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Women's 2000 Collegiate Dinghy Championships
The Boston University Women's Sailing Team finished third at the 2000
ICYRA North American Women's Dinghy Championships capturing the Ann
Campbell Trophy. The Terriers had a slow start in the fickle breeze
during the first day of the event. Only four "A" races and two
"B"
races could be managed in the light, spotty air. In the early going we
were less aggressive on the starting line and found ourselves behind the
pack and fighting for clear air. Our heads weren't "out of the boat"
yet and our route planning suffered. Kaya/Kirsten finishes were 8,1,7,8
while Eliza/Annie, afflicted by the "big race jitters" had a rough 13,9
set. We were glad to see the day come to a close as the conditions were
not to our liking and the coaches had more prep work to do to get these
ladies settled down.
We woke up on the second day to
miserable weather conditions.
We came all the way down to southern Maryland and we get hit with cold
temperatures and pouring rain. I was loving it. Why? Because there
was breeze. I knew breeze was the cure to our ailments. It didn't hurt
that some of the competitors would be turned off by the cold rain, where
I knew our team could be motivated by it (as long as it brought
breeze). It was going to be a long grueling day, coaches Baker and
Churchill were sure of that. It was a good thing we got a chance to
train in heavy air on Boston Harbor. As it turned out 12 B division
races and 10 A division races were sailed. Eliza/Annie's first set
showed promise. They got a fifth the first race and looked good at the
top of the beat in the second race until Annie fell out of the boat!
Eliza fished her out, found herself in 15th place and started grinding
back. Good thing the race committee went with very long modified gold
cups. This gave us a mega second beat with big blasts and tons of
shifts. If Eliza was going to show me something, this was gonna have to
be the time. Afterall, I had senior skipper Sue Bohlen on the sidelines
and I had a lot of faith in her ability, more faith than any other
player or coach. If Eliza didn't look like she was sailing the boat
well in these conditions, she was taking a seat. Of course, she did
what I expected her to do, she started picking off boats. What I didn't
expect is that she'd be quite so dominate against a fleet so strong.
She kept her head out of the boat and had awesome tiller work
anticipating the blasts. Meanwhile, her crew Annie was screaming to
herself and to all around "FLAT is a state of mind, FLAT is a state of
mind". They were running on pure adrenaline as the legs begged for
rest. They were flat and fast and they pulled out a 6th. Something
happened that day. It reminds me of a line from the Grinch that Stole
Christmas "and some say, the Grinch's heart grew three times that day".
Eliza/Annie were ready to make the jump. They were fast, and they knew
it. They were ready to take it to the next level. Now all the coaches
had to do is get them a little more aggressive on the starting line and
get them to play more shifts rather than sailing through so many of
them. We like to call that pointing the bow at the buoy and "connecting
the dots". So simple, but most sailors were trying to get themselves to
what they thought was the favored side, distracted from the real goal of
getting to the buoy. Eliza/Annie now knew the difference and with their
renewed focus responded with an incredible string of kick ass sailing.
They finished the day with a 5,1,3,1,2,5,3. Kaya/Kirsten got their
program going as well with a 1,6,4,3, then as the breeze built more,
Ginna jumped in as a heavy and they nailed down a 2,3,1,2.
We climbed from 7th in the event to 2nd! SECOND. The BUDS had
arrived. In fact, for the day, we had out-sailed everyone including
accumulating 12 less points than event leader Dartmouth College. We
also broke away from the pack to leave the race for the National
Championship essentially down to three teams, Dartmouth, BU, and
Tufts.
The next morning brought many
aches and pains from the previous
day's battle. But our ladies were too busy looking forward to chopping
down the 22 point Dartmouth lead, than whining about their wounds.
Unfortunately, the conditions were variable and so were our finishes. This mostly
stemmed from poor starting line positioning that left us scrambling to work
through the eighteen boat fleet. Kaya/Kirsten finished the day with scores of
6,6,8,3,1,8 which was only one point more than Tufts A division skipper
Jen Provan. But Eliza/Annie had a 6,7,2,11,13,2 to lose 17 points on
the B division skipper from Tufts, Lee Icyda. We dropped to third
overall, but not before a hard fought skirmish. As we went out for the last set of
the regatta,
Tufts held only a four point lead on us (163 to 167). Eliza had a poor start on
the right while Lee had a nice port end start, clear air and working
towards what had been some nice lefties. Eliza did a nice job of clearing her air,
playing the shifts she had, and getting ahead on her side. Some of
boats on the mid-left were able to get across Eliza's bow and take over the right side.
But
more importantly, Lee and the other boats on the far left failed to take the
opportunity to get across and got caught in a hole, waiting for the new
lefty to fill. Meanwhile, Eliza is now steaming up the middle of the
course in major breeze and a solid starboard tack lift. The coaches are
pumped because she is clearly going to get over the top of all the boats
to the left and stay between them and the mark. Unfortunately, Eliza
decided to forgo covering her opponent (as Lee had done earlier in the
beat) and tacked to get into more righty. Ouch! My pain was
excruciating. There was no more righty. Had she stayed and covered she would
have
sailed over to the new lefty developing and clearly been first at the mark.
Instead it was her turn to sail into a hole and sit while the boats came
steaming in on the port tack layline. We rounded in 15th and could only
get two boats back. Tufts covered us on the second beat and dropped
from seventh to 11th but then scooted forward on a private puff at the
downwind finish and managed to squeeze by three boats on a photo finish and get
eighth. That hurt. We are now nine points back with one race to go. A
tall order, but it wouldn't be the first time it's been pulled off and Eliza and
Annie looked up to the challenge. On the final start Eliza crushes and jumps
to the early lead, she rounds 2nd and keeps it all the way around the
course. It seems to good to be true as Lee rounds in ninth and makes no gains on
the reach legs. There's one beat to go and nothing Eliza can do but push
for the first and hope Lee trys for the big gain and goes for a corner, the
wrong corner. But Lee plays the shifts to perfection through the middle
of the course and grinds all the way back to third. Nice work.
We couldn't nail down the second overall but it doesn't take away from
the outstanding performance of our ladies in this event. Dartmouth and
Tufts had sailed well all year and were one-two in the NE Women's
Champs, respectively. What's most impressive is how we crushed number
one ranked USC and number three ranked (and regatta favorite), host St.
Mary's. No one had the Terriers finishing any better than fifth at this
event and we came home with some hardware!
I'd like to thank Jon Baker for the great job he did getting the ladies
mentally and physically prepared. He was down right anal on the boat
tuning and that's the only way to be. It was fun to see him and his old
coach Ken Legler duke it out on the coach's boat.
Jon and I are very proud of this team. They really pulled it together
against outstanding competition. It was a joy to work with them. A
nice bonus, these skippers will be back with us next year. Kaya Haig
was announced to the 2000 ICYRA Women's All America Team. No surprise
there. I think Eliza Burnes will be joining her next year.
To our
departing graduates, Sue Bohlen, Kirsten Rufleth and Annie Arroyo, let's
wish them the best of luck, and more success on the race course of
life. Keep Sailing!
Another big thanks goes to Physical Education Director Warin Dexter and
his Assistant Elizabeth Hurley for their enthuasiastic support. The
team was very grateful to be set up with enough funds to keep us well
fed and rested. We share this with them and the University. Thanks for
taking care of us.
Rah BUDS,
Brad
RESULTS:
http://www.collegesailing.org/2000Championships/wom-results.htm
=========================
Women's National Team Members:
Kaya Haig- A div. skipper
Kirsten Rufleth- A div. crew
Ginna Thomson- A div. heavy air crew
Eliza Burnes- B div. skipper
Sue Bohlen- B div. skipper alternate
Annie Arroyo- B div. crew (all conditions)
Christine Retlev- Additional crew, spiritual leader and masseuse.