Fair Winds and Rough Waters for Sailing Team

Blake Northey, Staff Reporter

Blake_Northey@csumb.edu

Patrick Makenen, Staff Reporter

Patrick_Makenen@csumb.edu

April 17, 2008

The spring winds stirred up the

waters while CSU Monterey

Bay’s (CSUMB) sailing team

competed in determining regatta

races in both Santa Barbara and

San Francisco. Despite the fitful

winds, the sailing team qualified

in an overall fourth place ranking

over Cal Berkely, CSU San Jose

(CSUSJ), and Cal Poly Pomona.

Sophomore Danielle Walker,

who is double majoring in Earth

System Science Policy (ESSP)

and Mathematics, is a skipper

for the women’s team and thinks

that the reason for their placing

is due to the fact that the team

dynamics have been improving

through this season.

The cold walkway leading to

the docks in San Francisco only

held the slightest bit of warmth

from the sunlight before the fierce

winds cooled it down again. As

teams tried to hold on to their

vessels and not capsize, the

CSUMB team held strong in the

first day of sailing.

“This is one of the most

difficult regattas and probably the

roughest conditions these sailors

will see,” said CSUMB sailing

coach Frank Degnan.

After almost being pushed

across the bay into Oakland, day

two held better conditions as a

flawlessly sunny morning gave

perfect sailing conditions. CSUMB

women’s and co-ed teams finished

in eighteenth and twenty-third

place, respectively, out of over 30

schools from across the country.

In Santa Barbara, the CSUMB

women’s sailing team managed

to stay “mid fleet the whole

race,” according to sailor

Kellsy Panno, a CSUMB junior

business major. As for the co-ed

sailing team, on day one, they

seemed to stay on “top of the

mid fleet,” said crew member

Bradley Schoch, a CSUMB

junior Telecommunications,

Multimedia, and Applied

Computing (TMAC) major.

On day two, weather

conditions seemed to get rough

when it “started out windy then

it kept building through the day,”

said Schoch. Wind conditions

reached a point where both

Otter teams capsized into the

icy Pacific. Schoch stated that

the “sail broke when the co-ed

boat capsized.” Even with the

minor setback, the teams “still

finished strong,” said Panno.

Rachel Donner, a newly

appointed skipper on the women’s

team and junior Biology major

was excited because they qualified

in Santa Barbara for the Pacific

Coast Championship (PCC). The

co-ed sail team went on to finish

last out of 11 teams at the PCC

held at University of Southern

California (USC). However,

according to Degnan the team

did not give up. “We started and

finished each race,” he said.

While the women’s sailing team

was set to travel to the University

of Hawaii on April 19 for their

championship race, controversy

changed the trip. After a skipper

quit the team Degnan decided not

to buy tickets for the trip until it

was certain that the replacement

was ready.

Unfortunately by the time

everything was in order, there

was a significant rise in airfare

which prompted the women’s sail

team to decide not to go the race

in order to save money for next

year’s team.

Walker said, “I’m actually

really disappointed in that [not

attending the Hawaii regatta]. We

[the women’s sailing team] could

have really shown the girls from

Stanford and USC.”

Next year the team hopes

to have repeat success despite

the loss of many of the team’s

members. According to Walker,

“we’re [the sailing team] losing

a lot of our team. I hope that new

freshmen that know how to sail

will join the team.”