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" It’s like chess on the water, " Harwich junior Tom Leach reflected.
" It’s more complicated that people think, " chimed in Jamie Scarborough.
Yachting may be a sport for the likes of Sir Thomas Lipton and Ted Turner, but no one needs to be a tycoon to be on a high school sailing team. But they do need to know port from starboard and boom from spar. As Nauset coach Warren Silver observed, " This isn’t sailing 101. "
" These kids know how to sail, " Silver said. " It’s like the swim team, you’ve got to know how to sail to be on it. You’ve got to have sailing skills to be able to compete. "
With all this salt water surrounding us there is know shortage of savvy skippers. Over the last half dozen years sailing teams have sprouted at Nauset, Harwich, Chatham, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. Next year there might even be a league, roping in Bishop Stang and Dartmouth as well.
Nauset’s sail squad has been around for quite a while, but this is their first spin around the Cove as a varsity team.
" There was a five-year ‘probationary’ period before we became a varsity team, " coach Warren Silver explained. " There are 18 kids on the team. We have no seniors. "
The Warriors were offshore at the Eastward Ho! Country Club, Chatham’s home waters, to sail against Harwich Thursday afternoon. Pleasant Bay shimmer under a clear sky, a slight warm breeze blew, skippers and crew relaxed on the clubhouse veranda, million dollar homes peeked through the pitch pines. Why can’t all sports be like this?
" This is on the extreme end of light wind, " Harwich coach John Dickson noted. " It’s five or six knots. We usually sail in 20 knots. "
The length of the course is variable. Harwich harbormaster Tom Leach motored Dickson around in a circle as he flung orange buoys into Pleasant Bay, marking a tight course, the shortest of the year. The boats sailed to and for, behind the starter boat, awaiting a series of short whistle blasts that signaled the race was on. Then they’re off, tacking furiously.
" There is a lot of finessing and tactical work that goes on to help your teammates into a better position so they can score better, " Sliver explained. " Someone in a faster boat can block someone so a teammate can get by (both boats). "
Each boat has a captain and a crew of one and there are three boats per team. Each boat scores by where they finish in the race; 1,2,3,4,5,6 and the low total score wins the race. The first team to win three races wins the regatta. Harwich won 3-0 Thursday. The teams switch boats, to even out an minor differences.
Race etiquette is fairly complicated, there are lots of illegal maneuvers that are legal at times, that can be used to cut off another sail’s wind or slow them down.
" There are lots of different types of sailing but high school revolves around team sailing, three on three, " Dickson explained. " There’s a whole layer of strategy from fleet racing. The basics are boat speed, handling and tactics, those are the three basics of sailing, but team racing adds another layer. In fleet racing all you try to do is sail. In team racing you use the winds to your advantage to control the other team. Say a team is second, fourth and sixth. There are ways for the second place boat to slow down the third place boat, for the fourth place boat to slow down five that will allow sixth to pass all of them. "
That’s the chess on the water young Leach spoke of.
" I like sailing as a team, " Leach said, " It’s like an individual sport yet it’s a team sport too. You’re in your own boat sailing as fast as you can but you do want to help out your teammates. It’s the skipper who steers the boat and works out the different tactics. "
" You keep practicing and get better and get to know each other better, " adde Scarborough, the other Harwich co-captain.
" The better a skipper and crew get it gets so you don’t have to say anything to each other because you know exactly what to do, " Leach said.
Some sailors do other school sports, some don’t.
" It’s competitive but it’s still a relaxed atmosphere, " Leach said. " You get to travel around and go nice places. "
" I think it’s a really good sport, " declared Nauset junior co-captain Caitlin Rogers, " especially on Cape Cod - and I wanted to take advantage of it. I like being on the water. I’ve been sailing at the Orleans Yacht Club since I was ten. It’s fun to be on the high school team, you sail against kids your own age. You get to see people from other sports and people you know from other schools and see who’s gotten better. "
" It’s a lot of fun, the thrill of sailing, " noted Ben Peno, Nauset’s other captain. " I’ve been doing it since the fifth grade (at the OYC). I’ve always loved it. Team racing just adds to the suspense of the whole race. The whole race can change around one mark. Usually we set mark traps and that works well. "
As befits the son of a harbormaster Leach has been sailing since he was quite young.
" And I’m pretty good at it, so naturally I’d want to be on the sailing team, " he observed. " Every summer I’d go to the Stone Horse Yacht Club, in Harwich Port, me and Jamie (Scarborough) both. I grew up doing that, racing regattas in the summer. "
That sounds like a good way to grow up. All that experience is passed from captains to teammates.
" Guidance, leadership for the younger team members, " Peno said. " Some kids are not fully developed as team racers, whereas the upperclassmen have, so I try to help them with that. "
" We’re close knit when we’re together, " Rogers explained. " Then we all go off and do different things. We’re all different people but when we’re together we get along. We’re a pretty competitive team but we also take advantage of the fun of it. We get competitive within ourselves but we don’t get caught up in it. " Rogers also runs cross country.
" I like the whole outside aspect, " Rogers said. " You use the resources of the Cape, the water and beaches, and not all sports take advantage of that. This might be the only one because there is no crew team. "
" The sailing team goal is to win, sail fast and have fun, " Peno said. " Everything together is great. Today is a beautiful day to be out. "
" Our goal for our career is to make the nationals,’ Leach said.
" Our record has to be good enough and once your record is good enough you qualify for the New Englands, " Scarborough explained. " There are eight teams there and the top three qualify and sail in Florida or California. "
And both would like to sail in college as well " It’s not number one but I hope to choose a college with a good sailing program, " Scarborough said.
They’re fortunate to be here in the right time and place, at a high school which has one.