After the Tufts co−ed sailing team floundered at last spring's ICSA Sailing Dinghy National Championship, finishing 17th out of 18 teams, the team heads into the fall 2011 season revved up and ready to make up for last season's disappointment.
"We did not perform at all at nationals; we did pretty terribly actually," junior tri−captain William Hutchings said. "And like in any sport, if you don't perform at the top event, it's a huge letdown."
Though last year's season ended on a low note, the preparation for Nationals was much more successful.
"We had a pretty good season leading up to [Nationals], showing good results in both fleet and team racing. But we're wanting more this year," Hutchings said.
The team hopes to improve by building on last season's triumphs and learning from its failures.
"It's tough to be 100−percent happy about a season like that, but we did our best and I think we made a lot of great strides during the season," junior Jack Carter said.
Led by Hutchings, senior tri−captainMassimoSoriano and junior tri−captain Natalie Salk, the team has high hopes for the upcoming season, with the goal of qualifying for nationals in co−ed fleet racing, women's fleet racing and team racing. Though most races use dinghy boats, the fall season also includes events in sloop and laser races.
Though the incoming freshman class is not as big in size as last year's class, the team welcomes a talented group of approximately 15 newcomers.
"We're going to be pushing the freshmen really hard to see who's going to be ready to hit the ground running and help us out on day one," Carter said. "At the same time, we're having our veterans train hard. A lot of us have been working really hard over the summer, competing on our own. We've improved a lot and I think we're going to impress a lot of people this year."
The team remains under the direction of coach Ken Legler, who is entering his 32nd season at Tufts and has coached 19 team and individual national champions.
