UW Sailing Club in The Daily!

The May 13 issue of the University of Washington's newspaper "The Daily" featured this article about our racing team.

by Shawn Devine
05/13/2003


Members of the UW Sailing Club have their sights and sails set on the national championships on Lake Michigan, June 2-10, after blowing past Western Washington University, the University of Oregon and Portland State at the district regatta.  The UW swept each of the three divisions — co-ed, women’s and team racing — qualifying 10 individuals for national competition.   “We’ve been the strongest team in the district for a long time,” said Andy Schmidt, who will be skippering the UW’s top co-ed boat at the national regatta. 

With no competitive team and only four members, the UW’s sailing program had all but sunk to the bottom of Lake Washington during Schmidt’s freshman year in 1999-00.  However, sailing has come a long way at the University since he moved to the Northwest from San Francisco five years ago.  Today, the club is thriving and competing at the national level, despite the fact that there is no coach, and, like most club sports at the UW, limited funding.

The team received $1,500 from the UW Department of Recreation Sports, an amount that paid for three sets of new sails.  To cover the cost of other expenses, such as travel and lodging, the student sailors rely on support from the Seattle Yacht Club and fund-raisers such as the annual alumni regatta.  “It’s really hard being a student-run team,” Schmidt said. “Instead of focusing on racing, like varsity teams are able too, we must also focus on fund-raising.”  Collegiate sailing is huge on the East Coast, with fully funded varsity teams such as Harvard, Yale and the University of Connecticut scattered among the top 20.

Part of the reason schools from the East dominate is proximity.  Schmidt noted that schools in the East have easier access to one another and “typically have to drive a minimum of two hours to a regatta.”  West Coast participants, however, are starting to show some flash in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA), with teams such as Stanford and USC ranked in the top 10. Like many schools back East, Stanford and USC have fully funded varsity programs.

It doesn’t stop competitive sailors at the UW from performing in a unique sport that allows men and women to compete together.  There is no division strictly for men, although there is a women’s division.  A single competitive boat consists of two sailors: the skipper and the crew.  Schmidt sails with Erin Harkins as the crew.  Often at practice, members will switch teams, hoping to find better chemistry that leads to a faster boat.  A skipper must be poised and in charge, and the crew must be willing to follow orders and anticipate the captain’s tactics, while possessing the confidence to disagree when necessary.  “It’s important to communicate with each other really efficiently,” said Katie Paciotti, who will be the skipper in the women’s division at nationals.  “There is a lot to talk about out there, and if you don’t get along, there can be problems.”  Teamwork is essential to successful sailing, because the skipper can only do as much as the crew can do, said club-member Justin Cross.  “They work as a team and get into a groove,” Cross said. “They are totally in sync.”

This is obvious as the teams perform a maneuver called a “roll tack,” the discipline of which would probably impress the cadets at West Point.  The skipper and crew rock the boat to one side, causing it to list more than 45 degrees.  Then, in unison, they duck under the sail as the skipper transfers control of the rudder from one hand to the other, making the boat turn sharply.  Not only must the members know one another, they must also know the wind.  There is a three-minute period before the race starts when boats jockey for position as they “read” the wind, in search of “clean” air.  A whistle is blown in intervals to tell the six boats how much time remains before the start of the race.   About 30 seconds before the final whistle, the boats line up, fighting for the best spots through the starting gate, which is marked by two buoys.  Because the boats travel at about six miles per hour, it is hard to call this a “race,” though it feels a lot faster out in a boat skimming over the water, Cross said.  The layout of the course varies, depending on the race.  Typically, boats will travel along a straight path — upwind — toward a distant buoy.  They make a hard turn and head in the opposite direction — downwind — toward another buoy.  After rounding the second buoy, they head for the starting gate, located roughly in the middle of the course, to finish the race.

While most students at the UW are racing to finish their classes this June, the UW Sailing Club will be racing to the finish line in hopes of improving on last year’s 13th-place finish in co-ed racing, out of the 18 entrants at nationals.  “I think we’re going to do really well this year (at nationals) — we have a lot of boat speed,” Schmidt said.  Anticipating his next comment, Harkins finishes the thought:  “We’re just fast.”

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