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Volume CXXXII, Number 19 |
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Sailors tack into major action
MELANIE KEENE
STAFF WRITER
The past week proved to be a weekend of firsts for the Bowdoin Sailing Team. It marked the first full action of the season with five regattas attended by Bowdoin sailors. Even more importantly, for the first time in Bowdoin history, sailors attended a sloop regatta at the Coast Guard Academy.
Four athletes, including Eddie Briganti '05, Justin Berger '05, Sophie Wiss '06, and Davin Michaels '06 competed against some of the top sloop teams in NEISA on J22s, braving heavy winds and strong currents on the Thames River.
Although results were mixed, the team will be back there this coming Saturday, in an attempt to fly the spinnaker and perfect their sailing tactics. In addition, the team will be making the shift from dingy sailing into the world of keelboats.
Said Skipper Briganti, "It was a frustrating event-we're still figuring out this keelboat thing, but we're learning, and we had fun out there."
Less than a mile up the Thames River, the coed team sailed to a strong seventh place out of 16 teams at the Vietor Trophy at Connecticut College. Tyler Dunphy '03 and Melanie Keene '03 sailed A-division and had an extremely strong day on Saturday. It was "their wind," and they took advantage of it with several bullets and top five finishes.
Ryan Cauley '03 and Gia Upchurch '05 sailed B-division and were also extremely competitive. However, the story changed on Sunday as the sailors faced fierce winds gusting over 20 knots coupled with intermittent higher gusts, pouring rain, heavy current, and choppy waves.
However, by the end of the day, the sailors got their boat speed under control. But, the lesson of the weekend was that they need practice in heavy wind conditions.
The women's team braved similar conditions at Tufts University on the first day of its regatta. Allie Binkowski '03 and Jackie Haskell '05 sailed A-division while Laura Windecker '03 and Caitlin Moore '06 sailed B-division at the Duplin Trophy-a very competitive intersectional regatta where they were matched against the top women sailors in the country.
Both boats capsized during the races; however, they righted their dingys and sailed to the finish. While they sailed strong, they were somewhat inconsistent and finished tenth overall as a team.
Binkowski summarized the team's experience and future goals: "It was fierce competition, and you could not let down your guard for a minute. But we are starting to gear up for regattas at Brown in the last two weekends of April, culminating in the qualifiers for nationals."
Two other Bowdoin teams sailed at Boston University this weekend. One group of coed sailors sailed on Saturday at the Metro Series regatta. Bowdoin was led by Pieter Scheerlink '05 and Sabrina Hall-Little '06 in A-division and Elliott Wright '04 and Roberto Hernandez '06 in B-division. The Wright/Hernandez team sparkled with a stellar performance in their first Metro Series event and won several top finishes.
On Sunday, the first-year team traveled to Boston University to compete in the Freshman Series. Frank Pizzo '06 and Whitney Rauschenbach '06 sailed A-division as Emily Bruns '06 and Ellen Grenely '06 strutted their sailing prowess in the B-division, finishing fifth overall.
Enduring freezing rain and shifty winds, the Bruns/Grenely team finished third in their division-the best finish for any Bowdoin boat that weekend. The team will look to Bruns as a shining up-and-coming sailor throughout the season and next year.
This weekend will again find Bowdoin sailors at five events. On Saturday, the sloop team will head to the Coast Guard Academy while the women race at the Emily Wick trophy at BU. The first years will travel to Brown, and the Metro Series sailors will sail out of Harvard. Rounding out the actoin, the coed team will sail their first team-race regatta of the season at Roger Williams.
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