Courtesy of Jennifer ReevesWash. U. has a sailing team? People constantly ask me this question when they find out I am on the team. Not only do we have a sailing team, we compete in regattas throughout the spring and fall in the Midwest Collegiate Sailing Association. An average weekend at a race is very similar to the one that the team spent at the Hawkeye Invitational at the University of Iowa March 30th-April 1st.
Friday
Six sailors leave the Danforth campus around 4 p.m., much later then many of the other teams in our district. We are constantly teased for showing up late on Friday because no one wants to skip class. Our rental car is particularly tight all the time: the sixth seat is basically in the trunk.
We arrive at the registration event in Iowa City around 11 p.m. to find it already in full swing. Shortly after we arrive, alumnus and former commodore Jon Levine arrives from Chicago to cheer us on for the weekend. We leave registration around two and head to the dorm of Iowa freshman Maria Argueta, our host, for the night.
Saturday
Waking up before eight is never fun, especially after going to bed at 2 a.m. We zombie to the lake and, not surprisingly, are the last team to arrive. Our A-fleet skipper, new team member Andrew Munro, got car sick driving to the lake, so I have to take over in A.
Fellow sophomore Jen Reeves and I head onto the water. Two races later, we come away with eight and tenth place finishes, not bad for a team that has not gotten water time since November.
Andrew is still feeling sick, so we sit out the first B rotation. During this time, we discover that Jon still has a semester of eligibility left and can skipper for us if necessary. For the second A rotation, I head to the water with sophomore Jewell Thomas.
Jewell has never sailed before, but at 6’3″, his size will help to balance my smallness in the ever-increasing wind. Things are going smoothly enough until we blotch the jibe around the downwind buoy and capsize. We fail to finish that race, but come back in 10th in the next.
Andrew is still not feeling up to racing, so Jon heads out with senior Anne Marie Brooks. They take tenth in both of their races.
With one more rotation left for the day, sophomore Sarah Katz and I hit the water. A ninth and another capsize later, I am done for the day.
Andrew finally feels good enough to race. He sails with Jewell for the final two B races. They take sixth in both, our best results of the weekend.
We head back to our dorm exhausted. Bedtime will definitely come early tonight.
Sunday
Jen and I head out to start the day. Everything seems to be going well until one of our side-stays breaks, taking the mast down and flipping the boat with it. While we detach out mast and get towed back in, three other boats capsize.
The racing committee calls it a regatta. We throw on warm clothes and cram back into the car to return to St. Louis and the piles of homework that await us.