Gopher Invite

The University of Minnesota hosted the Gopher Invitational this past weekend, May 11-12, at the Wayzata Community Sailing Center.  The University of Michigan sent 5 freshman sailors to the event. The group nicknamed themselves 'The Dream Team' and consisted of Blake Carlson '15, Zachary Frankel '14, Taylor Landeryou '16, Cody Oeung '14, and Andrew Roth '15. Twelve teams from the MCSA competed, and notably the new St. Olaf College sailing team raced in their first regatta.

The first day of sailing was canceled due to extreme wind conditions of 30-40 knots.  It was reported that 17 boats simultaneously capsized at a near by regatta.  During the down time there were lectures on racing strategy, tactics, and rules.  Sunday's races went smoothly. The winds were strong in the morning, but became shifty by the end of the day. The novice wolverine sailors stayed competitive all afternoon on the gated windward-leeward course, but were ultimately beaten out by the veteran gopher sailors.  The young group learned a lot from the experience and had a fun time on and off the water.

-Zachary Frankel '14

2013 MCSA Team Racing Championship

The team competed over the weekend of May 4-5 in the 2013 MCSA Team Racing Championship hosted by the Wayzata Community Sailing Center. With the winter academic semester just ending a few days before the event, the 11 hour car ride to Minnesota wasn’t as dreadful as usual. With most of the MCSA teams in the middle of their finals, the regatta only featured four teams, Northwestern, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. This was a disappointment because this meant that the MCSA had to forfeit one of its two team racing berths to nationals to another conference.
Saturday’s conditions on Wayzata Bay consisted of chilly 40 degree temperatures, cloudy skies, and a 5-10 knot northerly wind. The conditions proved to be tricky because of the massive velocity changes on the course and shifty conditions. This meant that no lead was ever safe! Our team was comprised of Matt Graham ’13, Karinne Smolenyak ‘14 Elizabeth Wallace ’14, Ryan Seago ’14, Will Cyr ’14, Ryan Davison ’15, Chris Cyr ’16, Emily Gazall ’16, Sophie Lucente ’16 and Tom Etheridge ’16. Throughout the regatta the team performed well, but after 3 round robins the team finished in second place with Wisconsin winning the regatta with a perfect record. In two of the three races vs. Wisconsin the team had the lead, but weren’t able to hold on to our winning combination. With the co-ed team being eliminated from the postseason, this means that this year only our women’s team will be headed to St. Petersburg to compete in the ICSA women’s semifinals starting on May 21st. Good Luck ladies!

-Ryan Seago '14

2013 ICSA Co-ed Semi-finals

Hampton University and Old Dominion University hosted the 2013 ISCA National Co-ed Semi-finals over the weekend of April 27-28. The event was sailed on the Hampton Roads on the shores of Hampton, Virginia, located in-between the James River and the

Matt Graham and Karinne Smolenyak

Chesapeake Bay. The team arrived in Norfolk, VA, late Friday night and stayed at Tom Etheridge’s (’16) house over the weekend. Throughout the weekend while at the regatta or at the Etheridge’s house, the team was spoiled by the fantastic hospitality of the Etheridge’s.

Semi-finals is the largest collegiate dinghy regatta of the year, featuring more than 250 sailors, which provides a different feel than the usual collegiate regatta. The 36 teams are broken down by seedings from their own districts into 2 fleets of 18 boats. Then the top 9 from each fleet of 18 make it to co-ed fleet racing nationals. 

Saturday’s weather couldn't of been any better; 70 degree temperatures, sunny skies and a 5-10 knot easterly breeze provided great races for the competitors. Our team started off the day strong, recording top five finishes in both divisions, rounding the first windward mark in first a few times and achieving numerous top 10 finishes. A division consisted of

Ryan Seago and Emily Gazall

Matt Graham ’13, Karinne Smolenyak ’14 and Tom Etheridge ’16 and B division was Ryan Seago ’14 and Emily Gazall ’16. At the end of the day the team was in 10^th place in the
Eastern Semi-final, 15 pts behind the 9^th place team and within 20 pts of 7^th place.

Sunday started out with very similar conditions to Saturday, with mid-60 degree temperatures, mostly sunny skies, and the same 5-10 knot easterly breeze which built to 10-20 knots as the day wore on. The team started out with similar results to Saturday but then started to falter as the day progressed. The team finished off the regatta in 12^th place after 26 races, with 39 pts separating us from qualifying for nationals.

-Ryan Seago '14