Bowdoin sailors faced some big breezes and waves this weekend, but resulting top-10 finishes in three different regattas proved that they were up to the challenge.
Headlining the weekend performances was Alex Takata '12, who won the C-division at the Rudolph Oberg Trophy at the MIT Sailing Pavilion.
Takata, sailing with Audrey Hatch '10, overcame a 30-point deficit from competition on Sunday to win the division over 16 other schools.
Northeastern University hosted the 17-boat, three-division event on the Charles River with both FJs and Techs.
Bowdoin finished sixth overall, ahead of several top-ranked teams including Yale, Boston College, and the University of Vermont.
Sophomores Viktor Bolmgren and Coco Sprague finished seventh in the A-division, while seniors Pete Wadden and Meredith Steck placed 13th in the B-division.
Takata attributed the team's success to "smart sailing".
"While sailing this regatta we knew that we didn't need to finish first in every race in order to win, so we tried to sail smart and only take risks when we really needed to," he said. "Audrey and I decided we needed to sail our own race and were able to connect several good series [of races] together in order to ultimately win our division."
Head Coach Frank Pizzo was pleased with the team's performance at the Oberg, regarding the weekend experience as valuable preparation for the upcoming Erwin Schell Trophy.
"The results of the weekend were a great confidence booster for our unofficial New England Championship?the Schell?which will take place this upcoming weekend at MIT," he said.
Elsewhere, Bowdoin competed in 420s at the Wellehan Trophy at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. The team of Jane Koopman '10, Charlotte Ryan '12, Katherine McNeil '12, Leah Hughes '11, and DJ Hatch '11 finished ninth out of a fleet of 13.
"At the Wellehan, the team struggled in the heavy current but improved throughout the weekend," said Pizzo.
The Polar Bears also sent a squad of sailors to the Central Series Six regatta at Boston College.
The team faced heavy breezes upwards of 20 knots in Boston Harbor, but was able to notch a mid-fleet finish, placing ninth out of 18 teams over the course of the two-day event.
Sailing is now gearing up for two key end-of-season regattas this weekend: the co-ed Schell Trophy at MIT and the women's 43rd Annual Victorian Coffee Urn regatta at Harvard.
The team looks to earn berths to the upcoming Atlantic Coast Championships (ACC) through competition at these events.
A squad of first years, including Takata, will travel to the Nickerson Trophy at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where they will seek to qualify for the Freshman ACC Intersectional regatta.