UCLA Sailing Team

Happy New Year and Happy New Sailing Season!

Administrator — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:31:53 +0000

First off I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, and hopefully everyone enjoyed their holidays. The fall sailing season has officially come to a close with Rose Bowl wrapping up this weekend. The weekend went great for the Bruins. After day 1, the Bruins were in 12th place out of 30 overall and in 4th place out of the west coast schools! Day 2 brought some very tough conditions, but we finished in a respectable 16th place to end an exciting season.

Unfortunately the Bruins are skipping out on the Rainbow Invitational in Hawaii this year due to the high interest (and cost) of our April regatta in France. However our next regatta is the beginning of the south series in San Diego on January 26-27. Wish us luck!

If there are any students that missed out on fall quarter but wish to get involved with the team starting this quarter, don’t hesitate to contact the captains – Erica and Emelia – at sailing@ucla.edu. We always love seeing new faces!

And don’t forget…we are always looking for help with fundraising for our trip to France for the EDHEC Boat Cup. You can make a tax deductible donation by visiting UCLA Online Giving and directing the gift to UCLA Sailing and putting France trip in the comments. Again, any questions feel free to email us at sailing@ucla.edu.

Looking forward to a great spring season. Check out the calendar for our updated schedule.

-Emelia

Fall Recruitment 2012

Administrator — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 22:32:01 +0000

We will be having our Fall recruitment meeting on Monday, October 1 at 4 pm. We will be meeting by the Bruin Bear. We will also be hosting a recruitment BBQ at the MAC (Marina Aquatic Center) with carpooling from Ackerman at 2, and this event will be on Friday, October 5. If you can’t make these events contact us at sailing@ucla.edu.

RACING OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW SAILORS

On October 6th and 7th there is a Freshman and Sophomore Regatta in San Diego, and this is a great opportunity for new sailors to get out on the water in racing situations. We would love to see some new faces representing the UCLA sailing team! We will be staying with last years team captain Billy Edwards at UCSD.

Fall schedule is up!

Administrator — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 21:08:21 +0000

Check out the Calendar tab to see the new updated fall schedule. It’s going to be a very busy fall!

To All Prospective Sailors…

Administrator — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 05:24:36 +0000

Are you interested in joining the UCLA Sailing Team? Feel free to explore around this site and learn more about our team. We will have an information session at the beginning of fall quarter, followed by a welcome barbeque and introduction to the boats at the Marine Aquatic Center! This will be a great chance to meet the current team and check out our facility in Marina Del Rey. If you want to be notified about these events or have any questions, send an email to sailing@ucla.edu and we will make sure you are included! Click “Join” at the top for more information.

Much Needed Summer Update!

Administrator — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 04:33:24 +0000

Seems like it has been a while since the website was updated, so here’s a little recap of how the team has been doing.

The 2011-2012 team was rather small after losing quite a few seniors last year, but we had a fun and successful season nonetheless! In the fall the Bruins got 4th place in the PCCSC Match Race Champs with Judge Ryan as skipper and Billy Edwards, Erica Parker, and Emelia Pelliccio as the crew. After winter break, we had a strong showing at both the Rose Bowl and Rainbow regattas before getting into the much anticipated South Series. With CMA ultimately declining their invite to Pacific Coast Championships, the Bruins had a good enough overall South Series score to qualify them for PCC’s. Despite sending out a very young team and the breeze barely ever showing up, we got a respectable 10th place at the championship event with Peter Bailey and Louise Lehman sailing A division and Emelia Pelliccio and Erica Parker sailing B division. This same team along with Nora Brackbill and Amy Stuyvesant traveled up to Stanford for the Team Race PCC’s, which is a notoriously challenging yet fun event. To wrap up the championship series, the women’s team consisting of Emelia Pelliccio and Erica Parker sailing A division and Nora Brackbill and Amy Stuyvesant sailing B division headed to Hawaii for what they considered to be one of the best events they ever sailed in. The wind was strong and shifty, which made for a very exciting event. The women’s team took 4th, just one place out of qualifying for Women’s National Semifinals.

For now, the sailors are kept busy all over the country for their summer vacations. The season will start right back up come the end of September so look out for more updates then!

Check out all of the recent newsletters at www.foustsupport.net for more info about Bruin Sailing happenings.

Have a great summer and sail fast!

West Marine team fundraiser!

Administrator — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:33:30 +0000

Hey guys!

Just a heads up that the UCLA Sailing Team has a fundraiser going on all day Tuesday, May 25th at the West Marine in Marina del Rey.

5% of the day’s earnings will go toward the team!! So it’s REALLY important that you buy any and all boating/sailing/water gear on the 26th, and tell your friends and family to come on out and support us! Team members will be in the store throughout the day, and rumor has it there will be snacks/goodies to lure you in.

Please come out and support us in any way you can…as an almost entirely member-funded club that is perpetually low on funds, this event could really help us out. Not to mention this is the week before our Alumni Regatta…stock up on gear for the fun weekend ahead!

Hope to see you there!

Alumni Regatta NOR

Administrator — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:44:31 +0000

NOTICE OF RACE
UCLA SAILING TEAM 2010 ALUMNI REGATTA

Location: UCLA Marina Aquatic Center (14001 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey, CA)

Format: As with last year, we will try to run open rotation fleet races early in the day to determine teams for evenly-matched team racing in the afternoon. Courses will depend on conditions and participation.

Entries: All are welcome.

Entry Fee: FOUST and Current Team Members – no charge. All others – $15.

Schedule:

Sunday, May 30, 2010

10:30am – Report and Registration

When the Wind Fills In – First Start

All Day – Food, Beverages, and Good Times

No racing after sunset.

Lodging and Transportation: If you would like to share a ride from a major California city, or need a place to stay, contact FOUST and we’ll see what we can do.

Rules: This regatta will be governed by the rules in the Racing Rules of Sailing 2008-2012. Mostly.

Contact:
Sam Wheeler
UCLA Sailing Team, Class of 2008
President, Friends of the UCLA Sailing Team
www.foustsupport.net

Sailing Team makes front page of Daily Bruin Sports!

Administrator — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:02:46 +0000

http://www.dailybruin.com/articles/2010/4/27/smooth-sailing/

UCLA sailing team takes on international regatta in France

After months of fundraising and practice, sailing team takes on international regatta in France

When the sails are unfurled and all of the contestants take their mark, the sight is truly majestic. There are 60 sailboats spanning hundreds of yards of water, painting the horizon with color and contrasting with the bright blue sky off the scenic coast of Brest, France.

However, these boats are not there to take a group picture. They are there to compete in the 42nd annual Edhec Boat Cup.

Last week, all of the top European universities came to Brest to compete against one another in the weeklong regatta, and in the midst of all the international competition, the UCLA sailing team looked to make its mark.

One of only two schools from the United States that competed in the regatta this year, the team played the role of ambassador and carried the banner for their own style of sailing into international waters.

The sailing team is one of the smaller club sports on campus but has been growing in popularity as well as skill level in recent years. The team normally competes in events up and down the California coast and occasionally travels to Hawaii for competitions.

But this all changed when fourth-year environmental science and accounting student Victor Weisberg showed up on the scene with the idea to expand the team’s competitive spectrum.

“My sophomore year, I lived in a co-op, and I’m French-American, and a guy I met there, who was French, told me about this awesome regatta in France with all these international schools,” Weisberg said. “He motivated me and other students to go to France and compete.”

In the previous two years, the UCLA sailing team has been the sole representative among American schools at the regatta and has raised the banner of Westwood alongside universities from countries such as New Zealand, Senegal and Switzerland.

Weisberg knew that the task of funding the annual trip to France would not be easy. Because they are a club team, they had to rely on fundraisers and donate money from their own pockets to compete and do what they love.

“We’ve outreached to small businesses, family friends, which are some of our biggest contributors. … But what’s fortunate about this year is that because we’ve done it for the past two years, the organization that runs this tournament really values having such a great American school go, so they’re actually one of our biggest sponsors this year,” Weisberg said.

Getting such high praise from the international community is definitely an achievement, considering that 140 other colleges competed in the regatta this year, not all of them receiving funding.

The team rallied together, and after months of hard work and planning, raised a total of $22,000 to make the trip.

While a weeklong voyage to sail along the coast of France sounds like a luxurious vacation to some, the UCLA sailing team went to prove itself and compete against the best in the sailing world.

Sailing is a sport that demands communication between the crew and requires members to do their job. Because there are so many different details involved in sailing a 32-foot boat, like they did in this regatta, the team had to rely on each other to succeed.

The core group of eight crew members who made the trip to France has been sailing together for some time but had to get used to sailing large boats before they left.

“Normally in the United States, flying juniors (smaller, two-man boats) are the main boats that people sail on … but in France we compete on 32-feet Grand Surprises, which are much bigger boats,” Weisberg said.

The Grand Surprises are no joke. They are huge boats, used exclusively in France, that require all eight members to pull their own weight. Weisberg accredited the back-of-the-fleet performances that the team has had in the past to the tough switch from the smaller American boats to the larger French ones.

“Communication was one of the things I was worried about before we left,” UCLA alumnus and sailing team member Jake Muhleman said. “In order to yell to the front of the boat you have to yell real loud because the coast of France is very windy.”

As if the switch to a larger boat didn’t make things hard enough for them, the competition that assembled at the regatta made the team’s journey even harder. Weisberg said a number of other teams pay for professional sailors, including Olympians, to compete with them.

But UCLA did not show up unprepared.

“A group of us had been practicing really seriously, and what was also exciting was our skipper … who has had experience on these boats,” Weisberg said.

The team seemed to have better success this year in the multiple-race format and consistently finished in the middle of the fleet.

After a week of racing, their efforts fell just short, and they failed to qualify for the championship race.

With 140 different universities from all over the globe coming together to compete, one has to believe that the social life on land was just as fun as the race out on the water.

A whole “village” is set up that houses the 3,000 participants every year.

At night, mingling among the different countries and sampling the food and drink is a major part of the experience.

“It was real cool to get to know people from another part of the world. I will definitely try to maintain those relationships and keep in contact,” third-year mechanical engineering student Billy Edwards said. “The sailing community is a very tight-knit community, and to be a part of it was great.”

Edwards added that the sailing community in Europe takes the sport very seriously.

And with their unique status as one of two American teams, the only other being from Oklahoma City University, the UCLA team members reveled in the opportunity to make their name and what they stand for known to the international community.

“We have for sure built up a brand. … My sophomore year I went in and hung out with all these different schools … and then last year I went back and everyone knew us already. They were like, ‘Oh, UCLA, sweet.’ We have just created a brand of UCLA,” Weisberg said.

The sailing team has not only made a name for itself in the international sailboat racing community, but it is beginning to shape how others view American collegiate sailing.

Weisberg and his crew have taken on the challenge and pressure of spreading the word of UCLA sailing.

“Everybody (at the event) even knows the 8-clap,” Weisberg said.

For more information on our participation in the EDHEC Boat Cup, check out the Bruin EDHEC Team website at: www.bruincce.blogspot.com

Team Racing in the Bay 2010

blogpost — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:44:18 +0000

The weekend of March 6th was packed with team racing in the bay. UCLA, rolling DEEP as usual, sent one team to the Jeremy McIntyre Team Race at Stanford, another to the Cal Team Race at Treasure Island, and a third to a high school ladies fashion show in Fullerton. We’ll let it slide THIS time, Boomstacks.

Let’s start with the Cal Team Race. Please be advised that I was not there to witness the proceedings first hand, so some details might be stretched, twisted, or made up altogether. Sailing started right away as an awesome 8-10 knot breeze filled from the west and stuck around all day. The team, comprised of skippers Shannon Walker (junior), Drew Morton (junior), and Andrew Segal (freshman 4 lyfe), reported having some really good races, with Shannon and freshman crew Nora Brackbill starting particularly well. While there were other shining moments in their races, the team noted that consistency and a lack of practice as a team held them back a little this weekend. Overall, they came out with 5 wins and 8 losses, which was good for 4th place overall. In related news, Drew Morton hit his knee on the thwart possibly harder than anyone has ever hit their knee on a thwart before this weekend. Despite the injury, mental and physical toughness, some encouragement from his crew, and a lack of alternates kept him from having to sit out any races. The consistent breeze allowed for two and a half round robins to be completed, so Cal decided to end the regatta after just one day. Kind of a bummer if you ask me. They did provide boats, so I guess beggars can’t be choosers.

Moving on to McIntyre. The breeze was slow to fill on Saturday, with postponement ashore until around 1 o’clock. Racing began and ended in light and shifty breeze, which was less than enjoyable in the 420s, used to prepare for nationals in Wisconsin this year. All but a few races of the first round robin were completed that day. UCLA managed to beat UC Santa Cruz but lost a HEARTBREAKER to USC. We had a 1-3-4 rounding the leeward mark, and despite drawing a foul on the final beat, boats 2 through 6 ended up converging in a 5 boat cluster on their way upwind. After a blur of tacks, ducks, and profanity, UCLA ended up in the 5-6. I still have no explanation for what happened in those few seconds.

The forecast for Sunday was for strong breeze, and as promised, it blew about 15 knots all day. The first round robin was finished, with UCLA ending up in the bottom 4 of 10. A double consolation round robin was sailed, in which UCLA finished with 1 win and 5 losses. We caught a lot of frustrating breaks, including an umpire obstruction, which cost skipper Mark Anders the 1 in a race against Northwestern. Likewise, junior skipper Carmen Bozina had to avoid an umpire boat while doing a spin, which changed the combination in a race against Santa Cruz. Finally, Oscar fell out of the boat, which he really can’t blame anyone for no matter how he spins it. Maybe Tats. Yeah, Tats. Frustrating as it was, sailing in heavy breeze is always fun, and we came away from the weekend having learned a lot (particularly about starting strategy).

We’d like to give a big thanks to Carmen’s family for hosting us, and to Neha’s and Drew’s families for providing food. Next up is South 5 in Long Beach on the weekend of March 27th, where we can seal our qualifying spot for coed PCC’s! Details to come.

2010 PJ Wenner Rainbow Invite, Hawaii

Administrator — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:08:11 +0000

Although the team didn’t do much sailing on thursday, January 14th, first year teammate Linda Wennerstrom earned teammate of the day honors by scoring 8 free airport food vouchers, good for 15 bucks at any airport eatery! This years trip to the PJ Wenner Rainbow Invite literally started out with a bang, as the plane broke and the team got to spend a bonus five hours in the airport terminal with none other than the entire USC sailing team. Rad.

After the short delay, the team was in good spirits and on the ground in Hawaii, where we piled into a rental van and headed for the home of the one and only REIN ZANE. After a couple thousand wrong turns, we found the new apartment, set our alarms for 9, and crashed for the night.

Why do we have to go to Hawaii every year? One reason: it’s not everday that you get to hike a mountain, climb a 30 foot waterfall, and plunge into a tropical freshwater pool before a sailing practice. We followed the lead of our fearless commander, captain Mark Ander, who was the first to jump off the waterfall after an encouraging chorus of “quit being a bitch!” cheers from the bystanders below. After a few jumps, we headed to the sailing center for practice.

The 10-15 knot breeze was coming from the usual direction, and each pair got about 5 practice races in the fleet of about 20. The practice day was hugely important, as we had spent the better part of the last two weeks practicing in 0-5 knots. Mark Anders and Neha Bazaj had a couple of standout races in practice, and we all went back to Rein’s hopeful for the next day.

The wind on Saturday was quite a bit lighter, around 8 knots but with big puffs and huge shifts. Racing that day was incredibly tricky, as a different side of the course appeared to be favored every race. “I couldn’t seem to sail on the lifted tack,” said a frustrated Anders as he came off the water. Garrett’s advice for sailing off of sand island was to pick a side and stick it, but that was hard to do with big pileups at both the boat and the pin at the starts. Junior women’s skipper Shannon Walker and crew Lea Cohen appeared to be the only ones who could figure it out, starting the day well with 7th and 8th place finishes.

After a frustrating first day, Sunday provided us with a change of scenery, with a light, 5-8 knot breeze from a completely different direction. Strange as it was, the wind stuck around all day and was a lot steadier and more predictable than it had been the day before. Jasklowski and Woo-Kawaguchi changed their strategy on day 2, opting for conservative starts in clear air rather than fighting for the favored end of the line. They were rewarded with some consistency, finishing int the top 8 four times on day two, and in the top 5 twice. Anders and Bazaj also found a little more success on Sunday, and the coed team finished with 122 points in each division, enough for 14th overall. The women’s team was just three spots back in 17th.

Although we’ve had better results in the past, the annual trip to Hawaii was no less fun than it had been in years past. We were treated to gorgeous weather, awesome sailing, and the hospitality of our favorite host, Rein. Can’t wait until we’re back for coed PCCs in April.