On a breezy weekend, Bowdoin sailing finished sixth in the Ferrarone team race event at Yale and finished eighth in the Central Series at Tufts.
After Saturday's round robin, the Polar Bears at Yale qualified to race in the gold fleet on Sunday. The team lost Sunday's races and finished sixth of 10 teams.
"We were still in every race and only lost it on the final beat; downwind we were pretty fast and could split around the teams and attack," Coach Frank Pizzo said.
The big breeze was not ideal for team racing conditions and made keeping the mast upright hard; according to Alex Takata '12 some 30 boats capsized.
The sailors struggled a little bit in their first team race of the season, but showed promise.
Captains Pete Wadden '09 and Doria Cole '09 along with Viktor Bolmgren '11 and Takata skippered the team race at Yale. The crews at the event were Coco Sprague '11, Erin Taylor '09, and Audrey Hatch '10.
The boat pairings were switched around a lot during the event but, said Pizzo, "Sprague and Taylor elevated the level of sailing in every boat they crewed for."
Bolmgren and Takata saw the game well and executed plays, Pizzo added.
At Tufts, skipper DJ Hatch '11 and crew Leah Hughes '11 finished in 10th in A division, while skipper Billy Rohman '11 and crew Ben Berg '12 finished sixth in B division. Of 18 teams, the Polar Bears finished eighth overall.
In the big breeze on Saturday, many of the Tufts boats lost their rigs, so only a couple of races were completed.
Rohman and Berg sailed well by hiking hard, pointing high, and sailing the shifts.
"We had one awesome race where we finished first and won by like 15 boats lengths," Berg said.
As the team prepares for the New England championships at Boston College and team race qualifiers at Roger Williams, they are figuring out which boat pairings are the fastest and working on boat speed, which will be crucial in the open water venues.
This weekend Bowdoin will race in the Friis/Marchiando team race at MIT and the Alymers fleet race at Mass Maritime.