Those Who Return Will Be Champions

Welcome back to Ann Arbaugh, Coach! You're more than welcome to sail with us any time.

Best in the Midwest

Sailing World's Fall 2014 Conference Rankings puts us as the #1 coed team in the midwest! We're incredibly proud of the team's performance this year, including first place at the MCSA's team race national qualifier, fleet race national qualifier, and match race national qualifier, and first place in the J44 division at the Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta, as well as many other impressive wins. We're excited to see what 2015 has in store! 
http://www.sailingworld.com/sailing-worlds-conference-rankings-fall-2014

Banquet Success

A huge thank you to everyone that came to our annual banquet this past Saturday! It was great to see all the support we have from family and friends, and the auction was a huge success. A special thank you goes to Doug Wefer for his excellent speech reminding us to take advantage of all the opportunities we have available to us at UofM, whether they be sailing related or otherwise, as well as Kendall Witmer and Katie Reid for all of their hard work organizing the event and the silent auction.

Online Auction

The team is having an online auction for some of the bigger donation items we received for our banquet auction. The auction begins today and will run simultaneously with our auction at the banquet until 8PM on Saturday the 6th. Visit this link and click the “everything else" category on the left to view the auction items and bid!
http://www.biddingowl.com/Auction/home.cfm?auctionID=3237&CFID=6259617&CFTOKEN=59238180

We need your pictures!

Calling all Michigan Sailing Alumni! We're looking for pictures and stories from teams past for our archives, such as the one below sent by our banquet keynote speaker Doug Wefer. Please send pictures and memories of your time on the team to sloanse@umich.edu. 

Banquet RSVP

You're Invited

To the University of Michigan Sailing Team's Annual Banquet on Saturday, December 6th, 2014

The University of Michigan Sailing Team formally invites you to come celebrate with us at 6PM on December 6th, 2014 in the University League Ballroom. Come celebrate the team's accomplishments and hear from our keynote speaker, four time All-American and former UofM sailor Doug Wefer.  Follow this link to register before it's too late, as space is limited! 

Big Ten Team Race Regatta Report

Six months after the Worst Winter Ever and the resulting perpetually frozen lake caused the University of Michigan Sailing Team to postpone their Big 10 Team Race regatta, six MCSA teams came to Ann Arbor to compete for the top spot. 

In an uncharacteristic display of charity, Michigan Weather decided to provide us with exceptional fall weather and wind Saturday and Sunday.  The University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, Northwestern University, Marquette University, the University of Notre Dame, and the Ohio State University sailed all day under blue skies and with a blowing breeze.  Michigan ended the day undefeated in first, and everyone returned back to campus for a night of relaxation and warm showers.

Even though there was a decrease in temperature and wind speed on Sunday, the level of competition was still incredibly high, with the day ending in a sail-off between the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin.  Michigan won the final race, but subsequently lost off the water when a protest brought to the judges went in the favor of Wisconsin, who clenched the top spot for the weekend.

It seemed, however, that everyone drove away Sunday afternoon feeling victorious. UofM isn’t going to name names, but we overheard members of another team claiming they haven’t had as much fun at a regatta as they did at Big Ten since they were freshman.  It’s hard to stay upset for long about your performance on the water when you put your accomplishments into perspective; how many college students can say they got to spend the weekend soaking up the sun while simultaneously getting an abdominal workout? 

It’s weekends like these that remind Midwestern sailors why they continue sailing long after the weather has taken a turn for the worse, and start their seasons long before the ice has completely melted off the lake.

Check out this link for some incredible Drone and Go Pro footage of the regatta, put together by our own Zach Frankel. 

Dartmouth Regatta Report

A team of seven consisting of Alex Ramos, Tom Etheridge, Alison Bradley, Liz Wallace, Mason Walters, Zack Nerod, and Nick Lipinski left for New Hampshire on a brisk Friday afternoon. The long drive there found us arriving at Dartmouth's campus during the end of their Homecoming ceremonies at roughly 1 to 2 AM. We finally arrived at Nick's aunt's house right off of campus ready to get some rest in preparation for stiff competition the next morning.

On Saturday morning, we arrived at the venue bright and early. The Dartmouth team was blasting a pleasant mix of 70s and 80s pop music to start the day with some fun. The racing started off with a postponement followed by several other delays and light, shifty racing in between. The wind came from the East which was directly across the lake from the club and though a series of large hill. This led to somewhat light, unexpected shifts--not unlike what we see at Baseline lake.

Sunday, however was a completely different animal. The breeze started at a strong 15-20 knots coming straight down the river from the South building with gusts easily surpassing 25 knots. Both skippers found it much harder to perform in the tormenting breeze as well as the various showers of freezing cold rain and hail.

Although we did not perform as well as we wanted, numerous lessons were learned and re-learned. As we left out first major competitive dinghy regatta of the season, we left tired, sad and beaten, but truly enlightened and full of desire for improvement. 

--Alex Ramos, '15

Wisco Women's Regatta Report

Friday afternoon of October 17th, five girls, three of which were freshmen, clamored into a university van and set out for Madison, Wisconsin. Rising bright and early the next morning, the girls were welcomed on Lake Mendota with a strong, crisp autumn breeze blowing so hard that whitecaps were seen in the distance. Eager to hit the water, the girls pulled on their spray gear and zipped up their drysuits, ready for a tasty day of sailing. Lane Tobin '18 and Sydney Thompson '18 represented Michigan in A fleet, making constant adjustments to the conditions which resulted in consistent improvement throughout the day. In B fleet, Lindsay Ford '17 skippered with Abby Rogers '16 and Annie Zalon '18 switching off crews, also improving as the day went on. All in all, the women of the University of Michigan sailing team gave it everything and learned a lot out on the water, finishing sixth overall out of 8 races per fleet. With a great breeze that allowed for the regatta to finish early Saturday evening, the girls grabbed some Qdoba and hit the road back home. 

--Abby Rogers, '16

Pictures from IOR

Here are some great shots of the team during the Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta last weekend! Head over to our Facebook page for more pictures.

Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta

Fourteen University of Michigan Sailors traveled to Larchmont, NY for the 2014 Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta hosted by the Storm Trysail Foundation.  This event matches 52 collegiate teams from around the country with boat owners from metro NYC.  This year the team was placed in the J44 one design fleet in order to prepare for Kennedy Cup, the upcoming Collegiate Keelboat National Championship. Since we were competing against the US Coast Guard Academy, the US Merchant Marine Academy, Mass Maritime, and SUNY Maritime, we decided on a name change for the weekend, briefly switching over to Michigan Maritime in order to fit in.

The brain trust in the back of the boat featured Alex Ramos (’15) on the helm and Tom Etheridge (’16) trimming main and calling flawless tactics.  The string pullers sharing the cockpit with the afterguard were Chris Cyr (’16) at primary trim, Connor Shope (’15) at secondary trim, and Max Odena (’16) and Braden Engstrom (’16) as grinders.  On the pointy end of the boat, Jason Doyle (’15) was on bow, Stu Starkweather (’15) at mast, and Kirsten Boelkins (’15) in the pit.  Liz Wallace (’15) and Ryan Davidson (’15) took turns as floats and Kendall Witmer (’15) and Abby Rogers (’16) served as alternates.

Saturday morning proved to be fairly miserable as it was cold and raining for most of the morning.  None the less, the team took to Long Island Sound and began preparing for the first race.  We were a little rusty in our first race, having troubles both up and downwind and ended up taking a fourth in the first race.  As the wind built we switched over to our #3 jib and proceeded to decimate the competition upwind ultimately taking a first.  The next two races, the team was a little more aggressive at the starts and were called back both times but fought valiantly into third place each time.  So after racing, we retired to the Davidson’s house, discussed our strategy for overcoming the 6 point deficit to the Merchant Marine Academy (MMA), and watched the U of M football team get a much needed win.

Sunday morning was a bit chilly but could otherwise could not have been better; sunny and wind around 15 knots.  We nailed the first start and proceeded to attempt to pinch off the MMA, eventually forcing them to tack out and foul Mass. Maritime.  We showed great improvement over the previous day of racing and soundly beat the rest of the fleet with nearly perfect performances on all aspects of the course.  The next race we had another brilliant start and finished over a minute ahead of the next boat.  At this point the wind shut down and the regatta was called with U of M ending up in first overall by three points.

A huge thank you to the Davidson family for housing us, Phil Gutin for donating his boat, Beagle, to the team, and Ryan Malloy and Cliff Crowley for serving as owners reps and making sure we didn’t do anything to stupid.

--Tom Etheridge, '16

Match Race National Qualifier

This past weekend, the team competed in the regional qualifier for Collegiate Match Racing Nationals in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  Almost all of college match racing is in Sonars, requiring 4 sailors including at least one female crew aboard.  Our team consisted of Ryan Seago as skipper, Alex Ramos as tactician, Kirsten Boelkins in the pit, and Chris Cyr on bow.  Additionally, we brought teammate Jason Doyle to watch us from the coach boat. Sail Sheboygan, the regatta host, arranged housing for all teams.  The fab five arrived to their hosts Tom and Claudia Phillips's home late on Friday, and spent the night learning how to play pool with Tom.

On Saturday, after breakfast with the Phillips family, the team arrived to Sail Sheboygan at 8 AM for weigh-in and registration.  Without any hesitation, all teams we're sent out on the water for a 10 AM warning signal.  It was perfect Sonar conditions, with flat water and 15+ knots of breeze.  The team started out cold with a loss to Wisconsin in the first match.It would take the entire day to build team chemistry, as this was the first time the team had sailed a match racing event together. Nevertheless, Michigan sailed the rest of day without losing another race, completing a double round robin.  Due to the great conditions, racing was done by 3, and Michigan headed ashore looking forward to finals on Sunday against Wisconsin! The rest of the day was spent playing pool, eating pizza with other teams, and more pool.

Sunday brought on almost identical conditions with a little more chop.  After winning this event in 2013 and moving on to nationals, tensions were high as Michigan approached a best-of-five series against Wisconsin. Each race was very close, both teams would have their moments of control during the pre-start, and the lead was constantly changing at each mark rounding. After three races, Michigan was down one win to Wisconsin's two. Despite being on the chopping block, Michigan started race 4 with a sizable lead and continued to extend up the beat.  At the top mark, Michigan was ahead by 10 boat lengths, and it seemed that a win was certain.  The best and the worst part about match racing is that anything can happen.  Rounding the top mark, Michigan's spinnaker went up in a knot, and was unusable as the bowman spent the next two legs re-rigging it.  During this time, Wisconsin had gained the lead and extended to a 10 boat length advantage.  To put a cherry on top, Michigan's jib exploded as they came to the top mark for the second time.  Wisconsin had taken their third win and secured their spot at nationals.

Despite the sour ending, Michigan had a great weekend enjoying the amazing conditions on and off the water.  Special thanks to our hosts Tom and Claudia!

--Chris Cyr, '16

Cary-Price Memorial Regatta

The team hosted six MCSA teams at Baseline for our first home regatta of the season this past weekend.  Michigan State, Purdue, Ohio State University, Miami of Ohio, Michigan Tech, and Western Michigan University traveled to Ann Arbor to try to compete in the Cary-Price Memorial Regatta.

Eight A division and six B division races were completed on Saturday in chilly, windy conditions.  With Purdue leading the A Division and Michigan leading the B Division, the teams went home to relax and catch up on college football.

Sunday's weather was slightly sunnier and warmer than the previous day, with teams returning at 9 AM to finish two more A Division races and four races in Bs.

The racing was competitive and close, but Michigan came out on top for the third year in a row. A Division sailors Thomas Ethridge and Liz Wallace (eight races) and Taylor Bradford and Sarah Sloan (two races) placed first, and Mason Wolters and Alison Bradley (six races), Kendall Witmer (two races), and Emily Tunila (two races) claimed first place in the B Division with a straight picket fence, placing first every race.  Purdue came in second overall after beating Ohio State in a tie-breaker, with OSU coming in third.

A huge thank you to all the team members and Michigan Sailing Club members who came to help run the regatta (and providing us with soup and hot chocolate!), especially Kendall Witmer for orchestrating breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday as well as organizing awards for the top three teams, Ryan Davidson for working as Race Committee, Braden Engstrom and Tyler Davidson for operating the crash boat, Paul Townsend for acting as Principal Race Officer, and George Griswold for acting as judge.

Congratulations to all competitors and Go Blue! 

Save the Date!

The University of Michigan Sailing Team will be hosting its annual banquet on Saturday, December 6th, 2014 in the University of Michigan League. Mark your calendars and look for a formal invitation in the upcoming weeks!

Davis Cup

A group of fine, young Michigan sailors journeyed west to the state of Iowa this weekend to compete in the Davis Cup.  Mitch Kimball, Zach Nerod, James Hewitt, Nick Lipinski, Delaney Hodge, Benji Jepsen, and Sydney Thompson made the trek to Iowa and arrived late Friday night.  After getting a late start Saturday morning due to a miscommunication in the address of the lake, Zachary Nerod and Nicholas Lipinski kicked off A fleet. However, they were sent back to the docks because of the absence of wind. As time progressed and the wind reached a whopping, and very shifty, five knots, the races resumed. The team sailed hard, watched football on the docks, studied at night, and returned to the lake Sunday morning—this time on schedule. But again, there was no wind and the remainder of the regatta was called off. Because of the eight races held on Saturday, the Wolverines returned to Ann Arbor with a third place trophy. (It goes without saying that this trophy eased the pain of an embarrassing loss in the Big House a day prior). 

-Nicholas Lipinski '17

Hood Trophy Regatta

Six Michigan sailors made the 12 hour drive out to Tufts to compete in the 32nd Professor Stedman Hood Trophy Regatta last weekend. Alex Ramos, Tom Etheridge, Emily Gazall, Meredith Wiles, Lane Tobin, and Mason Wolters arrived early Saturday morning at the Engstrom’s house in beautiful Marblehead, MA. After dealing with some van issues upon arriving, the team crashed in the basement and got a full four hours of sleep before leaving for racing the next morning.

The forecast for wind Saturday was dismal, and the reality was even worse. After trying to get a race off in little to no wind, the lake turned to glass and remained that way for the rest of the day. With no races finished, the team was sent home around 2. The team returned to the Engstrom’s home to watch the football team lose and get some homework done. Mr. and Mrs. Engstrom made an awesome meal for us Saturday night and then even took us out for ice cream!

The team awoke Sunday morning to an awesome breakfast once again and took off for the boat house. There was slightly more wind Saturday, with 4 races being completed in each division. The team battled light and extremely shifty winds, which made for a frustrating day, and ended up 13th out of 21 very competitive teams.

Huge thanks to the Engstrom family for their amazing hospitality!

-Mason Wolters, ’18

Regatta Report: Pine Trophy at Coast Guard

Five Michigan sailors traveled to the Coast Guard Academy last weekend to compete in the Pine Trophy Regatta. Alex Ramos, DJ Litts, Jason Doyle, Max Odena, and Kirsten Boelkins left Friday morning for Connecticut to race Colgate 26's. Six races were completed Saturday in 70 degree weather under partially cloudy skies. The first day of racing proved very challenging, but the team managed to finish 5th for the day. The team returned home exhausted and after finishing homework went to bed early in order to get ready for the next day of racing. 

Weather conditions on Sunday were similar to Saturday, with the wind picking up in the morning but subsiding slightly in the afternoon. The team fought hard and finished fourth overall, returning home to Ann Arbor early Monday morning. 

Commodore Barbour Recap

A huge thanks to everyone that came out to the second annual Commodore Barbour Memorial Regatta at Bayview Yacht Club on September 7th! Thirty-five juniors sailors (nearly twice as many as last year) and fourteen boats participated in the race, with Pandora taking first, Epic second, and Majic Star coming in third.
Congratulations to all competitors, and a huge thank you to everyone involved and our sponsors!

Commodore Barbour Regatta

The University of Michigan Sailing Team will be hosting the Commodore Barbour Memorial Regatta at Bayview Yacht Club on Sunday, September 8th, 2014. The team is reaching out to sailors between eight and eighteen years old to help crew on boats during the regatta, which is hosted in memory of former BYC commodore John Barbour, who was a huge supporter of the local junior sailing community.  Many of Michigan’s sailing team members began their careers in the Detroit area, and as their graduation from college looms closer, so does the end of their time as dinghy sailors.  That moment may still be a distant speck on the horizon for many junior sailors, but having big boat experience early on can make the transition smoother, as well as help foster a love of sailing that continues long after they’ve outgrown their first life jacket.  Christopher Cyr, co-captain of Michigan’s team, states that “far too often, young sailors end their sailing careers when they get too big for dinghies.  The team’s hope is to bridge the gap between junior sailing and sailing as a life long sport.”  Every boat owner that signs up for the event will have the opportunity to choose from a list of local junior sailors compiled by Cyr, the regatta chairman, to take on as crew members during the race.  “We had approximately twenty-six boats with junior sailors aboard last year, and we’re hoping to double that number this fall,” says Cyr.    

Part of the purpose of this event is to raise funds toward the University of Michigan Sailing Team’s Capital Campaign to replace our fleet of deteriorating collegiate dinghies.  As a club sport at the University of Michigan, the team is primarily self funded, governed, and managed.  This makes raising the $100,000 necessary to purchase a new fleet very challenging.  With over $61,000 raised for the campaign, the team hopes to use this event to continue raising money so that it can meet its goal within the next twelve months. 

Visit the Commodore Barbour Regatta page for more information regarding boat owner and junior sailor sign up! 

2014 College Sailing National Championship

The 2014 Nationals Squad From Left:  Chris Cyr, Liz Wallace, Karinne Smolenyak, Tom Etheridge, Ryan Seago,

 Scott Ismail, Will Cyr, Alex Ramos, Coach Mr. Ramos, and Emily Gazall

On Friday May 30^th, 9 Michigan Sailors traveled to St Mary’s College on the southern tip of Maryland for the 2014 College Sailing National Championship.  The team was fresh off a several weeks of practice in Ann Arbor and a few days of sparing with University of Wisconsin in Madison, and was excited to start racing.  The first three days of the week long event were the Team Race Championship to be sailed by Alex Ramos, Will Cyr, Ryan Seago, Karinne Smolenyak, Scott Ismail, and Liz Wallace with Tom Etheridge, Chris Cyr, and Emily Gazall serving as alternates/coaches.   We started the day with a race against Tufts University and much to the surprise of the Tufts coach (but not to us) the race came down to the last 20 boat lengths with the “Jumbos” just barely getting the win.  After a quick rotation, we were right into another race, this time against last year’s runners up St Mary’s College.  It was another exciting race but the Home Team took away the win.  Next up was College of Charleston.  We managed to push 2 of their 3 boats over early giving us a clear 1-2 at the windward mark.  However, as the wind started to die out the Charleston boats managed to catch up and after a very strenuous final leg they had captured the come from behind win.  Following another devastatingly close loss, this time to Rodger Williams, we were in desperate need for some wins.  Just when we needed them most, we rattled off a streak of wins against ODU, Santa Barbara, Washington, and Texas A&M Galveston and just like that, midway through the first round, we were only a win or two out of qualifying for the second round but had yet to face our toughest tests.  This win streak was followed by a series of incredibly close and excited races against Yale, Navy, USF, Georgetown,  BC, and Stanford that unfortunately ended in losses.  Throughout the entire event we were turning the heads of coaches, sailors, and especially the commentators for the live online broadcast.  They fell in love with the team and every race they said “and here’s Michigan again in a surprisingly tight race.”  Overall we sailed a great regatta and were excited to move into Fleet Racing Nationals.

After a day and a half off we awoke bright and early Tuesday, June 3^rd, to claim our spot along the St Mary’s River for Coed Dinghy National Semifinal.  It was critical we get there early as there were 36 teams and well over 300 sailors at the event.  Sailing in A Division was Alex Ramos back with his fleet racing crew Karinne Smolenyak and in B Division was Ryan Seago with his faithful crew Liz Wallace.  In order to qualify for the National Championship Regatta we had to be in the top 9 in our semifinal, a tall task as the best sailors in the country were at the event.  Conditions were the classic Chesapeake Bay summer of 0-10 knots dying until the seabreeze filled in around 2pm; a stark contrast from the consistent 5-10 knots at Team Race only a few days before.  Both days of semis were riddled with wind delays and the team was forced to find creative ways to entertain themselves.  Some chose to read or nap in the shade, others explored the campus (and creepy graveyard), but finally a great Midwest wiffleball duel developed on a field behind the sailing center between Michigan and Wisconsin.  Wisconsin walked away the victors behind a strong pitching performance from Senior Mike Lee as Michigan tragically left numerous runners in scoring position.  Back on the water, after some scattered racing we managed to pull of some fairly consistent results putting us only a few points out of 9^th with only an hour and a half left of racing on the last day of semifinals.  There would just enough time for 1, or possibly 2,  A and B races.  It was crunch time for the squad and rather than buckle under the immense pressure, both boats sailed incredibly clutch races and the last race, which only barely made the start deadline, came down to essentially a match race with who else but the University of Wisconsin.  After a nerve racking final race (only one of us could move on to Nationals) Mike Lee of Wisco replicated his incredible pitching performance and narrowly out dueled Ryan Seago.  Although only 6 races were sailed, we ended up 1 point out of qualifying for Nationals (although the scores online do not necessarily reflect this due to an unfortunate collision for which we were penalized).  At the end of the day, we had an awesome week at Nationals and look forward to competing next year at Brown!  A huge thanks to our hosts for the week the Mould Family and Patrick Aylward, our volunteer coach Mr. Ramos, and of course our outgoing seniors Scott Ismail, Will Cyr, Karinne Smolenyak and our kind of seniors Ryan Seago and Liz Wallace who will be back for one more season as they finish up their degrees!  Go Blue!

-Tom Etheridge '16

College Sailing Nationals

Head over to our Facebook page for updates about the team's performance at College Sailing Nationals, or http://scores.collegesailing.org for full recaps of the day and the standings of all participating teams!

MCSA Coed Qualifier Champions

Six Michigan sailors journeyed to Minnesota last weekend for the MCSA's Coed Qualifiers hosted by the University of Minnesota on Wayzata Bay.  Team members Ryan Seago, Alex Ramos, Karrine Smolenyak, Liz Wallace, Sarah Sloan, and Will Cyr arrived at the home of freshman sailor Hubbard Velie's shortly after midnight, conveniently located a five minute drive from the boat house.

The team woke up to breakfast prepared by Mrs. Velie Saturday morning, then left for the lake shortly after 8 AM. The decision was made to sail as many races for as long as possible Saturday in Minnesota's brand new Z420s as a storm was in the forecast for the next day.  The wind started the day at around 10 mph and steadily increased to consistently blowing near 20 mph by the afternoon. Eight highly competitive races were completed in both divisions, and at the end of the day the University of Michigan was in first place by three points, followed closely by the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin.

Team members returned to the Velie's shortly after 7 PM, with sore abs and rumbling stomachs.  Mr. and Mrs. Velie graciously provided dinner for the team, who spent the rest of the night watching playoff hockey and extreme ocean fishing shows on the Discovery Channel.

The team awoke to pouring rain Sunday morning, and after another wonderful home-cooked breakfast they left for the lake, where racing was promptly delayed due to thunder. Nine MCSA teams crowded into the boathouse to wait out the storm and passed the time playing euchre or other card games until the decision was made at noon to cancel racing for the day, making Michigan the winner of the qualifier, and National's bound at the end of May.

A huge thank you to the Velies for the incredible hospitality, and congrats to Michigan and the other top five qualifying teams.  Go Blue (all the way to Nationals)!

-Sarah Sloan, '16

MCSA Team Race National Qualifiers

Eight Michigan sailors traveled to Chicago last weekend for Team Race National Qualifiers, hosted by the University of Wisconsin at the Chicago Yacht Club.  The team stayed with Alice Martin and Ted Jones, who once again graciously offered to host us.

Racing started Saturday morning with wind 5-10 knots shifting from northeast to north, and two full round robins were completed throughout the course of the day. Upon completion of the round robins, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan were tied for first place, and a sudden death race was held.  The University of Michigan finished with a 1-3-5 combination, beating Wisconsin and earning a first place and berth to the National Team Race Championships in June.

Congratulations to Ryan Seago, Will Cyr, Alex Ramos, Karinne Smolenyak, Liz Wallace, Chris Cyr, and Tom Etheridge for their amazing performance over the weekend, and we wish them the best of luck at nationals!

-Sarah Sloan, '16

Truxtun Umsted Regatta

This past weekend eight University of Michigan sailors headed out east to compete in the annual Truxtun Umsted Regatta. Hosted in Annapolis by the Naval Academy, this year’s Truxtun Umsted Regatta consisted of 14 colligate teams competing across four divisions. Skippers Alex Ramos and Ryan Seago along with crews Karinne Smolenyak, Liz Wallace, and Zach Nerod sailed in the FJ and 420 divisions while Captain Tom Etheridge, Taylor Bradford, and Hubbard Velie competed in the Laser Full and Laser Radial divisions. 

The races kicked off Saturday morning with temperatures in the high 70’s but low winds hovering around 2-5 knots. With multiple delays due to lack of wind all four divisions finished six races by the end of the day. Sunday brought similar temperatures with higher winds between 10-15 knots and rougher seas in the Chesapeake.  Eight more races were completed Sunday for a Regatta total of fourteen.

Overall the weekend was another great learning experience against extremely competitive teams, and all sailors were incredibly grateful for the warm, sunny weather that didn't require drysuits! 

A huge thanks to the Ramoses and the Gowlands for hosting team members once again! 

-Hubbard Velie, '17

Commodore Barbour Facebook Page

Keep up to date on the Commodore John S. Barbour Memorial Regatta by 'liking' the facebook page! 
The regatta is scheduled for Sunday, September 7th 2014.  More information regarding sign up, fees, and the course layout will be posted in upcoming weeks.

Big 10s Cancelled

The Big 10 Regatta (scheduled for April 12-13) has been cancelled due to ice still on the lake, but will be reschedule for the fall 2014 season.

Northwestern Spring Regatta

Seven Michigan sailors and two 420s left Ann Arbor for Evanston, IL for Northwestern's Spring Regatta last Friday night. After an exciting adventuring driving through downtown Chicago towing to boats as no trailers are allowed on Lake Shore Drive, the team finally made it to their host houses just before midnight.

Conditions Saturday proved to be warmer and sunnier (45 degrees) than any team members had sailed in yet this season.  With winds out of the northwest at 10-15 mph, it was a return back to midwestern sailing for the team.  The race committee changed the course during the first race, resulting in the race having to be thrown out.  After a long day of sailing (with As on the water for more than six hours), the team had a fantastic dinner at That Little Mexican Café before turning in for some much needed sleep.

Sunday was sunny and 55, with winds starting out from the south and shifting to the southwest. As and Bs each completed one rotation in the morning before the weather turned cloudy. As went back out at 12:45 for one additional rotation to make up for the race thrown out the previous day.

The A fleet came off the water at 1:30, and four Michigan sailors raced to derig and undress so they could make it back in time for a playoff broomball game at 7PM.  They were on the road by 2PM thanks to help loading the boats from Wisco sailors, and after four hours of non-stop driving arrived at Yost Ice Arena two minutes before they're game was scheduled to start (which they won).

The weekend resulted in renewed sealegs and sunburns, with team members showing improvement next week. Thanks to Northwestern for hosting another great regatta!

-Sarah Sloan '16

Sailor Spotlight: Thomas Etheridge

This week we'll be helping you get to know the new leaders of the Michigan Sailing Team a little more, starting with one of our new co-captains! 

Tom is from Norfolk, Virginia, and learned to sail at the Norfolk Yacht and Country Club at the tender age of eight. He was the captain of his sailing team in high school, and coached junior sailors during the summer at NYCC. Tom joined the Michigan Sailing Team his freshman year and quickly became one of our most competitive sailors.

In addition to being the face of the University of Michigan Sailing Team Apparel Campaign, he was voted co-captain this past fall, and says he’s looking forward to having a critical role in the success of the team, from scheduling regattas and practices to pushing towards our fundraising goal of $100,000. Tom has also credited the team with helping him develop time management skills. “I have to balance team meetings, practices, and regattas with my academic responsibilities as a Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering student. So far so good mom and dad!” Although he says that if he sails and fails, worst case scenario he "becomes a professional sailor with a modeling career on the side”.

Tom says his best collegiate sailing experience was 2012 MCSA Match Race Qualifiers. “It was my first time crewing during match racing and we ended up undefeated and earned a berth at nationals in Texas.” Tom looks forward to more experiences like this as he works to help raise the overall competition level of the team, as well as his own.