By Sports Editor Tom Griffin 

After having participated in only three events, the sailing team’s 2019 season has ended about as quickly as it started. 

The Corsairs followed their namesake and took to the seas in search of fame, fortune, and first place. Lasting under a month, the competitions that followed concluded in unfortunate fashion.  

The first of which saw the UMassD team travelling to the banks of the River Charles to take part in the Harvard Invitational at Cambridge. Of the 16 teams and 14 other colleges competing, UMassD settled into a 15th place finish. Jumping ahead to 11th place following the first heat, the Corsairs quickly lost momentum in subsequent races and spent much of the later competition trading, and ultimately losing, the 13th position with the likes of the UNH Wildcats and UConn Huskies. 

Just a couple weeks later, the sailing team found themselves trekking to the Great Herring Pond Open, hosted by Massachusetts Maritime in Plymouth. In the two-day competition, which was unfortunately cut short due to high winds posing a threat to competition ships, the Corsairs found themselves once again starting strong, but petering off later in the contest. After a quick surge in the first heat put UMass Dartmouth at a comfortable 7th place, the team only broke into the top ten twice over the next 15 races. As their score accumulated, the Corsairs crawled to a halt at 13th of eighteen teams. 

The Corsairs’ last event of the year, once again travelling to a Massachusetts Maritime-hosted function in Plymouth, saw them compete in the Chuck Fontaine Invite. Of the seven teams in attendance, two of which representing the University of Rhode Island, the Corsairs finished toward the back of the pack at 6th. Starting off slow in the first two heats of the first race, UMassD gained some momentum but found themselves unable to close the gap between themselves and the teams from URI and Brown who maintained hot streaks all afternoon. 

With the turning of the seasons and the freezing of New England’s rivers and lakes comes the conclusion of the Corsairs’ chances of sailing the high seas… for now, at least. Competing yet stumbling in all three of their outings, the UMassD sailing crew can spend the Winter months cooling off, in anticipation of the ice thawing and competition resuming in early Spring.