Now that the season is officially over, with most of our boats completely packed away in the ‘sheep barn’, we can spend a few minutes to reflect on the last three months. We could write all day how hard the sailors worked, that they sailed a lot, how they far they traveled, etc. Instead, we compressed the season into a snippet of numbers and stats to demonstrate how this season went:
22 Total number of Middlebury College students who competed in a regatta in Fall 2017
8 Total number of Middlebury Students who tried sailing for the first time
120 Hours of total travel
5100 Miles of total travel
9 times eaten at Chipotle while traveling
15 regattas competed by team
235 total races sailed
6 total races won
400 Hours competed in regattas by our sailors
20 Minutes, average time of a race
19th Overall place in NEISA (out of 40)
6 regattas raced by Ben Brown, most of all Middlebury Sailors
65 Races sailed by Ben Brown
1st Overall finish by Ben Brown and Alden Cowap in A Division at NE Fall Tourney
2300 Miles traveled by George and Anne Spencer to NE Fall Tourney, fans from Salt Lake City (Thanks for visiting us!!!)
2 Countries competed in (USA and Canada)
6 States raced in (ME, NH, MA, VT, RI, CT)
36 schools from New England competed against, 1 team from Florida, 2 from the Mid Atlantic
6 types of boats raced this semester (420, Z420, FJ, Firefly, Tech Dinghy, Turbo Larks)
28 knots Strongest wind velocity raced in (either: Central 6 @ Boston College or Salve Regina, or maybe Peak Foliage @ Tufts)
>1 Knot Lightest wind velocity ‘raced’ in (Many races were abandoned at NE Fall Tourney)
4 days of practice or regattas sailed in frozen precipitation
5 total months of sailing for the sailing team each year (Sept-early November and then March-early May)
1 strong sailing team at Middlebury and 1 very successful season
Not so shabby for a student-run, club team with minimal funding!
These numbers are a small snippet of our season. Planning for each sailing season begins in November, starting with the creation of the schedule for the next calendar year. The schedule remains flexible, as we continue to update our schedule all season long by adding and subtracting regattas in order to compete at our best level and garner the best results that we can.
Planning transportation, lodging, regatta rosters, practices, team events, team gear, workouts, and spring break is an ongoing and exciting process. The season never really ends, only our time spent sailing is limited (by winter, which is long here in Vermont). It is safe to say that EVERYONE‘s hard work in practice, workouts, and regattas have really paid off and helped to elevate our team to where it is today. Our sailors deserve a big thanks. While we look forward to a little break, it won’t be too long before we start resuming practices and competing with other strong sailing teams in New England.
Thanks everyone for a great season. We appreciate all of your continued support, whether you follow our season, have donated to our on-going fundraising campaign, or have housed our sailors for a regatta. We cannot do it without you all, so thanks so much-see you in the spring.
