Virginia Sailing: Making it to the Show

When 36 teams line up on Tuesday for the start of the College Women’s Nationals in San Diego, CA, in the mix will be the University of Virginia making their first ever appearance. Waverly Harvey offers an update on this upstart team making it to the show…

Virginia Sailing Women’s Team was founded in the 2013-2014 school year by Ellen Hubbard (’14). Since then, Ellen has coached us occasionally, traveled with us up to the Finger Lakes of New York for our district (MAISA) qualifier in April, and will be traveling with us to San Diego for Nationals.

The women’s team has been very up and coming since it was founded. It has primarily been a young team which can be seen as a hardship since we do not have a history to build on, but it’s also promising for future years because we can really form the team.

Some of the obstacles that we have had include a lack of regattas and practice time as a women’s team due to the nature of the coed team (all of the women’s team members are also a part of the coed team). Last fall we only had one regatta together as a women’s team so there was not much practice coming into the spring with many more women’s regattas, including the qualifier.

We are a club team, unlike most of the other teams with varsity status going to Nationals. This is something we take great pride in. Being a club team offers flexibility with our team members and it allows the club to essentially be student run. It provides a lot of leadership opportunities for our sailors and it allows us to work around our schedules to the best of our ability.

Being a club sport, however, can of course provide a financial strain. We are very thankful for our volunteer coach, KC Fullmer, and our very supportive alumni and fans over the years for providing us with the foundation to make us a competitive team.

Waverlee Harvey is the Technical Secretary of Virginia Sailing.

From left: Colleen Roney (’18), Julia Gowell (’18), Founder/Coach Ellen Hubbard (’14),
Waverlee Harvey (’18), Kate Green (’19), and Boo Devanny (’17).