The sailing team had a productive spring break, with one regatta and good coaching despite difficult weather. There were two regattas scheduled, the first at Connecticut College and the second at Brown University. Although the Conn. race was cancelled due to excessive mud, the race at Brown went well. Despite not having trained or even sailed yet this season, the team came in third out of five. According to Eric Vennemeyer '04, "the team improved over the day as we warmed up" and everyone was satisfied with the effort.

The real improvement from the week, however, came as a result of the training at Kingspoint Merchant Marine Academy in Long Island, New York. The military academy has a very good sailing team with excellent coaches and Amherst benefited from the individual coaching. They spent the mornings with the coaches and afternoons racing with the Kingspoint sailing team, one of the best sailing teams in their region.

The only disappointing part of the week was the very rocky weather. The team was unable to train for a few days because of extreme winds. The harsh weather did have some positive effects though. According to team president Nadine Krupinski '03, it helped the team to sail in different environments with harsher weather. After the strong week of training the team looks forward to next weekend's regattas at the Coast Guard Academy and Boston College.

The races will be the first try-out for two sailors. "It's basically my first time in this regatta so it's going to be a learning experience for me," said Caleb Murphy '04