When I arrived on the Hill in August of 2007, I had no idea of the things to come. Astounded by the opportunities and new experiences that lay before me, I was no less than dumbfounded by the onslaught of emails looking to recruit me for what seemed like an infinite list of campus organizations. I, like many of my fellow freshmen, was simply overwhelmed and found it far easier to ignore the call to arms entirely by hitting Delete rather than attempt to parse the incoming information. Besides, we had friends to make and classes in entirely new subjects to master. Who had the time to find out what ELS, HOC, or People Who Like To Do Fun Things were, let alone join them? Sure, some choices were obvious: The Young Socialists, Actuary Society, and Womyn's Center probably weren't for me, but the dozens of others were anyone's guess. That was until I received an email announcing one last chance to join the Sailing Team. Hamilton had a sailing team. How had I missed this? A third of the Hamilton campus is involved with athletics at some level and here was my way to get involved. I was thrilled.
I vividly recall the first meeting. Twenty-some-odd freshmen showed up to have Meg Pollak '08 in a giant pair of moon boots crush any fantasies we had about leisurely soaking up some rays while being taught how to race, or for some of us, how to sail to begin with. The team had no boats, we were told, and with no way to practice we had no way to learn and so we had to be experts already in order to join the team. Five of us came to the next meeting, and only three of us ever made it onto the water. Two of those three actually had experience with anything close to the kind of boats we race—I was the other one. It wasn't until I was thrown into a boat during a storm on the East River at a SUNY Maritime regatta to crew for skipper Sarah Bertino '09 that I took a moment to look around and realized exactly how woefully unprepared I was. Not only had I never raced before, but the parts of a Vanguard 420 were practically unrecognizable to me as things I could use to sail. Sarah was less than thrilled, but coached me through the races enough for me to eventually be able to do the same for sailors today.
At a small school like Hamilton, the experiences that often have the most impact are the ones you least expect but have been afforded by the nurturing environment and amazing opportunities. By the end of my sophomore year I was captain of the team. In the intervening years, the Hamilton College Sailing Team has grown to become a serious competitor and boasts one of the largest and strongest rosters among Hamilton Club Sports. This last spring, we qualified for the America Trophy, one step away from ICSA Dinghy Nationals. Unfortunately, our amazing group of committed and experienced sailors still lacks the boats necessary to practice outside of regattas. Even without the ability to practice, we consistently outperform the other club-level teams in our league and we are very competitive with the varsity-level teams as well.
Should you decide to contribute to the team, or wish to find out more about the state of the team, lease feel free to contact us; we would love to hear your input or answer any questions you may have.
Captain Emeritus Travis K. Rosenblatt '11
travis.rosenblatt@gmail.com
