feminist, pointed out the troubling ceived of as sex objects—creatures who Medium Dave takes up the entire bed by mores that grow up around such regula- are always immaculately put together, himself, let alone Big Dave. The same rules tions. Laws and rules of any kind often and automatically arrive in men’s dorms that BU stringently enforces—sending become part of a culture, and placing at university-decided times. visitors home at 1 a.m.—are frequently hours around when girlfriends and The general bewilderment Dave and I obeyed at Harvard by choice. boyfriends can rendezvous inherently expressed at the thought of this system (I The other parameter is time: in the sets a standard for the appearance of the asked how to spell “parietal”) shows how words of my roommate, “Daves are a huge opposite sex. For example, if an all-fe- underappreciated Harvard’s policies are timesink.” Harvard students are incredi- male dorm forbids men, the men become by current students who have never heard bly busy, and when Daves are around, no used to seeing women fully made-up— of “three feet on the floor,” and don’t real- work gets done. So Daves are sent home so wearing skirts, earrings, and foundation. ize that other colleges still enforce archaic that classes can be attended, and produc- “Women were supposed to be in lip- visitor rules. “You guys live in a di≠erent tive work accomplished (such as the writ- stick, always,” said Dave’s mom, a mem- world,” said Dave’s mom. ing of this article). ber of the class of 1968. Uh-oh, I gotta go—I just heard a knock Their comments reminded me how one After happily surviving breakfast, I at the door, Dave’s here. of the shocking parts of first relationships headed back to Dave Land to catch up on Three cheers for Harvard love nests. is learning how “real” others are first sleep. Despite Harvard’s lack of formal thing in the morning, pre-shower and visitor rules, there are still a few practical Arianne R. Cohen is one of this magazine’s 2001- make-up. When this part is deleted, it is limitations quietly in place—notably, our 2002 Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate easy to see how women might be con- horribly narrow and flimsy dorm beds. Fellows. SPORTS from each college on the course together, with team strategies that include both ad- vancing one’s own fleet and slowing down opponents. In Honolulu the Crimson Sailing: Broad Reach posted a perfect 17-0 mark—the first un- defeated team-racing record in a three-day The coed sailing team, an inclusive bunch, are also national champions. regatta format—in round-robin races. In the coed dinghies, Harvard finished a close second to St. Mary’s College of hey buy their subway tokens and ride Last year Harvard was second in the Maryland, a sailing power located on a two stops to Kendall, then walk to the team-racing event, which puts three boats Chesapeake Bay inlet. Harvard won the Harvard Sailing Center, on Fowle Trophy for overall excel- the river near MIT. The sail- Sean Doyle (left) and lence in college sailing and Sean T Susan Bonney, ready to ing team practices on the Charles rig at the Harvard Doyle ’02 was named College River Basin, far from Harvard Sailing Center. Sailor of the Year, the first Har- Yard, and generally races at distant vardian so honored. venues with few if any spectators, Only about half of Harvard’s let alone rooters. Its boathouse and 40 sailors had ever sailed before fleet are among the least prepos- college. Yet two of those begin- sessing at the top sailing colleges. ners, Michelle Yu ’02 and Susan About 70 percent of the squad are Bonney ’02, became all-Ameri- walk-ons (non-recruits), an un- cans after being taught to crew heard-of number in varsity athlet- by Doyle. The squad has learned ics. Yet the Harvard coed sailing a lot from each other, and espe- team ranked number one in the cially from skippers like Doyle, country almost all year—and this Clay Bischo≠ ’03, and Cardwell June in Honolulu won the national Potts ’04, who make up a trio of team-racing championship and all-Americans. “If it hadn’t been came second in the coed dinghy for Sean, I wouldn’t have stayed event at the Intercollegiate Sailing with it,” says Bonney. “We have Association’s (ICSA) North Amer- people here who are amazing ican Championships, the sport’s teachers—and a lot of sailors climactic regatta. with drive and determination.” Photograph by Tracy Powell Harvard Magazine 89 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For copyright and reprint information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at www.harvardmagazine.com JOHN HARVARD’S JOURNAL Doyle taught Bonney to crew when they pens in dinghies, boats of 18 feet or less funnel that lets out one boat at a time; were freshmen—she a raw beginner, he an with a centerboard. Two people—skipper they emerge from the turn single file like a experienced skipper who had already and crew—sail them, and that pair could row of ducks sorted in order of speed. won the national under-18 three-handed be two men, two women, or, typically, a That order often remains fixed for the rest title and at 14 had represented the United man and a woman. In Harvard’s top boats of the race. Still, things can change, and States at a world junior championship. now the skippers are male and the crews bows sometimes cross the finish line only are female, but there are six inches apart. also excellent women In many sports, races are decided by a skippers, like Margaret sprint to the finish, but in sailing the Gill ’02, an all-American most decisive moments generally occur in 2001 who took this before the start. Beginning three minutes year o≠ from sailing. beforehand, a series of whistle signals Regattas use a triangu- counts down to the start. Meanwhile, the lar course and a set of in- fleet of boats jockeys for position, trying ternational yacht-racing to get their bows to cross the line with rules originally drawn up maximum velocity at the starting signal. by Harold Vanderbilt ’07 “The final one minute to 30 seconds be- and F. Gregg Bemis ’22. fore the start may be the most important Typically, a race has five part of the race,” says head coach Mike legs, the first sailed close- O’Connor, who mentors the Harvard Doyle and Bonney hauled to a windward team with his assistant, Bern Noack. “You hiking out in a strong breeze on the Charles. mark, followed by two try to pick where you want to start, rela- reaches, the second of tive to the wind and your opponents. these to the leeward mark, Choose it or it will be chosen for you.” (Doyle’s father, Richard Doyle, M.C.P. ’75, then the upwind leg again, after which the Doyle explains that the start “is a huge was College Sailor of the Year at Notre boats do a U-turn and run to the finish. If game of risk and reward. If you get a good Dame; uncle Robbie Doyle ’71 sailed in the the wind shifts during the race, o∞cials start, 80 percent of the time you’ll do well. America’s Cup and is a leading sailmaker may move the buoyed marks. No times are It comes down to going from stopped to in Marblehead, Massachusetts.) For Sean kept, but in strong winds of 14 to 18 knots a full speed very e∞ciently in a small space. Doyle, teaching Bonney was an odd sensa- college race should take 15 to 20 minutes. You don’t want the next boat over to tion. “Half of the boat is being controlled The dinghy championships in Hawaii blow by you—then you’ll be in their bad by someone who’d never been in a boat involved three days of racing by teams air—so you start next to someone you before,” he explains. “You need to be a from 18 colleges. Eighteen boats go o≠ the think you can beat, in a way that won’t good sailor, and good at dealing with peo- start together and spread out widely on take you far from the best course. Trouble ple. It takes patience.” As a sophomore, the first leg, searching for the best air. The is, in the A-division varsity races, there Doyle needed a smaller crew to win in dinghies—a type known as Flying Ju- aren’t any marshmallows out there.” Har- lighter-air conditions and so started all niors—are so dispersed that spectators vard’s 40-person squad has an advantage over again with Yu, who weighs a mere 90 may have trouble knowing who is ahead. in practice; with only five or 10 sailors, it pounds. Doyle, at 180 pounds, is near the But at the turn onto the second leg, this would be impossible to simulate the wild maximum weight for one half of a two- scattered fleet seems to pass through a conditions at the start of a real race. person dinghy team; he and Yu weigh a competitive 270 pounds (300-pound teams rarely win) and have sailed together Spring Sports the last three years. In 2001, they were sec- ond to Georgetown in the dinghy event, Men’s Crew Baseball the national championship considered the The Crimson decisively swept the Har- The Crimson (20-25,16-7 Ivy) swept a pinnacle of collegiate sailing.