“Kyle and I have sailed a lot of Lasers and done a lot of singlehanded sailing in the last month, and we have done very little doublehanded,” Clay Johnson said. “You could definitely see that we hadn’t been practicing as much. Our boat handling and tacks were off a little.”
The Crimson’s doublehanded sailing had struggled in previous weeks, as Johnson, Devlin, Kovacs and Tulloch had sailed Laser dinghies, preparing for and competing in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association singlehanded championships. The end of the singlehanded season allowed the four to return to shore up the doublehanded program.
“What enabled us to post this great score was that we had both our best skippers,” Tulloch said. “We were finally able to put our top few players out on the field, and the results show that.”
“I think a big factor this weekend was the fact that we didn’t have anyone sailing singlehandeds, so we had all our top skippers sailing doublehanded. We’ve been stretched really thin the last couple weekends,” Schubert said.
Sailing at home gave Harvard another edge—familiarity with conditions on the water.
A weak and shifty wind blew through light rain as sailors cast off from the docks Saturday morning. The sky cleared on Sunday, as winds blew as strong as 20 knots down the Charles around noon.
“It was home turf advantage,” Schubert said. “I’m sure for other people it was even tougher, because they’re not used to this shifty, no-breeze sailing.”
“We are good at that kind of sailing,” Schlitz added.
NOTES
Johnson’s ability to watch the race unfold suffered Saturday, as he had to wear protective goggles on top of glasses through the drizzle after scratching his cornea in a contact lens-related mishap. “I couldn’t get any water in them, especially dirty Charles River water. Fortunately, it was Halloween, so I kind of fit in,” Johnson said. “Did it affect my race a little? Yes, but no excuses. I didn’t sail as well as I would have liked to.” ... The Schell Trophy regatta drew perhaps more live—if unwitting—spectators than any collegiate sailing or Harvard athletic event in history, as an estimated 400,000 fans lined the Lower Basin of the Charles River to watch the world champion Boston Red Sox parade through town in triumph. The Red Sox’s procession boarded Duckboats to cross the river, interrupting the regatta for an hour.