UW Sailing Team – Spring Break Training Trip
By Katlyn Putney
The journey down to St. Petersburg, Florida began on Friday, March 30th. After twenty-six hours, the team was in its entirety at the rented house.
We spent the following day at the beach playing soccer, throwing a football, and just relaxing in the sun before an intense week of sailing.
The rustiness of the team showed in the first few tacks of the training week, but new and old skippers alike got back into the groove by the end of the first day. With only one morning of unacceptable wind, the team was able to work on basic skills as well as some advanced racing tactics all week.
Coach Dave Elsmo worked especially hard to pair inexperienced sailors with the top skippers of the team in order to foster their learning of the sport.
Each day the sailors were able to take a lunch break where they could either relax or engage in a competitive yet fun game of pool volleyball. Two afternoons were spent practicing with the University of South Florida’s varsity team, which were good opportunities to put some team racing practice to use.
An extremely-windy Friday brought the week to a close. Heavy-air crews jumped on the chance to strut their stuff and every sailor who wanted to was able to hop into a boat and enjoy the enormous breeze.
It was an exhausting week, but every sailor who attended the trip benefitted from the intense training and is ready to face a season full of qualifying regattas.
