Interview with Katherine McNamara
Following an impressive second place finish in the College Sailing Match Race Nationals last month, we took the opportunity to catch up with AYC member Katherine McNamara. Katherine is in her Junior year at Brown University. She grew up sailing at AYC and fondly remembers her many JAYC summers, as well as the club’s summer cruises on her family’s Swan 42.
After a successful fall sailing season at Brown, she can’t wait to start training for spring, with an eye on Team Race Nationals, hosted this year by Brown.
Bell 42: First of all, congratulations on a fantastic result in the Match Race Nationals. How did you feel going into this event?
KM: Well, this season was my first time match racing. I hadn’t gotten a lot of exposure to it before I got to college, but it always seemed really cool and like something I really wanted to do, especially because it’s a great avenue for post-college sailing.
We had a great result at the first regatta of the season, the fleet race at Coast Guard, and then we had our match racing qualifiers and that did not go very well. It was definitely more of a struggle for the team, we got knocked out after the first day, so I think we just had to regroup a little bit going into nationals. We were just focused on all doing our jobs to the best of our abilities, staying calm and just trying to make it through the regatta.
Bell 42: And what about the rest of your team? Did they have more experience in match racing or were they also new to it?
KM: Two of the people on the boat - Cam Spriggs and Guthrie Braun - were part of the match racing team that won nationals last year, so they were definitely helping out me and Charlie Gish, who was also new to match racing.
Bell 42: What were some of the highs and lows over the course of the three-day race?
KM: I think the first day was very relaxed, we were doing well, we just wanted to learn as much as possible. Our attitude going into the event was to treat the first round robin as a learning experience. We were confident enough in ourselves and our abilities that we expected to make it through that, so we were just trying to take away, okay, what did we do wrong here? What did we do right here? And just learning.
And then I think the biggest high was on the last day, beating Harvard and knocking them out. They’re some of our closest friends, we love sailing against them and they’re fantastic. In our second race, we were just trailing them going into the finish and we got some really nice jibes in and were able to pass them. That was definitely a high.
And then the low points of the race, well, we were very determined not to think of lows, because that was something we suffered at the qualifiers. We really got into our heads and I think that can be devastating. Obviously one low I can think of was not winning. We had two tough races against Boston College, and they were amazing. They ended up pulling out the win.
Bell 42: If it’s hard to come up with the lows, then that sounds like a fantastic outing. Were there any unexpected challenges along the way?
KM: Yes, in the sense that I think, for me, I’ve never been around the match racing circuit, so I wasn’t exactly sure who was on the other teams and when I showed up to the regattas, especially nationals, it was extremely accomplished sailors on every single team. I think this was definitely one of the most competitive events in college sailing, just looking at everyone’s resumes, and that was kind of a shock for me. I realized that if everyone we’re up against is so good, then we’ve gotta be perfect to do well in this event.
Bell 42: What sort of training did you do leading up to nationals?
KM: We were super lucky, because Brown is in a great location and the day before the two coast guard regattas, they were kind enough to let us go down there and hop in the J70 to practice a little bit for those. And then we sail out of Edgewood Yacht Club at Brown, and one of the members has a Sonar, which is the boat we sailed on at nationals. He let us sail on that a little bit, just to understand the boat.
And then we also had Pearson Potts, who’s a five time US match racing champion, as a coach at nationals. He’s amazing and we went down to Newport and trained with him on the J22s, which was so helpful, because he just opened us up to a whole new world of thinking.
Bell 42: Is there something you can identify that gave you the edge? Maybe something you did in training and you were really able to put into practice.
KM: Yes, I think definitely just the amount of training we had was more than some of the other teams, which was really helpful. And we really focused on our starts. I think we did one million reps of starts with Pearson. We figured out exactly what communication was needed, because I remember we were struggling with that a little bit. We just needed to make sure that Guthrie, our skipper, was focused only on the other boat and we were checking that the sails were trimmed perfectly. A big focus of the whole regatta was to do our own jobs and try not to interfere with each other. We wanted to let everyone be autonomous and just perfect exactly what they were doing, so we could all pull out our best individual performances.
Bell 42: What were the conditions like out there?
KM: The first two days were pretty similar. I would say about 10-12 knots, coming from, I believe it was the west. Most of the practice we had done, at least when we put our kite up, full boat handling practice, was a little bit lighter, so I was kind of nervous. It was definitely a little bit windier. And then the last day was a very light breeze, also coming from the same direction, but we had to go outside and it was a little bit trickier.
Bell 42: What conditions do you perform best in?
KM: Definitely the windier, the better, for us. We’re a pretty big team in match racing, a lot of the boys are pretty tall, so I think we like the windier weather.
Bell 42: I read that none of the sailors who represented Brown at this event are in their final year. Is that right?
KM: Yes, that’s right, so we’ll all be back next year. But we’ll see what happens, because match racing is a crazy thing. Someone can be the most amazing match racer in the world and get knocked out after the first day. You never know what’s gonna happen.
On the first day of this year’s competition, Harvard, who are an amazing team, got seeded pretty low, and that kind of explains match racing. You can be really good and have one rough day and then you’re seeded eighth and you go against the first team and you’re in your head about being eighth and things like that. This is what happened to us at the qualifiers, I think. So you just really never know what’s gonna happen.
Bell 42: Now that the fall season is over, what sort of training do you do in the offseason?
KM: We do a lot of training. We’ll go home for winter break for a couple weeks, and then we’re going to Miami with Harvard to train for our spring season and do team racing. Then we’ll start back here at Brown in the third week of February, back on the water. And then we’re just sailing all the way up to nationals.
Bell 42: Sounds great. Is it Nationals that you’re looking forward to most this spring?
KM: Definitely! Brown is actually hosting team race nationals, both the co-ed and the women’s, so I’m really excited. It will be nice to have home court advantage for that. And then fleet race nationals will be at St. Mary’s in Maryland and I’ve never actually sailed there before. Every time I go down there, I’m always at Navy, for some reason, so I’m excited to see a new venue.
Bell 42: Do you expect to be back sailing at AYC any time soon?
KM: Probably not over winter break, but hopefully over the summer. I really want to keep match racing. I kind of fell in love with it over nationals. At first, I was a little hesitant, because it was trying something new and, going from sailing your entire life, being pretty good at it and then trying something new and being pretty bad at it, was a difficult pill to swallow. But, over nationals, I had so much fun and I think I really figured it out, so I definitely want to do a lot more of that this summer.
Bell 42: Do you have any advice for your younger audience, who might be hoping to sail in college?
KM: I would just say that being part of a college sailing team is one of the best things to ever happen to me. You get a family at school and they just help you through everything new. The practices are every day, but they’re only three hours and you’re having fun with your friends. I highly recommend joining a college sailing team, to everyone. Even if you’re just walking on, you’re not a recruit, it’s such an amazing experience.
One last thing to add is that I hope people read this and really get into match racing, especially the younger kids. I didn’t even know about it until I got to college and it’s so much fun.
Bell 42: Thank you so much for taking the time to tell us about your match racing experience and congratulations once more on an awesome finish at the College Match Racing Nationals!
