Katherine Gaumond ’15 is a member of both the Yale women’s and coed sailing teams and was named to the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association All-American sailing team the past two years. Recently, both teams were ranked No. 1 in the country based on a poll conducted by Sailing World, and so far this season the coed team has won five consecutive regattas. Gaumond spoke to the News about the Bulldogs’ goals for this year and the secret to their consistent dominance of collegiate sailing.
Q
What does it mean for the team to be ranked No. 1 in the nation?
A
Obviously that really means a lot to the team being ranked No. 1, especially for both our women’s and our coed team, it’s really exciting and shows the depth we have as well … It’s just more motivation. We want to stay there for the rest of the semester and when it actually counts at a national championship.
Q
What has allowed the team to experience such continued success?
A
I think to begin with, we’re really lucky to have amazing coaches, both Zach Leonard, our head coach, and Bill Healy, our assistant coach, along with … a new assistant coach, Zeke Horowitz. I think all three of them are really good at fostering a community where we’re all really pushing each other, which is great because we’ll have practices that end up being equally as competitive as some of the regattas that we’ll be going to over the weekend … [P]lacing that emphasis on both the women’s and the coed teams makes it that much easier to push each other when we have to compete against other schools. We’re also just really close. We’re lucky that we get along sailing and we have an amazing venue, so we’re sort of intrinsically motivated there too.
Q
How has the team managed to handle the limited practice time thus far?
A
I think we’ve handled it really well. Usually we do get a couple of days of practice before spring break, and that’s something we weren’t able to do just due to the winter. But I think we all realized that this was a disadvantage we were going to have this season, and so we used the time to take advantage of extra classroom time with our coaches talking strategy and extra time in the gym working on fitness. We had to make the most of it, and it’s also something that all of the New England schools have been dealing with, so it’s not like we’re totally alone
Q
What kind of leadership role do you occupy on the team? How have you seen some of the younger members of the team progress so far this season?
A
It’s sort of an interesting dynamic because although we have separate women’s and coed teams and they compete in separate leagues, we all practice together as one team and really kind of function as one team as well. Graham Landy ’15 and myself were former coed and women’s captains, respectively, and then we just elected Charlotte Belling ’16 as our new coed captain and Marly Isler ’16 as our new women’s captain. The leadership role that I have been trying to play is one that people played for me when I was an underclassman, which is really just motivation through wanting to replicate what the older kids on the team were doing. It was always really clear that everyone took this really seriously and that everyone on the team wanted to win and that’s something that I try to pass on. … We have a lot of underclassmen on our team this year and I think that’s been good too. … No one is very complacent because there are all of these younger kids.
Q
How have you seen the team change over the course of your four years here?
A
I think what’s almost more interesting than what has developed is how consistent it’s been. Obviously we graduated a lot of incredible sailors and the personalities change from year to year, but I think our coach and the leaders on the team set the tone for such an environment of excellence and also just loving the sport … As far as what’s developed, we have just gotten better and better at peaking at the right time and concentrating on what the little goals are during the season to get to what is our most important goal at the end of the season.
Q
What is the team focusing on in preparation for nationals?
A
We graduated a really big class last year, so a lot of this year has been getting the underclassmen up to speed to take over roles on the team that have to be filled. Our coach always says that the goal of the season is to learn more than any other team and to do it faster than them. That doesn’t stop for me or anyone else who’s a senior either. So it’s really day-by-day, especially these early season events, taking it all as practice and taking it all as lessons from the weekend that we can take away … We talked a lot about not needing to go beyond our potential, but just needing to sail to our potential and that will be enough to get the job done.
Q
What are your most and least favorite aspects of sailing for Yale?
A
My most and least favorite aspects are probably the same. We have an incredible venue and I think we have the nicest venue in college sailing. We have incredible open water and big waves and it’s just so beautiful, but a bummer for sailing for Yale is there’s just absolutely no way to spectate from land. I’ve had a lot of friends that ask to come watch me sail and it’s just totally impossible to do that.