So you go to school in Rhode Island, "The Ocean State." But do you ever get out on salt water?
The Brown sailing team is ranked first in the Ivy League and fourth in the nation, ahead of the Navy, the Coast Guard, Merchant Marines and 230 other schools. But have you ever seen a regatta, taken out a boat to sail or even known you could learn to sail if you wanted to? Sailing at Brown is a club sport — anyone can come, and no one gets cut. It is open to recreational sailors, and as members of the crew, an experienced skipper will drive the boat while others will have the time of their lives learning to sail and race. I believe the reason so many students have missed this opportunity is because the University does not have a sailing center of its own.
Brown's sailing club formed in 1894, and the school used to have a boat house — a gift from the class of 1907. But since the boat house was destroyed in 1974, the club has had to borrow the facilities at Edgewood Yacht Club. This is an urgent issue today after the Edgewood Yacht Club burned to the water Jan. 12, and the University's nationally ranked sailing team became homeless. It is now renting a trailer as its temporary changing facility and hosting regattas without enough space for participants to change or warm up out of the cold and rain. Yet the team is off to a great start, winning regattas despite the loss of so much of its gear, trophies and sails.
Though Edgewood was a fine facility, when I was at Brown — two dozen years ago — it always felt like we were borrowing the place. There was no sign or anything at the club that said "Brown." Using someone else's facility to host a regatta weekend did not give a good first impression to visiting clubs or prospective students, but it was certainly better than the current situation.
Other schools have invested millions in building facilities to grow a sailing program, yet Brown has better sailors because it has a fantastic coach in John Mollicone and a long track record of success. It has consistently ranked in the top 10 nationally for the past 30 years because of the coaches' and the team's commitment, certainly not the facilities. Consider Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ranked sixth and 14th respectively. Their sailboats and boathouse on the Charles River are prominently displayed in their brochures for prospective students. Yale, ranked eighth, recently renovated its state-of-the-art sailing facility. Stanford, ranked 12th, has a gorgeous new multi-million dollar facility. Almost all of the schools with strong sailing programs have their own sailing facility, but they lack the program and people who are consistently putting Brown ahead of them in regattas and national rankings. With the loss of the rented space at Edgewood, the time has come to finally rebuild, after 37 years, a sailing facility that everyone can enjoy.
Over the last 115 years, thousands of students have been part of the sailing team — ecologists learning about the power of winds and tides, engineers learning how to apply aero- and hydrodynamics, historians gaining perspective on naval conflict, biologists studying the sea and anthropologists understanding migration and coastal communities. They are all learning leadership and team dynamics while getting away from the books, out on the water and into the wind for a while. Harnessing the wind and ocean is an important experience on a planet that is 75 percent covered by water and running out of fossil fuels. I believe alums will step in to help fund a sailing center if students ask for it and if the University makes it a priority. It is time to begin a discussion of how we can finally rebuild the University's sailing facility that was lost in 1974.
The University and the Department of Athletics have been very supportive of the team in getting temporary facilities so they can continue to compete in — and hopefully win — the Ivy League, as well as a national title, this year. But it is time to look to the future. Where will Brown be sailing next year? How will it accommodate the next generation of sailors? Sailing is a big part of my life because I learned to race at Brown, and all students deserve the same opportunity.
Jim Mackey '87 is an alum from Seattle, Wash. and urges everyone to join the Friends of Brown University Sailing Facebook group. He can be reached at jim.mackey@gmail.com.
