The rest of the campus may be struggling with final papers and preparing for exams, but the Yale sailing team cruised this weekend.

The coed team finished third at the Moody Trophy at the University of Rhode Island, while the women celebrated the return of Molly Carapiet ’06 to women’s sailing with a win over top-ranked teams at the Women’s Brad Dellenbaugh Trophy at Brown. Also this weekend, some Elis traveled to Boston for the BU Trophy, in which Yale finished sixth.

Carapiet and crew Jenn Hoyle ’05, who spent the past three weeks sailing in coed and team racing regattas, made a dominating return to the women’s racing circuit, finishing second in A division at the Dellenbaugh. Combined with the fourth-place finish that Emily Hill ’07 and Meghan Pearl ’06 scored in B division, Carapiet’s sailing was enough for the Elis to squeak out a three-point first place victory over nationally ranked No. 4 Charleston and 12 others. The women’s sailing team is currently ranked third in the country. No. 1 Dartmouth and No. 2 Harvard finished third and fourth in the regatta, respectively.

Returning to women’s sailing and the 420 class of boats was a change, Carapiet said.

“The fleet has a different personality, and it was a different feel sailing 420s after so many weeks sailing FJs,” Carapiet said.

Julie Papanek ’05 and Kendra Emhiser ’07 also sailed in the women’s regatta, crewing for Carapiet and Hill when it got especially windy. Carapiet said that the pair of girls, who are usually skippers, helped to make the difference in the regatta.

“It was very important that we had Julie [Papanek] and Kendra [Emhiser] there on Saturday to sail with us when it got windier,” Carapiet said. “It showed the strength of our team.”

But Carapiet and Hill’s finish at the Dellenbaugh was not the only good news for Yale sailors this weekend. On April 13, the coed team rode its return to the national rankings into a third-place finish at the Moody Trophy. The No. 15 coed team, nationally ranked for the first time this year, beat out nine of the eleven other nationally ranked teams at the regatta, finishing behind only winner No. 5 St. Mary’s and host No. 17 Rhode Island.

Yale took third in both A and B divisions at the Moody, with Phil Stemler ’07 and crew Meredith Killion ’05 finishing third in A division and Matt Barry ’07 and crews Hannah Oakland ’07 and Sarah Himmelfarb ’06 cruising into third in B division. Eighteen teams participated in the Moody.

Stemler said the team was very happy with their performance at the Moody, especially since it was held at the same site as the upcoming New England Championships, scheduled for May 8-9.

“It was a pretty competitive regatta and we’re really pretty excited about how we did,” Stemler said. “It’s a great mark of our progress. We sailed a really consistent regatta, didn’t make any big mistakes, and let out boat speed do the work for us.”

Rhode Island is a venue at which Yale sailors typically do well, since conditions there are similar to those at the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club in Branford, Stemler said. But he still thought their performance at the Moody could have given the Elis and extra edge for the New England Championships.

“It was a chance for us to go out there and show our stuff — to let loose a little bit,” Stemler said. “We got a leg up on some of the other teams that didn’t go to URI this weekend, and that will help us out a lot.”

But while Carapiet, Hill, Stemler, and Barry were knocking off top teams in the Ocean State, other Yale sailors were struggling against some tough competition at a third regatta, Boston University’s BU Trophy.

Eivind Karlsen ’06 and crew Courtney Cox ’06 sailed in A division, while Benoit Bewley ’05 and crew Kate Littlefield ’04 sailed in B. Yale finished sixth overall in the regatta, but complete results were not available at press time.

Karlsen judged the regatta a success.

“It was a good kind of run-up event to the New England’s that are coming up,” Karlsen said. “Courtney and I have been pretty consistent in the last several regattas, not getting too many individual results outside of the top 10. We’re just going to have to refine that in practice to get ready for New England’s.”

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