Sailing
College Sailing| High School Sailing | Bemis Natl's 2001 | 2004 ICSA Collegiate Natl'sv. The art of moving slowly at great expense.
Dave and I sailing at the ICSA Co-Ed Nationals. June '04
The Basics
I started sailing when I was a "wee one" at our family cottage in CommerceTownship, Michigan. At age 10 I joined a junior sailing program at the Grosse Pointe Club (GPC) in my home town of Grosse Pointe, MI. lt was at GPC that I learned how to sail competetively and given my nickname, Vandy, which has been with me ever since. The fun and exciting experiences gained in those early years have lead to more and more sailing with higher levels of commitment to both the sport and community. With the link bar at the top of this page you can scroll through the different opportunities and travel sailing has afforded me over the years.
Awards:
College:
College Sailing| High School Sailing | Bemis Natl's 2001 | 2004 ICSA Collegiate Natl'sv. The art of moving slowly at great expense.
Dave and I sailing at the ICSA Co-Ed Nationals. June '04
The Basics
I started sailing when I was a "wee one" at our family cottage in CommerceTownship, Michigan. At age 10 I joined a junior sailing program at the Grosse Pointe Club (GPC) in my home town of Grosse Pointe, MI. lt was at GPC that I learned how to sail competetively and given my nickname, Vandy, which has been with me ever since. The fun and exciting experiences gained in those early years have lead to more and more sailing with higher levels of commitment to both the sport and community. With the link bar at the top of this page you can scroll through the different opportunities and travel sailing has afforded me over the years.
Awards:
College:
- MCSA Sportsmanship Award 2004
- MCSA All District Skipper Award 2004
- DRYA Juniors Sportsmanship 1999
- Season Champion: 420 2001, FJ Div I 1999, FJ Div II 1998
Bemis National Championships 2001College Sailing | High School Sailing | Bemis Natl's 2001 | 2004 ICSA Collegiate Natl's
San Francisco, CA
Regatta Results
My crew Kathryn Veryser and I rounding the leeward mark in San Francisco Bay
In the summer of 2001 my crew Kathryn Veryser and I qualified for the U.S. Sailing Bemis National Championships which were held out of San Francisco Yacht Club in San Francisco, CA. The Bemis Championships are the U.S. Sailings double-handed junior championships that are held every year. To qualify teams must place in the top two of both their district and region at the respective qualifying regattas. I believe that Kathryn and I were the first to qualify from the Detroit area in about 5 years or more but I could be mistaken. Regardless we were very excited, and nervous, to be sailing at such a high level and in such a windy place.
The Competitors
Kathryn and I had done basically no travle regattas, except for a few in high school sailing, up until the district and regional qualifiers. When we arrived in california we were suprised to note that almost all the competitors knew eachother. They all had traveled to big regattas on either the east or west coast, sometimes both, and had raced against eachother before. Needless to say that was a bit intimidating.
San Francisco Yacht Club, which is a beautiful club by the way, provided all the sailors with
housing. I roomed at some members house with Vince Porter, a laser sailor from Chicago, and Matt Stiens, a laser sailor from San Diego. Vince now sails for Harvard, arguably if not flat out the best college sailing team in the country, and Matt sails for Hawaii, last years Coed National Champions. I still see Vince at big intersectional regattas and doubt if Matt rembers who I am. Anyway both guys were friendly both were very good sailors.
Vince (still looking for a picture of Matt)
To be blunt Kathryn and I were out of our league. Not to say that we were bad because we weren't. We were just bad compared to the kids we were sailing against. We hadn't been taught all the rig and boat tuning that the other teams had and we didn't have the big fleet, long race experience that the kids who had traveled had.
We had also sailed almost entirely in light air and short chop all summer in Detroit. San Francisco Bay has quite different conditions and we did not convert well.
Kathryn and I racing on San Francisco Bay
All was not lost however. Kathryn and I had a good time, learnt a lot and definately got motivated to go home and try and step up our game. I learnt how important it is to travel and experience different conditions. I had figured that since we were so good at home we'd be good everywhere else as well. This was obviously not the case. I also learned about the psychology of competition, intimidation can kill, as can lack of confidence. It taught me to always try and be prepared for the racing you're doing and if you're not prepared enough do everything you can to trick yourself into thinking you are.
One of the Starts, we're in boat 30 about halfway down the line
Kathryn and I sailing upwind. Can someone tell me why I wasn't easing out the main in this first picture???
Trying to catch up downwind
Kathryn and I chilling out in the boat
San Francisco, CA
Regatta Results
My crew Kathryn Veryser and I rounding the leeward mark in San Francisco Bay
In the summer of 2001 my crew Kathryn Veryser and I qualified for the U.S. Sailing Bemis National Championships which were held out of San Francisco Yacht Club in San Francisco, CA. The Bemis Championships are the U.S. Sailings double-handed junior championships that are held every year. To qualify teams must place in the top two of both their district and region at the respective qualifying regattas. I believe that Kathryn and I were the first to qualify from the Detroit area in about 5 years or more but I could be mistaken. Regardless we were very excited, and nervous, to be sailing at such a high level and in such a windy place.
The Competitors
Kathryn and I had done basically no travle regattas, except for a few in high school sailing, up until the district and regional qualifiers. When we arrived in california we were suprised to note that almost all the competitors knew eachother. They all had traveled to big regattas on either the east or west coast, sometimes both, and had raced against eachother before. Needless to say that was a bit intimidating.
San Francisco Yacht Club, which is a beautiful club by the way, provided all the sailors with
housing. I roomed at some members house with Vince Porter, a laser sailor from Chicago, and Matt Stiens, a laser sailor from San Diego. Vince now sails for Harvard, arguably if not flat out the best college sailing team in the country, and Matt sails for Hawaii, last years Coed National Champions. I still see Vince at big intersectional regattas and doubt if Matt rembers who I am. Anyway both guys were friendly both were very good sailors.
Vince (still looking for a picture of Matt)
To be blunt Kathryn and I were out of our league. Not to say that we were bad because we weren't. We were just bad compared to the kids we were sailing against. We hadn't been taught all the rig and boat tuning that the other teams had and we didn't have the big fleet, long race experience that the kids who had traveled had.
We had also sailed almost entirely in light air and short chop all summer in Detroit. San Francisco Bay has quite different conditions and we did not convert well.
Kathryn and I racing on San Francisco Bay
All was not lost however. Kathryn and I had a good time, learnt a lot and definately got motivated to go home and try and step up our game. I learnt how important it is to travel and experience different conditions. I had figured that since we were so good at home we'd be good everywhere else as well. This was obviously not the case. I also learned about the psychology of competition, intimidation can kill, as can lack of confidence. It taught me to always try and be prepared for the racing you're doing and if you're not prepared enough do everything you can to trick yourself into thinking you are.
One of the Starts, we're in boat 30 about halfway down the line
Kathryn and I sailing upwind. Can someone tell me why I wasn't easing out the main in this first picture???
Trying to catch up downwind
Kathryn and I chilling out in the boat
| SAN FRANCISCO YACHT CLUB - 2001 BEMIS AUGUST 13-15, 2001 |
| SKIPPER | BOAT | # | CLUB | TOTALS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pts. | POS. | ||||
| KYLE KOVACS | ERIC REITINGER | 25 | BRANT BEACH YC | 21 | 1 |
| MIKEE ANDERSON | GRAHAM BIEHL | 37 | SAN DIEGO YC | 39 | 2 |
| DAVID SIEGAL | ZACH KAVANAUGH | 21 | NEW BEDFORD YC | 52 | 3 |
| GRAHAM MERGENTHALER | BECKY MERGENTHALER | 26 | TOMS RIVER YC | 64 | 4 |
| ANDREW LOE | ALLAN LE BLANC | 27 | SOUTHERN YC | 72 | 5 |
| GENEVIEVE TULLOCH | MALLORY FONTENOT | 31 | HOUSTON YC | 77 | 6 |
| CHARLIE ENRIGHT | COURTENEY HARDIMAN | 22 | EAST BAY SAILING | 78 | 7 |
| ERIK STORCK | ZACH GOLDMAN | 24 | NORTHPORT BAY SA | 86 | 8 |
| HENRY MAXWELL | JACK FIELD | 23 | RAM ISLAND YC | 90 | 9 |
| CRAIG THOMPSON | PAUL TAYLOR | 39 | COLUMBIA YC | 92 | 10 |
| DAVID PARKER | CHRIS BARRETT | 29 | ERIE YC | 111 | 11 |
| DAVID O'REILLY | JOHN SKINNER | 28 | CHARLESTON | 115 | 12 |
| LINDSAY DUDA | MAGGIE LUMKES | 40 | CHICAGO YC | 126 | 13 |
| KATIE WARD | ROBERTA STEELE | 32 | HOUSTON YC | 129 | 14 |
| NICK LEEDE | IAN CHRISTENSON | 35 | SEATTLE YC | 132 | 15 |
| NICHOLAS CERVANTES | ALAIN HUGGLER | 36 | KANEOHE YC | 134 | 16 |
| ZACHARY BROWN | MARC CASEY | 38 | MISSION BAY YC | 151 | 17 |
| CAMERON MC CLOSKEY | MOLLY ROBINSON | 33 | SAN FRANCISCO YC | 162 | 18 |
| CASEY WILLIAMS | KRISTIN RITTENHOUSE | 34 | SAN FRANCISCO YC | 185 | 19 |
| MATT VANDERPOOL | KATHRYN VERYSER | 30 | CRESCENT SAIL YC | 197 | 20 |