What a difference a day makes

"Going into Saturday's races, there were a lot of unknowns for us since our only practice took place the previous day. With three new people on the crew, everyone did not know how competitive we would be all weekend long."

Added skipper Kyle Collins, "however, we felt good during our practice day because everything ran smoothly and we only had a couple minor things to sort out before we started racing on Saturday.

"In sailing, no matter how well you race, everyone can improve. Practice allowed us to become comfortable with our choreography — everyone knew who would step where on the boat at appropriate times — and made a couple tweaks to maximize everyone's skill set to help the boat reach its potential."

It was this cautious, yet confident attitude that accompanied Collins when the Keelhaulers opened the first of two days of racing in Annapolis, Maryland, at the Kennedy Cup.

We all know how that weekend ended: The Keelhaulers won their fourth national championship and the right to represent the United States at next Fall's Word Student Yachting World Cup in France.

How Cal Maritime became national champions, and collected this coveted hardware, is a story as exciting as that weekend itself.

And it started with three people who will never forget their first experiences in competitive sailing.

 

"One of the first new people is Cooper Smith, our offside trimmer, which is a really important job on the boat. He possesses a lot of sailing experience on his own, but not with this team. Even though it was unknown entering the weekend, I had a feeling he would become rock-solid once racing started, and he was fantastic."

Added Collins, "the next individual is Django Tomlinson, a freshman from Hawai'i. He sailed a limited amount of time back home and never raced a day in his life. An hour into our practice day, I knew he would perform well under pressure because he did everything he needed at appropriate times. Everything he did throughout the weekend was perfect, I never saw anyone learn how to race a sailboat that fast in my entire life.

"Giovanni Cerrito was a sophomore who possessed a lot of sailing experience, but limited racing experience. He lives on a 20-foot sailboat; before last summer's cruise (on the Golden Bear), he sailed that boat from San Francisco to San Diego and back by himself. Even though we all knew he possessed a lot of sailing experience, there is a big difference between that and racing. His learning curve was quick because his performance was awesome and did exactly what we needed him to do all weekend."

The Keelhaulers enjoyed the best possible start to Championship Weekend when they won the first race by a lengthy margin. It took only one race for Cal Maritime to show how talented, and competitive its crew was in a field filled with marquee programs and nationally recognized names.

"That win allowed everyone to relax a bit and relieve anxious energy," said Collins. "But I think we relaxed too much because in the next race, we were late to start, experienced a few issues and finished sixth."

Cal Maritime continued to face one challenge after another as the day progressed. Even though Rhode Island finished the day 10 points ahead of the Keelhaulers, by winning two races and placing second in another pair, only a handful of points separated second place Cal Maritime and the next five teams.

Said Collins, "we sailed fairly well on Saturday, but felt a little frustrated because our worst performance of the day took place during the last race of the day — something everyone tries to avoid from a mental standpoint because that feeling is hard to eliminate until a team returns to the water. You can have a rock-solid day and race well, but if your last race of the day is poor, that is the main thing everyone thinks about.

"We knew we sailed well and competitively, what mistakes were made throughout Saturday's races and understood what changes needed to take place to not repeat those mistakes on Sunday in order to succeed throughout the final day of competition."

Knowing the situation Cal Maritime faced in the morning — it trailed Rhode Island by a sizable number of points and needed to travel fast throughout Sunday's races to prevent a massive drop in the team standings — Collins' next challenge took place throughout the night.

"I did not sleep well, or long Saturday night, because I knew how tough Sunday was going to be. I did feel a little pressure because great starts were needed for us to challenge Rhode Island. If we suffered a bad start in any race, it was going to be difficult to come back from that. I spent a long time that night thinking about what we needed to do."

To settle his mind, and help him prep for the upcoming day, Collins turned to a program alum for advice.

"I even called an alum who won two Kennedy Cups during his time at Cal Maritime. He reminded me to keep things simple since those boats are physically taxing to sail and can quickly tire out the crew if too many maneuvers are performed, which can slow the boat down.

"Entering Sunday's race, I felt stressed out. I am usually pretty calm and level-headed when it comes to sailboat racing, and I try not to let anything affect me — I usually do not feel pressure because I sailed in three world championships and sailed across the ocean twice in the Transpac race (San Pedro, California to Diamond Head, Hawai'i) — but I felt it this time because my stomach was in a knot heading out to the race course."

Even with its precarious position in the team standings, Cal Maritime's start to Sunday's races mirrored the previous day.

"We enjoyed a great start to Sunday's first race and the boat was sailing fast. The crew was working smoothly, it felt as if everyone was riding a magic carpet."

That strong start changed dramatically in a blink of an eye when the Keelhaulers took one bad wind shift and did not respond well. Even though numerous boats passed them by, the cadet-athletes chose to focus on the positive elements of that incident.

"More than anything, we felt frustrated by finishing seventh that race. I think that took some of the pressure we felt earlier in the day away because we just made a big mistake. At that point, we knew that we were in control of how we performed for the rest of the day, and just tried our best each race."

It did not take long for the Keelhaulers to bounce back.

"For the next race, we had the cleanest possible start and led the entire time. By the time we rounded the last mark, we timed our next competitor and it trailed us by over two minutes — a massive lead in sailboat racing when you are traveling six miles per hour. After winning that race, I knew we had a shot to finish first overall.

"Knowing that, my stomach returned to a knot; what made me feel better was the fact that we made a mistake earlier that day, corrected it and won the following race with one race remaining.

"The crew was calm as could be, knowing all we needed to do was sail a fast boat. I have been sailing for 15 years and did not feel as calm — which was new to me. We enjoyed another fantastic start and used our crew work to make gains here and there, and took full advantage of every puff of air, unlike the other boats."

Collins added, "by the time we made it to the top mark, we led by 15 boat lengths. The crew work was so smooth the entire time since everyone focused on their specific job and performing the best they can."

With eight people on board in a situation like the one the Keelhaulers faced, what tends to happen are people taking on their teammates' job, in addition to their own position-specific responsibilities, and trying too hard to create a positive outcome. Instead, this crew remained disciplined, focused on their set of tasks, and trusted their teammates to do the same.

"Once you have the lead in sailboat racing, it's pretty easy to remain in the lead. The problem is when you do make a mistake and other boats pass you, it's difficult to catch up. Course management was our priority since we were in the lead, during the final race. We focused on keeping our boat between the next mark and the other boats to remain in first — which is what happened the entire race, for the second race in a row.

"We sailed as clean as we possible could without making a mistake."

Cal Maritime knew it won the last two Kennedy Cup races and felt thrilled to end its weekend with those results, especially since the overall results of the weekend were still unknown when the Keelhaulers crossed the finish line for the final time.

"We had no idea what the overall standings looked like after winning the final race but heard over the radio about numerous protests that were taking place."

In sailing, especially at this event, you have three options after committing a foul: turning your boat 360 degrees to negate your penalty; fly a yellow flag, which means you are accepting that foul and will take a two-point penalty on your score; keep sailing like it never happened and take your chances in front of a protest committee at the end of the day. If that takes place, you fill out a form and sit in front of a jury.

One boat will tell its side of the story, the other boat will share its side, rebuttals will take place and the jury will decide what happened and who was at fault.

"I think Rhode Island sailed too aggressively to protect its lead, which is why that team was part of a lot of protests.

"More than anything, especially with all the protests taking place, we felt proud once competition ended because we won the final two races. We did everything we could to make up for mistakes that took place earlier that day," said Collins.

Once Cal Maritime turned on its engine, coiled its line and started sailing towards the harbor, Collins noticed a little motorboat bouncing towards its direction. Even though nobody knew why these boats were heading towards one another, Cal Maritime's crew quickly pieced together the situation when Navy's head coach, who drove the motorboat, pulled up with a big smile and said "congratulations, the whole crew sailed a fantastic event. I'll see everyone in France!"

"Everyone immediately dropped what they were doing because silence and disbelief followed. And then someone yelled, I do not remember who, yelled 'no way!' I do remember everyone yelling, celebrating, hugging and high fiving once the silence was broken.

"We sail with a safety officer on board that is from the Naval Academy, he will step in if boats are sailing too close to one another or entering an uncomfortable situation, to help with collision avoidance. He even got involved in all our hugs and screaming because he was excited for us. I have never been that excited on a boat, following a big race like the Kennedy Cup.

As excited as we were, Navy's coach also reminded us that we won the race off preliminary scores, but there were a lot of protests to still figure out. He also mentioned that he was fairly confident that we earned the right to head to France and compete in the Student Yachting World Cup. Even though we were excited, we still felt reserved as we docked the boat."

It was then when the Cal Maritime's biggest challenge of the weekend began, since everyone waited… and waited… and continued to wait while the protest committee deliberated.

"During that time, Navy's skipper asked me if I would serve as a witness to one of his protests involving Rhode Island. Eventually, Navy was disqualified from a race on Rhode Island's protest, and Rhode Island was chucked out of a race by Navy and its protest, which created a scoring mess," explained Collins.

When the Keelhaulers first arrived at the dock, preliminary scores highlighted a three-way tie for first place between Cal Maritime, Navy and Rhode Island, with the tiebreaker determined by the team that won the most races (spoiler alert: it was Cal Maritime).

Also taking place during that two-hour wait was a conversation between Cal Maritime and Navy's head coach since the Keelhaulers had a 6:30 p.m. flight to catch back home — the last to Northern California out of Baltimore.

To find the best possible solution to a unique situation, Navy's head coach created an unorthodox solution: Allow Cal Maritime to take photos with the trophy since it had to leave ASAP to the airport, with official results still undetermined.

"It felt good, but a little guilty to hold the trophy and take pictures with so many things still up in the air. Once we put the trophy back on the table, we started heading to our van because we had a plane to catch. While we were loading everything, a race official ran towards us with a piece of paper in his hands that listed Cal Maritime as the official winner. Even though we were already late to the airport, we joined everyone again for the official awards ceremony."

Once Cal Maritime was declared the official winner, everyone had a chance to hold the John F. Kennedy Memorial Trophy, learned about the award's history and why it was donated to the Academy. Every crew member received a nice glass cup that said Kennedy Cup — First Place and a large silver plate that said the same thing.

And then it was time to head to the airport, ASAP.

"That is a long red eye flight to take back to California, but everyone was in a great mood following that win. It took a while for everything to sink in since we needed to make a mad dash through the airport, security and to the gate to make our flight, which we did with plenty of time to spare."

Said Collins, when asked to provide a synopsis of the weekend, "this team really does live up to the school's motto: To work, to fight, we are ready."