Weather Disrupts Harvard Sailing’s Third Weekend of Competition

A nor’easter disrupted Harvard sailing’s third weekend of competition, canceling two regattas and preventing another from being officially completed.

The Crimson finished seventh at the Sherman Hoyt Trophy, while severe weather canceled the Hood Trophy and Eagle Invitational. The Mrs. Hurst Bowl began Saturday, but a lack of wind made it impossible for participants to complete enough races to count as an official regatta.

At the Sherman Hoyt Trophy, hosted by Brown on Sunday, Harvard finished seventh in the 16-team competition with 146 points. Connecticut College and Dartmouth tied for first with 90 points, with the Camels taking first place on a head-to-head tiebreaker.

The Crimson’s B Division led the way with 66 points across 10 races, while its A Division finished with 80.

Harvard’s strongest stretch in the B Division occurred late in the regatta. After sitting in 10th place in both Races Six and Seven, the Crimson responded by winning Race Eight and following with a third-place finish in Race Nine. Harvard finished the regatta in seventh overall.

The A Division was also successful in the middle of the day. After opening with finishes of seventh, eleventh, fourth, sixth and seventh, the Crimson recorded back-to-back third-place finishes in Races Six and Seven.

Still, inconsistent results kept Harvard from climbing higher in the standings. The Crimson entered the final three races with 96 points, then added 11 points in Race Eight, 17 in Race Nine, and 22 in Race 10 across the two divisions.

The weekend looked very different roughly 100 miles north at the Mrs. Hurst Bowl, hosted by Dartmouth on Mascoma Lake.

While much of southern New England faced strong winds from the weekend’s nor’easter, sailors up in New Hampshire encountered the opposite problem: there was not enough wind to race.

Only one A Division race was completed across the entire weekend. Harvard won that race, finishing ahead of Tufts and Yale in the 18-team competition.

However, the Crimson’s early victory never had a chance to develop into a full regatta. The remainder of Saturday’s racing was called off, and continued light winds prevented any competition on Sunday.

With at least three races in each division required for the regatta to become official, the Mrs. Hurst Bowl concluded without an official result.

The cancellations continued closer to Cambridge this weekend. The Hood Trophy, scheduled to be hosted by Tufts, was canceled without any scores recorded. The Eagle Invitational at Boston College was also canceled due to the severe weather.

The dreary weekend conditions interrupted what had been a busy opening stretch for the Crimson. Harvard entered the weekend having already competed in seven regattas over the first two weeks of its fall season.

In its opening weekend, the Crimson won the Toni Deutsch Trophy and recorded three additional top-five finishes. Harvard then shifted toward developing its younger sailors in its second weekend, competing across four local regattas highlighted by junior Kate Danielson’s runner-up finish at the NEISA Women’s Singlehanded Championship.

Although weather limited its opportunities this weekend, the Crimson is scheduled for its busiest slate of the season so far next weekend. Harvard is set to compete at five regattas across the Northeast: the Smith Trophy, the BU Invitational, the first round of the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship, the Danmark Trophy, and the Moody Trophy.

—Staff writer Tamar H. Scheinfeld can be reached at [email protected].