With so few races, “you can’t make mistakes because there’s no time to overcome them,” said Gill.

After a false start in their first race, though, Gill and Bonney did just that, winning four of their final five, including all three on Sunday to win the B division by a whopping 21 places.

“I knew we were fast and I knew we were making good decisions, so I knew if we got off the starting line, we would end up doing really well,” said Gill.

Asked about Gill’s performance, Doyle simply commented, “She’s a clutch player.”

At the same time, the women’s Atlantic Coast Championships were being held at the United States Naval Academy. There, the quintet of sophomores Jennie Philbrick, Diana Rodin, Emily Nielson, and Caroline Dixon and senior Rehana Gubin, representing the No. 6 Harvard women’s sailing team, did not fare quite as well, placing fourteenth. The young team was hampered by a lack of practice time, due both to darkness and to the fact that Harvard owns only two Flying Juniors and two 420s, the boats used in the competition.

Additionally, Rodin became too ill to compete after only two races on Sunday. However, earlier, she and Philbrick had displayed their promise by placing second in their first two races.

“You can really see the potential in that pair,” observed Nielson.

Going It Alone

But if Rodin and Philbrick are the future of Crimson sailing, the present is led by Doyle, All-American junior Clay Bischoff, and Gill, all of whom will leave at noon today to represent Harvard at Singlehanded Nationals at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. this weekend.

Doyle—who placed tenth last year and third as a sophomore—and Bischoff—who took fifth last year—will both be looking to improve on their 2000 performances. Bischoff and Doyle will be competitors this weekend and finished first and third, respectively, in qualifying for Nationals at the Singlehanded New Englands last month. But each maintains a great deal of respect for the other.

“Clay is a very hard worker,” Doyle says. “We have similar styles [in that] we’re very analytical about the shifts in the wind and dealing with all the little small changes, and we’re similar size, so we really complement each other.”

Bischoff, too, is effusive on the subject of Doyle. “In my opinion, he is probably the best all-around sailor in the country,” he says.

The pair has been practicing in private boats at the Cottage Park Yacht Club in order to simulate the open water and larger waves they will encounter at nationals. Bischoff, in particular, has been working on sailing downwind, and both should compete for the national title.