the 16 schools in the event.

Racing in FJs, fellow freshman, skipper Nicholas Karnovsky and crew Alejandra Resendiz posted consistent results throughout the weekend, never finishing higher than fourth or lower than seventh in any of the A-Division races. Their 33-point effort was good enough for sixth in the division.

In the B-Division, sophomore skipper Benjamin Zheng and junior crew Zoe Kessler finished in 10th with 58 total points.

BU TROPHY

In this multi-divisional regatta hosted by Boston University, Harvard finished in ninth of the 16 in-conference schools racing at the event. With freshman skipper Taylor Gavula and senior crew Adam Brodheim competing in the A-Division and fellow freshmen, skipper Andrew Puopolo and crew Lena Episalla in the B-Division, the Crimson posted 62 points in eight races.

Although Harvard sat in fifth place after half of the races were completed, the Crimson was unable to capitalize on its early momentum. Two finishes outside the top-ten by the B-Division crew helped determine the final result.

Tufts, the eventual champion of the regatta, finished with a total of 36 points aided its B-Division crew finishing in the top two in each of its four divisional races.

CAMEL TEAM RACE

At the only race away from Boston this weekend, a six-person Harvard contingent of freshmen and sophomores, Taylor Ladd, Coakley, Dylan Farrell, Christine Gosioco, Jackson Wagner, and Divya Arya, finished last of the seven schools competing at Connecticut College.

With its 1-7 aggregate record against the other competitors in the FJ team-racing event, the Crimson lagged behind well eventual winner, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, who finished 6-1 on the weekend.

A lack of breeze throughout the day on Saturday and the cancellation of racing on Sunday due to snow and gale force winds led to the schools racing in far from ideal conditions, but the group felt that the event was a learning experience.

—Staff writer Jackson M. Reynolds can be reached at jacksonreynolds@college.harvard.edu.