Sailing Finds Sea Legs with Win at Brown

Whether due to the return of frigid weather, the arrival back on familiar turf, or the experience of sailing in its third event this year, the No. 3 Harvard co-ed sailing team put together its best performance of the young spring season Sunday, beating out five teams at the Brown Team Racing Invite on its way to a first place finish in Providence, R.I.

The races marked the first chance for the Crimson to test its skills in New England waters after spending the first two weekends in Charleston, S.C. The opening regatta of the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA), the Brown Invite is more akin to the typical regatta Harvard will sail this season. And, in typical northeastern fashion, the weather played a large part in how things turned out.

Originally scheduled to be a two-day event, Saturday’s action was cancelled due to the cold weather and windy conditions. It left the teams with just one day to complete fifteen races each, but the Crimson took advantage of the shortened schedule.

“They were pretty hard conditions, but we’ve been practicing quite a bit,” junior skipper Clay Johnson said.

Along with crew Emily Simon, Johnson led the way in an event that hinges largely on teamwork for success.

“We have to rely on each other all the time,” Johnson said. “I have a lot of confidence in them. They’ve got my backs and I’ve got theirs.”

Harvard’s 11-4 record on the day earned the team its first top finish of the spring season, while Tufts was close behind in second, finishing at 10-5. Yale took third at 9-6, and host Brown earned fourth place with an 8-7 mark. Roger Williams University and Connecticut College rounded out the competition in fifth and sixth place, with records of 7-8 and 0-15, respectively.

Although the team has had just three events together, only two of which were co-ed, the Crimson looks to have worked out at least some of the kinks that come with the early stages of any season.

“It was an interesting regatta because it is so early in the season,” Simon said. “We’re excited about the results, but we still have a lot of work to do. We’re still warming up, getting ready, and looking ahead.”

After the day off Saturday, Sunday’s weather was only a bit calmer. Temperatures fluctuated throughout the day, averaging in the low 40’s to go along with substantial winds.

“The sailing conditions were tough, things were pretty shifty, very up and down, and cold,” Simon said. “People were kind of all over the map. We had a few good races, a few mishaps, but overall we did what we needed to do to take first.”

In addition to the weather, in a NEISA event with so many races, depth becomes a chief concern for everyone.

Fortunately for Harvard, it is one of the team’s strong suits.

“We don’t really have a weak link,” Johnson said. “Some teams have one or two rock stars and a third that’s not really as good. The fact that we’re not like that is definitely helpful at these regattas.”

That depth comes in the form of seniors Vincent Porter and Ruth Schlitz, sophomores Kyle Kovacs and Elyse Dolbec, as well as junior Matthew Knowles and freshman Jon Garrity, most of whom had already seen action this year.

The men will all have next weekend off while the women will travel to Annapolis, Md. for the Navy Women’s Intersectional. The co-ed team’s break comes before the most intense stretch of the season, when both teams will be occupied in some form for every weekend through the beginning of May. Already nabbing a top finish entering that stretch, though, has the Crimson believing that it’s just one of many.

“It was really good to get back on the water to see how things are going,” Johnson said. “We made some mistakes, sure, but the important thing is that we sent a message to other teams, that we’re a team to beat this year. Hopefully it continues from there.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.