Full Moon Circus

Full Moon Cirrus

Awoken to a bright full moon shining through a cirrus sky.
Clouds whisking past with wind on high. 3am again, I sigh.
Pray tell a story by and by.

-Mutley


So there was this priest, a rabbi and a penguin, and the penguin says....oops, wrong story. Hope this other one has a better punchline.

The sailing team starting a resurgence to national acclaim in the mid-70's. BU had sailed a number of nationals through the years and was a strong competitor in Neisa but nothing was sustained like it was henceforth. It was the women's team that blossomed first. In the early years there were no women-only regattas, that started in the sixties. As the New England Women Intercollegiate Sailing Association (Newisa) was born, BU Women's became a
forerunner. The first national women's championship was sailed in 1967.
Quoting from the ICSA, "The national trophy is named for Gerald C. Miller, early women’s coach at Georgetown and then Boston University, who first conceived the idea and then ran the initial Women’s Nationals in 1967. For that year, administered jointly by NEWISA and its Middle Atlantic counterpart, MAAWS. The Championship came under ICSA sponsorship in 1978."
The women's team was pretty darn good in the mid-70's and won the NE Champs in 1977. Sandy Ray also won the NE Women's Single-handed for BU that year. Skip Whyte was just starting his coaching tenure at BU and he wasted no time getting the team up to speed. Skip is an amazing sailor and coach and is the biggest factor in the successful history of the BU sailing team. Also there was the invaluable presence of Ron Sandstrom, who as a student worked to get the team recognized with more attention and respect within the university. He was equally tenacious on the water. Upon graduation he was instrumental in coaching the women's and freshman teams in the early eighties and then
again when I desperately needed him in the fall of '85.
The success of the 70's continued in 1978 when Sandy Ray was recognized by the ICSA (back then called the ICYRA) as an All-American skipper. At that time there were no awards for the women's teams. There were women recognized on the ICYRA Coed All-American sailing team, but Sandy was the first to be acknowledged based on her skippering prowess. She sailed against the men. She sailed well enough to become BU's first All-American in our long list of All-Americans, and growing.
The women's team continued to prosper with great sailors in the likes of Lynne Jewell and Dru Sour (still tearing it up these days. Dru is married to multiply BU All-American and national champion, Jack Slattery). The team won the Sloop Shrew regatta in '79, '80, and '81. There were other wins along the way. Lynne Jewell won the NE single-handed Championships in 1979 and 1980. She is also distinguished in that she sailed the NE Co-ed Single-handed Championships (no men-only champs back then so women could compete) and qualified for the National Co-ed Single-handed Champs.
She is the only women ever to do so.

My story actually begins here, with Lynne Jewell. It was clear that Lynne was a quick and intelligent sailor and a strong candidate to represent the United States as the skipper in the new Women's 470 class at the Olympics in Seoul, Korea. Of course, there are trials to be won, and a funny thing happened on the way to the race course. After a solid program of training, roles got reversed and well, a sailor by any other name is still a sailor. Lynne had teamed up with another top skipper in Allison Jolly but Allison wasn't clicking in the crew's position fast enough, at the level needed to win the trials at least.
Lynne thought long and hard about it and realized that the best way to reach her dreams was to tweak them a little and so she made the ultimate sacrifice to give up the tiller to Allison, and move to the front of the boat. As hard as it was, it wasn't, for a sailor is a sailor by any other name, skipper or crew, and a champion is a champion. Lynne was more physical in the pointy end and Allison's finesse worked better in the back (not to take anything away from Lynne's incredible skippering ability). They won the trials and went on to take the gold medal for the first Women's Olympic Sailing Championships.
Rah Buds.
Sure, there are parallels here. Not that we're going to be flip-flopping positions but the lesson of putting the team ahead of some individual goals has its merit and rewards. As over every winter break, there are personnel changes on the team and in pairings. Some changes can't be helped. Whenever possible, changes are made for the greater good of the team
with the blessings of individuals keen on making the transition smooth and the experience fruitful. Off the water it is also important to support the team and help it grow. As we move forward through this season I hope you will consider extra ways in which you can contribute to the team. Not a whole lot of time individually, just everybody pitching in a little bit to make the whole more healthy and wholesome.

Just a thought, a story and a poem.


-Coach