Sailing Dominates NEISA Open Team Race Championship

This past weekend, the Harvard sailing team took home the Fowle Trophy at the NEISA Open Team Race Championship in Cranston, R.I., securing its position in nationals with a sweeping 20-1 record.

The victory comes following several years of second-place finishes. The Crimson finished second in 2022, 2024, and 2025 before finally taking home the first-place trophy on Sunday.

The team won with a five-race lead ahead of the runner-up, Brown University. Despite facing some fierce competition from the Bears and Roger Williams University, Harvard lost only one race, to the Hawks, the whole weekend.

Hosted by Brown, the 12-team tournament was composed of 100 races spread across two days.

Round One (12-0)

Head coach Michael O’Connor said that the strong northeast breeze served as an advantage for the Crimson, as his team secured a perfect 12 wins against the competition.

“That was really good for our team, because we’re good in a big breeze, and we were very fast. And you know, the team had really good execution,” O’Connor said.

The Crimson (1-2-3) defeated Connecticut College (4-5-6), the University of Rhode Island (4-5-6), Bowdoin College (3-5-6), U.S. Coast Guard Academy (3-5-6), MIT (3-5-6), Yale (4-5-6), Tufts (3-4-6), Dartmouth (3-5-6), and Boston College (3-4-6), before Harvard’s race with Brown (1-3-4) resulted in an hour long umpire hearing, penalizing the Bears over a black flag and broken tiller. The umpires also granted Dartmouth a resail against Harvard due to previously broken equipment, which Big Green promptly lost. The Crimson won its last race against Roger Williams (3-5-6).

Round Two (6 - 1)

Sunday’s races experienced a slight delay as officials waited for the heavy fog to lift. The wind was more unpredictable, and it started to rain in the afternoon.

Nevertheless, Harvard started strong in round two, defeating Dartmouth, the University of Rhode Island, Tufts, Boston College, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and Brown.

The Crimson left the tournament with only one loss, sustained on Sunday at the hands of Roger Williams (1-2-5) at the end of round two, securing its spot in the top six and advancing to the final round.

Round Three (3-0)

The weather shifted two races into round three, when thunder was heard. The following short break was followed by a shift in scheduling — instead of a top six round, the officials cut it to a top four round with Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, and Roger Williams.

The Crimson went 3-0, first redeeming itself against Roger Williams before defeating Dartmouth and Brown.

Following this victory, Harvard will head to the ICSA Open Team Race National Championship in New Orleans, La., which it has won in 2023 and in 2025, at the end of April.

This coming weekend, the Harvard sailing team will head to Connecticut for the Thompson Trophy Team race.

The women’s team will be competing for the Legler Trophy for the NEISA Women’s Team Racing Championship in Medford, Mass., and will be on the Charles River for the Central Series Four Fleet Race.

—Staff writer Alexa M. Schmitt can be reached at [email protected] or Signal at alexaschmitt.15. Follow her on X ​​@alexa_m15_s.