The sailing team is finally finding its stride after a somewhat tumultuous start, reeling in two first place finishes and a fifth at some of the biggest regattas of the season this past weekend.
At the Danmark Trophy regatta hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on the Thames River, inconsistent breezes made for inconsistent finishes, something that plagued most teams. For the most part, though, the Jumbos managed to steer clear of trouble and finish with a solid 195 points in 24 races combined between the A and B divisions, good enough for a fifth-place finish out of 20 teams.
In the A division, junior Tomas Hornos and senior tri-captain Lara Hwa sailed to a sixth with 98 points. Their range of finishes spanned from a 15th on the first race of the weekend to a first place finish just three races later.
"It was a pretty important regatta for the fall," Hornos said. "We're happy -- just a little disappointed because we could've finished really, really well."
The Jumbos were nestled in fourth position for the entirety of the second day of racing but finished the day with a 14th, 15th and 16th between the two boats in the last two races. The damage was not too great, dropping the Jumbos only one spot overall; however, the late slip-up left a bitter aftertaste in the mouths of the sailors.
"We were a solid third or fourth for most of the day but we weren't able to finish," Hornos said. "[Senior tri-captain] Baker [Potts] and I are capable of doing well ... we just had issues finishing, mainly myself.
"I attribute it to my lack of experience in these top regattas," Hornos continued. "I just try to take it and use it for the next regatta."
Hornos also noted that two different boats were sailed on Saturday and Sunday, adding to the difficulty of finding consistency.
"[The inconsistency was] mainly due to extremely shifty winds," Hwa said. "Sometimes it was really hard to catch the shifts. They were so extreme sometimes you'd end up on the other side of the course ... it's a little frustrating, but that's how the wind goes."
What Hwa is referring to is a phenomenon in which, by virtue of the direction of the wind, one side of the course can heavily favor certain boats. The direction of the wind, simply put, determines the route a boat must take to get to a mark, and the most successful boats are the ones that are on the side of the course where the wind direction permits the most direct route to the mark.
Potts sailed with senior Christina Kelly in the B division, which yielded the Jumbos nearly the exact same amount of points -- 97 to the A division's 98 -- and a seventh-place finish in the division.
"[Potts and Kelly] did well," Hornos said. "They had good starts, good boat handling and a couple of bad breaks, though other than that they did fine."
On the whole, the word "fine" might be a slight understatement of how the Jumbos have fared in the past few weeks. The most recently updated Sailing World national collegiate rankings on Sept. 30 put Tufts in the No. 6 spot, up three from their previous No. 9 ranking. However, this week's slew of fine performances from the Jumbos might just push them up another notch.
"We're hoping to qualify for [the Atlantic Coast Championships] next weekend," Hwa said. "Not qualifying [for it yet] was on the disappointing side, but we know we'll make it next time ... we know we can do a lot better in upcoming regattas."
While Tufts sent its best to the Danmark Trophy, other Jumbos around New England showed their prowess as well. Junior single-handed specialist Andrew Criezis demonstrated tremendous strength as the skipper in a double-handed situation, winning his B division of the Smith Trophy regatta at MIT after accumulating a score of 38 points in 10 races with junior Jennifer Watkins. Even more impressively, his fast sailing combined with a fourth-place, 67-point performance from seniors Peter Bermudez and Francine Magasinn was enough to give the Jumbos the overall win out of a massive field of 27 teams.
When asked which was more satisfying -- to win his individual division or for the team to win overall -- Criezis supported the team.
"Any team can have one good skipper, but it takes a lot more depth to have two of them on the same page who are both pretty fast," Criezis said. "That's what Tufts has now -- good depth."
More depth was present elsewhere, as the Jumbos sailed to another first-place victory at the Hewitt Trophy at Southern Maine, as well as a fifth-place at the Women's Regis Bowl at Boston University.
