Coming out of a second place finish in the Northwest Team Race Championships in Portland, Ore., last weekend, Western’s sailing team is confident about their last two regular regattas of the season.

Five of the sailors have something extra to be proud of.  Western juniors Molly Jackson and Katie Bury along with sophomores Mallory Abston, Calla Ward, and Katie Stephens, qualified for the women’s double-handed national regatta.  

The trip to the May 26-28 nationals in Newport, R.I., will be the first time in 12 years that a Western women’s team has qualified. The team will be racing a two-person sailboat called a 420 at nationals.

Another highlight for the team’s year included competing in the co-ed double-handed semi-nationals in Long Beach, Calif., April 26-27.  They finished 13th out of 18 schools, which included colleges such as Georgetown University, Brown  University and Yale University.  The team is ranked No. 2 overall in their district behind the University of Washington.

Collegiate sailing is a sport where one uses a combination of their skills and stamina.  The boats collegiate sailors race are  usually less than 16 feet and one can often see the sailors hanging out of the boat in an effort to keep the wind from capsizing them.  

Jackson said the sailing team typically uses three kinds of sailboats. Besides the 420, the team uses another narrow two-person boat known as an FJ.

The other is a small one-person boat known as a Laser. Jackson and Bury said the sailing team practices and competes year round with races approximately every weekend during spring.

The sailing team’s next competition is the University of Victoria Regatta this weekend in Victoria, British Columbia with FJs.  The last scheduled regatta will be hosted by Portland State University at Cascade Locks, Ore., with FJs and Lasers.

Jackson said all of the boats the sailing teams use are a one-design boat, meaning the boats are built to the exact same specifications where the only advantage a sailor has is skill.

Jackson and Bury said what sets the sailing team apart from many other sports on campus is that it is a club sport with no paid or professional coaching.  This means the sailing team is entirely student-run and mostly student-coached, Bury said.

A perpetual challenge the team faces is not having a permanent towing vehicle.  Bury said the team often has to tow their own boats to the regatta sites, and just about every rental company prohibits towing with their vehicles.  She said that leaves the team at the mercy of loaner vehicles, which are not always up to the challenge of hauling the trailer saddled down with the boats and gear.

Despite the challenges the team faces, both Bury and Jackson said their time on the team has been memorable, and the team is tight-knit from lots of time spent together with practices and constantly traveling to regattas.

Western sophomore Nate Taber said he feels the same way about being on the team.  A second-year team member, Taber said he is getting more familiar with how to be a better sailor and competitor.  He said he likes how the team lets the sailors choose how adventurous they want to be.

Stephens is also looking forward to seeing how the team grows.  

As a prospective team captain for next year, Stephens said a strategy she would use to help the team develop talent is to network with high school sailing teams as a way of recruiting new team members.  

Western’s sailing team is also a potential stepping stone to bigger competitions. Western freshman Brian Rust was able to use his status as a team member as a way of joining a crew that will be participating in the Vic-Maui Yacht Race, a 2,308 nautical mile race from Victoria, B.C., to Maui, Hawaii that takes between nine and 16 days to complete in late June.

The Western sailing team will be hosting its annual Day of Sailing event from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 31.  The event will be held at Western’s Lakewood facility on Lake Whatcom.  Jackson said the event is open to everyone, especially anybody who is interested in joining the sailing team. 

The cost is $20 for Western students and $35 for everybody else.

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