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FOUST Newsletter JUNE 2013 |
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IN THIS ISSUE: Introduction / Alumni Regatta / Class of 2013 / EDHEC / FOUST Officers
Dear Friends, We have a monster newsletter for you this month. First, a recap of the Alumni Regatta by FOUST's new secretary Oscar Jasklowski ('11). We had a record turnout this year with more than fifty people showing up to sail, catch up, and enjoy some good food and the perfect Marina del Rey weather. You can watch in-boat videos from a few of the team races on our website. The team revealed the until-now secret name of the new boat, and I am still blown away by their choice (thank you guys!). Huge thanks to the team, the Marina Aquatic Center, the Schweglers, and everyone else who made this event a huge success. Next up, profiles of the Class of 2013. These four sailors have made enormous contributions to the team over the last four years, and we wish them the best in life after UCLA. We also have a recap of the Edhec regatta in France from Billy Edwards ('12), and finally profiles of FOUST's officer corps for the coming year, with Nora Brackbill ('13) and Oscar are joining the team. For our outgoing officers, Billy Edwards and Lyzz Schwegler ('07), I want to personally say thank you so much for everything you've done for FOUST - especially Lyzz, who has been part of this since the beginning, serving as President or Vice President for almost five years straight. Both Lyzz and Billy will of course continue to be involved with FOUST and the team - I'm not sure what we'd do without them.
Hope to see you all at the regatta next year if you couldn't make it to this one! Sam Wheeler
Oscar Jasklowski ('11), incoming FOUST Secretary
It's safe to say the 2013 UCLA Sailing Team Alumni Regatta was a tremendous success. As usual.
The turnout was remarkable, and the wind, sunshine, and marinated meat left nothing to be desired. This is one particular newsletter contributor's favorite event, and he plans on being in attendance for as long as the team will put up with him.
Before we jump into results, this year's regatta was unique for a few reasons. The event began with something we wish we could do every year; unveil a new boat! While it's no secret that the team has been using a new boat for most of the 2012-2013 season, the name of the boat had been kept under wraps. The current team decided to name the boat "Wheeler" after Scott's cousin Wheeler, who is a music therapy major at Chico State. In all seriousness, the boat commemorates Sam Wheeler, long time team captain, FOUST president, and the proverbial glue that holds this community together. While Sam's contributions can't be overstated, there are other things to discuss.
The team welcomed a new member this year, Annabelle Klopstein! Dedicated readers will remember Annabelle from the May 2011 newsletter as the daughter of alumni Emily ('00) and Carl ('02). Annabelle was on her best behavior, mostly taking it easy in one of the MAC's classrooms, and vied with Kevin Richards' ('00) nephew Preston for the cutest kid award. (Honorable mention: Taryn Aguiar's ('10) dog Paisley.)
Now, on to the regatta results. Getting started just before noon, we ran a total of eight fleet races on a windward-leeward course. All races were highly contested, and only Garrett Woodworth (UH '99) came away with multiple victories, which came in each of the final two races. Races one through six were won by Mark Anders ('11), Ben Pedrick (Stanford '11), Emelia Pelliccio (UCLA '13), Kelly Kephart ('09), Peter Bailey ('15), and Billy "The Handlebar" Edwards ('12), respectively. A big thanks to Tim Peligard ('14) and Justina Leo ('15) for braving the elements to run race committee in the morning The big wigs at FOUST deemed eight races to be a large enough sample size the divide up fair teams for an afternoon of intense 3 vs. 3 team racing.
Editor's note: Oscar is too modest to mention that he won the fleet racing with an average finish of 2nd place. The top five skippers by average score were Oscar, Ben Pedrick, Garrett, Billy, and Emelia.
After some number crunching, deliberation, and meat consumption, the brain trust came up with an unprecedented six teams for racing. In spite of the fact that this regatta has been likened to the Hinman Trophy in prestige, the atmosphere was actually pretty relaxed. After some hard-fought racing, (brace yourselves for this) Stanford won the UCLA Alumni Regatta. How is this even possible, you ask? Ben Pedrick, Ben Schwegler (a Stanford professor), and Jason Artof (who went to Stanford for grad school) went undefeated, winning four races en-route to the highly-coveted crown. UCLA at least had some crew representation on the winning team, with Anna Schoenbrunner ('11) and Danielle Ryan ('09) sailing with the two Bens (Jason sailed with his wife Veronica). Billy Edwards, Peter Bailey, and Gabriel Monti ('15) also had a very strong showing, winning three races and dropping only one. A big thanks to a very crowded committee boat including Gabriel, Allision Skager ('15), Erica Parker ('14) and friends for running afternoon races.
In line with tradition, team pictures were taken, graduating seniors were thrown in the drink (except for Emelia, who we trust will throw herself in on her own time), and FOUST held its annual election for officer positions. While we're no closer to dethroning Sam, the hierarchy was shaken up and some new blood was introduced. More on this later.
Finally, we owe the current team a big thanks for putting on the regatta and making it the event all of us has-beens have come to love. Your efforts haven't gone unnoticed! Also a huge thank you to the Schweglers for hosting an incredible afterparty that has become almost as much of a tradition as the regatta itself. On behalf of all the alumni, we can't wait to do it again next year.
Nora Brackbill ('13), incoming FOUST Team Liaison
Carly Olenick comes from a family of sailors but had never competed in FJs before college. She learned how to crew and worked her way up to varsity by junior year, crewing for Billy Edwards ('12) and Oscar Jasklowski ('11). She served as personnel officer, fundraising chair, and unofficial team mom. Her short term plan is to return to San Diego to live on a boat and become a bartender, and eventually find a job in GIS or economic development.
Emelia Pelliccio is the graduating senior captain and had quite an illustrious career on the team. She had never sailed before coming to UCLA and like Nora was convinced to join the team by a friend who later quit. Emelia started as a crew, often iron manning regattas and even crewing varsity with Drew Morton. She started skippering her sophomore year and quickly found a spot on the women's team, and went on to sail both varsity A and women's varsity A by her senior year. She won a few Pacheco Awards (Most Improved in 2012, MVP in 2013) and was elected captain her junior year, where she was instrumental in getting the latest new boat. She also was a finalist for Club Sports Tier 1 athlete of the year this year. She is moving to Newark, New Jersey for Teach for America, where she will be teaching science to special needs high schoolers.
Amy Stuyvesant had never sailed before coming to UCLA, but quickly found success crewing. She found a spot on women's varsity before the end of her freshman year, when she won a Pacheco for Rookie of the Year, and continued to sail varsity her sophomore and junior years. While she didn't sail as much this past year, she was still an integral part of the team, serving as social chair as she had the past two years. After graduating, she moved to Tallahassee, Florida where she will be working before applying to graduate programs in GIS and remote sensing next year.
Rounding out this year's graduating class, Nora Brackbill is profiled later in this issue in the section on our new FOUST officers. Billy Edwards, ('12), outgoing FOUST Team Liaison In mid-April the UCLA Sailing Team managed to continue a six-year-long streak of participation in the international regatta, Edhec Boat Cup. This year the race was held in windy Brest France, a familiar location for several Edhec veterans. Arriving over several days, the team shuffled into France from all over the world, with members coming from Los Angeles, Australia, San Diego, and Switzerland. Oscar Jasklowski ('11), our helmsman, was the first to arrive in Paris on Wednesday, followed shortly afterward by the main trimmer, Bill Edwards ('12). Bill and Oscar were joined in Paris on Friday by Kasia Klaritsch ('10), Gabe Monti ('15), Allison Skager ('15), and Brian Smith (our trusty Club Sports representative). After playing Tetris with people and luggage to pack the van, we set off on the drive Brest, arriving at our lodgings for the week around midnight after stopping in Rennes for dinner.
Within 30 seconds of arriving at the campsite, we had been reunited with an old friend and a former helmsman for UCLA, Adrien Hauserman, Oscar had been surprised with a leg-trout, and Bill's only pair of glasses had been smashed and were lying on the ground in pieces. After throwing our bags into our mobile home, we went to house (trailer) to greet some Aussies we knew from previous regattas. This year Taylor and Georgie, participants and good friends from last year, returned and were joined by fellow Australian, Piotr and by several Bruin alumni: Morgan Glier ('11), Scott "Floyd The Barber" Barber ('11), and Megan Sullivan ('10). The team spent Saturday exploring the village (we got to do a Segway obstacle course!), taking care of registration for the event. After finishing registration on Sunday, we hit the water for the first time and got a little bit of practice. Oscar immediately proved himself to be valuable and focused helmsman despite his limited experience driving keelboats. Initially, our inexperience and lack of familiarity with the boat showed, but after several hours of practice we had improved dramatically. Our first-time bowman, Gabe, did an incredible job properly running lines and adapting to and anticipating problems, Allison was a grinding machine, trimming the jib and spinnaker quickly and reactively, Kasia managed the piano and coordinated communication between the front and the back of the boat like it was her job (actually communication nearly was her job as she was our translator all week!), and Bill trimmed the main while helping to call tactics and coordinate spinnaker sets and douses.
The first day of racing was Monday. After getting a late start because several teams had not finished registering over the weekend, we got off two races coming in 32nd and 34th. After racing, we went to the international tent and had some delicious grub served by the German team (pretzels and brats) then heading back to the campsite. That evening, Bill drove to the Brest airport to pick up the final UCLA team members after their late arrival due to participating in Women's PCC's in San Francisco over the weekend. Erica Parker ('14) and Justina Leo ('15) collapsed into the car after spending "way too long" in airports and airplanes (I think it was north of 28 hours). Tuesday was a coastal race from Brest to Douarnenez. It was a four hour downwind race, and the team was pleased to beat the Aussies for the first time, and finishing 16th overall. Erica and Justina easily slipped into the crew with Erica helping to trim the jib, fly the spinnaker, and call tactics and Justina helping Gabe on the bow and Kassie in the pit. Wednesday we were meant to race back to Brest, but unfortunately, there was such little wind, that we wound up motoring the entire way home. By Thursday, the wind was back and we got off four more races, finishing between 17th and 24th in each. During our second race, we had a little bit of an incident rounding the leeward mark: a team from Germany tacked and immediately T-boned our boat, punching a grapefruit sized hole in the hull. Fortunately, the hole was well above the waterline and we continued to race for the rest of the day. After getting off the water, Oscar filed and won a protest against them while the rest of the team patched the boat with duct tape. We happened to be filming with a GoPro during the incident - you can watch it here.
Unfortunately, by Friday the wind grown strong enough that races were again cancelled, leaving the UCLA Sailing Team to an overall finish of 26th place. Perhaps more importantly, we finished one position better than the Aussies with whom we had a bet: the losing team between the two of us had to jump into the ocean at the end of the week. Unfortunately, Saturday we had to say our goodbyes, make promises to return next year, and head back to Paris for our flights home. Since nobody was around to ensure the Aussie's swam, we decided it is imperative to return and hold them to the bet (or at least give them a chance to settle the score). Danielle Ryan, ('11), incoming FOUST Vice President Sam Wheeler ('08), President Sam graduated from UCLA in 2008, and was Captain of the Sailing Team his junior and senior years. He was Personnel Officer his sophomore year, and a Coed Varsity skipper for three years. Sam was also voted MVP and Most Dedicated two times each, and when he graduated was presented with an award from the team for all his dedication-- his beloved tiller extension, mounted on a plaque. At the 2013 Alumni Regatta, the team unveiled the name of their newest boat: Wheeler. Sam recently graduated from Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley Law School) and plans to begin practicing law in San Francisco after taking the bar exam. He previously served as FOUST President from 2009 to 2011, and Vice President from 2011 to 2012. He currently races with the V15 fleet out of Treasure Island Sailing Center, an Islander 36 out of South Beach Yacht Club, International One Designs at St. Francis and Golden Gate Yacht Club, and a Santa Cruz 50 in various Bay Area races. Danielle Ryan ('09), Vice President Danielle graduated from UCLA in 2009, where she crewed on both the Coed and Women's Varsity teams. She went on to receive a Masters in English from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she continued to sail competitively alongside fellow UCLA alumna Anna Schoenbrunner ('11). Danielle currently lives in San Francisco, where she works as a business development writer/ editor. Danielle previously served as FOUST Secretary from 2012 to 2013. She races alongside various other UCLA sailing alumni as part of the V15 fleet out of Treasure Island.
Neha Bazaj ('10), Treasurer Neha came to the team as a freshman in the spring of 2007. Despite not having prior racing experience, she quickly became a Coed Varsity crew, sailing with Mark Anders ('10-ish) from 2008 until her graduation in 2010. Neha also served as the team treasurer, preparing her well for her current role with FOUST. Neha is currently living in San Francisco and working at a community nutrition program in East Palo Alto. She has served as FOUST Treasurer since 2010. She too sails with the V15 fleet at Treasure Island and enjoys testing the limits of the California Parks and creating sustainable yet seriously delicious meals. Oscar Jasklowski ('11), Secretary Oscar officially retried from college sailing following the single biggest catastrophe of his sailing career: graduation. Having never raced before joining the team his sophomore year, he quickly became one of UCLA's strongest sailors, skippering B division for the Bruins' push to the national semifinals. While on the team, he won the Pacheco Award for most improved an unprecedented 2 times to go along with Rookie of the Year. Despite these many fine accomplishments, his proudest moment as a UCLA sailing team member was competing at the 2011 National Semifinals regatta in Long Beach. Aside from sailing, Oscar enjoys most things that start with the letter B (bicycles, breakfast, beer, Boomstacks, travel, etc.). After spending time in Utah and Australia, he's also in the process of relocating to San Francisco to pursue a job with a very impressive start-up. Nora Brackbill ('13), Team Liaison Our newest alumna on the FOUST board, Nora graduated this past spring after a college career as UCLA's B division skipper for Women's Varsity and often Coed Varsity. She, along with fellow alumni Emelia Pelliccio and Amy Stuyvesant, found the UCLA Sailing Team through a friend who convinced them all to join. Though this friend did not stay with the team, we remain in her debt for our beloved Team Liaison and the rest of the Class of 2013. Nora had never previously sailed, but began skippering her freshman year and moved quickly into Womens Varsity and eventually also Co-Ed Varsity. She also served as the team's treasurer from 2012-2013. Nora will be joining a large contingent of the alumni in the Bay Area, as she moves to Stanford to pursue a Ph.D. in Physics this fall.
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