Varsity Sailing Team Podiums at First Regatta of the Season

Loyola+varsity+sailors+on+Day+2+prepare+to+get+on+the+water+for+a+good+day+of+racing.+

Katherine Klein

Loyola varsity sailors on Day 2 prepare to get on the water for a good day of racing.

Yago Echevarria, Writer

Loyola Academy Sailing placed 3rd overall in the first regatta of the season last weekend.

Senior Lexi Chigas (driving) and junior Natalia Bretones (crewing) sailed A fleet getting the fifth-place spot after two days of competition. In B fleet sophomore James Sohigian (skipper) and senior Fiona Naughton (crewing) claimed second-place in their fleet.

The team started Day 1 off solid, finishing the day with 3rd place overall. Winds coming out of the west made the water easy to handle due to the lack of waves, but the wind was another story.

Coming from the west, the wind becomes very shifty and puffy. This makes tactical plans made before the race virtually useless as in an instant, during the race, the wind can throw carefully laid-out plan out the window.

Senior Lexi Chigas explained this while about to get in a boat to sail at the beginning of the second day of racing. “A lot of days the wind stays out of one direction for an entire race which makes the winners those with the best boat speed and a pre-made tactical plan,” says Chigas.

In contrast on Sunday, it was “really shifty. The winners are those who are first to notice the wind shift and change their plan to suit it while keeping their boat fast.”

Chigas and Sohigian were able to keep their boats fast and sailing plans flexible on the course, maintaining the 3rd place position throughout the second day.

Hopes are high for the Loyola sailing team  as they secured a podium spot for the first regatta of the season, but some key teams from the district were missing.

Evanston Sailing captains Tyler Knohl and Charlie Herrick argue that there were a couple of teams missing from this regatta that “could have made things look very different this weekend for all the teams,” says Herrick.

The notable teams missing were “New Trier, Ignatius Chicago, and Latin, and Lake Forest.” These four teams have historically been the “biggest competitors. Lake Forest and Latin made it to Nationals last season and crushed it at every regatta last spring,” says Knohl.

They both expect things to go very differently once those teams appear at regattas this season, agreeing that everyone’s scores are most likely to go down.

With the next regatta at Pewaukee this weekend, teams are excited to meet again and compete in the difficult conditions of Pewaukee Lake.