UC Irvine Club Sailing Team

Hey Everyone,

Here is a Picture of the new boat! We have used it once at South 1/2! There was a slight problem with the rudder and the pintels on the rudder but Laser Performance is fixing it right now. We are still trying to think of a name for it, currently we have "The New Sexy." If you have other ideas for names tell us! I personally think we should name our new boats after our All Americans! Although, it may take some time to get over 35 boats...

**Edit**
Sorry Guys looks like when I was moving files around I broke the link for the picture! It should be fixed now.

San Diego presented the anteaters with very pleasant sailing weather this weekend. 70+ degrees and an average of 7knts with occasional legs of necessary hiking--who's complaining?

As usual, the warm weather in SD instigated a mellow vibe. Most people showed up at 10am, despite the NOR report time of 9am. Gotta make time for those Hector's burritos!

On Saturday and Sunday the varsity team broke in the brand new FJ after solving a minor design error (the pistols weren't aligned right). Colin Kincaid and crew Martha Davis sailed in Varsity A fleet while Brian Hoover and crew Chris Huang represented  B division. It took a few races to get into the groove of things on both days, but Varsity picked up speed and continued finishing in top 5 positions as the day went on, plaving 4th overall in both regattas behind Santa Barbara, USC, and Long Beach.

Will Larsen and crew Sam Heller formed the JV A team on Saturday with Nick and crew Sharon Quigly/Austin Moore sailing in B division. On Sunday, Nick and Austin sailed for JV A while Sam switched to skippering with Sharon as his crew.

We all had a fun/relaxing weekend in San Diego and look forward to our next event----next up, the ladies sail in Stanford for the Bryson women's regatta.

A big thanks to the San Diego  team for housing, and to our awesome alumni, Megan Pluth for supplying the anteaters with tasty snacks!

Hey Everyone,

I would like to apologize for not writing these blogs for sooooo long! We have all been really busy and have some GREAT news to share. So, here is what we have been doing for the last few months...

Fall Dinghy PCC's at Santa Barbara:

This was a big regatta for us because it determines "picks" for spring. For all you non-collegiate sailors, picks determine where we can go. Our final score for the event determines what schools get to pick before or after us. If you are first you get your first pick of all the events, last place gets last place. Fall dinghy PCC's determines 3 division, (CFJ, CFJ, Laser) and coed picks.

After two long hot days with little to no wind we ended up 10th out of 21 teams. This was score included our laser results and for picks we scored around 7th in coed 2 division (CFJ only). The waves were slow rollers and some people were feeling sick! This was the last big event of Fall Quarter and showed us that we definetly need to keep working hard if we want to go to nationals again!

Rose Bowl Regatta at Long Beach:

The Rose Bowl Regatta was the first intersectional of our winter quarter. This was a huge event with 29  college teams and 60 high school teams! We sailed off the belomnt pier in Long Beach and faced medium to light winds. We were coming off a long winter break and we held our own. We ended up 15th out of 29 but Sophmore Skipper Colin Kincaid managed to get some top 5 finishes in A fleet against many of those big name sailing schools.

Rainbow Regatta at Hawaii:

Four Anteaters went to Hawaii this past weekend to sail against 13 teams, including a school from Japan, in the Rainbow regatta. Junior, William Larsen Skippered A Fleet with Senior Colin Averill as a crew while Freshmen Nick Weis sailed with our Irish foreign exchange student Sharon Quigley. The Anteaters left on Thursday Night and spent friday getting used to the time change and seeing the sights of Hawaii!

Saturday sharon had a minor medical emergency and could not sail all of Saturday. The Hawaii team let Nick borrow one of their crews so we could sail the event. After the Saturday we ended up right smack in the middle in 7th place. 

For those of you who have never sailed at Sand Island, Hawaii the conditions are extremely tough. It is very shifty in both direction and strength of wind. This makes tactics fairly hard and the local Hawaii sailors had a huge advantage. The wind comes over the island and it can go from 10kts to 3kts in seconds.

Sunday, Sharon Quigley was feeling much better and sailed with Nick. Having someone he had sailed with definitely made a differnece for Nick because he eneded Sunday with a Bullet (1st Place) in B fleet! At the end of Sunday we were still in 7th place overall.

Overall it was a great event and we would like to thank Andy Johnson for letting us stay in his guest house!

Last but definitely not least!

Thanks to Joyce Ibbetson and our Director of Club sports we have a new CFJ! The new CFJ comes with a new set of race sails, new rudder, and tiller, mast, boom, and a new hull! I am very excited about this boat this weekend will be its first time in the water!

Our funding largely depends on donations, and all of YOU helped us by this boat! We had a little bit left over from our fundraiser from last year and that little bit helped us get the boat!

My personal goal is raise enough money for one more boat this year. I would also like to purchase covers for our boats, especially the new ones! A full list of items me would like can be found on the "How to Help" tab at the top of the page!

 Thisyears Sloops PCC’s were hosted by St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco.  The Anteaters were represented by BrianHoover at the helm, Colin Kincaid as jib and spinnaker trimmer, and AshleyHobson on the bow.  Afterqualifying two years ago with Brian and Ashley on the team, the ‘eaters weregunning for the win to get another shot at a national title.  However, the switch to a match raceformat instead of the previous fleet race imposed a threat.  The team took the opportunity to getsome match racing experience against other competitive teams a few weeks ago atthe SDYC Invitational match race.

            Saturdayshowed light winds in the morning and a strong current switching halfwaythroughout the day.  After somehomework, napping, and Frisbee games, the race committee took down the AP flagand sent the sailors out around 2pm. The breeze had picked up to 10+ with waves and current as well.  We completed 6 flights the first day,winning all but one race. Highlights included a gybing duel with USC were our crew work excelledand we pulled ahead with every gybe and beating Stanford by half a boat lengthacross the finish line. Race committee kept us out on the water until it wasdark and we ended the day tied for 1st place with Stanford and CalMaritime.

            Sundayconditions were similar, with breeze only picking up after noon.  To complete the round robin, we had tworaces left against UCLA and UH. Our first race against UCLA we missed a key shift and were not able tobeat them.  After the frustratingloss, we pulled together a win against UH and finished the round robin in 3rd.  We then went into a best of 3 serieswith UCLA who ended in 4th. The first race against them we overshot layline due to the switch from aflood tide to an ebb, and they sneaked inside of us at the mark.  The next two races, however, ourtactics and crew work outdid them and the anteaters won both races, putting usin 3rd overall.  In the3rd race, we were even able to push UCLA over the line early tosecure our lead.

            Overall,the anteaters stepped up to the challenge and proved to be a competitive teamwith both crew work and match racing skills.  Big thanks to Michael Whelden for housing, the Hobson’s andHoover’s for food, and the Kincaid’s for a car.

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The lady anteaters took their first trip up north to Stanford Sailing center this past weekend for Women’s Fall Champs. It was a good turnout as far as women’s events go, with 9 teams on the line. Ashley Hobson skippered A with crew Martha Davis, and Kate Andersen skippered B with crew Sharon Quigley. Saturday started out as a hot, windless morning, waiting around until about 1 pm to get off the first set of races, with breeze about 5-8 knots. A fleet sailed 5 races while B sailed 4 races on Saturday, putting us in 3rd place to end the day. Sunday was even worse as far as conditions go, with not a breath of wind all morning and afternoon, A fleet taking some time to float on the water with no success at getting any races off. But B was sent out finally at 3 pm to get one final race off in order to complete the regatta with an even amount of races in both fleets. Stanford ended up taking the win, with USC in 2nd, and UCI ladies stayed in 3rd. It was a good range of competition, with some new skippers on the water as well as some very experienced ones.

Thanks to the Davis and Andersen families for keeping us fed and hydrated this weekend!! This weekend is Sloops Qualifiers at StFYC, so we wish our match racing team good luck!!! ZOT ZOT ZOT.

Last weekend, 9 of us drove to Treasure Island for the annual Stoney Burke regatta. On Saturday, the wind blew pretty strong throughout the day and on Sunday it was pretty light in the morning, but picked up in the afternoon to make a great day of sailing--- and a wet one for Austin who fell in the water after missing his hiking strap, whoops! We had two teams, junior varsity and varsity. Will Larsen, Martha Davis, Kate Anderson, Sharon Quigley, Sam Heller, Austin Moore, and Nick Weis all sailed in junior varsity and did extremely well. They placed third overall, 3 points behind CMA and one point behind UCSB. Brian Hoover and Chris Huang sailed in varsity A both days and Kate Anderson, Sharon Quigley, Will Larsen, Martha Davis, and Sam Heller switched off sailing in varsity B. We placed 11th overall and even though we were hoping to do a little better, everyone learned a lot and shook off the nerves after a long summer. It was a great weekend and everyone had a fantastic time. We are all looking forward to the next regatta!

Thank you to the Huang, Hoover, and Andersen families for housing us during the event, as well as the Andersen and Davis family for bringing lunches on Saturday and Sunday.

This past weekend, our first and second year sailors all headed down to Mission Bay in San Diego for some sunny sailing. Taking on A fleet was a combination of skippering and crewing from Colin Kincaid, Nick Weis, and Sam Heller. In B fleet, Kate Andersen skippered for our new Irish exchange student, Sharon Quigley. With new faces all around, some teams surprised us all with their improvements from previous years, but there were also many novices on the water. CSULB took the win, followed by UCSD and USC, and ASU surprising everyone by taking the 4. We ended up in 5th overall, with a total of 19 teams on the water. Will Larsen and Chris Huang tagged along to help out with the regatta, give us some coaching, and greet us on the dock with freshly barbequed hot dogs. For the first regatta of the year, we all were successful, but definitely room for improvement! It had been a long summer, and now time to get back into race mode! Next up, Stoney Burke at Treasure Island next weekend. Thanks to Matt Nguyen for housing, and to the rest of the UCSD team for running a smooth regatta! ZOT ZOT ZOT.

This past weekend the Anteaters competed in the 2011 ICSA APS Team Race National Championship hosted by the Colombia Gorge Racing Association and the ICSA. The Anteaters were one of two teams to qualify from the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference’s Team Race Championships back in April.

We were placed in the first qualifying group with Georgetown, Yale, Roger Williams, College of Charleston, Northwestern, and Tulane. Most of the team flew into Portland International Airport early Thursday evening. The Lady Anteaters were already in Oregon because in the days leading up to team race nationals they had competed in Women’s Nationals. Alumni and Coach Eric Knopf had also driven his motor-home up from Southern California to help coach both our Women’s and Team Race teams.

Friday was the first day of team racing and the Anteaters faced some tough competition as well as some interesting weather conditions. The conditions were basically the complete opposite of Newport Beach, rainy, windy, and about seven knots of current that was running in the opposite direction of the wind. These conditions made team racing hard for every team in the first few rounds. The first teams we sailed against were, Georgetown, Roger Williams, and Yale. We lost all three rounds which left us in a very bad mood. Coach Eric Knopf managed to raise our spirits and we rallied and went on to beat Northwestern and Tulane. We finished the day sailing against College of Charleston, which ended up being a fairly close race, but in the end we lost. This left us with a 2-4 record and we just missed the cut off for gold fleet, Yale had a 3-3 record and made gold. This put us in the consolation round and meant we only had five more races the following day.

The next day the team came back ready to sail after Coach Knopf inspired us with a very well made speech. The conditions were very different from the day before. The sun had decided to come out and the rain stopped. The wind also became very similar to the bright sunny Newport Beach that the Anteaters were used to. The one condition that stayed consistent was the insane amount of current. We started out the day beating, Tulane and Northwestern, who had also been placed in the consolation round. We then sailed against Oregon who we managed to beat also. The Anteaters next race was against Wisconsin which was a very high tension race because both teams were undefeated up to this point. We ended up taking the loss. Once again Coach Eric Knopf talked to our team and raised our spirits once again. Our final race was against University of South Florida, this was incredibly close and they managed to take the win from us. Although they beat us they did draw a Black Flag from the Judges and an incident went to the room. USF lost the protest that did not affect the final outcome of the race because the USF person that was black flagged was in the six and his teammates had secured the one and two spots. The black flag ended up hurting USF because they had earned an additional black flag that day and the Umpires and Race committee had penalized them by 1.5 wins. This put us second in the consolation round behind Wisconsin. This put us in tenth overall.

This Nationals trip was a great last regatta for seniors, Rex Cameron, Jack Porter, and Blair Johnston. This trip would also not have been possible with the support of our Coach Eric Knopf, who drove his motor home over 1,000 miles so we could use his motor home for the weekend. We would also like to thank UCI Club Sports for supporting us the entire year and to all our Alumni and friends who have donated their time and money to help us. Especially to Eric and Juliana Knopf and Andy Beeckman who came down one weekend and practiced with our team to help us prepare. Our last big thanks is for the Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation who donated to our Nationals Campaign and made our trip possible!

The lady anteaters packed their foulies, beanies, and fleece jackets to head to Cascade Locks, Or to sail in the Women’s Semi-final championship. They arrived early Sunday morning and met up with UCI alumni Eric and Juliana Knopf, who drove all the way up in their RV-van to help coach the women’s and team race teams this week. Eric drove the team around to check out the sailing center and into the town of Hood to do some touristy things, include visiting the Full Sail Brewery. Sailing commenced Monday morning, with dark gloomy clouds in the sky and puffs forming on the water. The girls, one of the only teams not dressed in “team dry-suits” held their own in the windy and cold gorge conditions. In A fleet, Ashley and Martha proved to hold their own, having a few top 5 mark roundings and a 5th place finish. After being on the water for an hour while race committee set the course, they were able to figure out the ripping current lines and use them to their advantage on the course. Kate and Blair also continued to learn throughout the day and finished the day with a solid 10, 12 set. The wind reached a high of 24 knots and the water temperature around 40O. Between sets, the freezing ladies were able to warm up in the heat of the Knopf’s RV as well as make hot chocolate and Cup of Noodles to prepare for the next set. At the end of day 1, the ladies were tied for 12th with the Naval Academy.

Day 2 begun earlier than most other college regattas, with the first start at 9:00am. The current remained the same, but the wind was significantly lighter than the previous conditions. Both divisions were only able to get one set off before semi-finals ended to prepare for nationals. Highlights from day two include Ashley and Martha rounding the top mark in 1st place in the first race and finishing the race in 2nd.  The key really was to read to current and pick the right side of the course, as well as secure a clear lane downwind while fighting the current.  The ladies were able to hold their 12th position at the conclusion of the Semi-finals, putting more points between them and Navy.

The ladies were also able to debut the teams brand new pennies! The anteaters no long don the "Wa Mu" logo or the sun stains on the old pennies.  From recent alumni and supporter donations, we were able to purchase a whole new set of pennies, designed by our very own Martha Davis and Kate Andersen!

Coming in as a late berth for semi-finals, the lady anteaters proved to be a competitive force. Having many top of the fleet finishes, the ladies were very proud of their strong finishes and the tough conditions allowed them all to continue to learn with each race. A HUGE thank you to Juliana and Eric Knopf for all their help these past two days! The Lady anteaters definitely would not of been able to be as successful as they were without their help. As well as a shout out to Danielle Richards who is enduring the cold Oregon weather for two weeks as an ICSA rep. Tonight, the rest of the boys flew up to Oregon to meet the ladies for team race nationals, starting tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for more updates and check out the photos below!

And check out Ashley and Martha's interview on Sailgroove.com !!

http://www.sailgroove.org/coverage/238795-Sperry-Topsider-Womens-National-Championship-College-Sailing-Nationals/video/492110-UCIs-Ashley-Hobson-and-Martha-Davis

After a long day on Thursday, the lady Anteaters are tied with the Naval Academy! Although, they are losing the tie-breaker they are in a prime position to move up. The ladies will write a more detailed explanation later today after they finish racing today.

The sailing team was also featured in the New U, that’s the school newspaper. A link to our story is located Here.

We wish our Ladies the best of luck!

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