Courtesy of Ben Schill

This past weekend, sailing team members Rebecca Schill ’27 and Michelangelo Vecchio ’27 competed in the Inter-collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Singlehanded Nationals at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club in St. Petersburg, Fla. Vecchio finished in 16th overall in the open championship with a total of 161 points, and Schill ended in 14th with a final count of 140 points.

Vecchio is the first male sailor to qualify for the event in program history, while Schill becomes the second woman to qualify after Christine Reimer ’24.

In order to qualify for the national event, Vecchio and Schill competed in the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) championships in early October. At the NEISA championships, Vecchio finished in fifth place overall and Schill placed seventh.

“I was definitely very happy [after the NEISA championships]. I mean, historically, a lot of the people that got fifth for the past eight years or so all went [to Nationals]. So I was … pretty confident in my selection,” Vecchio said.

Schill felt a similar energy to Vecchio after finishing.

“I was definitely pretty excited. The points were very, very close at the top, so I knew, considering that and what I scored, there was a decent chance I could get selected. However, I wasn’t in the top five, so there’s always things left up to chance,” Schill said.

While both sailors sailed in the International Laser Class Association (ILCA), a single-handed boat, for NEISA championships and ICSA Nationals, they also competed in double-handed events with the rest of the team for the majority of the season, a difficult balance to strike.

According to Assistant Coach Cori Radtke, the team pitched in to help Vecchio and Schill prepare for the event after learning both were headed to nationals.

“Even though it was a singlehanded event with one athlete in the boat, it was really good to see that the whole team was supporting them in every way they could, continuing to go to the gym with them and jumping into the laser [ILCA] when they hadn’t trained, so that Rebecca and Michelangelo could have good practices,” Radtke said.

Both Radtke and Head Coach Frank Pizzo ’06 focused on racing technique, not just speed, with the sailors.

“We emphasized starting and some starting specific boat handling, as well as some mark roundings, so kind of getting back into the race course,” Radtke said.

Once in Florida, the competition lasted two days with difficult conditions. Factors such as waves, heat and wind made racing hard at times for both sailors.

“[The pressure] was very inconsistent,” Vecchio said. “It was very up and down, especially the first day where we would have races that we started with, maybe 12 or 13 [knots], and we ended with six [knots], and then maybe we rounded the [downwind] gate with three [knots] and then back up to 12 [knots].”

On top of the conditions, the course also had some legs that proved difficult. For Vecchio, one of the most crucial parts of the race was the final leg as the fleet was racing towards the finish line.

“We basically went downwind, and then we had to round [the mark] and finish on a reach. So I feel like at that part, there was a lot of condensing happening, and you could win or lose a lot of boats there at the end,” Vecchio said.

For Schill, the beginning of the race was the most important for establishing footing in the race, something she did well. However, the rest of the race also required lots of focus to stay in the mix.

“I think I excelled the most on the starting line and during the first beat of the race,” Schill said. “But you also had to be paying attention to not only the inside of your boat, but also keeping your head out of the boat, looking where everybody else was sailing and defending well.”

Finally, the competition at the event challenged both sailors, especially Schill, who was competing against an Olympian.

“One of the people, Sophia Montgomery, in our fleet was the reigning national champion from two years before, and last year, she spent the whole year campaigning for the Olympics and then ended up going to the Olympics. So, there were a lot of other really competitive people there,” Schill said.

Despite moments that may have proved difficult for the sailors, Radtke felt they both handled themselves and their sailing well over the course of the event.

“We got to see [Vecchio] continue to work hard, try and get better even while at the competition when the sea state with the wind power was maybe not what we would want,” Radtke said. “And seeing how [Schill] was able to move on from setbacks … and being able to persevere and work really hard, it’s really good to watch.”