Dear College Sailing…

The reality of school sports is they end, with Connecticut College’s Fritz Baldauf sharing the moment in this goodbye letter to college sailing:

Four years sure go by fast don’t they. My college sailing career – as well as those of my senior sailing classmates and close friends – came to what can only feel like an abrupt end the other day, with the official announcement that we didn’t qualify for the 2024 ICSA Fleet Race National Championship. The realization that I’ve sailed my last college race is still setting in, and it doesn’t entirely feel real yet.

It’s hard to put into words what the feeling is. Dinghy sailing has been such a big part of my life for so long. From summer sailing in Optis when I was a little kid, to four years of racing for my high school team in San Francisco (while also racing C420s for the St. Francis Yacht Club race team), to the last four years of sailing on the Thames river and racing up and down the east coast, it’s been one hell of a ride.

Thankfully, sailing is a lifelong sport.

Keelboat racing is something that I know I will be involved in back home in California (and hopefully around the country and the world) for decades to come. I already have at least four different keelboat regattas I plan on sailing in this summer penciled in. That being said, it’s definitely weird knowing that my competitive career in dinghies is pretty much over. I guess at least in the last two college races that I sailed, I won my second to last race and finished second in the last one.

It would be very easy for me to focus on the disappointment of us not making Nationals. My classmates and I had a weird freshman year due to the pandemic, and we waited several years behind a great group of upperclassmen until this year it was our turn to take the lead sailing the primary regattas for the team. Falling short of our goal – and expectation – of making Nationals brutally stings. There’s no way around it.

With that being said, rather than diving deep into the should haves, could haves, and would haves of this year, I want to instead reflect upon just how much this team, and these four years as a Camel sailor, have meant to me.

It’s meant the world. This team is so special, and it’s such an incredible group of people that I’ve been lucky enough to sail with over the past four years. The lifelong friendships that we’ve built in the past four years sailing on the Thames have given this west coast kid a true second family here in the northeast.

My class came into college sailing under strange circumstances. We arrived on campus in the fall of 2020, when the world was still in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In hindsight, four years later, this seems a bit surreal. Between myself, Andrew, Wade, Ashley, Ceci, Renee, and then sophomore year being joined by re-classed former members of the class of 2023 Ryan and Charlie, we’ve had a college experience that has been atypical in many ways.

COVID was such a strange time. Strict rules about what we could and couldn’t do – both athletically and socially – were in place, and we had to work to figure out college under these alien circumstances without many of the upperclassmen on our team, as most of them had chosen to take the year off of college to avoid the strict COVID measures. Throughout that crazy first year, the dedicated leadership of our coach, Jeff Bresnahan, was more important than ever.

A conversation I’ve had with all of my teammates in my grade at various points since that tumultuous freshman year has centered around a theme of the challenges of that year, but the strong bonds that were formed as a result. We’ve all agreed that in hindsight – especially knowing what a real college experience can be and knowing what college sailing is really about now – that we would never, under any circumstances, want to relive those weird times during the COVID year.

With that being said, we have all agreed that one of the amazing things that came out of that year and that shared, challenging experience, is that our class on the team is particularly close – we share a strong bond and understanding for each other which can be in part attributed to experiencing that weird and challenging year together.

This is also true of the members of our grade who are no longer on the team, but are still great friends. I hope and strongly believe that we will always be close as a result of that year, and the amazing ride that college sailing has been since then.

The rhythm of college sailing since that strange freshman year has become second nature to me throughout college. College sailing is a grind, but it’s worth it. While high school sailing was fun and competitive, and I loved my high school team, college sailing is (obviously) a pretty significant step up. This is especially true in our conference, the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA), which is to college sailing what the SEC is to college football.

Pretty much everyone in almost every regatta that we sail in is very good. There’s very little margin for error. This isn’t true in junior sailing and high school sailing. Practices are demanding, yet incredibly fun. College regattas require sacrifice.

With most regattas being all around the northeast, or up and down the entire east coast, and the fact that most regattas are Saturday and Sunday, you miss out on a lot of the rest of college life. At the end of the day, there’s never been any question whether or not it’s worth it. It absolutely is.

As my career slowly winds down, and as a true, diehard country music fan, “Dear Rodeo” by Cody Johnson is a song that I’ve been listening to a lot lately. Shameless plug, it’s a great song and I’d encourage anyone and everyone to listen to it. Johnson examines his journey in moving on from competing in Rodeos; he looks back on the challenges, how despite these challenges the highs always outweighed the lows.

Despite the regrets of un-achieved goals from his time in Rodeo, he will always have a love for what the competition was and what it meant to him. As my college sailing career ends, I think it nearly perfectly encapsulates my love of college sailing, and how in many ways I’ll probably always be a college sailor at heart.

I will miss the everyday grind. I’ll miss waking up at 7 am. to workout with my teammates on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ll miss sailing on the Thames three to four days a week. Though it can’t quite compare to San Francisco Bay (nothing can in my totally unbiased opinion), it’s a great venue to sail at. Easily one of the best in all of college sailing (in my equally unbiased opinion).

I’ll miss the van rides. I’ll miss Jeff’s constant, unwavering commitment to and belief in our team. I’ve had many great coaches in my life across a multitude of sports, but I’ve never had a coach so singularly committed to the success of the individuals on our team and most importantly the team as a whole – on and off of the water – as Jeff.

Most of all, I’ll miss getting to spend every day – and some long nights – with all of my friends on the team; a true second family.

I could write for countless hours and countless pages about how much everyone on our team has meant to me, but that wouldn’t do justice to how special our team is. I’ll end with this: the Connecticut College Sailing Team is so special in a way that words don’t do justice, and I’ll always look back on my time as a Camel Sailor incredibly fondly.

The lifelong friendships I’ve formed on this team mean the world to me. As we move into this slow but inevitable goodbye of the last few weeks of our senior year, I want to emphasize that It’s never really a “goodbye,” it’s just “until next time.”

I can’t wait to see what all of my classmates on the team achieve after college, and for our friendships to grow and evolve after college sailing. On top of that, I can’t wait to see what my friends who will be on the team next year – and in the years to come – will do on the water for the Camels. I have the utmost faith that they will be sailing pretty damn fast.

It’s been an incredible ride, and I’m sure going to miss putting on the Connecticut College pinnie. I always cherished the opportunity, and I’m realizing more and more just how special it has been to have that opportunity every time I went sailing in the past four years. As always, ROLL CAMELS!!!

Editor’s note: While it is unclear why Baldauf contends his competitive career in dinghies is ‘pretty much over’, it is reassuring that someone who has been so committed to scholastic sailing found their way to other options in the sport.

2023-24 Season

Fall National Championships:
November 3-5: Match Race Nationals – Charleston, SC
November 11-12: Women’s and Open Singlehanded Nationals – New Orleans, LA

Spring National Championships:
April 25-27: Open Team Race Nationals – Boston, MA
April 28-29: Women’s Team Race Nationals – Boston, MA
May 20-23: Women’s Dinghy Nationals – Boston, MA
May 24-27: Open Dinghy Nationals – Boston, MA