The Tufts University Sailing Team represents

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

in the intercollegiate sport of

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

. They are members of the

Intercollegiate Sailing Association The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is a volunteer organization that serves as the governing authority for all sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. History The fi ...

(ICSA), the governing body for collegiate sailing, and compete at the

New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association The New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) is one of the seven conferences affiliated with the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) that schedule and administer regattas within their established geographic regions. NEISA i ...

(NEISA). Led by head coach Johnny Norfleet since 2023, who took the reins from Ken Legler after an illustrious 43-year career at Tufts, the team is one of the most successful in the history of college sailing.

National championships

The team holds 28

National Championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the best team, indi ...

: * Dinghy Championships (5): 1976, 1980, 1981, 1997, 2001 * Women's Dinghy National Championships (8): 1984, 1986, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2003 * Team Racing National Championships (6): 1976 (with NEISA), 1984, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 * Men's Single-handed National Championships (5): 1975 (Altreuter), 1976 (McCreary), 1980 (Johnstone), 1993 (Mendelblatt), 1995 (Bischoff) * Women's Single-handed National Championships (3): 1995 (Harris), 1996 (McDowell), 1997 * Match Race (previously Sloop) National Championships (1): 2013 And received the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy (for the top overall team across the various national championships) in eight seasons: 1975, 1976, 1984, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999

Sailors

66 men and 25 women were All-Americans. Team members have received the

ICSA College Sailor of the Year ICSA College Sailor of the Year, also known as Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year because of the sponsorship by Marlow Ropes, is an award annually presented, since 1968, by the United States Naval Academy The United States Naval Acade ...

award 4 times: * Roger Altreuter in 1975 * R. Stuart Johnstone in 1980 *

Paul Dickey Paul Dickey (12 May 1882 – 7 January 1933), was an American playwright and silent screen writer. He wrote 17 films between years 1914 in film, 1914 and 1953 in film, 1933. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and died in New York City, New Y ...

in 1981 * Senet Bischoff in 1996 And the

ICSA Women's College Sailor of the Year ICSA Women's College Sailor of the Year, also known as Quantum Women's College Sailor of the Year Trophy due to Sports marketing, sponsorship by Quantum Sails, is a Sailing (sport), sailing award annually presented, since 2003, to Intercollegiate Sa ...

once: * Kaitlin Storck in 2008

Olympians

Carlos Echeverria in 1956;

Peter Commette Peter Michael Commette (born March 13, 1954) is an American sailor who competed in the 1976 Summer Olympics. He raced Finn and finished in 11th place. He also was champion and 1st in 1974 in the first Laser World Championships; 2nd in 470 Worl ...

in 1976; Magnus Grävare in 1984;

Mark Mendelblatt Mark Mendelblatt (born February 19, 1973) is an American yachtsman. Married to windsurfer Carolina Mendelblatt (née Borges), he primarily sails the Laser Radial, a one-design class of small ( long, and ) single-handed sailing dinghy. Beginni ...

in 2004, 2008 and 2012; Jen Provan in 2004 and 2008; Tyler Paige in 2021; are Olympic sailors from Tufts.

World champions

Dave Curtis David Adams Curtis (born June 22, 1946 in Marblehead, Massachusetts) is an American sailor and sail maker. As a sailor he competed at the highest level in many National and International classes. He won the World Championships in the Etchells se ...

in 1976, 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1992 (

Etchells The International Etchells Class is a racing class of one-design sailing boats, designed by American Skip Etchells. Production The first 36 boats were built by Skip Etchells and the Old Greenwich Boat Company between 1967 to 1969. In the ea ...

), 1967 (

Jolly Boat The jolly boat was a type of ship's boat in use during the 18th and 19th centuries. Used mainly to ferry personnel to and from the ship, or for other small-scale activities, it was, by the 18th century, one of several types of ship's boat. The de ...

), 1981 (

Soling The Soling is an open keelboat that holds the World Sailing "International class" status. The class was used from the 1972 Olympics (Kiel) until the 2000 Olympics (Sydney) as " Open Three Person Keelboat". Besides the Olympic career of the Soli ...

) and 1984 ( J/24) * Elizabeth Gelenitis "Betsy" Allison in 1983 ( Women’s Laser), 1987 (

Lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

), 1987, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997 (Women’s J/24), 1999 (

Match Racing A match race is a race between two competitors, going head-to-head. In sailboat racing it is differentiated from a fleet race, which almost always involves three or more competitors competing against each other, and team racing where teams consi ...

), 2003 (

Yngling The Ynglings were a dynasty of kings, first in Sweden and later in Norway, primarily attested through the poem ''Ynglingatal''. The dynasty also appears as Scylfings (Old Norse ''Skilfingar'') in ''Beowulf''. When ''Beowulf'' and ''Ynglingatal'' ...

) and 2023 (Hansa 303) * Bruce Burton in 1986, 1987 (

) * Scott Kyle in 1986, 1990 ( Sunfish) * Peter Comette in 1974 (

Laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

) * Nick Trotman in 1998 (

505 Year 505 ( DV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Theodorus and Sabinianus (or, less frequently, year 1258 '' Ab urb ...

) and 1998 (team racing) *

Tomas Hornos Tomas Hornos (born September 15, 1988 in Argentina), is a world class sailor in the Star and Snipe classes. He was the youngest skipper to win the Snipe World Championship by winning the title on his 19th birthday in 2007, and also the youngest ...

in 2007 (

Snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/camouflaging plumage. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a near ...

) *Brett Davis, Josh Adams and Victoria Wadsworth in 1998 (

Team Racing Team racing, also known as team sailing, is a popular form of dinghy racing and yacht racing. Two teams compete in a race, each sailing two to four boats of the same class. The winning team is decided by combining the results of each team's boats ...

) *Graeme Woodworth, Tim Fallon and Karen Renzulli in 2005 (team racing) *Lisa Keith and Peter Levesque in 2007 and 2009 (team racing) *Senet Bischoff in 2014 and 2017 (Corinthian Etchells) *Mark Mendelblatt in 1991 (Laser II) and 1998 (team racing)

Sailing venue

The home for the Tufts University sailing program is the Bacow Sailing Pavilion, named after

Lawrence Bacow Lawrence Seldon Bacow (; born August 24, 1951) is an American lawyer, Economics, economist, author and university administrator, and the current and 29th president of Harvard University. He took office on July 1, 2018, succeeding Drew Gilpin Fau ...

and his wife, Adele Fleet Bacow. It opened in the fall of 2013 and was built on the foundation of its 60-year-old predecessor, on Medford's Upper Mystic Lake. This two-story facility is one of the nicest in college sailing, with locker rooms, kitchen, meeting rooms and a large boatshop.

Fleet

The fleet of Tufts University Sailing Team's includes 24

Larks Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occ ...

and 6 FJs, as well as several ILCAs.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Website

Tufts Jumbos sailing