For the first time in nine years, the Northwestern Sailing Team has qualified for the Open Team Racing National Championship.
NUST will send eight students to Nationals, which takes place at Tulane University in New Orleans from Thursday to Saturday.
NU won the Midwest Collegiate Sailing Association Open Team Race Qualifiers on April 10, clinching a spot in the national competition. NUST will be among 15 other teams at Nationals.
“We’re just trying to compete with the big guys,” McCormick junior and NUST co-Captain Jake Weinstein said. “I think we’re fast enough to keep up.”
McCormick junior and Commodore Jackson Adams attributed part of NUST’s sailing success this year to the six new boats it received after raising more than $60,000 — in part from a catalyzer — in the fall. These Flying Junior sailboats are used in open team races.
In the past, Adams said the team didn’t have the “infrastructure” to conduct full practices. Now, members can practice for hours every day with the boats they actually use during competition.
Even when it was too cold to practice outside, the team would sit in Annenberg Hall analyzing film from past sailing competitions, Adams said.
“As soon as they could get out on the water, they were out, and they were competing nonstop,” he said.
Weinstein said almost all teams at Nationals are at the varsity level with professional coaching staff.
Although NUST has a part-time coach who helps run drills at practices, the team does not have full-time coaching support to accompany it to tournaments, Weinstein said.
He added that he and the executive board are the ones picking rosters, motivating the team and helping coordinate the background work.
Adams said that, unlike other varsity teams at Nationals, NU’s club team draws from a wide range of skill levels.
McCormick first-year and NUST co-Fundraising Chair Miranda Beitel said 30 members of the team will also compete at regattas this weekend. Some had never stepped on a boat before this fall, she said, while others have been sailing since middle or high school.
As for Beitel herself, she’ll be at the national championship.
“It’s exciting that we qualified and we’re getting to race these national-level teams,” Beitel said.
Weinstein said Midwest teams are historically weaker in team racing compared to other regional conferences at nationals. But he said this year’s NUST is “the best team that the Midwest has had in a while.”
For Weinstein, winning even a single race would be “monumental.”
“If we can win one, that would be awesome,” Weinstein said. “If not, then hopefully we’ll just put a good face forward for the Midwest.”
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