Cal State Long Beach’s Sailing Team is making a comeback after 25 years of inactivity; most recently, it took first place in the Frosh/Soph Regatta at the Mission Bay Yacht Club in San Diego.
A regatta is a series of boat races, and the CSULB team won by accumulating the least amount of points after 12 races on Oct. 9. University of California, San Diego hosted the Frosh/Soph Regatta, where 19 universities competed in the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference (PCCSC).
“There is no prize, just a trophy,” said Co-President Shane Young, junior business marketing major. “But we qualify to compete in the Pacific Coast Champs Regatta.”
Brothers Chase and Shane Young co-founded the new chapter of the sailing team. The team currently has approximately 12 members.
“I’ve been doing it since I was 7,” Shane Young said. “I did it because my brother was doing it, but I like it, I like the competition.”
The sailing team competes in regattas throughout the whole year except in the summer. Their next competition is the Dinghy Fall Pacific Coast Championship on Nov. 12 and 13 at UC Santa Barbara.
Young continued to say that sailing is like golf — after every regatta, you want to have the least amount of points. But sailing isn’t all chance, like any other competitive sport, the sailing team practices frequently.
The first-prize-winning strategy was playing with wind shifts. The team of sailors would turn the boat to where there are more winds in darker waters, called puffs.
“When the wind shifts, you have to move the boat,” Shane Young said. “That’s how the shortest distance can be achieved in a regatta, by playing with wind shifts.”
The competition requires that there be two skippers, a person who sails the boat and controls the big sail, and a crew that mans the boat and controls the small sails. The skippers rotate after every race.
“We sail all year round,” Shane Young said. “In the winter, you just wear warmer clothes.”
The team attends competitions hosted by the PCCSC that allows the 19 schools to compete for a first prize trophy. At the collegiate level, sailing teams are not offered prizes until they reach the championship levels.
The CSULB sailing team will compete in the next regatta to secure a spot in the championship.
Current team members are trying to contact and recruit other sailors on campus who may not know about the sailing team — prior experience is not required. They are open to both genders, but Shane Young admits that a large part of the team is girls.
For students who are reluctant to contact the sailing team due to not knowing how to swim, life jackets are mandatory during the competition and a few of the team members are certified life guards, so safety is never an issue.
They meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Marine Stadium. Contact the team at csulbsailingteam@gmail.com or like their page on Facebook for more information.
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