Volume CXXXII, Number 6 October 25, 2002 f

Sailors are peaking
MELANIE KEENE
STAFF WRITER

Sabrina Hall-Little '06 and Frank Pizzo '06 love their sailing. (Karsten Moran, Bowdoin Orient)

The coed sailing team enjoyed a monumental past weekend. On Saturday, they competed at the Sharpe Trophy at Brown and won the first team race in Bowdoin College Sailing history!

This weekend's coed team, consisting of skipper Tyler Dunphy '03, sailing with crews Elliott Wright '05 and Sophie Wiss '06, and skipper Ryan Cauley '03 sailing with crew Becca Bartlett '05, also sailed Sunday at Harvard's Wood Trophy.

They were joined by Frank Pizzo '06 who sailed with Sabrina Hall-Little '06, Emily Bruns '06 who sailed with Ellen Grenley '06, and Ed Brigunti '05 who sailed with Whitney Rauschenbach '06.

The Pizzo/Bruns team had a great showing for their first sail in Harvard's IC-styled boats. Cauley, the master tactician in ICs, sailed yet another stellar regatta and placed second in his division with the help of his outstanding crew, Bartlett.

Both Cauley and Dunphy had bullets that helped the team finish fifth out of twelve teams. Overall, the regatta was a great experience, especially for the younger sailors who were able to put some IC sailing experience under their belts.

As Pizzo stated, "After the second race I had a better feel for the boat and was able to tack on the right shifts and ultimately ended up getting third in that race!"

In other coed action, the Pizzo/Hall-Little and Bruns/Grenley team competed at UNH's Eastern Series V on Saturday. The UNH race course was hard to master because the breeze was extremely shifty and caused several auto tacks and jibes and even a capsize. However, Bowdoin ultimately emerged victorious against UNH.

The women's team faced some very stiff competition this weekend at
Yale's Intersectional, but the Bowdoin women earned a ninth place finish out of 18 teams. The wind was so strong the first day of the regatta that the first race attempted was abandoned and Yale was forced to call in the Coast Guard Auxiliary to help bring the sailors back into shore!

The wind died down slightly on Sunday and the women were able to complete the regatta, despite a very shifty and puffy wind. Allison Binkowski '03 sailed with Jackie Haskell '05 and Laura Windecker '03 sailed with Caitlin Moore '06.

After a strong day of sailing, Windecker said, "Doing well meant getting off the line with speed and generally sailing for velocity, but tacking on the large shifts…conditions were funky and you needed to pay attention and not get frustrated." The Windecker/Moore team had a fabulous day with four top five races, finishing third in their division only one point behind Yale.

The upcoming weekend is full of many more regattas that are extremely important for the Bowdoin Sailing Team's New England standings. The Women's team will be sailing fast again, trying to qualify for the Atlantic Coast Championship, while the coed team will be back at Brown for some intersectional action.