Sailing Places in Middle of the Pack

The Harvard sailing team completed two regattas this past weekend—one minutes away at Boston University and the other, slightly further, at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. For both the Boston University Trophy and Ted Ferrarone Team Races, the Crimson battled the elements and a series of tough teams for its place in the ranks.

FERRARONE TEAM RACE

Harvard competed in one of its few team racing events of the year in the Ferrarone Team Race on Saturday and Sunday.

In team racing, as opposed to fleet racing, teams sail head-to-head against other three-boat teams, trying to finish with a lower cumulative score.

Like fleet racing, the low-point scoring system is used: a boat is given the number of points that match its place in the race. A team needs ten or fewer points to win.

This race pooled teams from a number of conferences: from the MAISA—the U.S. Naval Academy—from the NEISA—Roger Williams University, Brown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dartmouth College—from the PCCSC—Stanford University—and finally from the SAISA—University of South Florida.

While Harvard frequently encounters NEISA schools, the Ferrarone races were a unique opportunity to sail against schools from the MAISA, PCCSC, and SAISA.

Bristol, R.I., where the races were held, was brisk with temperatures remaining under 50 degrees.

Saturday was a soggy sailing day but brought strong winds. In contrast, when the races were meant to start on Sunday, the sun was out and teams could hardly detect a breeze.

“There was initially no breeze,” senior Alexandra Jumper said. “But partway through the day we got a really nice southerly breeze that came in, which was great for racing.”

On the first day of the regatta, the Crimson beat out USF, Stanford, the U.S. Naval Academy, and Dartmouth. Harvard finished the day, 4-3, but faced a more difficult schedule the following day.

The next time out, Harvard went 2-5 on the water, beating Dartmouth for the second day in a row and also topping the home team, Roger Williams.

On Sunday, the final day of the regatta, Harvard recorded five wins and only one loss, the best record for the Rhode Island trip.

“Sunday we were sailing against teams some of which weren’t quite as competitive, so you have to take that into account,” Jumper said. “But it was nice that we could hold our own and execute team racing moves.”

The Crimson completed the regatta second in the silver fleet, and sixth overall, with an 11-9 total record. While this was not the ideal finish, the Harvard sailing team has much more team racing to look forward to.

“It was one of our first big team racing events this season,” Jumper said. “We’re just trying to get as much practice in leading up to our big qualifier race at the end of the month.”

BOSTON UNIVERSITY TROPHY

Saturday saw a couple obstacles for the sailors—it was raining and the report time was late—but Harvard still competed at the Boston University Sailing Pavillion. A total of eight races in division A and 6 in B were completed all on course 4s.

A shifty easterly, ranging from six to ten knots in long oscillations, made the Crimson boats work to stay in phase and finish well.

With Sunday came much needed warmth but a swirling wind that demanded constant course changes came along with it.

Harvard finished in thirteenth place out of 18 boats in this competitive regatta. Still, its place does not indicate the Crimson’s performance.

“We did have good showings against some of the more competitive teams,” Jumper said. “But we didn’t necessarily perform as well as we wanted to against some of the teams that we should have done better against.”

Sophomore Luke O’Connor and freshman Rebecca Frankel sailed in the A division. Their 93 points tied the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, resulting in a head-to-head tiebreaker.

Although O’Connor and Frankel lost the tiebreaker, they managed two top-10 finishes, even placing first in their first heat.

Overall, Harvard finished with 175 points—far behind the Terriers, the home team and the victors—but on the heels of Northeastern and Boston College.

“It’s an ongoing process of trying to put all our boat handling and tactical knowledge together and execute,” Jumper said.

—Staff writer Kendra F. Rosario can be reached at kendra_rosario@college.harvard.edu.