Courtesy of Rob Migliachio
After a frigid winter, both the Yale coed and women’s sailing teams headed for the warmer waters during spring break.
The Bulldogs clinched first-place victories at the Navy Spring Women’s regatta on March 9 and 10 and at the St. Mary’s Women’s InterConference regatta the following weekend. The coed team secured the Friis Trophy at Roger Williams University. Two other coed groups also raced to success at Coast Guard and Boston University, paving the way for a strong spring season.
“There were a lot of tough teams [at Roger Williams], so I was happy to see the team walk away with the win,” Chrissie Klingler ’20 said. “While we still have plenty to work on throughout the season, everyone’s put in a great effort so far and has been sailing really well.”
The coed team’s regattas this past weekend marked their first races in New England. While Saturday featured too much wind to race in, Sunday saw intense competition between the No. 1 Bulldogs and other highly ranked teams like No. 3 Stanford. Despite the caliber of their opponents, the Elis sailed their way to victory, securing a first-place victory while No. 11 Roger Williams and Stanford trailed behind in second and third place, respectively.
Klingler was originally set to skipper after Shawn Harvey ’21 suddenly fell ill, but when Sunday rolled around, Harvey was able to get back in the boat.
“We’re really happy to get the win this weekend even though we all know we didn’t sail our best,” Harvey said. “The lack of sailing this past week clearly showed, but our speed was what did the trick for us. This week of practice should get us back on track.”
Yale’s second coed team and a third younger squad also competed on the eastern seaboard. The former raced at BU, coming out ahead of Boston College and Harvard, while losing narrowly to BU, which ended with a 10/2 record to Yale’s 9/3. While the younger team — composed of first years and sophomores — stumbled slightly at the Vietor Trophy and came in 13th place at Coast Guard, the Bulldogs still came out ahead of opposing schools such as Tufts University and Maine Maritime Academy.
The women’s team also dominated over break, taking first in both of the regattas it sailed. At Navy Spring Women’s, the Elis took first, beating the second-place College of Charleston team by a 20-point margin. The Bulldogs tasted success again at the SMC InterConference regatta a week later. Though Yale trailed Harvard by five points at the end of Saturday’s races, the Elis surged back on Sunday to beat the Crimson by 22 points.
“The weather was really good, especially for early spring season, still cold but definitely enjoyable weather to sail in, and it really has us looking forward to the rest of this season,” second team member Anisha Arcot ’22 said.
Both the women’s and coed teams will race again this weekend in various competitions such as the Dellenbaugh at Brown and the Marchiando Team Race at MIT.
Valerie Pavilonis | valerie.pavilonis@yale.edu