Economics sophomore Charlie Kolean has been sailing for most of his life. In fact, his parents first met at a sailboat race.
He considers himself to be more of a leisure sailor, but Kolean has had his fair share of interesting competitive experiences.
"I did a regatta in late November, and it was so cold the sail froze to the top of the mast," he said.
But late autumn races are all in a day's work for Kolean and his teammates in the MSU Sailing Club.
The team competes in the Midwest Collegiate Sailing Association, a subsection of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association, and participates in regattas all year round in locations all over the country.
"(We) do events out in New York and we recently went to the Rose Bowl regatta in California over winter break," kinesiology junior Montana Pruett said. "Part of our team went down to New Orleans last year.
"We're always looking for new things outside of the regular," she said.
Last weekend, they traveled to Notre Dame for the Freshman Icebreaker regatta, and place No. 4 out of eight teams competing.
"(It was) a pretty laidback regatta," computer engineering sophomore Matt Declercq said.
The Freshman Icebreaker is reserved for "freshman" sailors only, and is meant to help introduce them to the competitive aspect of sailing, he said.
This weekend they will be traveling to Iowa for the Hawkeye regatta, much to the bemusement of several team members.
"I didn't even know you could sail in Iowa," advertising sophomore Morgan Debrincat said.
Though the location of the regatta came as something of a surprise, she said she is "super excited" to participate.
An Iowa sailing experience shapes up to be a memorable one, but for Debrincat and others on the team, memorable moments don't always happen on the water.
"One of my best memories was at a regatta at Western, and we were staying in a girl’s apartment. It was a really small apartment, and there were about 30 of us sleeping on the floor," she said. "It really showed how everyone made the best of it and just had fun."
Fun and friendship is a major aspect of the club's personality, Kolean said.
"We get business done, but there’s friendship and fellowship in everything we do," he said. "The sailing part is as much of the (club) as you want to make it."
Membership is open to any MSU student who is interested in sailing, learning to sail or just wants to have fun.
The club meets every Tuesday at 8 p.m. in IM West. More information can be found on their website: http://www.spartansailing.com/
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
