Smooth Seas Ahead for Sailing

After a four-month layoff kept Harvard at bay, the Crimson sailing team is ready to get its feet wet, lift anchor and set its course for the spring season riding the tide of recent successes to Brown’s Team Racing Invitational.

Harvard’s sailors open this season with a pair of top-three rankings, in addition to boasting five participants in last fall’s North American men’s and women’s single-handed championships.

The Crimson’s co-ed squad owns the No. 1 ranking in the nation in the Sailing World college poll as of Feb. 17, and the women’s squad holds the No. 3 slot. The sailing program has also won the Fowle Trophy, awarded for an aggregate first place finish at the six national championships, three years in a row.

While this success may be repetitive, it’s never boring for the team.

“We’re very excited,” said senior crew Diana Rodin. “I’m hoping it stays this warm, or just gets warmer.”

Captain Cardwell Potts cautioned that without winning nationals, “the rankings don’t mean much in the great scheme of things”—a sign of the team’s high expectations for the future.

While sailing may have no indoor surrogate, like a rowing machine, during the winter hiatus, a long period of landlubbing can still be productive.

“It’s good mentally to get some distance from it—it’s not like sailing’s off our mind,” says senior skipper Clemmie Everett. “It’s given us a chance to lift weights and work on cardiovascular conditioning. Spring is very short, but it tends to be very physical and intense, and we have to be in good physical shape.”

Although the team will have little practice time before it heads to Brown, it won’t be any worse off than its opponents.

“Everybody in New England is at the same disadvantage,” says sailing coach Mike O’Connor. “[But] the intense level of competition means we catch up pretty quickly.”

“Overall, most of the top teams have had some time off,” said Potts. “After we practice for a few weeks, we’ll be right back.”

As would be expected, its recent tradition of success predicates high expectations: O’Connor has his sights set on the three New England championships, and the three North American championships.

The man behind the helm was quick to name several sailors who could lead that charge.

“There are definitely some players to watch that have potential to be all-Americans,” O’Connor said. “Cardwell Potts and Lauren Schubert. They love to be a force in A-division whenever they sail. And Vince [Porter] and [Ruth] Schlitz—we’re looking at them to take it to another level this spring.”

Although the squad boasts the same line-up as in the fall, spring represents a different challenge, especially in the early going.

“Spring tends to be pretty breezy,” O’Connor says. “The big challenges are the cold water, and getting practices in.”

Nonetheless, the team hopes to take advantage of what the spring season offers.

“I think the strength of our team is our depth,” Everett said, confidently mentioning that she expects the team to win nationals. “We have four really solid varsity boats.”

“It’s just a question of staying together and working hard in practice,” Rodin said.