In this guest post, senior Kimberly Cataudella gives us an update on the exciting things happening on the waterfront.
Port Jefferson League Invitational – Sept. 12th
The journey out to the floating dock in the Port Jefferson launch filled our Stony Brook sailors with a nervous twitch when they looked out to the harbor and saw their reflections in the water under the hull: the worst thing a sailor could ask for. The cool, end-of-summer morning, though pretty, provided us with no wind to fill up the sails of our school’s collegiate 420s. Our school’s dinghy boats, 420 centimeters in length and requiring two people to sail (a skipper and a crew), sat silently in their spots atop the dock a short distance from the shore, wondering if the wind would pick up so they could glide gracefully over the harbor or crash through chop as sailors hiked out as hard as they could.
As the race committee jetted out to the course to set marks and anchor the committee boat (also known as “signal”), they radioed to one another, feeling less than confident that this race would give spectators any type of thrill. The wind raised two miles an hour by this point, and the breeze could barely be seen sweeping the top of the harbor. The sails lay still over the booms, and sailors were sprawled out over the dock, discussing whether or not they should derig and arrange for rides home.
The A Fleet was, nonetheless, sent out to the course, though the wind was weak and spirits were pretty low. The first three-minute whistle was a bit of a wake-up call for our Stony Brook boats.
The A Fleet
- SBS 1 – skipper Josh Martin & crew Kimberly Cataudella
- SBS 2 – skipper Julia Ray & crew Richard von Waldo
- SBS 3 – skipper Kadin Via & crew Matthew Sparacio
- SBS 4 – skipper William Meitz & crew Leonard Heilmann
Slow speeds over the start line left Josh and me feeling hopeless, but slight puffs in the downwind leg helped competition become a little more fierce, letting leeward heels and perfectly curved sail shape do the talking. Josh and I took first place in the first three races, though the second race was neck-and-neck with Bay Shore’s top sailors in the third leg of the course. Battling each other through roll tacks and wind-stealing, Josh and I came out triumphant, beating the Marauders by a few seconds. Bay Shore was quick to find what they saw as a flaw in our technique, protesting us for using “kinetics,” or illegal body motion, to make the dinghy move faster. Captain George Linzee was quick to calm their protest and tell them that we are just, “really good at roll tacks.” Upon docking, we high-fived showing our excitement over the fact that we just destroyed on the water.
Will and Leo came in third place in the first race, and Kadin and Matty came in third place in the second race, showing spectators that our aquatic Bears come in top places and are not to be messed with.
Our B Fleet felt more assured as they sailed out to the course, seeing how the wind was picking up and how well their A fleet had done.
The B Fleet
- SBS 1 – skipper Nick Buscemi & crew Michael Bilfinger
- SBS 2 – skipper Jack Adams & crew Elyse Kady
- SBS 3 – skipper Eddie Feldt-Cipkin & crew Alysa Jette
- SBS 4 – skipper Tom DeRose and & Henry Bennett
After four more races and four more rotations, SBS 1 finished the race in second place out of twelve in A fleet and in third place overall. Though this was only an invitational, we set our top sailors against one another and against other teams to see who would come out on top. Our sailors fought through screwy conditions, watch malfunctions, and early Saturday morning fatigue, and we sailed away confident in the rest of our fall season.
Waterfront Center Team Qualifier – Oct. 10th
Six o’clock alarms on Saturday mornings are worth it when you cross the finish line in first place and all three boats on the other team haven’t even finished the downwind leg of the race, the second out of three parts. Team racing is a little bit different from fleet racing, where each team has three boats that want to cross the finish line in places that will add up to fewer than 10 points to win that specific race. A 1-2-anything and a 1-3-anything will give your team 10 points or fewer, and a 2-3-4 will do the same. The Bears competed in nine races on a brisk morning, packing up the bus in our puffy varsity jackets with our cooler filled with Caesar wraps. apple pastries, granola bars, and lemonade. Our hearts were slightly aflutter, unsure of how we would perform against other teams, not too confident in our ability to team race.
We arrived in Oyster Bay at 0845, way before any other teams had arrived. We used this opportunity to gear up and prepare for check-in and the competitors’ meeting that would be held inside the small facility 45 minutes later. We were assigned boats with pink sails (which is awesome… October is breast cancer awareness month) and pushed off the dock, after a quick team prayer, to sail out to the course. We were still feeling a bit nervous, but knew that our sense of unity had been strengthened with all of our team racing practices. Josh and I sailed in one boat, Kadin and Matty in another, and Nick and Michael sailed in the third. We lost our first race to Mamaroneck and our second to St. John’s, but we won our third against Bay Shore, fourth against Three Village, and fifth against Syosset. After the first race, we subbed out Buscemi and Bilfinger for DeRose and Bennett. Our final race against Syosset concluded the round robin, a system in which each team competes against each other. Our 3-2 ratio put us in the top half of the competition, and coach Johnny Everitt responded by giving us all a double thumbs up from the safety boat a few yards away.
The race committee began another round robin at 1400, which the Bears felt a little uneasy about. It took a little over three hours to finish the first set, so a second one would entail getting off the water at 1700, provided there weren’t any sail-offs to break ties. After one brutal race against Mamaroneck (the second), we lost by a hair. All six boats were clumped around the finish line with Via and Sparacio in the lead, but Mamaroneck covered our air and sailed there a little bit faster. This crushed our spirits, but we weren’t ready to give up just yet. At this point, we hadn’t left our boats for five hours. Our Caesar wraps and water bottles that we brought along were long gone, and we were sweaty and in serious need of a lavatory. Coach Brad Brummeler pulled through and tossed a couple of mini Baby Ruth candy bars into our boats to nibble on as we sailed by his safety boat, giving our bloodstreams some sugar to help us finish strong.
The race committee realized that another round robin would take hours and calculated the scores up to that point, asking for the tied teams to remain on the course to compete for the final placements. The Bears sailed back to the docks with a third place finish, one away from qualification for the next regatta, happening on Halloween in Maryland. After Mamaroneck told the race committee that they will not be sending a team to Maryland, the Bears moved up a spot, giving us a slot in Maryland in a few weekends.
Team racing truly pulled our team together, teaching us more efficient ways of communication and making us realize that we need each other if we want to succeed. That being said, the dinghy family is prepared to tackle Maryland together, and bring a banner home to Swanson Gym.
stonybrookbears.org 