(WGNO) – Everything is a first for the Tulane Sailing Team, first as a varsity team sport after being a club sport for the past four year. Senior crew members Grace Bloomield and Sophie Ricker has been with the program since the beginning when they were a club team.
“Being a senior I have been here when we were a club and everything it was more laid back and low key and saw it as a transition. I really like the varsity athletics it been a really good move for us we have opportunity to travel now i’m excited to see where it goes.” says Bloomfield.
Ricker added, ” I was on in the executive board when it was a club sport and to see the transition to varsity it was excited but also bitter sweet because we only get one hear of it.”
This weekend Tulane will host its first ever Conference Championship Regatta, Meet, on the waters of Lake Pontchartrain.
“I’m really happy how far we come with the current that didn’t come as varsity athletes and this is something they really built themselves and really stuck with it and really passionate about it.” says first year head coach Charles Higgins.
Sailing is a quite simple sports once you understand the point system and what the players on the boat are called. A Skipper is the person controlling the main sail and pretty much is charge of the boat. The Crew is the person controlling the jib, small sail of the boat, and will make adjustments inside the boat. Scoring is simple, like track there are many races throughout a regatta and points are awarded by what place you can in at. For example, first place will receive one point and tenth place will receive ten points. At the end of the regatta the team with the least amount of points win the regatta.
The SEISA Team race and CoEd Conference Championship will get start Saturday morning on Lake Pontchartrain next to the Southern Yacht Club off of Lakeshore Drive.