History

As one of the oldest Club Sports in the history of the University, we strive to encourage, advance, and improve dinghy racing and the sport of sailing.

As a club, we have two primary functions: to teach our members everything they need to know about the sport of sailing, and to compete.  In the past year alone, we have increased our active participation by 100%, moved to a beautiful new marina, and successfully petitioned the University for a grant in order to buy a new fleet of boats.  As for our racing, we have started to be noticed in our conference, and have become a very competitive team amongst prosperous varsity programs.

We sail out of Two Rivers Yacht Club, on the Bohemia River, in Chesapeake City, MD.  We have a fleet of seven Flying Juniors, which is a common collegiate boat, two 420's, which we kept from our previous fleet, and one Hobie Cat, which we like to play around on.

Our season on the water runs through October, and starts again in March.  We hold practice six days a week, one day for beginners, and two days for racers.  The practices, which run between 3:30 and 7:00, are all optional.  We have members that come out every day, and members we see once or twice a semester.  Along with student members, we also have active faculty who come out to spend a relaxing afternoon on the water.  We hold numerous social functions as well as fundraisers throughout the year.  In the off season we have chalkboard lessons every Sunday night.

Racing is the aspect of our team in which we have made the most progress in recent years, and in which we will make the most progress in years to come.  We belong to MAISA (Mid-Atlantic Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association), which is the most competitive district in the ICSA (Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association).  Some of the best sailors in America, as well as Olympians, come out of this division, and are our competition in major regattas.  Each weekend a select group of racers travel to regattas at various schools such as Georgetown, Old Dominion, Maryland, Drexel, UMBC, UPENN, Princeton, Webb, Navy, CNU, and others.

Along with traveling to these schools, we host three Regattas of our own:  The McCurdy Open in the fall, a Spring Open, and an Alumni Regatta in April.  All of our members work hard to prepare for these events.  The sailors from six other schools stay with our members, and an amazing weekend is had by all.  We have become very competitive this year, our sailors have produced some of the best results our program has ever seen, and we are well on our way to producing a winning program.

We are entirely student-run, and as such, our officers learn valuable leadership skills as well as providing the perfect atmosphere in which our members can learn, enjoy themselves, and advance in the sport of sailing, as well as in life!