Regatta Report: Charleston Spring

Sailors

• A Fleet:
  • Skipper - Mason Wolters ('18)
  • Crew - Mike Gapuz ('18)
• B Fleet:
  • Skipper - August Sturm ('20)
  • Crew - Sofia Gambini ('18)

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Summary

We sent four sailors to compete at Charleston Spring hosted by College of Charleston. We only ended up sailing on Saturday due to poor wind conditions on Sunday. On Saturday, the wind built throughout the day from 5 knots up to 18 knots, with gusts up to 20 knots. The current was not a huge factor on Saturday, which was pretty surprising for the Charleston venue. 

Our A fleet sailed 10 races in 420s, while our B fleet sailed 10 races in FJs.

Overall our team finished 7th, with a 4th place finish for our B team after USF filed and got approved for redress, pushing us out of 3rd. Both teams felt like the regatta gave them a chance to get back in a boat and race in heavy wind. We are looking forward to competing more on the East Coast this spring and honing our skills as a team.

Thank you to Charleston for hosting the regatta and to our generous Michigan Alum for hosting our four sailors at his home while we competed this weekend.

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Mason & Mike - A Series

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Written by S. Gambini ('18)

Our New Website!

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Spring Break at Eckerd

The Michigan Sailing Team is very excited for the launch of our brand new website! 

We've been working hard to bring our dedicated alumni, potential recruits, and current team members a new means of comminucation and information about the team. 

While we have many ideas for where we hope to take this site, here is a list of a few key features:

• Updated leadership, roster, and coaches pages
• Simpler ways to contact our team
• A beautiful gallery of photos
• Information for our parents
• A list of our upcoming regattas
• Information for our alumni
• An outline on how to donate to our organization
• Event information for our Alumni Regatta and Michigan Sailing Victors Cup
• Up-to-date news and social media pages
• Information about our practices and fleet
• And more!

We hope that you take time to explore the site and reach out if you have any suggestions! 

Written by S. Gambini '18

Spring Break Training Trip

The week of February 24, 2018, the Michigan Sailing Team traveled to St. Petersburg, Florida for spring training. The first weekend was spent at the University of South Florida for the Mendelblatt Team Race Regatta. Eight sailors competed against teams from across the country to develop team racing skills. The following week, the team spent eight hours a day sailing at Eckerd College to train for the season ahead. 

The first few days of training included intense boat handling and crew development practice. Our coach, Sean Ross, created a regimented practice schedule and emphasized skills necessary to make our team as competitive as possible. Members new to the team were able to learn to sail, while experienced sailors honed in on boat handling skills that needed improvement. 

Throughout the week, we fleet and team raced against the Eckerd Sailing Team. Also, we had the opportunity to send sailors to the University of South Florida to further practice team racing. Training with Eckerd and USF was a great opportunity to learn from and race against other great sailors. Our team members were able to learn new tactics, improve starts, and compare boat speed. 

Every night, the team went back to a beach house on St. Pete Beach to cook dinner and relax with team mates. Being a block away from the beach, we would watch the sunset as a team and spend time by the ocean. Overall, the team had a very productive trip, as we vastly improved our sailing skills and had a ton of fun together!

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Written by S. Youtt '21

Regatta Report: Mendelblatt Team Race

Sailors

Skippers:                                                 Crews:

Connor Goulet ('21)              Claire Foley ('20)

Austin Haag ('20)              Sofia Gambini ('18) 

Will Neubauer ('20)            Sarah Silvestri ('19)

August Sturm ('20)                 Sarah Youtt ('21)

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Summary

We sent eight sailors to the University of South Florida for the Mendelblatt Team Race regatta to kick off a new year of sailing. It was a great opportunity for sailors to shake off the winter rust while team racing against some of best teams around the country. With a young team and a new skipper, we were able to practice our team race skills and kick-start our spring break.

The sailors were excited for some action-packed sailing and even more so for the warm and sunny weather in St. Petersburg. On the first day of racing, the wind was consistent until early in the afternoon when it died out. The team took a lunch break for about an hour and then returned to finish the round of racing.

The second day of sailing consisted of a little southeasterly breeze, but, by the end of the day, the wind had picked up to the point where we were hiking hard on the upwind legs.

Being the first regatta before spring break, we were able to identify what skills we need to practice during our training trip. We sailed in 420s the whole weekend except for the last three races - something we aren’t used to but we appreciated the opportunity to practice team racing in them!

We are looking forward to a week of training here in Florida!

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Written by M. Carroll ('21) & S. Youtt ('21)

February's Michigan Sailor of the Month

We are excited to introduce our Michigan Sailor of the Month, Nate Kane!

Nate is a junior studying Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering here at the University of Michigan! Nate has held a variety of leadership positions both on the executive board and off during his time with the team. His most notable leadership role is waking up all of our sailors at regattas so we can make it to race on time! We can always count on you, Nate!

Written by S. Gambini '18

Michigan Sailors Recognized at MCSA Midwinters

Connor, Austin, Amy, and Brian at MCSA Midwinters

After a weekend full of regatta selection, leadership training, MCSA elections, and award ceremonies, Michigan Sailing has a lot of updates!

We sent Amy Baer (Co-Captain), Austin Haag (Co-Captain), and Connor Goulet (Sailing Development Chair) to represent our team at MCSA Midwinters! Here is an outline of all we accomplished this past weekend!

First, huge congratulations to four of our Michigan Sailors who were recognized as All-Conference Sailors in the MCSA!

Amy Baer - Crew
Michael Gapuz - Crew
Lane Tobin - Skipper
Mason Wolters - Skipper

Second, another congratulation to our very own Co-Captain, Austin Haag, who was elected Commodore of the MCSA this weekend. Austin has already served one term on the MCSA board, and will continue to be an important voice for Michigan Sailing in his new role!

Michigan was also recognized as Match Race Champions and was awarded for Best Regatta for 2017 Women's Qualifiers.

Finally, we have our Spring Regatta Schedule lined up! Here is where we will be competing the next few months!

Austin and Amy with the "Best Regatta" Award

• 2/24 - 2/25 Mendelblatt Team Race - USF
• 3/10 - 3/11  Charleston Spring - College of Charleston
• 3/16 - 3/17 Southern New England Team Race - Conn College
• 3/24 - 3/25 Admiral Moore Team Race - New York
• 3/24 - 3/25 Freshman Icebreaker - Notre Dame
• 3/31 - 4/1 Laker Showdown - GVSU/Hope
• 3/31 - 4/1 Oxford Team Race - Miami of Ohio
• 4/7 - 4/8 Buckeye Invitational - OSU
• 4/7 - 4/8 Big Ten Team Race Regatta - MICH
• 4/14 - 4/15 3 Division Regatta - Wisco
• 4/14 - 4/15 Women's Quals - MICH
• 4/21 - 4/22 Admiral's Cup - King's Point
• 4/21 - 4/22 Boston Dinghy Challenge - Harvard/MIT
• 4/21 - 4/22 Team Race Qualifiers - Wisco
• 4/28 - 4/29 Co-ed Qualifiers - Minnesota
• 5/5 - 5/6 NU Spring - Northwestern

Written by S. Gambini '18

Michigan Sailors Spend New Years in NOLA

Sailors:

Women's Team

• A Fleet:
  • Skipper - Lane Tobin ('18)
  • Crew - Sydney Thompson ('18)
• B Fleet:
  • Skipper - Hannah Thayer ('20)
  • Crew - Sofia Gambini ('18)

Coed Team

• A Fleet:
  • Skipper - Colton Gerber ('18)
  • Crew - Pat Ryan ('19)
• B Fleet:
  • Skipper - Graham Eger ('19)
  • Crew - Max Ellsworth ('21)

Michigan Sailing sent eight sailors down to New Orleans, LA for Tulane's Sugar Bowl Regatta. Taking place the weekend before New Years, our sailors enjoyed spending time in NOLA exploring the city, and sailing of course! 

Our Women's Team consisted of seniors Lane Tobin, Sydney Thompson, Sofia Gambini, and sophomore, Hannah Thayer. Lane and Sydney finished 2nd in the A Fleet, and Hannah and Sofia finished 1st in B fleet, taking home the 2nd place in the Women's Division. 

Hannah and Sofia were awarded for their 1st place finish in the B fleet with Low Point B Skipper and Low Point B Crew respectively.

Our Co-ed Team was made up of senior Colton Gerber, junior Graham Eger, sophomore Patrick Ryan, and freshman Max Ellsworth. Colton and Patrick sailed in the A fleet, and Graham and Max sailed in the B fleet.

Overall a wonderful regatta, and an exciting way to ring in a new year of sailing!

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Written by S. Gambini ('18)

Michigan Hosts Women's Quals

Michigan Sailing Women's Qualifying Team

This past weekend the team hosted the MCSA Women's Conference Championship. We had eight teams from the conference competing for top four in order to qualify for Women's Nationals.

Saturday had little to no wind until about noon. Once the wind filled to 10-15 knots, the course was set and sailors were able to get off four races before the end of the day. Michigan ended the day in fourth, Notre Dame University in third, Northwestern in second and Wisconsin in first.

Sunday's weather more than made up for the lack of wind on Saturday with gusts up to 20-25 knots. Our team put their heads down and powered through the full day of racing. By mid-afternoon, one to two boats were flipping every race due to the gusty conditions. Fortunately, the weather was warm and sunny both days.

Wisconsin ended up in first, Northwestern in second, Michigan in third, and Notre Dame in fourth. We would like to thank all the teams that came out to compete this weekend, as well as our volunteers George Griswold, Brook McCray, Matt Graham, and Brian Tobelmann. Congratulations to those that qualified! Go Blue!

Written by S. Thompson '18

MCSA Midwinters Brings Big UMich Wins

From left to right: DJ Litts, Mike Gapuz, Amy Baer, Austin Haag, Lane Tobin, Mason Wolters

Two Michigan Sailing team members now sit on the MCSA officer panel. Graduate team member and part-time coach Brian Tobelmann was elected MCSA commissioner and freshman race chair Austin Haag was elected MCSA equipment manager. It is important to have Haag and Tobelmann sit on this panel because it means that Michigan will have a bigger seat at the table when it comes to MCSA team representation.

Team captains Lane Tobin and Mason Wolters as well as former race chair Grant Lyon also traveled to University of Milwaukee/Marquette to attend the MCSA 2017 Midwinters.

Midwinters is a banquet hosted by the MCSA where representatives of each team gather to finalize regatta dates and berth allocations for the teams. We are looking forward to the upcoming season to compete against our midwestern comrades.

This season we will be hosting, as is tradition, Big10 Team Race the weekend of March 25. We will also be hosting the MCSA Women's Championship regatta for nationals the weekend of April 8.

Written by S. Thompson '18