LONG BEACH, Calif. – Ominous low-hanging clouds hugging the Pacific shoreline and the few dozen barefoot spectators, mostly parents, on the nearby beach served as inescapable reminders: this could not be further from the maddening crowds of MCI Center.
As two teams of Georgetown sailors, along with 300 other competitors, converged last weekend on the Rose Bowl Regatta at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach, Calif., the contrasts were initially unavoidable for those unfamiliar with the sport.
Saturday was relatively dry, if not menacing, while sporadic downpours and 8- to 17-knot gusts peppered Sunday’s events – conditions that rendered the small bay “a washing machine,” according to A-team skipper Andrew Campbell (SFS ’07).
“We race in almost all weather conditions. Less than 30 degrees [Fahrenheit] is usually a limit, with hypothermia considerations. And more than 30 knots of breeze is usually a limit with safety and boats holding up being problems,” he said. “But we had great breeze all weekend.”
Georgetown finished fifth overall when the scores of both the A and B teams were added together. Before the race, head coach Mike Callahan said that he wanted the team to finish within the top 10, a goal they handily met.
Each team is composed of a skipper, who drives the boat and handles the large sail, and a crew, who helps with balance, tactics and manages the smaller sail. Teams can be co-ed. The teams then race various courses, receiving one point for first place, two points for second and so on. The objective is to achieve the lowest possible combined score.
Campbell was the skipper of the A-team and Caroline LaMotte (COL ’07) was the crew. Their score of 49 was five points off the mark of the winning team from the University of Southern California.
On the B-team, Blaire Herron (COL ’08) was the skipper and egan O’Neill (COL ’08) was the crew. They achieved a score of 104, 63 points behind the leaders in their category, who were also from USC.
“Blaire and Megan sailed well against a tough fleet. Especially stepping into the co-ed fleets at a major intersectional [an event that includes teams from both the East and West Coasts] and as freshmen, where they have sailed mostly women’s events this past fall,” Campbell said. “I am happy with how we sailed, but I know well that we can sail better.”
The race was Campbell’s first and only loss of the fall 2004 season, of which the Rose Bowl Regatta is considered the last race.
Georgetown’s appearance at the regatta during winter break was facilitated by the fact that three of the four sailors live in Southern California within a two-hour drive of the event. As a result, Callahan was notably absent from the race, a situation that LaMotte said is neither rare nor problematic.
She emphasized the large network of Hoya Sailing alumni and parents who buttress the team, making it virtually autonomous by offering lodging and advice wherever the team competes.
Nor was the Rose Bowl Regatta especially typical of all sailing events in which the team competes. The enclosed bay offered just one type of sailing surface, other surfaces being flat-water rivers and open ocean.
“It’s a lot more physical on the ocean,” LaMotte said. “You have to work harder. A lot more can happen.”
Yet Campbell, who took a semester off from Georgetown last year to train for the 2004 Olympic sailing trials before ultimately not reaching the Athens games, qualified that notion. “College sailing is much more of a mind game,” he said. “The boats all go similar speeds, putting a priority less solely on fitness and speed improvements and more on the honing of mental capacity, rules and strategy on the racecourse.”
So far from the maddening crowds of MCI center, sometimes the distances don’t always seem so grand.
