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Recent News:

2nd Day Comeback Brings Team 2nd Team Race Championship in as Many Years, Qualfies Team for Team Race Nationals

This year's team race qualifiers were hosted by Northwestern University and sailed on Lake Michigan. Saturday was marked by constant wind around 14 knots and 3-foot waves, making marks difficult to see. Nine teams competed on Saturday and 36 races were completed by the end of the day. The team brought eight sailors to the event. Matt Vanderpool and Katie Dewitt, Christina Falcone and Meredith Cochran, Caitlin Delphin and Dave Elwood, and Dave Ellis and Lisa Vandenbossche all had the chance to sail on Saturday. Michigan got off to a great start by going undefeated in the first four races; however, they then had few tough ones. The team ended the day in fourth with a record of 5 wins and 3 losses.

Sunday's sailing was a double round robin with the top four teams from the day before. The weather was much warmer with considerably less wind and minimal chop. Michigan managed to make themselves the underdogs but went undefeated in all six races earning themselves both a berth to nationals and first place in the regatta.

Special thanks go out to Craig Capilla who lent his floor to the team, Dave Elwood's mom who drove up to watch and bring food, Nathan Marshall and Tom Martin who came out to help coach, and everyone who came out to practice the week after school was over to help the team get ready.
Posted May 10 '05

Team Places 2nd at Coed Champs, Qualfies for Nationals 2nd year in a Row!!

The last weekend in April brought thirteen teams to Columbus, Ohio for Coed Qualifiers. The event was sailed out of the Hoover Yacht Club. Sailors were met with cold and windy conditions for both days of racing.

It took the Michigan team a few races to adjust to the shifty wind conditions. Matt Vanderpool and Katie Dewit spent the regatta in A division while Christina Falcone and Meredith Cochran sailed all of Saturday and most of Sunday in B division. Both A and B divisions had some outstanding races and some technical issues with their boats including a broken block and torn jib. Later on Sunday, as winds increased to over twenty, Dave Elwood replaced Meredith Cochran for a few races and Dave Ellis replaced Christina Falcone for the final race of the day.

When the dust settled on all the protests, none of which the Michigan Team were a part of, Michigan found themselves tied for first place with the Minnesota Sailing Team and lost in the tie breaker. While disappointing, second was all the team needed to qualify for Coed nationals in Austin, TX. A special thanks go to Dave Ellis's parents who drove down from Connecticut to help coach, Caitlin Delphin, Sally Jacquemin, and Lisa Vandenbossche who came down from Ann Arbor as support, and all the team members who did not get the chance to sail but put in a lot of time to get the team to qualifiers this year.

Michigan Takes First In Important Pre-Qualifer Regatta at OSU

Michigan Sailors after The Buckeye Intersectional and Invitational regattas
(From left to right: Katie Crimmins, Ariel Moses, Katie Dewitt, Matt Vanderpool, Caroline Cochran
Meredith Cochran, Christina Falcone, Caitlin Fortuen, Katie O'Brien, Thomas Martin)
Last weekend the Michigan Team members Christina Falcone '07, Matt Vanderpool '06, Meredith Cochran '06, and Katie Dewitt '07 won the Buckeye Intersectional Regatta at Ohio State University. This was an extremely important regatta for the Michigan team because OSU will be hosting the Co-Ed National Qualifiers for the MCSA and all the top MCSA Teams sent their best A and B skippers to the event.

Vanderpool taking on Brian Sabina of Northwestern in Leg Wrestling... Vanderpool was no match

Both Saturday and Sunday were sailed in light and shifty conditions. Falcone and Cochran started out their first A set on Saturday with a two tough starts but still finished the races well. Vanderpool and Dewitt had a good start for the first race of their B set and were leading until the second upwind leg when indecision cost them a number of boats, finishing 4th, in the shifty conditions. Both teams quickly adjusted to the conditions and had excellent second sets. Falcone and Cochran didn't finish below third for the rest regatta and Vanderpool and Dewitt didn't finish below 2nd.

Falcone and Cochran finished the regatta winning the tie breaker for A fleet and Vanderpool and Dewitt finished at the top of the fleet in B's.
Posted April 22, 2005

Alumni Regatta: Good time had by all

Skipper former captain Craig Capilla '04 and crew current team member Lisa Vandenbossche '07
October 31, 2004 marked the first annual U of M sailing team alumni regatta. The current team and alumni started the weekend off right with a BBQ and wild night the Saturday before the regatta. Sunday morning by 9 o'clock both past and present sailors alike were assembled at Baseline for what would be a great, though cold, day on the water.

Michigan Alumni Fleet Racing on Baseline lake. Boat 3: Skipper Bora Gulari '02 and Meredith Cochran '07 | Boat 4: former Captain Nathan Marshal'02 Skipper, Anna Keefer '03 Crew | Boat 2: Skipper Josh Kerst '87 and Katie Dewitt '07

Boats were mixed between alumni and students, giving everyone the opportunity to get to know each other and current team members the chance to learn how sailing was done "back in the day". The first race was off by 10:30 leaving a full morning of quality racing. There were five windward-leward twice around races before lunch. Quite a few alumni were much better than the team had remembered them being in college, which lead to some tough competition.

Team Racing

After the lunch break, the team decided to switch things up a little bit to get in some team racing. The afternoon was U of M team racing at its finest as past team legends went head to head on the water. The team racing went off without a hitch, except for current captain Matt Vanderpool deciding rudderless is way underrated, opting to start and complete the race with a broken rudder. The team ran a three team racing round robin before calling it quits for people to make flights back home.

Fleet Racing: Boat 3: Bora and former Captain Nate Reynolds '01 | Boat 4: Nathan and Anna

Congratulations are in order to Bora Gulari and his crew, current team member, Meredith Cochran for winning the fleet racing event. A close second goes to Nathan Marshall and Anna Keefer and third place to Josh Kerst and Katie DeWitt. The victorious team racing team consisted of Bora Gulari, Nate Reynolds, Craig Capilla, Lisa Vandenbossche, Matt Vanderpool and Meredith Cochran. A good time was had by all, so remember to leave room next year. We hope to see everyone back, plus more!

Boat 5: Sergei Lei and Alli Bell | Boat 2: Craig and Lisa

Posted 11/17/04

Michigan Team Places 2nd at MCSA Sloop Champs, Qualifies for Nationals

Skipper Chris Granger '07, Crew Jeff Spearin '05 and Tom "TMart" Martin '05

During the weekend of September 25-26 the Michigan Sailing Team sent its Sloops team to the Detroit River to sail in the ICSA Sloop National Qualifiers. The event was held by the Detroit Yacht Club and was sailed in Flying Scots provided by the Detroit Yacht Club and the Edison Boat Club. Skipper Chris Granger '07 and crew Jeff Spearin '05 and Tom Martin '05 arrived Saturday to chilly weather and winds about 8-12 knots from the west causing the course to be set across the current. The race committee ran eight modified windward-leeward courses of varying lengths the first day. The first race was a great way to start off the regatta with the Wolverines taking 2nd place in a tightly contested race that was a great warm-up for the rest of the day. The second race was a very good race, but the team found out that they were over the starting line early and were scored OCS. This was a major disappointment and set-back for the team, but after six more races that day the team was sailing well and finished first in two races, both by a very comfortable margin. The standings after the first day, consisting of eight races, put the Wolverines in fifth place and in striking distance. The top two teams would qualify for three days of sailing in California at Sloop Nationals and this was in the forefront of the team's mind. After the first day crew Jeff Spearin '05 said, "We sailed well, but the OCS really hurt us. We just have to work off the points and get back into contention."

Sunday greeted the teams with no wind, but the race committee was adamant about getting boats out on the course and trying to meet the 9:30am schedule for the first race. Once all teams were out, the race committee postponed and waited for the wind to fill in. In the mean time the teams needed to anchor in the river in order to stay near the racing area due to the 3+ knots of current that runs down the Detroit River. At about 11:15am race number nine was started in a breeze of 5-8 knots from the north-northeast, which came straight down the river. The wind was shifty and the direction of the wind compared to the current made it much more difficult conditions in which to sail. The Wolverines nailed the start and sailed into the river looking for better breeze and favorable shifts while the rest of the fleet sailed to the shore hoping to find less current. The efforts of the rest of the fleet proved fruitless as the Wolverines rounded the windward mark clearly in first with large separation between the second place boat. From there the team extended and finished first. The second race followed the exact same storyline as the previous race. The team started with a conservative start to avoid traffic, but still sailed into the river while the rest of the fleet went inshore. This race was a little closer at the first mark, but the Wolverines rounded in first and extended to a comfortable first place finish. It was at this time the team started seriously considering the possibility of qualifying to go to warm, sunny California in the middle of the cold Michigan weather. The third race of the day, and what ended up being the last race of the series, finally had the other teams in the fleet catch on to what was allowing the Michigan team to be so successful. This time there was a hard-fought race and after an intense dual with Ohio University on the last leg of the race, the team finished in third place and ultimately qualifying them for the ICSA Sloop Nationals. Crew Tom Martin said after the racing, "Chris looked at me when he stepped on the boat Sunday morning and said with this determined look, 'we are getting no worse than 2nd' and we pretty much came though and sailed three excellent races." After being in fifth place after the first day of racing the Wolverines ended up second in the regatta behind Ohio University. Skipper Chris Granger '07 said, "In an event with no throw-outs an OCS really hurts you, but we had great crew work and an amazing attitude. I couldn't ask for more from Tom and Jeff this weekend, they did a great job. After clawing back from where we were after Saturday, even though we got second, it is by far the most satisfying second place finish of my sailing career." Congratulations and good luck to Chris Granger, Jeff Spearin and Tom Martin as they travel to UC Irvine and the Balboa Yacht Club in Corona Del Mar, California from November 18-21.

Michigan Travels to Oregon for the ICSA Nationals

Michigan Team Members in Oregon
(Left to Right) Katie Dewitt '07, Dave Elwood '05, Thomas Martin '05, Chris Granger '07, Christina Falcone '07, Lisa Vandenbossche '07

From May 25 to June 5th Michigan Sailing Team Members were camping in senic, and sometimes rainy, Oregon. The team qualified for and competed in all three national championship regattas. While the didn't place well in any of the regattas the sailors had a good time and learnt a lot.

First up was the Quantum/ICSA Women's National Championships. Starting on Wednesday May 26 and lasting until Friday the 28th Women's was a very rainy regatta with only moments of sunshine. The wind was up and down with racing being postponed at one point after the breeze completely died while another time a quarter of the fleet capsized due to monsturous puffs.

Michigan Sailors hiding from the rain during Women's
(Left to right) Martin, Elwood, Vandenbossche, Caitlin Delphin '06

Michigan started off with freshman Christina Falcone driving in A fleet with crew Meredith Cochran '06 and sophomore Caitlin Delphin driving in B fleet with crew Erin Burke '06. Later during the regatta crew Katie Dewitt '07 substituted in for Cochran and crew Lisa Vandenbossche '07 substituted in for Burke. Highlights came in race 12 in A fleet with a 9th place finish by Falcone and race 11 for B fleet when Delphin placed 12th. The team was poised to beat place 16th beating Michigan State and Texas A&M Galvenston untill Delphin in B squad was disqualified on what the team decided was a questional protest by Hawaii. Delphin had tacked inside two boat lengths at the windward mark and rounded inside of Hawaii who then protested her saying she had no wind and they had to change their course to avoid her. The rule however states that a boat may tack inside the two boat lenght circle and round inside a competitor as long as it does not make the competitor sail above head to wind. It was decided that Hawaii's jib never luffed during the rounding but at some point in time their inside tell tale did dance and for that reason Delphin was in the wrong. The team reasons that the shift in apparent wind from turning the boat up caused Hawaii's inside tell tale to dance but the judges didn't see it that way. The Michigan ended up rounding out the regatta in 18th out of 18 but after learning a lot about sailing in a large competitive fleet. Check out the results page and click on the regatta name for detailed results.

Freshman skipper Chris Granger during the Layline/ICSA Team Race Championships

After a day off which was spent driving to Astoria Washington to see where the Columbia River meets the ocean, a drive that was much longer than had been expected, the team competed in the Layline/ICSA Team Race Championships. It was three days of gruelying bludgery of the Michigan Team which was 1-2-*ed by the other team off the line in every race. The only light at the tunnel was when Michigan was to race Wisconsin in the consilation round. That light was extinguished when team Captain Matt Vanderpool '06 had yet another early start and proceded to tack in front of teammate Falcone on his way back to the line causeing her to tack and foul a Wisconsin boat. Game over. After finishing 14th out of 14 the team looked forward to a chance to redeem themselves in the Gill/ICSA Dinghy Championships the next day. Check out the results page and click on the regatta name for detailed results.

Vandy (Matt Vanderpool) and Katie grind their way up wind during the Gill/ICSA Dinghy Championships

The weather for the Gill/ICSA Dinghy Championships was much nicer than that of the other Championships with sun for all of the three days. The sailors competed in a wide range of wind conditions. Gernally the day would start off light, sailing would begin around 10:30 or 11:00am, and the wind would build throughout the day, usually to the upper teens.

Skipper Christina Falcone and crew Dave Elwood (Boat 11) rounding in front of Havards B sqaud at Dinghy Champs

The Michigan Team started the regatta with sophomore skipper Matt Vanderpool and freshman crew Katie Dewitt in A division and freshman skipper Christina Falcone and junior crew Dave Elwood in B division. Both divisions did a decent job. Improvements were apparent in both divisions as both boats started to pick up boats at the marks instead of lose them and Vanderpool and Dewitt were actually able to start unlike Team Race Champs when they didn't have a single good start. Highlights include a top 5 mark rounding by the B squad, a 10th place finish in race 13 by the A squad and an 11th place finish in race 10 by the B squad.

Vandy and Elwood grinding upwind in the last A set of Dinghy Champs

It was a close regatta between the University of Texas and Michigan right down to the finish. Going into the last race the Michigan was down by a point. Chris Granger '07 and crew Thomas Martin '05 set out for the win in the last race of the regatta but a Michigan foul on Texas at the gybe marke ended the teams hopes. A regatta well sailed the team ended up 17th out of 18, beating the University of Wisconsin by 10 points. Check out the results page and click on the regatta name for detailed results.

(Posted 6/9/2004)

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