Sailing Qualifies for Atlantic Coast Championship

­The Harvard sailing team competed in three regattas this weekend, including the Schell Trophy, where the squad qualified for the Fall 2014 Atlantic Coast Championship.

74TH PROFESSOR ERWIN SCHELL TROPHY

The Crimson’s strongest performance on the water came in the Schell Trophy, hosted by the University of Vermont on Lake Champlain. Harvard took sixth place out of the 18 colleges and universities who participated in the competition.

This two-day regatta featured FJ racing and four sailors represented Harvard across the two divisions.

Senior Brian Drumm was joined by juniors Marek Zaleski and Jacob Bradt in the A division, where the Crimson took tenth place. Bradt rotated with junior co-captains Andrew Mollerus and Sydney Karnovsky in the B division, where they placed fourth.

“Overall, this weekend went well,” Bradt said. “This was our qualifier for the Atlantic Coast Championship, which is set to take place in a couple of weeks and is by far the most important regatta of the fall season, so our primary goal going into this past weekend was to be amongst the top eight teams, thus qualifying for the final event of the season.”

Harvard finished in sixth place overall with a combined total of 151 points. Boston College finished on top in this regatta with 89 points total.

It was a windy weekend up in Burlington and the Crimson noticed the impact of the conditions on its racing.

“A lot of teams gave up a significant amount of points on Sunday by simply not being able to sail fast in the windy and wavy weather or by making little mistakes that were only magnified given the conditions,” Bradt said. “We tried to approach these tricky conditions by keeping things simple: keeping the boat moving fast, not taking too many risks on the starting line--just generally focusing on the basics.”

Despite qualifying for the Atlantic Coast Championship, the team can improve according to Bradt.

“A weakness that plagued us early in the weekend was not picking up on the paradigm of success,” Bradt said. “It seemed as though we were a step behind the ball when it came to picking up on what was working, what the key to success was in a given race.”

VICTORIAN COFFEE URN TROPHY

Harvard finished in 11th place out of 18 teams this weekend at the Victorian Coffee Urn Regatta hosted by Dartmouth. The conditions in New Hampshire were quite cold with strong winds on Sunday, which made being on the water a challenge for all sailors maneuvering their boats. There were 15 capsizes on Sunday alone.

The stronger performance came from junior Sophie Bermudez and senior Ashleigh Inglis in the B division. The duo finished in fourth place. Freshman Taylor Ladd and junior Kristina Jakobson finished in 16th place for the A division.

NICKERSON TROPHY

Harvard also raced in the Nickerson Trophy hosted by Tufts University. Sailing took place over two days in this inter-conference regatta and the boats being sailed were larks.

Despite finishing in seventh place in both the A and B divisions, the Crimson came in eighth place overall for the regatta.

“Our strengths were definitely staying in phase and playing the shifts properly while getting out to the pressure early,” freshman Dylan Farrell said.

The weather in Arlington, MA was much like what was faced in Vermont and New Hampshire for the rest of the squad.

“I thought the weekend went pretty well overall given the conditions,” Farrell said.

Despite the wind and the cold air, there were no protests or breakdowns in the rotations.

Farrell was joined by freshman Kirstin Anderson in the B division. Freshman Nick Sertl and sophomore Nomin-Erdene Jagdagdorj paired up for the A division.

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