By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
The thought of being out on the water at this time of year may give some recreational sailors the chills. But the Nantucket High School sailing team has been hitting the harbor for over a week, gearing up for its spring season.
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Photo by Alicia Hull
Sailing practice took to the waters of Nantucket Harbor recently as the season prepares to get underway. |
The Whalers, who are scheduled to open the season Friday, April 3 at Sandwich, have been on the water since last Wednesday and prior to Monday and Tuesday, benefited from good weather and strong winds.
“That is what Nantucket sailors are all about. They deal with the wind well. Our biggest challenge is light air. One of the things we would love to see a little bit more of is light air conditions so we can practice in that,” head coach Nick Judson said.
The Whalers have returned a high percentage of experienced sailors this season and have been focusing on fine-tuning the basics this week as they get comfortable on the water and in different sailing combinations.
“The biggest focus right now is boat speed, followed by boat handling next. Ultimately if you have the fastest boat that is out there, you are going to do well. Tactics are important, but they are going to come a little later in the game. The next two weeks the real focus is really on boat speed,” Judson said.
For the second straight season Nantucket will be sending four boats with eight sailors to the Raise the Sail Clinic hosted by Barnstable High School at the Hyannis Yacht Club. This weekend the Whalers will participate in three days of instruction by Olympic coaches and sailors to gear up for their two-month schedule.
There are 20 sailors on the roster this season including seven seniors and eight newcomers.
“It is not as big of a group as we have had in the past couple of years. We have 20 total, but I would say the percentage of kids that have sailing experience is much higher than in the past,” Judson said.
The Whalers will return four skippers with plenty of race experience in senior captains Annie Sager and Sarah Erichsen, and sophomores Adam Ceely and Matt Fabiszak.
“It gives us great continuity. A lot of these guys sailed during the summer, so that helped, and some of these guys put some time in this fall. It gives us a solid core to work with right from the beginning,” Judson said.
But one of the Whalers’ biggest strengths this season will be the experience and variety returning among the crew positions.
“In sailing, the weight combinations between the skipper and the crew are critical depending on the wind strengths. This gives us a lot of different options,” Judson said. “Ultimately our goal is to keep skippers and crews matched up as much as we possibly can. But to be able to put a lighter-weight crew in with Adam Ceely and switch to a heavier person with Adam when it gets windy is a great advantage. We haven’t typically had that situation with experience, and this year we do.”
Among the top returning crew are senior co-captains Trevor Lockley and Meaghan Lynch and junior Jesse Lang. Seniors Sarah Poor and Lizzy Skokan will also be valuable in terms of experience and leadership at the crew position this season.
“In the early stages when you are having a building season, a lot of the racing focuses on the skippers because they are doing everything in terms of tactics. What we are getting now is better crews that are able to help and actually make some of the decisions tactically which puts the focus back on the skipper to just make the boat go fast. When you have that sort of combination, like Jesse (Lang) and Adam (Ceely) had at the New England Fleets last year, it made a big difference,” Judson said.
Last spring, then-freshman skipper Lang as crew, and then-junior skipper Erichsen with junior Lockley at crew sailed Nantucket to a second-place finish among eight teams in the New England Fleet Racing Championship qualifier on Lake Winnipesaukee. It was the first time in the 12-year history of Nantucket High School sailing that the Whalers qualified for the finals and placed them alongside the top 15 teams in New England.
The Whalers did not see such success in team races throughout the season, however, winning only one head-to-head regatta.
“On the team racing side we struggled a little bit. The first part of the season we just couldn’t get our act together, second part of the season everything was really close. Things were just barely falling short,” Judson said, but has high hopes for this season.
“There were a lot of close regattas - a silly mistake here, that shifted it into the loss column. I think with more experience that a lot of these people have, I think we are less likely to see those little mistakes hurt us and fundamentally people are sailing much better,” he said.
In an effort to boost success in team racing, Judson is hoping to improve the level of competition out on the water during practice sessions.
“We are not going to be able to put eight strong boats out on the water at practice to beat each other up. What we are going to focus on doing is bringing additional bodies, myself included, out there to sail against the kids to give them a little bit better competition,” Judson said, noting the possibility of bringing collegiate coaches to the island for guest coaching sessions.
“Fundamentally, our coaches are doing a very good job teaching, but it is always a nice angle getting somebody new telling the kids what is going on,” Judson said.
Assistant coaches Mike Fleischut and Mitch Carl return to the team this season with a year under their belts.
The Whalers are again up against a challenging schedule against some of the top sailing programs in the region.
They are scheduled to open at Sandwich next Friday followed by Martha’s Vineyard at home Saturday. Throughout the season the Whalers will compete in home-and-away regattas against Cape & Islands League foes Barnstable, Bishop Stang, Bourne, Chatham, Dennis-Yarmouth, Falmouth, Harwich and Nauset as well as non-league Rogers and Tabor.
Nantucket will also send competitors to the New England Fleet Championship qualifying event April 25, as well as the Women’s New England Championships at Massachusetts Maritime Academy May 10. The annual Figawi Invitational high school regatta is set for May 24 with the Cape & Islands League Championships slated for May 30.
2009 Sailing Schedule:
3/27-29 Raise the Sail Clinic Away
4/3 Sandwich Away
4/4 Martha’s Vineyard Home
4/7 Chatham Away
4/10 Bourne Away
4/13 Falmouth Home
4/25 O’Day Qualifiers Away
4/26 O’Day Finals Away
4/28 Bishop Stang Home
5/1 Barnstable Away
5/2 Tabor Home
5/8 Harwich Away
5/9 Wild Card Weekend Away
5/9-10 Fleet Racing National Championships Away
5/10 Women’s New England Championships Away
5/12 Harwich Home
5/14 Dennis Yarmouth Home
5/15 Falmouth Away
5/16 Mark Trophy Team Racing Championships Away
5/17 Rogers Home
5/19 Martha’s Vineyard Away
5/20 Bourne Home
5/21 Chatham Home
5/24 Figawi Invitational Home
5/30 Cape & Islands Championships Away
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