Sailing team afloat despite low funding

After being unable to field a team last year, the UCLA sailing
team is back in the water.

But while the club will be competing in the Pacific Coast
Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association Region South 3 & 4
qualifiers this weekend in Newport Beach, it is still struggling to
raise the money necessary to travel to races.

“The biggest challenge that the team has is that it is
self-funded, so that they can’t afford a coach,” said
Steven Orosz, the Marina Aquatic Center Program coordinator who
works closely with the club team. “It’s up to the team
to self-motivate themselves to become competitive.”

To complicate matters, sailing is an incredibly expensive sport
with new boats costing upwards of $5,000 and new sails upwards of
$500 per year. While the club charges its nine members $300 per
year, that money is barely enough to afford the simple maintenance
necessary for the fleet. It certainly is not enough to afford a
coach or the boat upgrades needed to become a truly competitive
team.

Tom Hartmann, co-captain of the sailing team, is in charge of
finding a coach and has found the search extremely difficult thus
far.

“I found a guy in the area who used to sail for
USC,” he said. “He was an All-American college sailor,
but he wants $15 an hour to work as our coach. We just can’t
afford that.”

While the Bruin squad is not well-funded, they will compete this
weekend against well-funded varsity teams such as No. 4 Stanford
and other big club teams like No. 18 UCSB and Berkeley.

“Cal and UCSB are club teams, but they’re basically
run like varsity teams.” Hartmann said. “They all have
coaches and huge budgets. Either their school or their alumni give
them a lot of assistance. I’d love to be like
them.”

Like UCLA, Cal gets a trivial amount of money from the
university, but relies on an incredible network of alumni and
annual club dues of $250 from its 30 members.

On the other hand, the Gauchos receive $8,000-$10,000 per year
from their university.

According to Carrie Gardner, the club sports coordinator at
UCSB, a student referendum was passed a few years ago to raise
annual fees by $4. This money would go toward subsidizing club
sports. The rest of the team’s budget is made up of donations
or the $270 the team gets from each of its roughly 20 active
members.

UCLA has been trying to mobilize support for the team, but it is
difficult.

“We have a short list of alumni who we’re trying to
contact, but there’s been no contact with local marinas and
yacht clubs,” Hartmann said. “I don’t know
why.”

Even without the extra money, the team’s blend of
camaraderie and grit have led it to success thus far. Braving the
cold water and winds at the MAC three times a week to practice has
paid off, culminating in the team’s success at the South 1
& 2 qualifiers, where it beat the then-No. 20 team in the
nation, Orange Coast College.

The victory was especially sweet for Hartmann, who transferred
to UCLA from OCC.

The current team is very young with only a few upperclassmen on
board. While the team’s members know they are unable to
compete effectively now, they do know their capabilities and what
they’d do if they had the money.

“If we had the money, first we’d hire a coach, and
then travel to regattas on the East Coast,” Hartmann said.
“Even though we race against some of the top programs in the
nation here, you have to go back East if you want to get ranked
because that’s where you’re judged.”