Sailing Competes in Four Regattas Across the Northeast

Across four competitions this weekend, the Crimson was forced to navigate through rough waters.

The Jen Harris Women’s regatta in Annapolis, Md., saw two days of spotty conditions in which unfavorable winds prevented the regatta from completing its entire slate of races. Harvard secured a ninth place finish in a pool of 17 teams, and the performance ensured the Crimson the last qualifying position for the Women’s Showcase Final in two weeks’ time.

Harvard’s A-division boat was led by senior skipper Taylor Gavula for the first six races and first-year Emma Kaneti for the following four. Sophomore crew Emily Wang raced in all 10 events, and the team overall ended with 106 points after finishing in the top five in just one of its ten races.

However, the success in the B-division boat, led by junior skipper Lucy Wilmot and senior crew Alejandra Resendiz, kept the Crimson in the top 10 overall.

“It was a nice outing for us, especially since we didn’t qualify for a culminating showcase last year,” Wilmot said. “We felt like we had stronger boat handling than the other girls.”

The B-division boat finished sixth with 74 points, helping Harvard secure the team’s place in the showcase final.

The Moody Trophy, hosted by the University of Rhode Island, was characterized by similar wind inconsistencies and saw a competitive pool including Boston University, Rhode Island, Yale, and Tufts. Harvard finished fifth, edging out Brown by 2 points.

In the A division, sophomore skipper Eli Burnes and senior crew Lena Episalla finished fourth on a tie-breaker. In the B division, senior skipper Andrew Puopolo and junior crew Iulianna Tarista finished fifth, just ahead of the Bears.

MIT hosted a third in-conference regatta this weekend. The George Warren Smith Trophy, named in honor of an MIT professor and ex-sailor, saw Tufts take first and second places at the end of the weekend.

The A-division boat started the weekend with first-year Frankie Doyle at skipper and sophomore Gayatri Balasubramanian at crew. Doyle found “the conditions [to be] tricky,” yet he still “found [his] rhythm and managed to score the lowest on the day.”

The second day of competing for the Smith Trophy, however, ended with the team finishing in ninth place after Doyle was replaced by junior skipper Catherine Kerner and one of the Crimson’s finishes from the first day was disqualified.

In the B division, freshmen Eric Hansen and Katherine Barkin finished in seventh place after two days of racing.

To round out the weekend, the Danmark Trophy, a regatta hosted by the United States Coast Guard Academy, was composed of a tough fleet. Among a competitive field of schools including Stanford, University of California at Santa Barbara, Boston College, Yale, and MIT, Harvard finished eighth on a tie-breaker.

In the B division, senior captain Nick Karnovsky and junior captain Jessica Williams finished the weekend in first place, outlasting Tufts by two points. The A-division boat, sailed by sophomore skipper Henry Burnes and senior crew Catherine Tang, finished in 13th place, contributing 62 of the team’s 88 total points — an undesirable statistic in a regatta, where lower scores reflect higher finishes.