After a spring recess spent on the water, the Harvard sailing team can’t claim lack of practice—nor, now that it is ranked No. 1, can it claim underdog status.

The coed team reclaimed the top spot in the Sailing World national rankings released March 28, in the middle of a racing-heavy spring break week.

“It’s nice to get recognition,” sophomore Clay Johnson said. “We follow the rankings, and even though they’re arbitrary and don’t mean anything, it’s still nice to be number one.”

COED

Harvard missed first place by a single race in the Southern New England Team Race, held March 26-27 at Connecticut College.

Sailing Flying Juniors in steady winds, the Crimson finished 17-6 over two round robins and one six-team champion tournament in the 10-team field.

Yale won the regatta with a record of 18-5.

“We had a few mess-up races against Yale where we were winning 90 percent of the time and lost right before the finish line,” Johnson said.

Junior captain Vincent Porter, Johnson, and senior Genny Tulloch skippered the Crimson trifecta with junior Ruth Schlitz and sophomores Kristen Lynch and Emily Simon crewing.

Harvard kept six sailors on home waters for the Lynne Marchiando Team Race at MIT.

The Crimson finished fifth of 10 teams after fighting its way into the final round robin.

Harvard finished 4-1 in Sunday morning Silver Fleet competition to qualify, along with Dartmouth, for the six-team championship tournament.

The Crimson’s three FJs were skippered and crewed, respectively, by freshman Kyle Kovacs and junior captain Sloan Devlin, sophomore Matt Knowles and senior Laura Schubert, and sophomores Christina Dahlman and Sam Fink.

“In the Marchiando, we weren’t necessarily looking to qualify for finals,” Devlin said. “We’re strong for team racing.”

Harvard failed to capitalize on a home water advantage at the 76th Boston Dinghy Cup, which it co-hosted with BU and MIT on April 2-3, missing third place by five points.