UW sailors gear up for national competition

When thinking about sailing, many people have a tendency to conjure up images of floating along at a leisurely pace and letting the wind do all the work.

Keep dreaming.

As members of the Washington sailing team will attest, sailing might be fun, but it is also a physically demanding sport that is as competitive as they come.

The club team at the UW has made great strides in the last four years, going from being a virtual non-existence to a strong national contender. Junior Michael Karas has been with the team for three years, long enough to see the growth firsthand.

"When I joined my freshman year, the team was composed of four people, which included me, and a friend who volunteered to be our coach," he said.

The team managed to increase to 10 members that year, and has grown ever since. Three years later, there are nearly 30 people on the sailing team, including six sailors that remain from the sparse 1999 team. Among the more than 200 schools that field collegiate sailing teams, the UW has been continuously ranked in the top 20 for the past two years.

Sailors are hoping that the dedication exerted will pay off over the next week when the season culminates with the Intercollegiate Sailing Association North American championships. There were 27 schools qualifying for these championships through regional competition, but the UW is one of only seven that qualified to send competitors in all three events -- women's, team and fleet racing.

Five of the UW sailors -- Katie Paciotti, Stephanie Hall, Anne-Teague Landis, Liz Shearer and Kristie Fenn -- are currently in Boston with coach Andy Mack for the women's championships. The championships are held over the course of three days and end today. Two teams from each school race, the finishes from each day are added, and the team with the lowest total wins.

After day two, the UW sits in 17th place out of 18 teams, with 345 points. However, it is only four points behind the next school, and, with another day of racing, there remains room to improve on last year's last-place finish.

The other two events will not be held until next week, leaving remaining sailors to try to balance studying for finals with preparing to compete in a national championship.

"Nationals have been during spring finals week every year," Karas said. "I have to either take finals before or after. One year, I had to take a final on the flight home proctored by my coach."

The team is hard at work preparing for nationals, putting in long hours at practice on Lake Washington. The members are not forgetting how to have fun, however, engaging in intense all-team water fights and ambushing each others' boats when the wind dies. But at the slightest hint of a breeze, the boats are off in hot pursuit.

Team racing pits three co-ed boats from one school against three from another, competing for the lowest point total. Because each school is striving for the top finishes, races can get intense with sailors cutting their competitors off in order to help their teammates out.

UW sailors take this to heart even in practice, going head-to-head with their own teammates in mock competition. These rivalries don't hold true off the water, however.

"We're a really tight-knit group," said sophomore Ryan Storkman. "There's about five intra-team relationships going on."

As this close group of sailors gears up for nationals, success is on the Huskies' minds. They had an eighth-place finish at last year's team championships and 15th in fleet racing. They would love nothing more than to improve on that this year.

However, team members don't consider going to nationals to be any greater feat than what they've accomplished all season long.

"I would say that our story about going to nationals is not only about qualifying, having goals and our chances at winning, but it is about hard work, lots of organization and fundraising," Karas said. "We put this team together from scratch."