“We sailed really well—our practices showed,” said junior co-captain Sean Doyle. “We took advantage of sailing on our own river. The way we handled our races, we had the best boats out there.”

The season came to a climatic finish at the Coed Dinghy Nationals at Rhode Island. As the oldest and most prestigious of the six championships, Coed Dinghies carried twice as much weight in the Fowle standings.

The 36-race regatta was among the closest in its 65-year history, featuring eight lead changes in the final 12 races. The juniors Gill and Susan Bonney dominated the 18 races of the B Division and propelled the Crimson into the lead with only four races left to go. Their boat amassed a winning low score of 78 points, 19 places ahead of nearest competitor Dartmouth.

The Crimson still needed a strong performance in the A Division to claim the Dinghy title. The A boat, featuring a combination of skippers Doyle and freshman Cardwell Potts and sophomore crew Michelle Yu and Laura Knoll, took sixth place with 139 points.

When the final tally was announced, Tufts was the Dinghy champion with 215 points, edging out Harvard’s 217 and Dartmouth’s 220. A 16th-place finish by the Harvard A boat in its final race doomed the Crimson’s hopes for the title.

But Harvard was the year’s overall champion nonetheless. The second-place Dinghy finish—the Crimson’s best since it last won the title in 1974—provided more than enough points to bring home the school’s first Fowle Trophy.

As usual, several Crimson sailors made the All-American team. Doyle, Gill and Bischoff were All-American skippers, while Potts earned Honorable Mention skipper accolades, and Yu and Bonney both made All-American crew. Doyle was one of five finalists for the Everett B. Morris trophy, given to the Sailor of the Year.