Alabama’s sailing club has been around since the 1980s but recently took strides to become an official competitive team, joining the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association and competing in its first regatta in March.
Club president Stephanie Griffin took over the club in her freshman year at Alabama. Coming into the program, she was told Alabama already had an established competitive sailing team.
“When I took over the club in November of my freshman year, it was anything but that,” Griffin said. “It was more of a ‘learn how to sail’ club.”
Previous to this year, the sailing club only competed within the Tuscaloosa Sailing Club, racing against older adult members there.
Griffin quickly started working on transforming the club into a competitive sailing team like the ones she grew up competing on. Griffin competed on her school’s sailing club at Fellowship Christian School in Roswell, Georgia.
Last semester, the club became a part of the Southeastern Intercollegiate Sailing Association. Through SEISA, the club was invited to its first regatta.
The Crimson Tide travelled to Knoxville over spring break to compete in the University of Tennessee’s regatta against other SEC teams.
After signing up, Griffin turned to her team to see who was serious about competing. She solidified a team of 11 members who regularly compete and practice at Tuscaloosa Sailing Club in Northport.
The sailing club has now turned its focus to repairing and replacing its practice equipment. Most of the practice boats the team uses are from the ‘80s or ‘90s and are not up to the standards of competitive boats.
“We want to buy new equipment that is not only safer but that matches the equipment we would use competing in regattas,” Griffin said.
Not only does the club’s equipment not match competitive standards, but according to Griffin, the club’s boats have issues with rot.
“Boats are similar to cars, where you want to replace them every so often,” Griffin said. “The boats we have right now have rotting wood. It was really windy one day for practice, which is great, but it was so windy that it ended up breaking the boat, and the mast came down.”
With Griffin being the only experienced sailor, she spent a lot of time teaching those who didn’t already know how to sail the basics.
“We took extra practices on Saturdays, and they really put in the work to get it done,” Griffin said. “I had some of those kids sitting in classrooms on Sunday afternoons just going over the rulebook.”
Alabama took 10 people to the regatta, competing in two boats against teams that have been competing for decades. UT, which holds its own regattas annually, has had an established competitive sailing club for nearly three decades.
The Crimson Tide’s two boats came out of the regatta in fifth and seventh place.
“Being at Alabama, I expect to win. There are high standards here,” Griffin said. “I’m really proud of our team, though, and how well we did.”
