Poor sailors

Skipping across the water at 20 -plus knots, dodging the boom swinging at your head, zig zagging in and out of the opponent’s path, and then hitting a gust of wind that throws you, your teammate and your boat upside down into freezing water isn’t what most of us would call fun. But for a few SMU students it’s worth falling into White Rock Lake.

SMU’s sailing club has been afloat for more than 20 years, but few students know of its existence.

“Sailing isn’t as advertised as all the other teams and it’s hard to build awareness when we practice 15 minutes away,” said Alan Vojtech, one of two student coaches.

The 25 active members hold weekly practice Tuesday through Thursday on White Rock Lake. This semester they have been to two Dallas regattas, or races.

Sponsorship

Officially, SMU doesn’t recognize sailing as a team and therefore does not sponsor it.

“Club sports receive money through student organizations, fund raisers, student fees or private donations,” said Tim Moore, the head of club sports.

SMU competes against Baylor, the University of Texas, Texas A & M, Texas A & M at Galveston and the University of Kansas, all included in the Seisa – competitive sailing’s version of the Western Athletic Conference.

SMU donated five 15-foot sailboats 10 years ago along with the membership fee that allows the team to dock its boats on White Rock.

Student Senate granted $1,000 to the club for boat repairs this year. That money is gone. To stay afloat, the Sailing Club has to find funding.

Club expenses

Although the club dodged the $30,000 cost for five new boats, it still has to find money for future repairs, cold weather gear and new lifejackets.

Student Senate denied funds for the gear because it didn’t see the necessity.

“If you fall in the water in the winter you get hypothermia,” Vojtech said. “It’s not like you can just get back in the boat – they flip over.”

Sailing has always been an expensive sport, but traveling expenses is the one thing that keeps the sailing club from competition week after week.

“We just don’t have the gas money to travel to Florida or California,” Vojtech said. “Otherwise we could compete every week.”

The seven states included in Seisa make it hard to get from regatta to regatta.

Coachless club

This semester, Alan Vojtech and Brian Garrison – both students at SMU – are filling in as coaches for the club.

“Because we’re a club, SMU won’t give us money for a coach,” Garrison said.

According to Moore, clubs like rugby which involve high-risk factors have coaches for safety’s sake.

“We have one alum named Dan Reyna who helps us out at regattas and gives us tips,” Vojtech said.

That’s about as close as the club has come to a non-student coach.

Each year the team members who know how to sail teach the ones who don’t, keeping the team on the water.

Competition – play by play

Sixteen boats, each with two person crews, compete in each race.

All race back and forth on the starting line trying to get initial speed and hoping for a good starting position.

When the gun fires, the boats shoot from wherever they are on the line toward the first of two buoys -all the while cutting in front of opponents trying to push them out of line.

“Sometimes boats collide, but you don’t try to do that,” Garrison said. “Sailing is all tactic – that’s why I like it.”

Each college race is 20-minutes long compared with two-hour professional races.

“We’re cordial on the dock, but there is trash talk between boats during races,” Garrison said.

Garrison says that sailing is a sport of tact and science, “where will the wind take us, how will we get back if the wind stops.”

Brad Conlin, a first year on the team, placed fifth in his first race, the Frozen Hate Regatta two weeks ago while the team placed seventh.

Danger

“Almost everyone I know has had a sailing accident,” said Whitney Helman, a junior journalism major.

Helman was involved in a serious sailing accident in August while racing with her father on Lake Michigan.

The Coast Guard ended up giving Helman a ride to the emergency room when her boat flipped in the wind giving her a nasty 15-stitch wound to the knee.

“While I was getting into the Coast Guard boat, our sail boat flipped over again and hit my dad in the head,” Helman said. Her father was only dazed.

Garrison had his own incident. He was sitting on the plank when he was catapulted into the main sail taking the boat over with him.

Another common danger of sailing is drowning after being dragged under the sailboat as it flips or being knocked out by the boom – the pole that anchors the foot sail and attaches to the mast.

Who said this wasn’t a high-risk sport?

To contact the sailing club, e-mail its student coach Alan Vojtech at [email protected]