Sailing: Team captures second at Qualifier

The sailing team arrived at Washington College last weekend focused on just one goal: to place well enough to earn one of the two remaining berths for the War Memorial Regatta. After posting a disappointing 13th-place finish at the first qualifying event last month at Ocean County College, the Princeton sailors had little room for error if they hoped to participate in the fall championship.

Despite having to endure two days of rain and gusty winds that sunk many ships, the Tiger boats withstood the elements and the competition to easily qualify for the War Memorial Regatta. Princeton paced all bid-eligible squads and finished a clear second out of 13 teams with 87 points, finishing only behind Navy, which earned 54. (In a race, a team is awarded a number of points equal to its finishing position. A team wins if it has the fewest points at the end of a competition.)

Princeton’s “B” fleet, carrying junior skipper Mary Gamber and junior crew John Wetenhall, had an excellent showing on the first day, winning two races and collecting three more second-place finishes. The fleet looked to be in trouble midway through the day when a gust of wind took it down, but Gamber and Wetenhall managed to avert disaster and earn a sixth-place finish. The pair came in no worse than fourth in the weekend’s 12 other races.

“We did pretty well. The wind was kind of puffy, so it wasn’t a consistent breeze on the course, which makes for a more difficult time when you’re sailing,” Wetenhall said. “Mary and I capsized once in the middle of the race, but we made a great recovery and ended up finishing sixth. It could have been a lot worse, given that there were other races where boats capsized and didn’t finish the race.”

The “A” fleet, featuring senior skipper Allison Tracy and junior crew Kyle Trombley, had a consistently strong Saturday as well, finishing between second and fifth in each of their races. But they stole the show Sunday morning, defeating the competition by a remarkable 15 lengths and erasing any doubt that the Tigers would qualify for the fall championship. The “A” fleet earned 51 points overall, and the “B” team posted 36.

“We basically knew that we were going to be able to qualify after Saturday, so we went out and had some good races [on Sunday],” Tracy said. “Especially the way it was [on Sunday], it was really unreliable. The wind shifts, and the whole lay of the race changes, and other people are winning in a matter of seconds.”

There was uncertainty regarding whether the regatta would be completed, as the Sunday forecasts predicted winds that might have made the waters too dangerous. Though the conditions were far from pleasant, they proved to be less dire than expected, enabling the contestants to complete the five remaining races. Winds generally ranged from 12 to 15 knots on Saturday and were even stronger the following day, and inconsistent gusts on the course made races unpredictable.

The War Memorial Regatta, which begins on Oct. 31 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, is the fall championship for the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association, and it brings together the best teams from around the region. If the Tigers perform well enough at this event, they can qualify for some of the larger championship regattas coming up, but they are not looking too far ahead yet.

“The War Memorial is always a great regatta,” Tracy said. “I really like qualifying for it, not because it’s particularly easy for us to do well in it — it certainly isn’t — but just having the competition is really nice. Sailing against sailors who go to Nationals is a privilege, so we learn a lot and we’re able to get a lot of practice out of that.”

Princeton also sent a team of five sailors to the Greater New York Dinghy Regatta, hosted by Fordham this past weekend. Junior Esteban Plaza-Jennings and senior Cat Valencia sailed in the “A” division, while juniors Tucker Willsie and Kathleen Connor and sophomore Will Ellis manned the “B” ship. The Tigers finished seventh out of nine teams, well behind the victorious Fordham squad.