Harvard Sails Four Regattas

The men and women of the Harvard sailing felt the wind in their sails this weekend as they competed in four regattas, which ended up being some of their strongest performances all year. With the Atlantic Coast Tournament next weekend, the team has one more chance to show what they’ve got on the water.

HAP MORE TEAM RACE

Many boats sailed in the Coast Guard’s regatta this weekend as two conferences met for the only team-race regatta of the fall season.

12 teams met for 72 rotations of one-on-one match ups on both days. In each rotation, three boats from each team competed and the aggregate lower score won.

“We usually do fleet racing, where we switch out sailors frequently,” junior Brian Drumm said. “Under this different format, it requires a lot of thinking and a lot of teamwork.”

Accompanying Drumm down to Connecticut this weekend was his twin brother Michael, sophomores Jacob Bradt, Andrew Mollerus and Sydney Karnovsky, and captain Isabel Ruane.

The Crimson finished Saturday on top with a 7-1 record and tied for first at the end of the second round. Harvard went home in second place with an 11-3 record and 78.6 percent winning percentage after losing the tiebreaker with Roger Williams University.

Brian DruMm touched upon the importance of teamwork.

“Usually what plagues a lot of teams is when one boat does poorly, and essentially loses the race for the team, it is very easy for the boat which makes the mistake to make the other boats very frustrated,” Drumm said. “That’s no good for the team dynamic and that would make it really hard for the team to move on and do well in the next race.”

Since teamwork is pivotal in this style of racing, one member of the Crimson had a solution.

“In order to limit the amount of tension we would have the people who were not racing, the people who were less frustrated by this event, discuss objectively on how the race went and how the team can improve,” Drumm said.

SECOND ESTER SISTER ANNUAL

Harvard came out in fifth place for this regatta held down in Newport, RI. Competing this weekend were 20 teams within the same conference.

In the A division, taking first with 55 points for Harvard was sophomore Marek Zaleski and freshman Emma Wheeler.

Zaleski mentioned that the coaches have been noticing a greater sense of anxiety from their sailors in the past few weeks, which limits the team from preforming at its greatest potential. The obvious example of this was the Crimson’s inability to qualify for the Atlantic Coast Championship last weekend.

“In practice, I’d say we’ve gotten better,” Zaleski said. “I think we have sort of calmed down as a team and we went back to the basics good starts, good handling, good decision making in the boat.”

Zaleski noted the starts on Saturday as the weak point for his team’s competition this weekend.

“Last week was very disappointing for us,” he added. “We had a sit-down with the whole team and our coaches and we talked about being more relaxed going forward.”

MIKE HORRN TROPHY

It was a rough showing for Harvard, the hosts for this in-conference FJ regatta, as it came in last place of six schools, and only managed to win one of its 15 match-ups.

MIT came out on top, finishing 13-2 with a 86.7 winning percentage.

The Crimson’s one victory came in the first round against Boston College, who placed fifth in the nation during preseason rankings. Harvard went 1-2-4 in the first round matchup with the Eagles.

HARVARD ICSA MEN’S SINGLEHANDED CHAMPIONSHIP

It was quite a weekend for freshman season standout Juan Perdomo  who took second place at the national championship for single-handed lasers.

The regatta began Friday down in Cranston, RI, and featured 18 sailors from 16 teams across the country. The title went to sophomore Greg Martinez of Georgetown, who finished 10 points lower than Perdomo.

“It was windier than I’m used to, but due to my experience and amount of competing I did this summer, I wasn’t very stressed about that,” Perdomo said.

The freshman took gold at the ISAF Youth World Championships this summer. His talents carried over into the season, as clearly shown by his performance throughout the weeks, including this past weekend. He credits most of his success to his coaches and teammates.

“I’m pretty satisfied with how I turned out for freshman year,” he said. “It definitely shows that there is work to be done but I know I can be better for next year and the years to come.”

—Staff writer Tanner Skenderian can be reached at tskenderian@college.harvard.edu