Sailing Hits The Road For Five Regattas

The men and women of the Harvard sailing team had a full weekend of racing that included top place finishes in the Norman Reid Regatta and Firefly/FJ Invitational and an unexpected disqualification in the Lane Trophy.

NAVY FALL INVITATIONAL

The Crimson joined 19 other schools for the Navy Fall Invitational, finishing in eighth place. Harvard sent six sailors to race in the four-division regatta, with senior Brian Drumm and junior Jacob Bradt racing 420s and finishing in 13th place in the A division.

“As with last weekend, [Bradt] and I struggled in the beginning of the regatta, which we believe stemmed from subconsciously treating a race in a regatta differently from a race in practice,” Drumm said. “With this understanding, we worked hard throughout the regatta to evaluate and execute with the confidence we bring to our practices.”

Junior co-captains Andrew Mollerus and Sydney Karnovsky finished in sixth place in the B division sailing an FJ, sophomore Juan Perdomo in a laser took fourth in the C division, and junior Marek Zaleski came in sixth place sailing a radial in the D division.

CAPTAIN HURST BOWL

At the Captain Hurst Bowl hosted by Dartmouth, with racing taking place over two days, Harvard finished in 12th place out of 18 teams. Senior Michael Drumm was joined by freshman Kevin Coakley in the A division, where the pair finished in 13th place.

“Kevin and I were sailing in Z420s, a boat we haven't sailed yet together, so a lot of the racing was spent playing catch up with figuring out how to sail the boats fast,” Michael Drumm said.

Freshman Nick Sertl and sophomore Emma Wheeler came in 11th in the B division. Drumm noted that the lack of wind on Lake Mascoma halted races across the board on Saturday, limiting most of the competition to Sunday.

“I felt like this weekend was productive,” Michael Drumm said. “As the regatta went on, we kept making improvements in our execution around the racecourse.”

FIREFLY/FJ INVITATIONAL REGATTA

On Saturday, the Crimson placed second out of 17 boats in the Firefly/FJ Invitational hosted by MIT.

“I thought the weekend went very well,” freshman Dylan Farrell said. “We passed a lot of boats upwind and downwind by getting out to the pressure first. One thing to improve on is the consistency of our starts.”

Farrell was joined by senior Rebecca Frankel in the A division where the duo finished in fourth. Senior Reid Bergsund and freshman Kristin Anderson joined up to take the top place finish in the B division.

LANE TROPHY

Harvard was disqualified from the Lane Trophy round robin that was hosted by Tufts and took place on Sunday. According to the regatta report, the Crimson failed to stay clear of Roger Williams when Roger Williams was the leeward boat.

Seven schools within the conference came out for an afternoon of sailing. Boston College took first place. Unofficially, Harvard finished in fifth with a record of 4-5.

NORMAN REID TEAM RACE

On Saturday, the Crimson joined five other teams on the Charles for the Norman Reid trophy. Thirty races were done in round-robin style, with Harvard finishing in first place. Senior Gram Slattery and sophomores Matthew Mollerus and Bennett Capozzi were the skippers and sophomores Julia Lord, Olivia Kjorlien, and Nomin Jagdagdorj joined them as crews.

Roger Williams and Boston College, the hosts of this regatta, both finished behind 9-1 Harvard with a 7-3 record, and right behind them were Brown University and Tufts who finished 3-7. Boston University came in last with a record of 1-9.

35TH YALE WOMEN’S INTERSECTIONAL REGATTA

Four women of the Harvard sailing team went down to Connecticut for this regatta. Of the 18 teams that competed, the Crimson finished in 11th place with the combined totals of both divisions.

Freshman Taylor Ladd and junior Kristina Jakobson took 16th place in the A division. Junior Sophia Bermudez and senior Ashleigh Inglis took fifth in the B division.

After the regatta-packed weekend of sailing, the Crimson has only four more weekends of racing left in the fall season.

“While a lot of regattas provide good insight about what it means to be a 'good' sailor, this weekend taught us about what it means to be a 'solid' sailor,” Bradt said. “The difference being that the 'good' sailor can win a race every once in a while, whereas the 'solid' sailor does what it takes to be consistent, to never finish outside of the top-five.”

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