Racing In The Rain, Learning How To Put The Team First (With Video)

Steady rain on the Connecticut River was no match for four members of the Daniel Hand High School sailing team, who attended a rainy practice at the Pettipaug Yacht Club in Essex Monday in preparation for Sunday’s New England Schools Sailing Association's Women’s Invitational, the concluding event in this spring’s season.

Sophomores Lynsey Kirby and Casey Pilz and freshman Kate Mazzeo and Maggie Lyons raced two boats on a short course set up by sailing coach Paul Risseeuw, who sounded a horn from his boat to start each practice race.

The girls glided up to the starting line and waited for the wind to pick up before racing ahead to the first buoy and spinning around to head back and complete the race.

“The session was valuable because we learned to have a good start and be on the line,” said Lynsey Kirby. “If you’re not on the start at the right time you’re race is not going to be worth it.”

“We also learned about improving light air tactics,” Casey Pilz noted, explaining the challenge of racing on a day with light wind.

Among the other sailing skills the girls have learned is “having good tack and changing directions and making sure they’re nice and smooth, because it they’re not smooth you lose boat lengths,” Casey Pilz said. “Tacking and driving is the way to gain speed.”

At Sunday’s race, Kate Mazzeo and Lynsey Kirby will skipper their boats and Casey Pilz and Maggie Lyonswill be crew. “The skipper makes all the decisions on the course and the crew tells the skipper when puffs of wind and other boats are coming,” Maggie Lyons said. “The skipper makes the boat go fast. The skipper’s job is inside the boat while the crew is outside looking around.”

The Tiger’s sailing team is co-ed with most events open to girls and boys. Senior Richard Denton is this year’s captain. The 20-member team has seven sophomores and seven freshmen so it is a young team. The team competes in matches against individual schools and in regattas against a variety of schools.

In team matches, each school operates three boats and points are awarded based on where the boats finish, so the low score wins.

The goal isn’t just to win a race but to make sure the other boats on your team finish ahead. “If I’m out front I try to slow the other team down and push other boats out of the way so my teammates can pass,” Coach Risseeuw said. “The team score is the only one that counts, an individual score is unimportant.

Risseeuw coaches the team with Maria Keogh.

The Tigers have won team events against Branford, Valley Regional, Xavier and the Sound School this season with losses to East Lyme, Hotchkiss and other schools. They’ve also participated in the Connecticut State High School Championship at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on April 30 and the O’Day Qualifier in Newport, RI on April 16.

The team struggled at the O’Day event with 27 knot winds, which was a far cry from a nearly windless day at Monday’s practice session.  “The current, wind conditions and competitors are different in each race,” Coach Risseeuw said. “You have to adapt. It’s a mental game, not physical.”

Sunday's race will be held at the Indian Harbor Yacht Club in Greenwich.

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