Sailing Scores Second

While you were in your dorm, glaring raptly at your T.V. as the U.S. team shockingly lost the Ryder Cup or as the Lions upset the Packers, the Harvard sailing team was at a place called Mystic Lake.

Sounds nice, doesn't it?

Mystic Lake was the site of the 15th Hood Trophy regatta-a two-day, 20-team event that drew skippers from as far away as Cambridge... England (they came in 18th by the way).

On a relatively mild weekend, sailing-wise, Harvard sailed superbly in only its second regatta of the season and narrowly missed winning the whole event before finishing second to Tufts by a mere point, 118-119 (low numbers are good, like in most golf tournaments).

The regatta was composed of 10 cycles in two divisions. The Harvard A-division boat was steered by senior Dan Parkes and sophomore Lauren Toretta while the B-division sailers were Pete Strothman and senior Sally Berens. A cycle consists of two races-one A-division race and one B-division race. Each boat earns a certain number of points for each race and the totals are added to obtain the final results.

Sunday's day of racing was an exciting one for the Crimson. Heading into the final cycle, Harvard was neck-and-neck with Tufts for first.

"We knew it was close," Berens said. "But we weren't sure exactly how close it was. It is really hard to tell what's going on from land."

The A-division race saw Harvard defeat its Tufts counterpart by two boats. In the final race, the Crimson boat started out opposite the Tufts boat and was unable to cover its opposition.

"[Tufts] headed to the right side and we had to go to the left," Berens said. "At that point everything really depends on the wind and the right side worked for them."

Tufts won that final race as Harvard came in ninth and leaving it in a painfully close second place.

"Tufts is the defending national champs, so this is a good sign for the rest of the season," Berens said. "We came in sixth at another big intersectional regatta at Dartmouth after about two days of practice, so moving up this much was a good trend to say the least."

Saturday's weather was not as conductive as Sunday's for the racing and Harvard may have been punished by this fact. The racing Saturday was cut short-only two cycles-because of the light weather and who knows what might have happened if there had been one more race?

Moreover, Mystic Lake-Tufts home site-is known for having very flat water and the mild breeze Saturday did not change that perception. Tufts, being used to this, may have carried a bit of a home-water advantage.

The first day results showed this as Tufts jumped out to first place with Harvard in third. However, a protest in one of Tufts races on day two penalized the first place team and allowed Harvard an opening.

"Any time there is contact in a race, a team either has to do a 720-degree turn, which slows them down considerably, or there is a protest," Berens said. "If there is a protest and you lose, you're thrown out of the race and get last place points plus one. That's what happened to Tufts."

The Crimson did, however, benefit from the boats during the weekend races.

Confused?

In a regatta such as this one, Tufts will provide all of the boats. In this case, the type raced were Larks. Because Harvard races in the same type of boats, the vessels were familiar to most of the Crimson sailors.

The exception being Strothman, a transfer from Connecticut College who is just getting used to this type of boat.

All in all, it was a positive weekend for the Crimson and should bode well for the team's trip to the Coast Guard for the Danmark Trophy Regatta next weekend.