One of Academic Magent’s most underrated sports is sailing. We are lucky enough to go to school just 15 minutes away from Charleston Yacht Club, where the AMHS sailing team practices every Monday and Thursday. The group of AMHS sailors are a very close knit team, despite the fact that we are technically a club and not a sports team. To get to know a little bit more about our sailors, I asked Co-Captain Caroline Uram some questions.

I started by asking her about how long she has been sailing and how long she has been on the AMHS sailing team, which she promptly responded with two years for both questions. Caroline has been dedicated to sailing for a while.

Next, I asked her what her favorite part about sailing was. She said, “I love going to regattas in Jacksonville!”. She furthered this by explaining that she liked it because of our coach, Johnny Fewell, who has history as a coach for a Jacksonville high school sailing team. 

The most interesting answer Caroline gave was what she said when I asked how she was introduced to sailing. She said, “My dad was an international sailor. He sailed in South America, Europe, and for the College of Charleston team. He inspired me. I think it’s a really underrecognized sport.” I have to say I agree with Caroline. Although I have not been sailing for long, it is the most fun sport I have ever gotten myself involved in and I wish I had discovered it sooner.

The last question I asked was, “Which type of boat do you like to sail?”. There are many different types of boats that the AMHS sailing team has experience with, despite the fact that we only sail 420’s during practice and at regattas. Caroline said that she likes the 420s, but also enjoys sailing FJs and Sunfish. 

Caroline wanted to end her interview with this quote: “Although we aren’t technically an AMHS sport, we still make a strong team! It’s serious!”

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Where’s Ada?

— Hammond Unger

Additionally, some of our other teammates wanted to comment, with Hammond Unger inquiring where sailing team legend Ada Comer is.

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Sailing good, fouling bad. Capsizing bad.

— Thomas Hamilton

And of course Thomas had some funny tidbits to add.

To gain even more insight onto what a typical practice is like for our sailing team, here is a recap of what we did during practice on Monday, October 17th.

-Got to the Yacht Club around 3:55 and headed to the bathroom to get dressed in clothes and shoes that can get wet

-Put on our life jackets!

-Carried sails from the shed down to the dock

-Spent about 15 minutes rigging enough boats for the number of skippers

-Sat with Coach Jordan to discuss the wind, current, and plan for the days practice

-Paired up crews and skippers and headed out onto the water

-Sailed from 4:15-6, practicing starts and races

-Headed back to the dock around 6

-De-rigged

-Re-cap of practice to discuss what was done well, what could be improved

-Breakdown

At the end of every practice, our senior sailors come together to decide what the breakdown chant will be. Usually the chant has something to do with what happened at practice that day. Then, the whole team gets together and yells the chant to end practice! Click on this gallery to see a little bit more behind the scenes on what happens during and after practice.

Gallery • 9 Photos

After de-rigging

In addition to practice every Monday and Thursday, the team also goes to regattas. Recently, a few of our best sailors headed to Lake Norman to compete in a regatta. They competed very well, with our A-team boat getting 2nd place! Lawton Harper and Elizabeth Hample sailed the A-boat, so congratulations and good job to them! Other members that went to the most recent regatta included Ty, Louise, Grace, Caroline, and Mason. Going away with fellow AMHS sailors for a weekend of fun is a great way for the team to bond, and being able to sail in new places is a great way to gain experience.

This introduction could not be complete without giving a mention to our awesome coaches. Johnny Fewell and Jordan Wiggins both coach the AMHS sailing team and contribute greatly to how successful we are and how much fun we have. Every practice, they ride in the coach boat while we sail and give us tips on how to improve our maneuvers. They also make sure that everyone gets an equal chance to sail in the instance that we have an uneven number of skippers and crews. And most importantly, they debrief us after every practice to make sure that we learned as much as possible from the day. We wouldn’t be as strong as we are without them!