Crimson Enjoys Sweet Sailing on Home Waters

They say there’s no place like home.

For Harvard’s sailing teams, that axiom holds true—at least in part.

In the Crimson’s first weekend of the season without a regatta away from Massachusetts, Harvard ended up with two top-two finishes in three events.

“We were pretty psyched about how we did overall,” junior skipper Clay Johnson said. “We defended our home waters pretty well.”

BOSTON DINGHY CLUB CUP

While each of Harvard’s three regattas took place in the vicinity, only the Boston Dinghy Club Cup took place on the Charles River.

The No. 4 Crimson took advantage of the familiarity on its way to a relatively easy first-place finish in a strong 18-team field. Harvard’s point-total of 314 bested No. 14 Dartmouth and No. 15 Brown, which took second and third, respectively. The two schools hosting the other events the Crimson participated in, Boston College and Tufts, rounded out the top five.

“We won the regatta pretty convincingly,” Johnson said.

Along with senior crew Emily Simon, the two earned a second-place A-division finish, while co-captain Vincent Porter and senior crew Ruth Schlitz cruised to a first-place finish for the team’s B-division.

The same held true for sophomore skipper Kyle Kovacs and sophomore crew Elyse Dolbec, who easily took first in C-division. The D-division team of co-captain senior skipper Sloan Devlin and junior crew Christina Dahlman finished eighth in D-division, still good enough for Harvard to finish comfortably in first.

“It’s good to show the other teams you’re someone who they should be threatened by,” Johnson said. “That’s really important for this time of year—to really go out and sail well.”

TEAM RACING SERIES 2

Just a few miles away in Chestnut Hill, Mass., the Crimson watched the host earn top honors again. The Eagles eked out a first-place finish while Harvard was second at the Team Racing Series 2.

Each of the five schools saw action in four races, with the Crimson taking care of every squad except BC.

Sailing in the event were junior skipper Matthew Knowles and junior crew Cassandra Niemi, freshman skipper Andrew Flynn and sophomore crew Alicia Harley, as well as freshman skipper Jon Garrity and junior crew Ashley Nathanson.

The round-robin event was characterized by unseasonably dicey conditions, with wind gusts topping 25 MPH. Vermont, Bowdoin, and Tufts finished in third, fourth, and fifth places, respectively.

WOMEN’S JOSEPH DUBLIN TROPHY

The No. 10 women’s squad saw the third of the three weekend host teams finish atop the final order when they traveled to Medford, Mass. for the Joseph Dublin Trophy.

The Jumbos were first in a two-division regatta that left the Crimson, which finished in eighth, a bit out of place thanks to some unfriendly conditions.

“Overall it was kind of up-and-down again,” senior skipper Jessica Baker said. “The conditions on the lake were tough, really shifty, and it was a really challenging place to sail.”

Baker was joined in the boat by freshman crew Lauren Brants. The two finished in seventh place for the A-division, while the familiar freshman tandem of skipper Roberta Steele and crew Christina Cordeiro also took seventh.

The wind caused a number of capsizes for a struggling women’s team that has just two more regattas before the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association Championship later this month.

Although the past few weeks have been marred by inconsistent sailing, the team hopes to address its problems soon.

“We’d have a few good races, then a few bad ones where we capsized and whatnot,” Baker said. “The conditions were tricky, but we kind of figured out what we need to work on.”

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