NEW LONDON, Conn. – This weekend, the underclassmen showed their dominance at the Hewitt Trophy, winning the event for the second year in a row with a significant margin. The Bulldogs also placed fourth at the Danmark Trophy and were named to the No. 2 spot in the college sailing rankings earlier this week.
Representing Yale at the Danmark, held at US Coast Guard Academy, were juniors Ian Barrows, Natalya Doris, Mitchell Kiss and Clara Robertson and sophomores Christopher Champa and Claire Huebner.
Barrows and Doris placed third in A division, just two points out of first place. The breezy and sometimes unpredictable conditions they saw this weekend made for very close racing in their division.
In B division, Kiss skippered with crews Champa and Robertson. They found difficulty in understanding the wind patterns over the weekend, but grasped the correct strategy by the end of the weekend, finishing strong with a second place in the final race of the regatta.
Consistency proved extremely important over the weekend, as the Coast Guard Academy chose to race just in Z420s rather than in both Z420s and FJs. This meant that races got off at a slower place than usual, and a bad race would have a more significant impact on a team's overall finish.
10 races were completed in each division rather than the 14-18 races Coast Guard typically runs at an event like this.
At the Hewitt Trophy in Dartmouth, a group of underclassmen skippered under the guidance of several upperclassman crews. They sailed in light air all weekend, with wind velocities ranging from 0 to 8 knots.
In A division, sophomore Malcolm Lamphere and junior Chandler Gregoire placed fourth. Freshman skipper Nic Baird with crews senior captain Charlotte Belling and sophomore Caroline Colwell in B division. They placed second, nine points out of first.
In C division, freshman skipper Nick Hernandez with crews senior Emily Johnson and Colwell had an outstanding performance. They won by 24 points, which is an impressive margin since just 11 races were completed in each division.
In other news, Sailing World posted its first college sailing rankings of the fall season early this week. The Yale coed sailing team was ranked second, but tied with the Georgetown Hoyas in the coaches' vote for the best coed team in college sailing.
The Bulldogs, however, don't focus on the rankings this early in the season, as many of the regatta lineups reflect experimentation with divisions and pairings. The focus of the fall season is learning and improvement, which is often prioritized over top performance.
To see the rankings, visit http://www.sailingworld.com/sailing-world-college-rankings-october-2nd-2015.
Next weekend, the Bulldogs will compete in Moody Trophy at the University of Rhode Island and Southern Series 5 at Roger Williams University.
For full results from this weekend, visit http://scores.collegesailing.org.
Report filed by Natalya Doris '17, Yale Sports Publicity
