The Hap Moore Team Race hosted by Boston College this past weekend was a reprieve for a Tufts squad that had been sailing almost exclusively in the fleet race format for the past two months.
But this change of pace wasn't only in the racing format, but also in the results for the nationally ranked No. 12 Jumbos. A solid fifth-place finish out of 12 of the nation's best teams indicates that Tufts has possibly started to hit its stride only a week before the Atlantic Coast Dinghy Championship (ACC) at Harvard.
Granted, sailing a team race is dramatically different from a fleet race. A round robin, head-to-head format with the best three-boat combination winning (each team sails three boats), team races involve an entirely new set of tactics, maneuvers and mindsets. Although the ACCs are sailed in the more typical fleet race format, in which it's essentially every boat for itself, team racing can certainly help hone skills — such as boat handling and one-on-one racing — that are paramount to success in any format.
At minimum, the Hap Moore was a learning experience that helped the Jumbos foster some chemistry heading into the later stages of the fall season.
"Fifth in that team race was good for us because it was the first time [senior] Tomas [Hornos] and [sophomore] Nicolas [Russo-Larsson] and I had raced together," senior tri-captain Andrew Criezis said. "It was a good chemistry; we were there to learn, and we all knew that."
The three Tufts skippers were Criezis, Hornos and Russo-Larsson, accompanied by junior Roisin Magee, senior Rachael Brill and sophomore Jory Hanselman, respectively.
In the opening round, the Jumbos went 7-4 in their 11 head-to-head matchups, which qualified them for the round of six on Sunday afternoon. There, the Jumbos were only able to beat one of their five competitors, finishing the weekend at 8-8 overall.
"We should have executed the sailing maneuvers cleaner with less fouls," Criezis said.
These problems are typical to the team race format and embody why this format can be so difficult.
"For the most part, we were on the same page. However, it is extremely difficult to have the awareness during an intense race to know exactly what to do," Hornos added. "Nicolas held his own. He rarely made dumb mistakes and saved us in a few races. He was a little green when it came to umpire and complex rules situations, which is to be expected from someone competing in their first team race intersectional. Criezis and I know each other well, so we never had to say anything to one another, which allowed us to focus on going fast."
The regatta was sailed in 420s, boats that the Jumbos do not practice in but that a majority of the team's competition is familiar with. That gave the other teams a leg up in boat speed off the line, one of the most critical parts of a race.
"We were a little off the pace at the starts, which made catching up difficult," Hornos said. "We were also not that fast compared to other teams that sail 420s all the time."
Part of the beauty of the team race, though, is that rarely is a race decided before the final leg. There is always room for maneuvers; a higher-positioned boat can come back and sit on another boat to free up a teammate that's stuck, or a boat can work its way out of the shadow of a competitor. The Jumbos experienced some extremely tight matches as a result of this propensity for change within a race.
"Races against St. Mary's, BC and Roger Williams were difficult," Hornos said. "You could tell they had been practicing for a while. We were competitive against them, but in the end they executed their plays quicker."
One race in particular against Brown seemed to have the level of intensity on which the avid team-race sailor thrives.
"We had a close race against Brown where we were in a ‘play four' — a 1-4-5 [first-, fourth- and fifth-place] combination — and I was the [fifth-place boat] controlling the [sixth-place boat from Brown]," Criezis said. "Our fourth place boat, Nicolas, got pinned and fouled the other team, so I then had to lock up the [sixth-place boat], and we got into a tight gybing duel. Eventually we lost the race, but it was a good fight."
All things considered, the weekend provided a welcome break from fleet racing which gave the Jumbos an opportunity to have some fun despite meeting a few challenges on the water. By those standards, the fifth-place finish was almost a bonus on top of an already enjoyable experience.
"In the end, we bonecrushed against the teams we were supposed to beat, but against good teams, we could really see our weaknesses," Hornos said. "It was a positive regatta — we never got angry at each other which made it fun for everyone on our team. And we dominated all our regatta food."
