Harvard Sailing Earns Podium Spots in Respective Regattas

The Harvard sailing team won the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) Match Racing Championship while finishing third at the Nevins Trophy and 11th at the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship this past weekend.

NEISA Match Racing Championship:

The NEISA Match Racing Championship was hosted by Coast Guard in New London, Conn. Junior skipper Justin Callahan, a 2024 Skipper of the Year finalist, led a Crimson team of sophomore Xavier Ayala-Vermont, junior Mitchell Callahan, and freshman Kate Danielson to the Larry White Trophy.

“Match racing is probably the discipline in college sailing that we do the least of,” said Harvard Associate Head Coach Bern Noack, “but if we have sailors who are good at it and are motivated to do it and want to do it and want to try and go to nationals and win the nationals, then we fully support it.”

Saturday’s weather brought gusty wind from eight to 30 knots. Sustained winds reached as high as 20 knots with 30 knot gusts for some races. The Crimson finished first in the round robin with a 7-1 record, with its only defeat coming to Coast Guard. Harvard was seeded against Tufts in the quarter finals and was able to dispatch its competitor 2-0 in a best-of-three format. With faster wind conditions, spinnaker handling was a key differentiator for the Crimson.

On Sunday, the wind died quickly but steadied to a five to 15 knot breeze early in the day. Harvard was seeded to sail against United States Coast Guard Academy in the semifinals, the only team that the Crimson had fallen to in the round robin stage. After losing the first race in the best-of-three matchup, Harvard was on the verge of elimination.

“We made mistakes and we knew how to fix them," said Danielson about re-orienting after the loss. “And that's just the mindset, like, we’re going to fix this. We’re going to do better.”

The Crimson was able to find its footing and turn it around to win the subsequent two races, which saw the boat advance to the finals to race against Ancient Eight rival Yale.

With the confidence and momentum that the Crimson had built against Coast Guard, the boat was able to translate its determination into expert sailing that saw it beat a very experienced Yale team 2-0 in the finals and to return home to Cambridge with the Larry White Trophy. Harvard finished with three points, while Yale finished with six and Boston College finished with nine. The Crimson’s mentality entering the matches was crucial to its success.

“Sailing with people you trust is just a great experience because you know they’re going to deliver… you just have to do your part and then everything’s going to work out.” Noack said.“We knew they had the potential to do really well if everything came together, and it did come together really well. The crew did a fantastic job with the boat handling.”

With this win, Harvard officially secured a spot in the ICSA Match Racing National Championships held from Nov. 16 to Nov. 17 at the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club in Oyster Bay, Long Island. This will be the first National Championship run for the Crimson sailors, and will be a chance for the team to prove themselves on the highest stage.

Atlantic Coast Championship:

The Harvard women finished with a score of 317 points to land them in 11th place out of 18 teams in the Women's Atlantic Coast Championship in Annapolis, M.D. Saturday’s inconsistent wind started with a five to 10 knot breeze out of the northwest and allowed only a few races to be completed. A consistent and light breeze on Sunday allowed the competition to conclude.

The Crimson’s A-Division boat of seniors Cordelia Burn and Margo Silliman (1-14), and junior Sophia Montgomery (15-16) started slowly but was able to finish second in the ninth race and find more consistency later in the regatta.

The B-Division boat of sophomores Zoey Ziskind, Christina Chen (1-10), and Peyton Hadfield (11-16) started strong with a win in the first race. A change in wind conditions shifted the race venue and disrupted the sailors’ momentum which saw glory slip just out of reach. Irregular wind conditions continued to hamper Harvard’s progress throughout the regatta.

After placing second in the qualifier two weekends beforehand and having placed fifth in the championship last year, it was a disappointing result for the squad. It is not, however, the end of the road.

“It's still the beginning of the season,” sophomore Zoey Ziskind said. “We have all year to be sailing and the fact that we can do so well in that fleet for at least part of the time—I think we can just hone in on what works well and just be more consistent.”

“More than anything, you have some bad weekends, have some competitions where you're not at your best,” Noack said.

The Harvard women’s squad will have a chance to rebound after this performance with upcoming regattas at Yale and Brown.

Nevins Trophy:

The Crimson also raced additional fleets at the Nevins Trophy in Kings Point, N.Y., which saw the squad ride back to Cambridge with a third-overall finish. The A-Division boat of sophomores Robby Meek and JJ Drummond (1, 6-10), and freshman Amelie Zucker (2-5, 11-14) held a consistent second place with ten finishes in the top-five over 14 races. The boat finished in second with a final score of 72. The B-Division team of freshman Harrison Strom, junior Aidan Pesce (1-7), and sophomore Katherine Shin (8-14) held an early lead aided by a win in their second race, but ultimately finished sixth in the division with a score of 94. Harvard ended the competition with 166 points, falling short of Yale (112) and Stanford (148).

“It was a really good experience for those guys,” Noack said. “They’re going to be really important in the future, as they sail more and more of the larger regattas and more important regattas.”

This weekend Harvard will compete at the Open Atlantic Coast Championship hosted by Boston College, for the Oberg Trophy at MIT, and at the Yale Women's Regatta in New Haven. The team will look to build and improve on a strong season and take its momentum into some of the national championships taking place in November.