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Volume CXXXII, Number 16 |
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Skipper profile: Ryan Cauley
MELANIE KEENE
STAFF WRITER
It's almost time for the sailing team to break the ice and get back out on the water. In two weeks, the coed team will be heading out for their first regatta of the season: the "Icebreaker" at the Coast Guard Academy.
Therefore, for the next two weeks, the Orient will conduct interviews of the two senior skippers on the varsity co-ed team. This week, the Orient will focus on Ryan Patrick Cauley '03, who generally sails with Becca Bartlett '05.
Cauley is a senior from a diverse array of places including Greenwich, Connecticut; Cape May, New Jersey; and New York, New York. Cauley, who is finishing up his self designed, interdisciplinary major in body kinetics, is interested in a wide variety of disciplines and hopes to eventually earn a Ph.D. in medicine and his masters in public health administration.
He also plans to reserve time to teach his parrot a new language and to write numerous novels, including anticdotal accounts about his days on the Bowdoin College Sailing Team. According to Cauley, many of his best days have been spent out on the waters of Quahog Bay near Cundy's Harbor while sailing with his many crews, always trying to catch the best oscillations around Pole Island-a talent for which he is famous.
Orient: How did you originally learn to sail?
Cauley: Well, back when I was about eight, my dad, a great sailing enthusiast, would take my brother and me out for a sail and pretend to fall asleep. I therefore had to teach myself the ways of the boat in order to get us home safely. I soon fell in love with the sport and proved to my parents that I was a far better sailor than swimmer and was thus enrolled full-time in sailing lessons-first sailing sun-fish and later optimists. I then moved from student to teacher, and have been teaching sailing for six years now.
O: What are some of your favorite memories of your sailing experiences throughout all the years?
C: Well, one of my most memorable experiences sailing with my dad was when we were caught in a lightning storm.
But in terms of my time sailing at Bowdoin, I must say that one of my most vivid memories was sailing in Florida during our spring break training trip my freshman year. One day when we were sailing down there, a huge gust of wind, almost hurricane force, came up. It capsized the entire team, and it was the first time I had capsized all year-before that I had a little record going.
O: Wow, lighting and hurricane winds! Any other crazy stories like that while you've been sailing here?
C: Well, right after we came back from spring break that year, my crew, Melanie Keene '03, and I went to a regatta at Boston College. The wind was gusting over 30 knots and the water was ice cold because it was still March. When we were going around the jibe mark during one race, we death rolled and the boat turtled. That means it completely turned over upside down in the water.
Melanie was stuck submerged under the water tangled in the lines until I was able to right the boat. That was certainly scary, but I got the boat up in time!
O: Do you have any goals for your last season?
C: Well, one of my goals is to stay away from Storrow Drive in Boston. When I sail at M.I.T. on the Charles River, I sail in my favorite boats called Techs. In the heavy wind, I have a tendency to sail too close to the Storrow Drive side of the river. The wind always looks good over there, but it is generally an illusion. The Charles is known to be the trickiest place to sail in college sailing because of the quick wind shifts.
In addition, in my position on the team as assistant Larktician, another one of my goals is to devise a new format to keep our boats, Larks, in better shape. We have fairly new boats and we're trying to make them stay in pristine condition for as long as possible.
O: Any last thoughts?
C: Well, everyone should know what an awesome and fun team we have. Sailing is a great sport, and we welcome people to come and try it out! And, we have wonderful spring breaks-we're going to Galveston, Texas this year. I'll be joining Melanie on a two-man 30-hour road trip down south; it should be an experience never to forget!
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