March Regattas
Garner-Tullis Team Race at Tulane
Gavin Dempsey ('26), Carmen Lineer ('26), Charlie Herrick ('26), Kate Thickens ('23), Lucas Quinn ('23), and Noah Hallerman ('23) traveled to the great state of LA for the first open team race regatta of the season. The team explored the city Friday night and came home early for a restful night to prepare for the competition the next day. Racing started just outside the harbor entrance of Southern Yacht Club. The leftover swells and light morning winds on Saturday provided challenging conditions for the team, especially with them getting used to being back on the water after a long winter of no sailing. Thankfully, it did not take too long to shake off the rust and be exceptionally competitive. The team completed 3 round robins on Saturday and came out with 4 wins: 3 wins against Rice University, and 1 against University of Texas. After a long day of sailing with minimal breaks during rotations, and lots of sunburn, the team headed straight to dinner. After a feast of southern barbeque they headed to relax, debrief, and prepare for the next day. Sunday the winds were a light 6-8 knots from the northeast, and after completing two round robins the team came out with 3 wins, 2 of those wins against Rice University. The team had an impressive victory over Tulane University in the last round with a 1-2 finish. At the end of the regatta, they came out with a record of 7 wins and 13 losses. Although the crew had not practiced in months, they were still able to have many good races against some very skilled opponents. After a short day of sailing the team began their drive back to Madison and arrived early morning. A special thanks to Gavin's barber, Mike, and his wife, Andrea, for housing the team this weekend and to Tulane for hosting a great regatta!
J70 Invite #2 at Coast Guard
After some great j70 sailing on spring break, Seamus Hendrickson ('25, helm), Cal Lutton ('26, main trim), Charlie Herrick ('26, kite and jib trim), and Gavin ('26, bow) left early on Thursday, March 23rd for Connecticut and stopped in NYC for some bagels. They had a practice day on Friday, but unfortunately there was very little wind, although it was still good to get some time in the boat as none of them had sailed together yet. Saturday was the first day of racing, and although there were very shifty conditions, they discovered that tactically it played into their strengths. They finished the first day leading the event, which had them all really excited for the rest of the event. The next day of racing was also very shifty, but much windier. The racing was really close and competitive all day, and the badger finished the event in third place overall. We had a great time and everybody they met at Coast Guard was so welcoming. The team thanks Pam and Dan Weinstein's house for hosting and providing for them the whole event, and looking forward to coming back to Coast Guard to race more J70s in the future!
Spring Break Recap
The team had a lovely time on their Spring Break trip to Austin, Texas! The weather was great and the wind and lake conditions could not have been better. Most mornings started with light wind and built throughout the afternoon, giving the sailors a shot at practicing in all conditions. They worked on all skills needed for a race, from starts to upwinds and downwinds, tactics, and more! The back half of the week was spent getting back into team racing for the approaching Spring season. Thanks to our great coaches Ian Beckley and guest coach Kyle Easton for guiding the team throughout the week and providing tons of important feedback! The team took lots of time enjoying the sun and sights of Austin, such as seeing the rodeo and Flo Rida in concert! They hope to return to Texas and Austin Yacht Club in future years for regattas and maybe another Spring Break Trip!
Spring is HERE!
The sun is shining, the temperature is rising, and the ice is thawing on Lake Mendota... that means it is almost time to sail again in Madison!
Boat Moving
This past week, the team worked diligently to get the boats out of storage and ready to sail again! We transported them to willows (since the T dock is unfortunately not in at the Union yet), rigged them, and finished some boat work to prepare for the season ahead!
We are hoping to get out on the water this coming week, as long as the ice continues to decrease and the conditions are favorable! The team is hoping to get lots of team and fleet race practice in ahead of Open Quals in a few weeks.
Weekend of March 31st-April 2nd Regattas
The Honey Badgers headed out to Michigan this weekend to compete in the MCSA Women's Team and Fleet Race Championship. They placed 2nd in team race on Friday, just missing out on the berth to Women's Team Race Nationals. But the girls are feeling good for Fleet and are looking to qualify themselves for that event at the end of May!
Also this weekend, open team members Lucas Quinn '23, Ellie Murphy '24, Abe Weston '25, Tina Dombrowski '23, and Noah Hallerman '23 traveled to Connecticut for Vietor Trophy at US Coast Guard Academy. Currently sitting in 9th, they hope to move up the standings in the last day tomorrow.
Follow all of this in real time on tech score and on the wiscosailing social medias!
Regatta Outlook
April is always as busy time of year, with getting back to Spring practices, lots of regattas, and preparing for Qualifiers and Nationals. Wisco will have a clinic with guest coaches and alumni the second weekend of April. The third weekend Wisconsin will host both the MCSA Open Team and Fleet Race Championship and National Qualifier, which is looking to be fun and competitive! April 22nd-23rd the team will travel to Admirals Cup at KP which is always good preparation for Nationals, and Big 10 Team Race at Michigan. The last weekend of April has no set travel plans for the team, but likely lots of hard practicing.
SAILOR OF THE MONTH: Kerstin Hyer!
Our Sailor of the Month for the month of March is Sophomore Kerstin Hyer!
Kerstin is from Portsmouth, New Hampshire and grew up sailing in that area, and also went up to Maine every summer to enjoy the sailing there!
Kerstin is an important part of the team, and holds the secretary position on the board. She was in charge of much of the recent spring break trip, by finding the venue in Austin at Lake Travis and the housing, planning meals, and was a leader throughout the whole week!
Her favorite wisco sailing memory is likely from this Spring Break when the team went to the Flo Rida concert/rodeo in Austin!
For the rest of the spring, Kerstin hopes to get to practice as soon as possible and is also hoping to travel and get some regattas! She is excited for practice because the team had such competitive practices at spring break and is excited to apply what she learned to more practices this season.
She is looking forward to the warmer weather and hanging out on the terrace! Thank for all your hard work, Kerstin!
Go Go Kerstin!
CONNECT WITH UW SAILORS: JOIN OUR LINKEDIN GROUP
We're always looking for ways to build a stronger network between current and former Wisco Sailors. So, we've created a new LinkedIn Group to bring alumni and sailors together! Every Wisco Sailor has benefited from the incredible group of sailors that has come before then. Please consider joining this group (and inviting any sailing team connections) to strengthen these ties further!
Stay tuned for next month's Wisco Sailor to learn more about how things are going here in Madison. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep up with the latest team news!
Credits:
Photos by Douglas Wake/Medora Media