Wisco Women and the Blustery Day

Breeze on! Maybe a bit of an understatement for our first days at nationals, but we’ll get to that shortly. The women’s team left for Newport, RI after Saturday night’s alumni banquet, driving all through the night, finally stopping at John Porter’s store in Connecticut to pick him up. The boys and other females left at 6am, although two freshmen girls arrived at the union at 4:50 all ready to go. The boys refuse to say anything else about their trip other than they stopped at Sbarro’s for pizza and it took an hour. Finally the women arrived around 8, in time to watch the sunset over Newport Harbor and then gave into their great urge to eat. They stopped at a pub and ate at least one of every appetizer they had, which made the waitress chuckle a lot. Everyone else got in around 2am.

John Porter, our coach for a couple days, spent the night telling us it was going to be quite windy; we didn’t really think it was going to be as extreme as he thought it was, though. However, we heeded his advice and everyone ate two bananas before heading out for the day. We thought it was a bit unnecessary until we got to the New York Yacht Club and realized it was bombing. The women practiced until about 11:30 and then racing started at noon. Seniors Patti Schmidt and Beccah Steffensen sailed A’s and freshman Christine Porter and sophomore Allie Valentor sailed B’s. The first set was “an interesting introduction to Newport sailing,” stated Allie. Everyone has had a hard time expressing how difficult sailing was Monday, although all agree it was among the hardest or the absolute hardest and worst conditions they ever experienced.

Patti submarined twice in her second race while Christine started out the regatta with an 8. After the first set, Allie came out for a rest and freshmen Margaux Stutz went in for her. Christine and Margaux also submarined twice, (and they can be seen pitch-polling above in boat 15) and were forced to capsize to rid their boat of water. The second time this happened, their jib got so incredibly tangled it was impossible to tug free so Margaux stood on the bow and got most of it undone, but they still had to finish the race without a jib. Christine would like to add that she was winning a race for a whole lap (aka 2 buoy roundings!) on day 2. A well-rested Allie went back in for an exhausted and somewhat shocked Margaux. The girls continued throughout the day, with the wind dying minimally as the day progressed and sailing finishing after three sets around 5:30.

Day two began with the women eating bananas and peanut butter. It was cold, windy and rainy, not the kind of weather sailors dream of. The wind, although still incredibly strong, was at least doable. Kelsey Cramer crewed for B’s for the last two sets of the day, and sophomore Carrie Bargren crewed the second to last A race. Highlights included the wind dropping 20 mph and Patti getting a 2, 3 and Christine getting a 4, 5. Everyone ate tacos and then headed over to our extra free “beach” house to hang out and play whiffle ball.
-Margaux