Date: Friday, June 22, 2001
Written by Ken Legler

TUFTS SAILING WINS DINGHY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

This wasn't 1997, when the Tufts sailing team's Graeme Woodworth/Kiri Wilson and Tim Fallon/Martha Carleton won the dinghy nationals by a record margin. In 2001, four different teams led through the first 35 races, not including Tufts. In the 36^th and final race, Tufts finished 9^th and won!

The scene was Wheeler State Park in Rhode Island with a wide sandy beach on the Harbor of Refuge, midway between Point Judith and the port of Galilee. URI was the perfect host with flawless race management and uniform Flying Juniors with new sails.

Day one was shifty with WNW gradient fighting WSW sea breeze. Tufts ended the day in 4^th, combining 8^th in A with 2^nd in B. They ended the New Englands a month earlier at the same site with those same divisional results, but were 6^th overall and out of the nationals until Mike Horn, the president of the Intercollege Sailing Association, selected Tufts and Georgetown as the two "at-large" teams for nationals.

Boston College led after the first day while Tufts sat tied with Georgetown and Charleston, behind Harvard and well ahead of 8^th place Dartmouth, who was struggling in A division. A weak nor'easter turned southeast early the second day as Tufts missed each successive righty to finish 14^th. In the A Division, Sophomore skipper Pete Levesque (Falmouth, ME) and sophomore crew Caroline Hall (Tiverton, RI) began their comeback in the very next race with a bullet followed by a string of fast races in the slowly building southerly. Meanwhile the B division boat piled up 5's and 6's with the occasional 13; which was good enough to keep hopes alive overall but did not help our B division ranking. Georgetown suffered a DNF for not quite re-finishing after a 720 and BC's lead grew to 16.

Also on day two Dartmouth subbed in Pat Hogan's little brother, freshmen Scott, who also struggled. Then Pat went back in and finished no lower than 6^th for the rest of the regatta. Dartmouth was winning B despite an OCS (On Course Side of the start) for 20 points in one race. BC won a B race after a close tack in at the windward mark but was protested. Then the jury went to work the second night. BC survived the protest and kept the lead over Georgetown. Dartmouth got redress for their OCS and pushed Tufts back into 4^th. It seems some Dartmouth frosh, having just completed his exams the day before, was swimming near the starting line while yelling #12, and not the race committee.

One look at the standings on the final morning gave Tufts great concern about the team in 5^th, Harvard. They could easily win. Sure enough, among the eight lead changes that last day, Harvard took the biggest lead after three straight bullets. Margaret Gill/Susan Bonney were unstoppable in B and substitute frosh skipper Cardwell Potts, sailing with tiny Michelle Yu got hot in A.

With one set per division (four races) to go, Harvard led BC by 6 and Tufts by 14. Dartmouth was right behind Tufts, but Georgetown has finally faded. They could still win though. The sea breeze built to 15 and Tufts sailed to an overpowered 11^th. Senior Laurin Manning (Mystic, CT) waded through the surf and hopped in the FJ with Levesque, replacing Caroline Hall for the last A division race as our first and only substitution. It worked. They finish second and win A by a point! The bubble bursts for the light Harvard frosh skipper with a 13-16 set.

One B set to go. BC leads again. Tufts is second, 4 back and only a point up on Dartmouth with Harvard still nearby. After avoiding the "Devils Playground" all regatta, (all year for that matter,) senior skipper Adam Deermount (Upper Montclair, NJ) with senior crew Lisa Keith (Marblehead, MA) went for the pin and took it. BC fouled Tufts down there and spins a 720 penalty. Dartmouth, always near the pin, follows Tufts, passes at the reach mark and wins the race.

One race to go, race 36. Dartmouth has taken their first lead, on a tie breaker over Tufts. Harvard is now 6 back, BC 9 back. Deermount/Keith take the pin again, but Dartmouth is right there again. We can't tack and cross Dartmouth before getting lifted nearing the left corner. So we tack to duck but Dartmouth lee bows in 15 knots. Conditioning is not a factor since both crews, Tufts' Lisa Keith and Dartmouth's Leslie Sandberg sprint hike from toes to head, hands over head. After hanging in their backwind for an eternity (15 seconds), Tufts rolls ‘em. They tack out to the port layline. Approaching the mark, Harvard recovers from a bad start for 7^th. Tufts rounds 10^th in traffic while Dartmouth cannot fit into the rounding pattern until 15^th. For the rest of the race, each player moves up only slightly. The running finish is just outside the surf where all the teams wait to greet their heroes. As soon as the boats between Harvard and Tufts are counted, the celebration begins. The water is warm, as it always is in June.

Final Scores:

Seven more Jumbos were inducted into the college sailing hall of fame as All-Americans. Regular All-Americans added were Deermount and Levesque. Seniors Jen Provan (Toronto, Ont.) and Lee Icyda (Stuart, FL) made Women's All-American. Tufts added three crew All-Americans: Keith, Manning and Hall.

For the record, Tufts has now won five dinghy nationals, which is the overall title in our sport. Only MIT (11, none in 30 years) and Navy (6) have won more. Navy has won 31 total nationals, Tufts 23, Kings Point, Harvard and Old Dominion have 13 each. Navy has won 10 Fowle trophies, Tufts 8, no other team has more than 3.

Tufts now has 59 regular All-Americans, 22 Women All-Americans and 14 All-American crews for a total of 95 All-Americans in sailing. Tufts just passed Navy with 90. St. Mary's is third with 55.

Tufts will once again be the team every other team will be gunning for next year. The team will need to figure out how to set a higher standard once again in both performance and sportsmanship.

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