Sailing club sets off and sailing in 2010-11

It has been almost two years since the sailing club got its sails back in the right wind.
Sophomore team captain Hays Formella refounded the club his freshman year after it had been inactive since 2006.

The club was officially approved in January and was able to compete for the first time
in March.

Its treasurer, junior Sam Kent, is also a founding member.

“It’s been an interesting experience,” he said. “It’s cool to see something you build kind of functioning.”

Junior Katy Aiello said she wanted to get involved as much as possible in reopening the club. While the club started with only a few members, it had about 60 people come to its fall call-out meeting.

The team competed in two regattas this semester while also focusing on recruiting new members and the recreational aspect of sailing.

“We are looking to create more bonds in a social atmosphere,” Formella said. “We also want to increase the spirit of sailing and introduce people to sailing.”

Kent said he is not in the club for racing.

“The team is really laid back, it’s easy going and you don’t have to be a good sailor. I’m personally not a good sailor,” he said. “I like the recreational aspect of it.”

After winter break, Formella said he is hoping to have the team signed up for at least four, if not six regattas. There are almost 30 teams in the Midwest and a regatta every weekend or even several in one weekend.

“The problem is not getting signed up in a regatta but getting one where there’s competition,” Formella said.

Although the team finished in the middle of the pack, Aiello said she believes they
showed maturation.

“For us being a brand new team, we can definitely hold our own against other teams,”
Aiello said.

This came to fruition when the team finished third out of 16 teams in a Labor Day tournament.

“We’ve definitely gotten a lot better,” Hayes said. “We did very poorly in the spring — figuring out which pairs have more chemistry, who has the right weight distribution. It was really shaky.”

While the team has shown signs of improvement, the club does not have a locked team since it is always changing and adding people.

Aiello said she believes improvement will come from experience.

“As a team, we want to try to get to many regattas as possible and finish those races in the top three,” Aiello said. “We want to improve our overall racing skills.”

Although the team lists several goals that it has yet to meet, Formella said he believes that it all starts with increasing membership.

“We’d like to see more people invest in it so we can have more boats in each regatta,” he said. “We want to increase our presence and promote the sport of sailing at IU.”