Coach John Dickson and Assistant Coach Tom Leach both have many years experience and are passing their skills onto the team, some who have no previous racing experience. Coach Dickson was captain, and later, assistant coach of the Harvard Sailin Team. He presently the goverment teacher at our school and sailing director at Chatham Yacht Club. Mr. Leach is long time Harbormaster of Harwich Port and has been the J/24 Nantucket Sound Champion many times over the years in addition to ocean racing.
The boats we sail are collegiate 420's and are raced at high school and college level. The boats are manned by one skipper and one crew. The crew looks for wind shifts and puffs while controling the jib, which is the forward sail. The skipper keeps the boat going fast and trimming the main sail. With three boats per team, some leading boats must give up their positions to helpthe team. Mark traps, covering, and luffing the jib are some of the ways to slow the other team down and bring our boats intop winning combinations. We work on boat speed, tactics, and starts, which are all essential to winning the taem races. Team races are won by a combinations of fewer than ten positions of the boats when they finish. A meet is won by the team who wins the best out of five races.
We practice from 2:30-5:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, in Pleasant Bay in Harwich/Chatham. Most of out meets take place on Pleasant Bay, but we do compete against other prestigious sailing programs at their home ports, including Tabor, Falmouth, Dartmouth and Barnstable. We have more than ten team races left in our season, including the state and Cape and Island Championships.
We look forward to s successful season. You can keep track of us by watching our meets on Pleasant Bay or by viewing our web page at: www.capecod.net/harbormaster/sailingteam/sailinghome.html