GW sailing team hopes to compete in the national championship in June.
By Jennifer Eder
The GW sailing team has come a long way since 2005, when it had only four members, no coach, no boats, no budget and little success.
Today, the club team boasts 45 members. They attend a regatta each weekend and regularly practice in the team’s eight boats. And they’re coached by Jay Sterne, an experienced sailor who’s coached at State University of New York Maritime College.
“In 2006, we were ranked 41 out of 45 sailing teams in the Mid Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA). But now we’re ranked 14 out of 45, and almost all of the teams in front of us are varsity programs,” says Will Ricketson, a GW senior and president of the sailing team. “It’s pretty amazing how far we’ve come in just a few years.”
Records show that the sailing team first formed at GW in 1956, but for the past decade, the team has gone up and down in participation, never having enough momentum to keep it going.
But in 2005, four students saved the team from extinction, and three years later the team won its first regatta, beating seven other teams.
The team practices four days a week at the Washington Sailing Arena. With the Washington Monument, the National Cathedral and the U.S. Capitol in the background, the team runs drills and scrimmages against Georgetown University, which is continuously ranked in the top five sailing programs in the country.
“We face the best of the best every day in practice,” says Mr. Ricketson, who is studying history in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.
In the past two years, the entirely student-run team has gotten eight boats, a volunteer coach and increasing success.
“The team has a great attitude. They want to learn, and they want to get better. It’s a very tightly knit group,” says Mr. Sterne. “I love sailing, and I like the opportunity to coach a team and see the pieces put together and see them mature and get better.”
Mr. Sterne, president of Windward Strategies, an environmental lobbying firm, coached at State University of New York Maritime College 20 years ago before going to law school. By his third year with the team, they were ranked in the top five sailing programs in the country. A competitive sailor himself, Mr. Sterne has raced from Annapolis to Bermuda – an 87-hour trip.
“Having someone with his experience is so valuable,” says Mr. Ricketson. “He’s really raised the profile of our team.”
The team has raced in six regattas so far this fall. Between 12 and 18 teams attend a regatta, and each race lasts about 18 minutes.
Just last week, the team finished fourth out of 16 teams at Georgetown’s Tom Curtis Regatta, coming in just behind top-ranked Georgetown, St. Mary’s College and the U.S. Naval Academy. GW’s performance earned them a spot in the War Memorial Trophy Regatta – the MAISA Fall Championship.
At the end of the spring season in May, the team sat down with Robert A. Chernak, Ed.D. ’97, senior vice president of student and academic support services, and Jack Kvancz, GW athletic director, to discuss whether the sailing team could become a varsity program – a designation that would bring the team more funding, allow students to schedule their classes around practice and access the university’s training facilities. Most of the country’s top-ranked sailing programs are varsity programs.
While the university is still considering whether to designate the team as a varsity program, it did award the team two new boats and have agreed to fund a full-time coach.
As with most sailing teams, GW’s 45-member team is co-ed. Twenty-seven are women, and 18 are men.
For freshman Kaitlin Denney, having a competitive sailing program played a big role in her decision of where to attend college. Ms. Denney, of Marion, Mass. and a student in the Elliott School of International Affairs, started racing competitively in middle school.
“Sailing was definitely something I was looking for in college,” she says.
In college sailing, two students ride in each boat, also called a ding. The “skipper” sits in the back or the “stern” steering the boat. The “crew” sits in the front or the “bow” giving directions to the skipper.
“There’s so much jargon in sailing. It can be kind of intimidating,” says Mr. Sterne.
That’s why the team runs a “Learn to Sail” program for $60 a person twice a semester for GW community members. The team has already taught the program this fall but will be putting it on again in the spring. In addition to teaching others about sailing, the “Learn to Sail” program is a big fundraiser for the team.
According to Mr. Sterne, part of the culture of college sailing is to help developing teams. GW has experienced this culture firsthand.
Before Mr. Sterne began coaching the team and before they had any boats, Georgetown allowed them to practice with their extra boats. And Georgetown’s coach, Mike Callahan, regularly gave the GW team guidance.
“To have this kind of competition on a daily basis is such a good opportunity,” says Mr. Sterne. “You don’t get better sailing by sailing against worse sailors. You want as many teams as possible to be good because it raises competition.”
Unlike other sports like basketball or hockey, the playing field is never the same in sailing. Everything is dependent on the weather, specifically the wind, says Mr. Sterne.
“It’s an incredibly adaptive sport. It puts a premium on intelligence,” he says. “You have to interpret the wind, distribute weight and increase your speed.”
The fall season ends in mid-November, and the spring season will run from February to June.
GW is hoping to make their first appearance in June at the national championship – an opportunity only 18 out of 220 teams across the country receive.
“We really want our legacy to be the class that got the sailing team to a place where it can really thrive in the future,” says Mr. Ricketson.
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