UCLA Sailing Team

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.

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.

A bit of a change of pace from the 6 boat, 25 sailor extravaganza that was North South, only 4 sailors, 1 FJ, and 4 cheerleaders made the trip to long beach for the last weekend of winter break. Marking the end of the ICSA Fall season, Rose Bowl will be the last regatta junior skipper Billy Edwards will spend on the sidelines after being suspended for attempting to stab a competitor on the water last spring (this is a joke, the very mild mannered Edwards is sitting out a quarter to save eligibility for a 5th season). His highly anticipated debut will be at South 1-2, the weekend of January 30th. Alas, I digress.

Winter days in southern California are typically pretty light, and Saturday was no exception as racing got started around noon after a morning delay. In the 26 boat fleet, both A division’s Mark Anders and Neha Bazaj and B divisions Oscar Jasklowski and Tatsuma Woo-Kawaguchi managed 8th and 7th place finishes, with a helping of some mid-fleet finishes as well. At the end of the day, 4 races had been sailed in each division. In loosely related news, an anonymous cheerleader’s crustacean phobia had been elucidated when some lobsters washed up on the beach.

The competitors returned on Sunday, one of them sporting a new, fashionable “mullet” haircut. As excited as “team mullet mayhem wildcard” was to get on the water, this didn’t happen until around 2pm, after A division had finally managed to complete two races. The second race was Anders’ best finish of the weekend, 6th place, which unfortunately wouldn’t be counted because only one race was completed in B division. Jasklowski and Woo-Kawaguchi were plagued by over-earlies this weekend, which is something they will certainly be focusing on improving. “We will certainly be focusing on improving our over-earlies,” commented Woo-Kawaguchi after racing on Sunday. When it was all said and done, both Anders and Jasklowski had finished 12th in their respective divisions, resulting in a 12th place finish overall.

The next stop for the team will be Honolulu, Hawaii, as the annual PJ Wenner Invite is fast approaching. This event will be especially exciting for UCLA as Junior skippers Shannon Walker and Carmen Bozina (team captain) will be making their debuts after being abroad in the fall.