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Volume CXXXIII, Number 5 |
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Ahoy maties: Sailors hit high seas
ALISON MCCONNELL
ORIENT STAFF
Wind is all a sailor can hope for, and the Bowdoin Sailing Team's wishes have been granted during the first month of its season.
"There has been great weather for practice," senior captain Amy Titcomb said. "Until this past week it has stayed warm or at least warm for Maine!"
"We had a few really windy days at practice, which is always exciting," she continued.
"Everyone gets soaked and exhausted, but it's super fun.
Coach Thomas Sitzmann and captains Titcomb, Jackie Haskell '05, and Pieter Scheerlinck '05 lead a group of sailors representing each Bowdoin class. Last weekend, they placed second out of six teams in the Eastern Series Three and took fifth place of eight in the Protest Trophy at Roger Williams.
"We're a young team this year-we lost five good seniors, four of whom were skippers-so we're a little less experienced when it comes to the two intersectionals we've had this year," Rebecca Bartlett '05 said. "We've had some decent and well-sailed regattas: the Casco Bay Open at our home site and Herring Pond Open at MMA."
"We've had some great regatta performances by really young teams," she said. "So far, we are winning the Eastern Series (much to the dismay of Tufts). We've also gone to some intersectional regattas, where we didn't do as well as we'd hoped."
"The challenge was good for us," she said. "We've been able to race against some of the best college sailors in the country, and there's no better way to learn."
The sailors are hoping to compete in more intersectional regattas this year to increase their NEISA (New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association) divisional ranking.
"We hope to win our eastern series and to host some more major events at our site," Bartlett said. "We [will host] a relatively large event later this fall-the ACC (Atlantic Coast Championship) qualifiers."
The ACCs will take place on November 15. "It's great that teams are willing to make the trek up here because we have fast, beautiful boats, and one of the best sailing venues in the Northeast," Titcomb said.
The team heads in several different directions for regattas this weekend: the Eastern Series Four at Bates, the Lake Champlain Open at the University of Vermont, and the Women's No Ringer at Boston University.
"We're sending a team all the way to UVM for the Lake Champlain Open," Titcomb said.
"It's a challenging regatta, but we anticipate doing well. It's a beautiful place to sail."
"There is also the Eastern Series IV at Bates, where we are going to kick some serious butt," she added. "And we'll be sending some freshmen skippers to the very challenging Women's No Ringer."
Spirit and unity appear to be no problem for this year's team. Bartlett indicated that the group is getting along particularly well: "We have a good number of first years with experience, particularly female skippers, and we have a lot of potential for next year because we will lose only one senior," she said. "The team seems to be strong and very cohesive."
Titcomb concurred. "We have a young team with a lot of young talent,
so the future looks bright," she said.
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