Sailing Fails To Qualify for Nationals

Seeking a spot in the team racing national regatta in Florida later this month, the Harvard co-ed sailing team raced for the Fowle Trophy this weekend.

The regatta served as the team racing regional qualifier for New England, and of the twelve teams racing, four would qualify for a spot in Florida. With Harvard hosting the regatta, despite the squad’s lack of experience with team racing, hopes were high that the Crimson would have been able to exploit home field advantage in some capacity.

However, these hopes were shot as Harvard crashed out in the first round. It finished fifth in its division of six teams, narrowly missing out on one of the top four spots that went through to the next round of competition.

“It was our last chance to qualify for any of the three [different types of national championships] in the spring,” Harvard coach Mike O’Connor said. “It’s the first time we haven’t done that in a while, so I’m pretty disappointed.”

Harvard showed early signs of promise as early on it beat the eventual champion Brown squad, which was otherwise undefeated in the opening round.

A win over hapless Boston University, which failed to record a single win, coupled with losses to Boston College and Connecticut College set up a crucial encounter with Dartmouth.

Defeating the Big Green would have seen Harvard advance, but a slow start derailed the team’s plans.

“We were losing off the line pretty badly,” sophomore skipper Gram Slattery said. “Then we just weren’t able to pass them. It was a case of a very bad start.”

The defeat consigned Harvard to a 2-3 record, tied with Dartmouth for fourth place. But the Big Green held the tiebreaker on account of the head-to-head win and advanced to the next stage.

“It wasn’t our day,” Slattery said. “Everyone was a little off their A-game.”

For the Crimson, it was a case of missed opportunities and errors adding up which cost the squad. The team was extremely competitive in all of its races. As shown in the win over Brown, there is talent on the roster and on another day it could have been a very different story.

“Almost every race we sailed in, at one point we were in,” O’Connor said. “We [often] had a chance to solidify a convoy, and sometimes we were able to do it, other times we weren’t. Sometimes we could convert but couldn’t hold on.”

Lack of experience with team racing played a role in Harvard’s weekend. The team was skippered by a trio of sophomores, and the crew members consisted of two juniors and a freshman.

“It’s rare to start three sophomores in a conference championship, especially in team racing,” O’Connor said. “There was no question that that was a factor in the performance.”

The Crimson has traditionally been more focused on fleet racing. Only after failing to qualify for nationals in that discipline two weeks ago has Harvard’s training been concentrated on team racing. For sophomores with only limited time spent as team racers, the level of competition proved a difficult challenge.

“Against that level of competition, you can’t make mistakes because once you make it, the other team will act on it [and] solidify it,” O’Connor said. “There’s not much you can do unless you can outhandle them, and we’re just still too young to be able to not mistakes and comeback against a very good team.”

With the season now over, Harvard is now looking forward to next season. While inexperience may have cost the squad this season, no starters are graduating this year.

“I actually think we’re in a very good position for next season,” Slattery said. “Once we have more experience, we will definitely have a good chance of making team race nationals.”

Outside of team racing, it may have been a disappointing season for Harvard sailing, but next year brings with it some serious promise. The sophomore trio of Slattery and brothers Brian and Michael Drumm have the potential to develop into a dominant leading corps, while co-captain Isabel Ruane and classmate Sarah Pierson will also return.

“I think the experience these guys got this year has been valuable,” O’Connor said.” I would have liked them to have got some more experience, particularly sailing in the nationals, but we’re excited about the work these kids are doing. They’ll continue to work hard and we’re going to get in a couple more good players next year, so we’re pretty excited about next season.”

—Staff writer Julian Ryan can be reached jryan01@college.harvard.edu.