The national No. 12 women's sailing team this weekend traveled to Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. to compete in the Atlantic Coast Championships (ACCs) — its final fall regatta — and did not leave disappointed.
The women finished fourth overall behind St. Mary's (first), Boston College (second) and Hobart and William Smith (third). The team's overall score of 232 points put them 36 points out of third place.
Unfortunately, there was minimal wind and the weather was inconsistent, which created long days for the teams. Sailing began at 9 a.m. and finished well after 8 p.m.
Senior A Division skipper Catherine Swanson sailed with senior crewmembers Margaret Rew and Sara Carnahan. Their boat finished eighth in their division with 124 points over 15 races. The B boat was sailed by sophomore skipper Natalie Salk and crewed by sophomore Madeline Luce and junior Kathryn Booras, finishing fifth in its division with 108 points.
The light winds definitely affected the races, according to Salk.
"For ACCs, one thing that we did really well was that in the B Division, we sailed in light air especially well when it got very, very light," Salk said. "Madeline and I capitalized off sailing off the 10 of the line and hitting the shift. In the light wind we were getting bullet [first place finishes]. In the heavier winds, we didn't do as well but we were very consistent in the light air and did very well there."
As for the end of their season, Swanson and her team are proud of their finish and optimistic about the spring season.
"We had a lot of fun in Florida," Swanson said. "It was kind of a treat that we got to go and an awesome way to end our season. We're really happy with how we did. All the schools that were there were the schools from the East Coast that qualified, and there are only two more schools that have good women's teams — from California and Hawaii — so it was all the teams that will be at women's nationals in the spring except for those two. It was a good indicator of how we might perform at nationals."
"I think this regatta showed our potential and how we can do in the spring and how we are making constant improvements from one regatta to the next," Salk said.
While the women's team was in South Florida, the national No. 15 coed team traveled to Bowdoin to compete in the Coed Atlantic Coast Tournament, which allows teams that didn't qualify for the coed ACCs to race against each other.
In its final regatta of the fall season, the team finished eighth in a tournament of 16 total teams. The Boston University Terriers came in first, followed closely by University of Rhode Island and Coast Guard.
The sailors faced a strong current and shifty breezes, which created inconsistent offsets and gates in the course. Massimo Soriano, junior skipper for the A Division boat, felt the lack of consistent weather was the primary reason for the less−than−ideal finishes.
"I think the one thing that was disappointing was that we didn't get to sail a full regatta; the whole time it was broken up," Soriano said. "There was little wind and we sailed only two races each on Saturday and only four races each on Sunday, and of the 12, at least half of them were marginal.
"There were very borderline conditions," he continued. "That meant that we weren't able to do as well as we'd hope and there were little things that didn't go our way. It was mainly the fact that we failed to capitalize on shaky conditions. We sailed an average regatta, which we weren't hoping to do. That was the team's performance. It was really marginal sailing the whole time, and it was too bad."
Junior B boat skipper Nicolas Russo−Larsson agreed.
"There really wasn't much racing, so when it was a real race we either did really well or really poorly," he said. "So there weren't any themes because there wasn't enough racing to be consistent. Most things didn't go our way, but it's hard to say that when there are so few races."
Soriano sailed with sophomore crewmember Amelia Quinn, who is also a features editor for the Daily. The A boat came in sixth overall, 10 points behind Salve Regina.
The B boat, which was skippered by Russo−Larsson and crewed by senior Roisin Magee, sailed to ninth place. Again, the boat finished behind Salve Regina but by only three points.
The coed team is confident that it can improve its sailing and reach the results it wants, according to Soriano.
"It's a question of lining up and synchronizing what we are capable of and doing what really counts," Soriano said. "If you look at our performance ranking in New England, we are still ranked seventh and that's something to be proud of in a district that is arguably the most competitive district in the nation. It's our goal to be around fifth or sixth and we've fallen a bit short of that and we are still in position to pick our regattas this spring season and capitalize on what we've learned this fall."
"Our goal of the season is to synchronize our racing and capitalize on that," Russo−Larsson said. "Peaking boats at the same time is important and really not getting into a funk mentally. We need to quickly recover after a bad race and get into a positive groove more often."
This marks the end of the fall season for the sailing teams. They will begin to compete in team races in the spring season beginning late January.
