Timme Angsten Memorial Regatta

Over the weekend of November 17-18, the Michigan Sailing Team traveled to Chicago to compete in the 66^th annual Timme Angsten Memorial Regatta hosted by the Chicago Yacht Club. The regatta is also the fall co-ed championship for the MCSA, which provides an added incentive for teams to perform well. Although Chicago is nicknamed “The windy city,” conditions throughout the weekend were predicted to be exactly the opposite. With high pressure systems surrounding the Midwest, the regatta was predicted to have 5-10 knots of breeze for both days of competition and unseasonably warm temperatures.

On Saturday morning sailors were greeted by the friendly atmosphere generated form a fantastic breakfast provided by the Chicago Yacht Club and the smiling faces of our other MCSA friends. Of the 13 total teams competing, all were from the MCSA except for Bates College and the University of Buffalo. The Timme Angsten regatta is held inside of Monroe harbor in downtown Chicago, which is possible because in mid-November all of the boats usually connected to mooring balls which fill the harbor are gone. This provides a fantastic view for people on shore and enables fast on-the-water rotations. Sailors were greeted with sunny skies, upper 50 degree temperatures and 2-6 knots of breeze from the southwest in the morning. These conditions provided a shifty and puffy race course, which forced competitors to keep their eyes out of the boat as much as possible. As the day wore on, an easterly thermal from Lake Michigan ranging from 4-7 knots began fighting the onshore wind which totally shut off the wind inside the harbor. This forced race officials to move the last 2 races of the day outside of the harbor wall to sail in the new easterly breeze that was unable to reach the harbor. Despite the fickle conditions, race officials were able to run 6 races for A fleet and 4 for B fleet. At the end of the day both our A fleet (Ryan Seago ’14 and Evelyn Hull ’13) and B fleet (Will Cyr ’14 and Sophie Lucente ’16) were in first place!

                After competing on Saturday our team went back to the house of current team captain Rachel Barch(’13) whose mother hosted the team for the weekend. The team enjoyed a fantastic dinner and then headed over to the semi-formal “Butter Ball” which was held on the second floor of the Chicago Yacht Club. The Ball comprised of light appetizers, music, and the chance to socialize with a few other teams that were in attendance. After a couple hours of fun the team returned to the Barch’s house and enjoyed some needed rest after the long day.

Sunday, started off once again with sunny skies, warm temperatures and a 2-5 knot southerly breeze with choppy seas. Two races for B division were completed outside the harbor wall in these tricky conditions, 2 races inside the harbor for A division. However, at 1 pm the thermal once again began to fight the southerly breeze and the wind totally shut off for good after the end of the 7^th B race. This meant that for first time since 1977 the University of Michigan won the Timme Angsten trophy! In addition we also won both A and B division’s and the annual MCSA fall championship trophy. Needless, to say our team performed very well all weekend from the very first to the last race, and had a lot of fun throughout the entire weekend. Congratulations to the seven Michigan sailors Alex, Evelyn, Heather, Kendall, Ryan, Sophie, and Will for their great performance and Go Blue!

-Ryan Seago '14

Elections for 2013 Executive Board

Elections for the 2013 Executive Board were tonight. We are proud to introduce the addition of two new board positions, Long Term Fundraising Chair and Media Chair to support our growing team!

The new board is:

Co Captains:
David Oliver '14
Ryan Davidson '15

Treasurer:
Liz Wallace '14

Long Term Fundraising Chair:
Vittorio Bichucher '14

Short Term Fundraising Chair:
Jean Rafaelian '16

Rec Sports Chair/Travel Liason:
Liz Smith '14

Race Chair/MCSA Representative:
Will Cyr '14

Social Chair/Recruitment Chair:
Connor Shope '15

Secretary:
Katie Reid '15

Media Chair:
Ryan Seago '14

They will be coming to Executive Board meetings for the rest of the semester and transition fully at the start of the new year. 

Timmie’s Tune-Up @ Northwestern Nov. 10-11 2012

A flamboyant bunch of 14 sailors headed out to Evanston, IL this past weekend to take on various teams in the MCSA that included Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Chicago and Purdue. Packed tightly into three cars, we headed out Friday night with an itching to sail. Rising bright and early on Saturday morning, we took to Northwestern’s boathouse on Lake Michigan, rigged up the two boats we towed, and headed out on the water. We had three boats sailing in both A and B divisions. Conditions were moderate with a warm breeze coming from the southwest. Gusts up to 20 knots provided for an exciting sail, but we hadn’t gotten more than one rotation in before a thunderstorm rolled in, causing about a two-hour delay. Once the storm had passed, we packed another rotation in before the sun had set. Unfortunately, severe wind conditions prevented any sailing on Sunday, so after awards we were on our way back to the mitten. Thanks to Matt Graham (’13) skippering in A division and Ryan Seago (’14) skippering B division, the University of Michigan Sailing Team was able to take first overall and first in both divisions. It was a successful weekend for UofM as they dominated Northwestern both on the football field and on the water. Sail to the victors!

-Abby Rogers '16

Freshmen Interconference Regatta at Coast Guard

In the few days right before Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast, 5 freshmen took the 12 hour car ride out to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.  24 hours of driving for a weekend regatta isn't ideal, but I'd say the ride was definitely worth it. Nachiketa Tiwari was nice enough to let us stay at his place 15 minutes from the academy, even though he wasn't in town.  Friday night was uneventful, we got to the area around midnight and everyone passed out as soon as we got there.

Saturday morning we got to Coast Guard at 9. Though the academy's campus is tiny compared to ours, they are situated right on a river and their sailing facility has 25 FJs and 25 420s, along with at least 20 keelboats.   It was a little intimidating at the skippers meeting to see some of the big name freshmen from the varsity east coast teams, but we knew that it was going to be a very competitive weekend.  We were postponed in the morning waiting for the wind to fill in, but we had great conditions by 11.  We sailed from 11 to 5 on Saturday in 5-10 knots of breeze from the east.  It was surprisingly warm out, I spent the entire day in board shorts and a T-shirt on.  Our results were just around where we expected: midfleet.  Sophie Lucente and Chris Cyr sailed a 420 in B fleet and we had some top 5's and some not so top 5's and ended up in 8th after the first day.  Tom Etheridge and Taylor Landeryou sailed the FJ in A fleet and were consistently beating 6-8 boats, ending up in 14th out of the 19 teams.

Sunday morning we started to get some of the breeze from Hurricane Sandy.  We had a good 15 knots of breeze with rogue puffs hitting 20.  Though, the breeze was coming from the unnatural direction of Northeast and caused some pretty shifty conditions, even shiftier than Baseline.  Despite the frustrating conditions our team sailed the same as the first day. Tom switched crews for Evan Vowell to allow everyone that came a chance to sail.

Our team ended up in 14th, which isn't bad considering the varsity teams that we were up against.  We knew coming into this regatta that it would be a learning experience. Tom and I had new crews to train and we got some great practice in with them.  We have some great potential crews and we're looking forward to improving. 

-Chris Cyr '16

Prof. Hood Trophy Regatta Report

After the first 2 home football games of the year and our alumni regatta kept almost all of the team in Ann arbor for most of September, the Michigan Sailing Team began its first weekend of competition by sending one of its 2 teams of the weekend to the Prof. Hood  Trophy September 22-23. The regatta was hosted by Tufts University on the “mystical” Mystic Lake in Medford, Massachusetts. The lake is known for its incredibly unpredictable winds and massive wind shifts due to the small size and large hills surrounding the lake. To help overcome the usual lack of wind on the lake, Tufts has a fleet of 24 Larks which are modified for light air sailing. The Larks have oversized mainsails and in addition are much lighter than most 2 person dinghies.  This allows for much more enjoyable sailing because most crews are fully hiking in 10 knots of breeze!

When we showed up to the lake on Saturday morning we were greeted by the other 18 east coast teams and were ready to hit the water. However, as the overnight northerly breeze died, classic Mystic Lake conditions of 0-3 knots of breeze and very shifty conditions settled in. Around noon the breeze picked up to 4-6 knots and we were off racing. In A fleet, Matt Graham(’13) and Karinne Smolenyak (’15) started the day and in B fleet we had Ryan Seago(’14) and Evelyn Hull(’13). It took a bit of time to get used to the highly competitive east coast starting line and fickle wind shifts, but towards then end of the day both of our boats were breaking into the top 10 on a consistent basis against the other varsity teams.  After the first day we were sitting in 13^th of 19 and were ready to watch the Notre Dame football game and get some sleep at team member Alex Mayo’s house in Needham, MA. Needless to say, (no pun intended) Alex’s parents were very gracious hosts by providing us breakfast twice and dinner on Saturday and even watched Denard throw as many interceptions as possible with us.

Sunday started out with fantastic conditions of 10-15 knots of breeze and sunny skies. In A fleet, Tom Etheridge(’16) and Alex Mayo(’15) went out and had a superb first race, rounding the first mark in 3^rd place and finished the race in the top 10. (Not bad for Tom’s first ever race in college!)  Throughout the morning the race committee ran a Gold Cup course (Triangle Windward-Leeward) to help spread the fleet out and to see if the boats could get up on a plane!  But, as the breeze died towards the end of the day, we went back to a traditional W4 course at around noon and after 20 races were completed for the weekend the regatta was over at 3 pm. After the 2 days of racing, Michigan ended up in 14^th place overall of 19, 14^th in A and 13^th in B.  

Cary Price Memorial Interconference Regatta

The Michigan Sailing Team hosted our annual Cary Price Memorial Regatta this last weekend (September 29-30) at the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club in Grosse Pointe, MI.  The team had two berths with which we had a women's team and coed team.  Other teams that attended include: Michigan State University, Ohio State University, Northwestern University, Purdue University, Western Michigan University and Hope College.  Saturday started out with a beautiful sunrise over Lake St. Clair and light wind out of the North.  We sent our A fleet out for one race and then postponed for about 45 minutes.  The wind filled in and we continued racing.  Michigan coed team ended Saturday in first place and Michigan women's team ended in fourth.  Sunday morning came with winds 8-10 with a lot of chop.  With sunburned faces we smiled for cameras as the Michigan coed team won the regatta and Michigan women's team came in 3rd! Thank you to everyone who came out to help, Your Local Car Guys for donated the trophy glasses and Mosher Jewlers for the engraving. Go Blue!

Alumni Regatta a Big Success

 

 



 

 

After Saturday’s successful alumni tailgate and football win over Air Force, the Michigan Sailing Team hosted eleven alumni from as far away as New York to compete in a casual alumni regatta. Alumni teams, together with some current teammates filling extra spots, sailed seven races Sunday morning. Navigating some tricky Baseline Lake conditions that saw shifts of 60 degrees and velocity ranging from 0 up to 8 knots, Doug and Mary Ellen Wefer emerged victorious.

 

After the racing concluded, the team barbequed up a delicious lunch and various board members gave presentations about the team’s future plans and goals. The alumni were also walked through the team’s fundraising efforts to build an endowment for the team and replace its fleet of aging fleet of Club 420s. Following the awards, the sailors all enjoyed sharing stories about the team and their various regatta memories. Thanks to all the alumni for coming out and making the event a huge success. We look forward to growing the event and seeing you next year!

 

Results:

1. Doug Wefer ('83) & Mary Ellen Wefer
2. Sammy Barbour ('11) & Kathryn Burt ('12)
3. Ben Capuco ('86) & Jay Dunwell ('87)
4. David Bailey ('89) & Rachel Bailey
5. Dominic Piro ('09) & David Oliver
6. Mike Vittorio ('12) & Ashley Vittorio
7. Fiona Saunders ('96) & Rachel Barch
8. Brand Koster ('12) & Katie Barbour

For information on upcoming alumni events or sailing team regattas in your area please contact us at eb@umich.edu or check out our schedule page on this site

Recruiting Events - Fall 2012

Make sure you come check out the Michigan Sailing Team over the next week! No experience required, we welcome sailors of all abilities!

Thursday, Sept 6: Festifall on the Diag 11am - 4pm. Look for our t-shirts and lifejackets!

Monday, Sept 10: Fall Mass Meeting 7:30pm in 3463 Mason Hall. Come to meet the team and learn more about our amazing club sport!

Tuesday, Sept 11: Northfest from 11am-3pm on the North Campus diag; first practice at 3/4pm and BBQ at the lake! Great way to meet the team and learn about some sailing.

Friday, Sept 14: Recruitment Party at 429 Hamilton!

Monday, Sept 17: Second Mass Meeting, 7:30pm in 3463 Mason Hall. (attendance at first meeting on 9/10 is preferred)

Any questions, email Ansley Semack, recruitment chair at asemack@umich.edu

Sail to the Victors!

Michigan Sailing Team Nationals Report

Sperry Topsider Women's Nationals

May 31-June 2

The Michigan women's team qualified directly for nationals by winning the district qualifying event this year and therefore did not have to sail in the semifinals. Once at Nationals, they saw stiff competition from the other schools. The first two days of racing had little breeze, which would die in the middle of the day and fill back in around late afternoon. On the final day, there was plenty of breeze and the race committee was able to run seven races, ending the event with a total of 13 races for both A and B divisions. Michigan finished in 16th, above the University of Texas and Western Washington. It was a great performance and the women's team will no doubt be back next year.

Sperry Topsider Women's Championships Report/Results

APS Team Race Nationals

June 3-5

After three days of competitive racing, the Michigan team earned 14th place at the APS Team Race Nationals. The first day, the team sailed in 5 races for the qualifying round robin against teams such as St. Mary's, Brown, Roger Williams, and College of Charleston, ending with an 0-5 record. The results of the qualifying round placed Michigan in the silver round the next day and the win-loss record in the qualifying round did not count in the final standings. The second day was better, with Michigan finishing 1-4 with a win against Texas A&M Galveston. With its record, Michigan earned 14th; an impressive result considering that the team was able to compete at the highest level without coaching. With no members of the team racing group graduating, Michigan should be right back at nationals in 2013 with even more experience to build off of.

APS Team Race National Championships Results

Team Wins Spirit Award at Club Sports Field Day

The Michigan Sailing Team was ecstatic to win the Spirit Award at the third annual Club Sports Field Day event in April. Earlier in the evening over 100 club athletes flooded the Coliseum for activities including lightning, dodgeball, tug-of-war, cornhole, foursquare and other games.

At 8PM everyone headed to the Junge Family Champions Center for awards and a speech by keynote speaker John U. Bacon.  Bacon's speech touched on the true spirit of athletics embodied in Club Sports, where athletes play for pure passion of their sport.  After Bacon's inspiring speech, the ceremony concluded with team and individual awards, cake, and an Adidas raffle.

The team has been vying for this award for multiple years and is happy that some of our crazy efforts (placing a boat on the diag, having everyone wear their life jackets to class and more) have made our dreams come true.

We are looking forward to another great season. Check out the website soon for recruiting updates!

Michigan Sailing on Its Way to Nationals

MCSA Team Race Qualifier at Wisconsin

The Michigan Sailing Team is on it's way to a strong conclusion of one of the best seasons in recent years with multiple teams going to the spring national championships this year. In the fall, members of the sailing team attended the ICSA/Laser Performance Singlehanded Nationals in Chicago, ICSA Match Race Nationals in San Francisco and the Kennedy Cup which represents the collegiate keelboat national championship in Annapolis. This spring, the team will be well represented at the 2012 ICSA Nationals hosted by Austin Yacht Club and the University of Texas from May 29-June 8 on Lake Travis.

The road to nationals began back on April 14-15 when we hosted the MCSA Coed Dinghy Championship. After a fourth place finish in that event, the team will advance to the Eastern division of the ICSA Dinghy Semifinals at the U.S. Naval Academy this coming weekend, May 12-13. A finish in the top 9 at semifinals will earn a berth to the ICSA/Gill Dinghy National Championship in Austin, Texas from June 6-8.

The team racing team qualified directly to the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship after taking a second place finish while sailing at the MCSA qualifier hosted by Wisconsin the weekend of April 28-29. This was a much deserved success for the team after a season of hard work raising the level of our team racing skills. They will race June 3-5 in Austin.

Finally, this last weekend, May 5-6 saw the Michigan women's team edge out the Minnesota Gophers for a one point victory at the MCSA women's qualifier. With their incredible first place finish, the women's team will advance to the ICSA/Sperry Top-Sider Women's National Championship May 30-June 2.

Congratulations to all the team members who have raced this season on a stunning performance.

GO BLUE!

A Recap from the Weekend of April 7-8

Jan Friis/Lynne Marchiando Team Race

Seven members of the Michigan Sailing Team drove out to Boston for the Jan Friis/Lynne Marchiando Team Race at Tufts/MIT a few weeks ago. Ryan Seago, Matt Graham, Will Cyr, Kirsten Corneliussen, Karinne Smolenyak, and Scott Ismail sailed FJs and Fireflies at the event. The regatta is hosted jointly by Tufts and MIT, with racing in 2 separate fleets at both locations on Saturday. The top 4 teams from each fleet advance to sail at Tufts on Sunday and the remaining teams race at MIT.

Saturday sailing out of MIT on the Charles River was a little rough with strong team racing performances by the other schools, but the Michigan team learned a lot from the close competition and many races over the course of the day.

Sunday sailing was better and the team managed to keep the races much closer. The level of racing is much higher than what our team can practice for, but we had a strong showing nonetheless.  After sailing, the team was fed some good food and given Easter baskets by their wonderful hosts the Cove family. Overall the weekend was a success and an incredible learning experience for all those sailing.

Wet Your Willie

The same weekend as our team race group was sailing in Boston, an incredible twenty-one members of the Michigan Sailing Team made their way to Chicago for the Wet Your Willie regatta at Northwestern. Everyone who went got a chance to sail over the course of the weekend on one of the 3 Michigan teams competing. The sailors all left Friday during the day and arrived at one of three houses to stay the night.

Saturday morning, almost everyone sailed, and the weather was beautiful. There were medium winds around 8-10 knots with some chop on Lake Michigan and it was very sunny. All 3 teams did well with strong performances by our newer team members.  After sailing, the team went back to Rachel Barch’s house to shower, eat dinner as a group, and rest up for Sunday’s sailing.

Sunday morning, the rest of the gang got a chance to sail. The weather remained beautiful, but the wind built over the course of the day to the high teens. Many teams were struggling to keep control of their boats in the strong winds by the end of the day and the regatta ended a little early. Our team got 2nd, 3rd, and 8th overall.

MCSA Coed Championships at Grosse Pointe Yacht Club

Over the weekend of April 14th and 15th, the Michigan Sailing Team hosted the MCSA Coed Champsionship at Grosse Pointe Yacht Club. It was a large event, with 11 teams from the MCSA coming to race. Sailors came to GPYC Saturday morning with light rain and winds at 10 kts out of the SW. Throughout the day, the rain let up and winds built to around 15 kts. 5 and a half rotations were completed and at the end of the day Michigan was in fourth place. Thunderstorms and fog welcomed the sailors on Lake St. Clair Sunday morning. After the fog cleared and the thunderstorms passed, racing began at 10:15. Winds stayed around 15 kts out of the SW throughout the afternoon. One B rotation, one A race, and one B race were completed to finish the full rotation. Racing concluded around noon for the weekend. Michigan had a very good day on Sunday with no finish worse than a second. With tough competition at the regatta, Michigan was pleased to finish where they did. The MCSA Coed Championship was also a qualifier for the ICSA National Coed Semifinals with the top 5 teams qualifying. Michigan will be heading to the Naval Academy along with Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Illinois-Chicago.

 

Thank you to our volunteer teammates and the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club Junior Sailing staff for helping us to run a great event! It would not have run smoothly without you all. And also a thank you to Mosher's Jewelry for donating their efforts for our beautiful trophies!

Big Ten Team Race on Baseline Lake

      March 31-April 1 The Michigan Sailing Team hosted seven teams for our annual Big Ten Team Race Regatta on Baseline Lake! Teams arrived on Saturday morning to about eight knots of breeze from the NE.  We got thirteen races off before the wind completely died and we called racing at around 4pm.  Michigan was leading after the first day with zero losses!

     Sunday morning started even lighter than Saturday, with around 5 knots from the South.  We completed the remaining eight races in the round robin around noon.  We then ran a playoff-like elimination where the teams in first and fourth raced each other, as did the teams in second and third.  The winners of the two races (Michigan and Notre Dame) faced each other with Michigan coming out on top. Notre Dame came in second and Northwestern in third.  We had a great deal of volunteers on both days and rotated a lot of new sailors in for races! Thank you to all who came to help out and to our judges, race committee and umpires.  A special thanks to Mosher Jewelers for providing our beautiful engraved glasses for the winners! http://www.moshers.com/

Truxtun Umsted Invitational

The weekend of March 16th, seven members of the team headed to Annapolis for a weekend of sailing at the Naval Academy. They arrived in Annapolis and were housed by the family of a former teammate. Four divisions made up our team: A fleet, Matt Graham and Kirsten Corneliussen, B fleet, Ryan Seago and Karinne Smolenyak, C fleet, Lawrence Jau, and D fleet, Ellen Dubois, with Connor Shope as an alternate.

Saturday morning greeted us with light winds and a little fog. They sent us out on time and got two full rotations, 4 races, completed in each fleet. The race committee sent us in for lunch and the wind died, never filling back in. We spent our Saturday afternoon studying on shore and playing ultimate frisbee with the other teams. After the first day, Michigan was in 16th out of 18.

Sunday morning greeted us with even more fog and even lighter winds. The race committee postponed us on shore for an hour and then postponed us on the water for another hour or so. Around 1 pm the wind finally filled in enough to sail, but just barely. We only got in 2 races on Sunday in light, frustrating conditions. Our team ended up in 17th out of 18 at the end of the regatta. The weekend, though light and frustrating, was a good time for all that were there.

LAYC presents Harbor Cup 2012

Last weekend, seven members of the Michigan Sailing Team traveled to Los Angeles, California to sail in the 2012 Harbor Cup regatta hosted by LAYC and California Maritime.  David Oliver, Ansley Semack, Liz Smith, Kathryn Burt, Tanner Depriest, Vittorio Bichucher, and Chris Oliver flew out of Detroit on Thursday morning ready for some sailing in the sunshine with 9 other teams.

Friday, we set out on the Catalina 37s into sunny skies and great wind.  First race, Michigan led the fleet around the windward mark.  The two races on Friday resulted in a 3rd and 9th.

Saturday began with a postponement where our winter wolverines were happy to jump in and swim around the Pacific while the rest of the teams thought we were crazy.  Wind filled in slightly and we raced 4 races which resulted in  6, 10, 10, and 7.

Saturday night we ate a delicious dinner at the Yacht Club and listened to Stan Honey, co-founder of Sport Vision and the director of technology for the 34th America's Cup give an incredible presentation about the technology he has created for the America's Cup.

Sunday we began with one race which we finished in 9th.  After a brief postponement we finished up the day with another 9th and a 7th.  Finishing 9th overall, we cannot thank the Los Angeles Yacht Club enough for a truly amazing weekend, the accommodations, food and sailing were fantastic.  I know that I speak on behalf of the rest of the sailors that attended when I say we all had an incredible weekend and hope to be back next year!!

Spring Recruitment Week!

This week the Sailing Team will be hosting a variety of events this week to raise awareness for our Mass Meeting! (MONDAY MARCH 12TH at 8 PM 3460 MASON HALL)

Tuesday-BOAT ON THE DIAG! Check the team out showing off a dinghy on the diag in spiffy sailing attire. Meet team members and get more info on the team.

Thursday-Bake Sale! The team is hosting its first bake sale full of yummy cookies, brownies, and more. Raising money and awareness in Mason Hall from 10-3 PM!

Again, the MASS MEETING is MONDAY March 12 at 8PM at 3460 Mason Hall. 

McIntyre Team Race at Stanford

This weekend, the sailing team will be competing in our first team race event of the spring. The Jeremy McIntyre team race is hosted by Stanford and will include the following teams:

• Northwestern
• Michigan
• Oregon
• Western Washington
• Stanford
• UC Irvine
• UCLA
• UCSB
• Hawaii
• USC

Our sailors are Matt Graham, Kirsten Corneliussen, Ryan Seago, Evelyn Hull, Will Cyr, Karinne Smolenyak, Liz Wallace and Amanda Baker. Most of the group has spent the better part of this week practicing on San Francisco Bay and enjoying the west coast for spring break. The scoring will be done live on a Google doc, here and make sure to follow us on Twitter @UMichSailing for updates from the team! 

College of Charleston Spring Intersectional

This past weekend, the University of Michigan Sailing Team was invited to compete in the Spring Intersectional hosted by the College of Charleston. This was one of the first collegiate regattas of the spring season, and we sent six team members to this event: Matt Graham and Kirsten Corneliussen in the A division, Ryan Seago and Evelyn Hull in the B division, and Will Cyr and Tanner DePriest rounding out our team.

We set off on our 14-hour road trip at about 1:30 on Friday afternoon, armed with our homework and some Shark Week DVDs to keep us entertained. We were given housing with a few members of the College of Charleston sailing team, and arrived at their apartment around 3:30 on Saturday morning. After a scramble to claim air mattresses led to Will getting poked in the eye and several hushed swear words, we finally were able to sleep for about 4 hours before racing on Saturday.

8 a.m. came way too fast the next day, but we were anxious to get back on the water. Our competition looked stiff, with schools like Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown all in attendance in an 18-school fleet. By the 10 AM start, the breeze was a shifty ENE’ly with huge variations in velocity – the typical morning breeze in Chucktown’s gorgeous spring.

Both Michigan divisions started strong, with our A’s grabbing a bullet in the first race, and a combined fourth place by the end of the day. After some much needed showers and bonding with the C of C girls, we went out to dinner at a local margarita bar called Juanita’s for some burritos and coronas.

Sunday saw a return to Charleston’s famous champagne sea breeze, but not before a couple of light wind races in the morning and a long delay around lunch to let the thermal start kicking. It sat on a steady 12-15 for a spirited end to the regatta, with U of M taking ninth place – our Sunday results just didn’t have the consistency we started the regatta with.

30 hours of driving, sunburns, and mosquito bites were no obstacle to our total enjoyment of this kickoff to the spring season, and our huge thanks to the C of C team for running such an awesome event in one of America’s great sailing destinations. And also thanks to the other schools for providing such stiff competition!

Strictly Sail Chicago '12

Liz Smith (Rec Sports Liason), Tanner DePriest (Fundraising Chair), and David Oliver (Co-Captain) at our spiffy booth at the 2012 Strictly Sail Boat Show at Navy Pier in Chicago. Our fundraising efforts selling shirts, burgees, hats, and a new raffle for a big burgee were a success! Thanks to all that came out to support us. 

The 22 attending team members put on their finest clothes to dine at the Chicago Yacht Club for the annual MCSA Midwinters banquet. Congratulations to our team's all conference sailors! -Matt Graham and Ryan Seago (Coed Skippers), Rachel Barch (Women's skipper), Kirsten Corneliussen and Evelyn Hull (Crews). 

Sugar Bowl 2011

Sailing Team members Sammy Barbour (‘12), Kathryn Burt (‘13), Matt Graham (‘13), Ryan Seago (‘14) and Scott Ismail (‘14) traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana for the Allstate Sugar Bowl regatta to finish off 2011. The Sugar Bowl was an intersectional hosted by Tulane out of the Southern Yacht Club, on Lake Ponchartrain. A total of 11 teams attended with Wisconsin and Ohio State from the MCSA as well as many southern teams, providing a unique match up.

The team members left Michigan on December 27th for the two-day drive down to Louisiana. Matt met the group there as he drove himself from Oklahoma. Racing began on the 30th with four races in the A division followed by four races in the B division. The air was light and shifty, but the race committee did a good job of continuing racing. More races brought Michigan to second place overall at the end of day one.

On the last day of the regatta, and the last day of the year, the club was beset by heavy fog. Racing was delayed a little while because of the foggy, windless weather. Eventually the race committee sent the fleet off for two more rotations per division. Racing ended after 3 p.m. with ten races total in each division. Michigan won the regatta overall by a point and finished second in each division. Congratulations to the 2011 Sugar Bowl regatta champions, and Sammy Barbour, who sailed his last college regatta. Full results can be found here.

The Michigan Sailing Team would also like to thank the Gahagan family, who were so kind to host the team members and provide them with a New Orleans experience full of Southern hospitality!

2011 ICSA Singlehand Nationals

Back on October 4th-6th, Ellen Dubois qualified to sail in the ICSA Singlehand Nationals regatta. It had been several years since a University of Michigan sailor had qualified for this regatta, so everyone was excited to see how it went! The regatta was held in Chicago, a nice easy trek from Michigan compared to other schools. There were 18 girls who competed in this regatta, all having to qualify from their conferences. The women sailed in Laser radials. The regatta was held in chilly conditions and most sailors did all they could to stay out of the cold Lake Michigan water. Friday began with light conditions with a lot of left over chop from the night before. The conditions were far from ideal, yet Ellen had her best finishes of the weekend in these conditions. The race committee opted to only do 4 races the first day, planning to get most of the races in on the second and third days. The second day had much better conditions. The breeze was between 8-14 all day, with considerable chop still, but much more manageable. The race committee did a whopping 8 long races. After the second day, Ellen sat in 17th. On the last day, the sailors arrived to the yacht club with the wind howling and waves crashing over the break wall. The wind was steady 20's with gusts up to 30. They sent the sailors out planning to get off several races, but only managed to do one after the majority of the fleet was capsized for most of the race. They sent them to shore for postponement but the wind never calmed and racing was cancelled for the weekend. It was a successful and rewarding experience for Ellen, finishing 17th/18th, sailing against many of the top women sailors across the country!

Ellen and one of the other MCSA representatives

Executive Board 2012

Congratulations to the new executive board! Elections were in December and the new team leadership transitions in this week.

The new board is:

Co Captains:
Rachel Barch '13
David Oliver '14

Treasurer:
Kathryn Burt '12

Secretary:
Elizabeth Wallace '14

Fundraising Chair:
Tanner DePriest '14

Rec Sports Liason:
Liz Smith '14

Social/Recruitment Chair:
Ansley Semack '14

MCSA Representative:
Ellen Dubois '14

Michigan Wins the 2011 Sugar Bowl Regatta

Congratulations to the team that traveled down to New Orleans this holiday break to sail in the 2011 Sugar Bowl Regatta. The event was hosted by Tulane University at Southern Yacht Club and sailed on Lake Pontchartrain. Each division sailed ten races and after two days of close racing Michigan finished the regatta in first by 1 point over Georgia Tech. Full results can be found here.

Happy new year to all as the team looks forward to another great season.