As the Harvard sailing team prepares to furl its sails and hang its boats up to dry for the last time this fall, optimism and satisfaction prevail in the Harvard Sailing Center.

Both co-ed and women’s teams capitalized on late-earned bids to the Atlantic Coast Championships, in which the co-ed squad took second and the women sixth over the weekend.

“We’ve still got it,” said captain Laura Schubert, who did not participate in the action.

The weekend’s finishes helped resolve whatever uncertainty hung over team at the beginning of the season, when it faced the loss of two top skippers—one to graduation and one to a semester’s study abroad.

Struggles in important midseason regattas sustained those grounds for concern until four of the Crimson’s best skippers posted top-five finishes in the Singlehanded National Championships and returned for the season’s final stretch.

“We’ve been seventh or eighth in a lot of the intersectionals this season, so to finish second in the second most competitive regatta of the fall…really shows we’ve improved a lot this season,” said sophomore Clay Johnson. “It’s promising for this [spring] season as well.”

That season will begin after the ice breaks on the Charles River.

“I’m very pleased with the results,” said junior Ruth Schlitz. “What’s even more pleasing is I don’t think we sailed our best, and I think we have the potential to be much better than that. It’s very reassuring to know that had we been on top of our game we could have finished much better.”

CO-ED

The Crimson’s co-ed contingent stayed near home, scooping snow out of the boats at MIT to sail for the Fisk, Harriman and Sleigh Trophy against the best teams from the East Coast.

Harvard fought wintry temperatures and shifty winds and took second to Brown in an 18-team field.

Freshman Kyle Kovacs skippered Harvard’s B-division boat to victory with sophomore Emily Simon at crew.

The pair entered the 16th of 18 races trailing Brown by two points but won the race to take the lead, which they maintained by keeping ahead of the Bears and top-contender Yale in the final race.

“After sailing on Saturday, I felt like I could go out and win it [Sunday],” Kovacs said.

The B-division boat won three of 18 races and finished second in three more.