The sailing team just couldn't find its rhythm during the weekend's Hatch Brown Intersectional on the Charles River.
The Jumbos' struggles were largely due to the combination of difficult conditions on the river, different boats and stiff competition. As a result, Tufts was unable to get good momentum off the starting line, leaving it deep in the fleet and with considerable ground to make up early in the races.
In the end, this proved too steep a task, as the Jumbos finished 13th out of 18 teams, accumulating 373 points in 36 combined races between three divisions.
"We didn't do very well," junior Nate Rosenberg said. "We were all getting back into the flow of FJs … we were shaking off the dust."
Rosenberg sailed in the C division along with senior Meredith Groff as crew, while senior Peter Bermudez and junior Jennifer Watkins sailed the A division and senior tri-captain Dan Altreuter and sophomore Sarah Carnahan sailed the B.
In contrast to the light, fast and responsive Larks in Tufts' boathouse on Upper Mystic Lake, the FJs in which the Jumbos sailed at the Hatch Brown regatta are shorter and heavier and have less sail area. This difference seemed to affect the Jumbos more than they anticipated.
"I was having a bit of trouble at the beginning," Altreuter said. "I was feeling slow."
In a sailing race, the start makes all the difference. Particularly in inconsistent, light-air conditions, it is a tough task to build up any momentum in order to come from behind.
Practicing in their Larks, the Jumbos are able to get aggressive at the starts, but in new boats with a different feel, this strategy didn't produce the same results.
"I tweaked my starting strategy to make it a bit more conservative," Altreuter said.
Likewise, Rosenberg, in his first career intersectional as a skipper, noted that his starting is the most prominent element of his sailing that needs improvement.
"A problem was learning to accelerate properly off the starting line to keep up with the more experienced sailors," Rosenberg said. "It's harder to get to the front than to be in the front and stay there … if you put yourself in the doghouse early, it's hard to get out."
Looking at the scores, Tufts' final result wasn't what it had hoped it would be, but both Altreuter and Rosenberg acknowledged the improvement seen in the second day of racing as conditions improved and comfort levels rose.
"We started improving at the end of the day [on Saturday] and were able to carry it into Sunday," Altreuter said.
The numbers appear to agree: In five of the first seven races, at least two of the three Tufts boats finished in double digits, as compared to only two of the last five races Sunday. In the first seven, only twice did a Jumbo boat finish in the top five, including a win from Bermudez in the A division, whereas in the final five races, there were seven top-five finishes, including one race in which all three fielded boats finished in the top five.
Meanwhile, at the Nevins Trophy regatta at Kings Point, the Jumbos put in a strong effort to come away with a fourth-place finish out of 20 teams, scoring 207 total points in 27 races across the three divisions. The Tufts attack was led in the A division by junior Tomas Hornos with senior tri-captain Lara Hwa, as well as senior tri-captain Baker Potts with senior Christina Kelly in the B division and junior Andrew Criezis in the single-handed C division.
The Jumbos combined for a total of four first-place finishes, two by Hornos and Hwa and one each from the Potts-Kelly duo and Criezis. The overall high finish was due to the Jumbos' ability to limit the damage on races that were not going their way: They finished in double digits in only 10 of the 27 races.
In the B division, Potts garnered 69 points and finished in third place.
"I was very happy with the finish and the performance, but we definitely could've done better," Potts said. "We're always trying to get better each weekend."
Coming up this weekend is the Hood Trophy regatta, one of Tufts' biggest regattas of the fall, held at Upper Mystic Lake. There, the Jumbos will have home-water and home-boat advantage as well as the confidence that they can win.
"We have a very good chance of winning," Potts said. "We won it pretty easily last year, and hopefully we can continue that and do well."
