“This was a good first team race regatta,” Wang said. “We learned a lot to apply to our future team regattas in the spring.”

Working together was important with the constant changing of combinations.

“We were rotating through four combinations in three boats,” Burnes said. “It was the first team race so we were rusty… but it was good that everyone got to sail, and we definitely got to learn a lot.”

At the Sister Esther Open—hosted by Salve Regina University on the Narragansett Bay—Harvard excelled in the familiar fleet racing style. The Crimson finished third in a field of twenty, behind only the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Roger Williams University, respectively.

The successful racing at the Sister Esther Open balanced out the irregular weekend of team racing.

“We wanted to do better, but it was a good learning experience,” Burnes said.

Harvard was victorious in the event last year, finishing 37 points ahead of second-place Tufts.

The conditions in Newport, R.I. this time around offered a good weekend for racing, with a beautiful Saturday and breezy Sunday.

As the spring approaches, the first weekend of team racing is valuable in determining weaknesses to focus on before team racing heats up.

“It was a good opportunity to get our feet wet and get ready for team racing in the spring,” Puopolo said.

This was the second-to-last weekend of the fall season for the Crimson, which will travel to SUNY Maritime College in New York for the Atlantic Coast Championship next weekend in its final regatta of the fall season.

—Contributing writer Joseph W. Minatel can be reached at josephminatel@college.harvard.edu