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On an October afternoon, under Monarch-blue skies, sailors wearing foul-weather gear face calm seas in front of Whitehurst Hall. Soon, a rainbow flotilla of triangle sails speeds past the pier toward the horizon.

At the screech of a horn, a practice race starts. Foamy wakes trail the feisty Z420 dinghies as the Monarch sailors tack, jibe and strategize, zigzagging toward a distant orange buoy marking the finish line. 

“Hike, hike, hike! You’re not hiking!” Old Dominion University Assistant Sailing Coach Morgan Collins hollers into a megaphone, while standing at the helm of a rubberized motorboat and steering alongside a pair of racers. 

At each turn, the duos move in unison, ducking under the heavy, horizontal booms that support the foot of the mainsails, easing mainsheet lines to let the wind swing the sail leeward, while simultaneously spinning their bodies 180 degrees. Tucking their feet into hiking straps, they lean way, way out from the high side rail until their torsos hang nearly horizontal above the water. 

“There you go,” Collins shouts, pleased with the execution of the advanced “roll tack,” which produces speed by forcing hulls flatter to the water and keeping the wind in the sails. The mesmerizing maneuver — at once elegant and athletic — takes about three seconds. 

An hour later, the wind builds for the final practice race. Whitecaps form on choppy water as 24-knot gusts slap the sails, slamming the vessels sideways and perilously close to capsizing. One boat does, flinging the two-person crew into the Elizabeth River. These late October races mark the last practice before one of the most important regattas of the year: a qualifier in New York for the Inter-collegiate Sailing Association’s single-handed championships to be held on the University’s home turf. 

Just 18 men and 18 women would make the cut. 

The Monarchs had already racked up a respectable fall season record, traveling to regattas in New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maryland, and at times besting rivals like Navy, Yale, Harvard and Cornell universities. 

On this squirrelly day of racing, a championship seems in reach. 

, one of 35 varsity programs across the nation, started in 1963 as a club sport. Winston Culpepper (B.S. ’64) was the first commodore of the sailing club. In a 2019 Facebook post, longtime sailing Head Coach Mitch Brindley (B.A.’89) said he had met with Culpepper, who relayed the following origin story.

In 1963, Culpepper and his printmaking instructor Ed Porter went to then-University President Lewis W. Webb, Jr., and said, “Since we don’t have a football team, can we have a sailing team?”

A fleet of six Penguin sailboats were purchased shortly thereafter.

By 1982, the team had won the first of 17 national championships competing against Ivy League powerhouses and the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Six Monarch alumni are Olympians, and plaques, along a wall in the University’s Sailing Center, honor 89 All-Americans, with room for more.

That’s hardly surprising. The complex on the Elizabeth River near the mouth of the Lafayette River boasts one of the finest collegiate sailing grounds in the country. “We have bigger breezes and choppier conditions, and there’s nine miles of fetch from Hampton,” said Head Coach Brindley, referring to the distance wind blows over open water. “It’s one of the best venues to race.”

Senior Lindsey Kaufmann, of Wilmington, Delaware, chose Old Dominion University due, in part, to the location. Some college sailing teams practice on lakes that are better protected, she said. “It’s not open like this. Even if there is a breeze, it’s funky.” 

And, then there’s this: sailors can walk right from their residence halls to the waterfront.

“I can’t guarantee them a waterfront room, but it’s something not everyone has,” said Head Coach Brindley, a team alumnus and Inter-collegiate Sailing Association Hall of Famer. “At Stanford, it’s a 30-minute commute to the water. Monarchs don’t have to take the subway in their smelly sailing gear back to the residence halls and their roommates.”

The location, the waterfront Sailing Center with its locker rooms and classroom and the adjacent boathouse housing the fleet, plus the award-winning coaching staff, make the University a top choice for top-notch sailors. Sophomore Marina Conde, of Mallorca, Spain, represented her country in the Youth Sailing World Championships. Junior Sam Riley, of Martha’s Vineyard, was a Midwest-region champion in high school. Junior Morgan Auth was a New Jersey state champion. 

Freshman Arabella Duer is on the development team for the Olympics. She is also one of three team members, including junior Gianna Dewey and freshman Esther Ireland, who earned spots at nationals, representing the most female sailors of any college but Brown University. Noncollegiate events, like the November championship regatta that drew 36 of the nation’s top high school sailors to campus, are important recruiting tools as well.

“They’re opportunities to showcase the venue and the team,” Head Coach Brindley said.

Freshman James O’Leary, of Annapolis, Maryland, twice competed here, while in high school. He checked out the venue, met the coaches and didn’t look back. Academics is another draw. For prospective engineers, the University is one of few public colleges offering strong, varied engineering programs and varsity sailing — two interests that often coincide.

“I loved sailing, and I loved science,” said Ethan Tutt (B.S. ’24), who competed with the team as an undergraduate and is now pursuing his master’s in mechanical engineering. “And, to learn under Mitch Brindley, he’s like a celebrity to me.”

These brainiac engineer-athletes, with their understanding of physics and a propensity toward linear thinking, might just have an edge in the sport.

“I like to think that it adds up,” said Sam, a mechanical engineering and technology major. “I probably look at sailing in a different way versus someone who doesn’t have that background, but who just knows how to make the boat go fast.”

Ethan agrees. “Sailing is not very intuitive,” he said. “Engineering helps with the theory part.”

But to be an ace sailor? 

“That just takes hours,” he said.