With Ithaca’s stunning natural landscape — the view of Cayuga Lake, the picturesque scene of Rawlings Green and yes, the countless numbers of “Ithaca is GORGES” shirts on campus — there has to be a sport for this, right? That team is the Cornell Sailing Team. The Cornell Sailing Team is able to get out on the water four days a week for practice as one of Cornell’s most exciting club sports.

The team practices on Cayuga Lake and recently broke ground on the new Merrill Family Sailing Center, named in honor of Phil Merrill ’55. The building will be completed this fall in time for the team to host both High School and College Nationals.

Cornell sailors compete in the ICSA (Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association of North America) and MAISA (Middle Atlantic Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association) — one of the toughest conferences in the U.S.

“During practices, we work on both speed and tactics,” said former vice president of the ICSA and starting skipper, Scott Grandt ’08. “We’ll do a lot of practice racing — we get a lot of different people in this sport. Obviously, some have sailed before, but there are also others that have never been on a boat before.”

The team, which operates without a coach, is completely student-run.

“[The sailing team students] run their own practices, and they handle the logistics for everything,” said Director of Friends and Alumni of Cornell Sailing Andrew Davis ’01 M.Eng. ’02. “We ran a regatta this weekend, and they organized everything to the point where alumni can just come in to help run the regatta while the team is sailing — so they’re really in control of all of the plans.”

The team practices and hosts regattas — competitive sailing races — on Cayuga Lake throughout both fall and spring semesters. With only sailing team members, alumni and advisors, the students take care of everything from scheduling and coaching to practice performance and recruitment.

“The whole team depends on all the members,” said sailing team captain Blair Davis ’10. “The fact that everybody helps out, the commitment that everyone has and the members’ participation at practices makes all of us really connected and into the sport.”

“Since there’s no coach on the sailing team, the alumni often come back to volunteer,” said Andrew. “When there’s a weekend event or practice, sometimes alumni jump in and help out … One of the biggest differences between a club sport and a varsity sport is that in club sports, members really have to be self-sufficient. They’re not only competing and practicing, but they’re also coaching each other — they get very limited professional coaching.”

However, the coaching status of the team may be changing soon. This year the team is kicking off a large capital campaign to raise an endowment for a full time coach. Thanks to leadership by alumni and the team’s faculty advisor, Professor Charles Williamson, the team hopes to fill the position in the next few years.

Members of the sailing team must like to travel — with regattas in such divergent places as Canada, South Carolina and southern California, some team members have driven a lot of miles during their time on the team.

“Since my freshman year I have attended 54 college regattas and traveled in excess of 45,000 miles,” said Grandt.

Blair pointed out that this amount of travel is definitely one extreme of the spectrum: “We travel to a variety of events each weekend so sailors of many different skill levels have an opportunity to compete. Some members choose only to sail here at Cornell.”

The sailing season includes regattas seven to ten weekends a semester, which can get a bit chilly at times.

“Because the season goes so late in fall and starts so early in spring, it gets really cold on the water,” said Ben Schreff ’10. “We are sailing in regattas before the lake is even defrosted enough for us to practice here. Two weekends ago, my pinnie froze to my life jacket because it was so cold. Sheets of ice were falling off of the sails. It was freezing.”

Even though it is a club team, the sailors have a chance for regular national competitions and will be competing this weekend for one of the conference berths to Nationals. College sailing is unique since club and varsity programs compete against each other in all the same events.

Cornell, despite being a club team for the past twenty plus years, is still extremely reputable within the sport as a whole. Established in 1935, Cornell Sailing is one of the oldest student organizations at Cornell and one of the oldest organizations in college sailing. Grandt was even inducted last year into the College Sailing Hall of Fame.

“[Sailing] is co-ed,” said Grandt. “Guys and girls compete on the same level, and there are many incredibly talented women sailors that out-perform men hands down. I think it’s one of those unique sports in that it is not just about strength — it’s a lot more about skill.”

The sailing team makes a great effort to be accessible to the Cornell student community: with no tryouts or formal sailing experience required, the team opens its doors for new members from all sorts of backgrounds and skill levels.

“We’re very accommodating,” said Blair. “There’s no cutting — we let everybody join. We expect a lot of commitment, and people with different skill levels and levels of commitment get to compete in different regattas.”

With big dreams and aspirations for their sailing futures, many members of the team are trying to make it to more advanced, more rewarding and more renowned competitions.

“I still have some Olympic aspirations,” said Grandt. “Not in the short-term — but what’s great about sailing is that it’s a lifetime sport. 40-year olds can go win Olympic gold medals. So, in the long-run, I want to get to the Olympics, and that’s the goal of several of the people on the sailing team — that would be the ultimate acomplishment.”

That goal is shared by many Cornell sailors and alumni. Ian Cook ’10 competed in the sailing Olympic trials this past fall along with two Cornell Alumni, Casey Williams ’07 and Allison Robin ’04.

So, are you competitive? Willing to work? Remember the next time you see one of those “Ithaca is GORGES” shirts around Cornell, you have the chance to experience Ithaca’s natural beauty at Cayuga Lake with the Cornell Sailing team.

Who knows? You might go to the Olympics someday.