Dalhousie sailors won the 2009 Wellahan Cup in Portsmouth, Maine

by Joel Tichinoff, Dalhousie Gazette on 17 Nov 2009 Every sailor knows that moment. The wind snaps out the sails, the boat surges forward and water sings from the stern. The sailors of the Dalhousie sailing team know that moment well as they take to the waters of the Atlantic four times a week – sun, rain or snow.

Dal is the only East Coast school to field a competitive sailing team, the only other Canadian sailing teams belong to the University of British Columbia, Queen’s, Toronto and McGill. With the Atlantic Ocean lapping the shore only minutes from the Studley campus, Dalhousie students have had a long connection to the sea.

However, a first-year management student from Kingston, Ontario created the Dal Sailing team in its current incarnation in 2005. Matt White, who graduated from Dal last spring, came to Dal in 2005 having formerly been head coach of the Kingston Yacht Club and, finding no real sailing program being offered, set about creating one. Four years later the Dal sailors regularly compete, and win, at regattas hosted by the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA).

White, who also established an annual business ethics case competition at Dal, has moved on, but current team president Peter Dixon has continued his work. Dixon, who will complete a combined honours degree in Biochemistry and Neuroscience this year, grew up sailing out of Toronto’s Royal Canadian Yacht Club and was already an accomplished sailor when he began his studies at Dal in 2006, having sailed solo in several world championships. Dixon’s skills as a coach and sailor have been a major boon to the Dal Sailing program. Assisting Dixon in his work have been management student Seamus Ryder of the Royal Nova Scotian Yacht Squadron (RNSYS) and commerce student Paul Brickis of Ottawa.

A typical practice runs roughly three hours with the team assembling at the docks of Waegwoltic club and being ferried across the Northwest Arm by zodiac to the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. North America’s oldest yacht club, the RNSYS has been instrumental in supplying boats and facilities to the sailing team. The Dal team recently received its own sails from the school but team members supply most of their own personal equipment, neoprene wetsuits are a must for a sailing team that practices well into November.

Team members pay dues of $160, much of which goes toward insurance and operating expenses, the Dal sailors also shoulder most of the travel expenses on top of the team fees. The university provides some funding but as with many Dal teams there almost a sense of pride in the fact that students compete for Dal with minimal assistance from the school itself.

'We basically get money for sails and rental cars,' says Dixon. '(Dal Athletics program manager) Shawn Fraser has been supportive and awesome funding-wise, but two years in row we applied for funding from the DSU and never heard back. This year we didn’t apply.'

For the FULL STORY, go to: http://www.dalgazette.com/?p=573