Sailing team races at 78th All Japan Snipe Class Championship
Two members of the Science Tokyo Sailing Team participated in the 78th All Japan Snipe Class Championship, held at Enoshima Yacht Harbor in Kanagawa Prefecture from August 20 to 24. Science Tokyo’s skipper Yu Endo, a 4th-year Life Science and Technology student, and crew member Yuki Takahashi, a 4th-year Computer Science student, finished 42nd out of 72 participating crews.
This was Science Tokyo’s second consecutive year racing in the All Japan Snipe Class Championship. Last year, Takahashi and 4th-year Physics student Kohta Fukuda joined the contest to face some of Japan’s best sailors. This year, Takahashi’s pair Endo was Science Tokyo’s first beginner female skipper to join the competition. Both Endo and Takahashi only started sailing after they began their university studies.
Comments from participants
Snipe skipper Yu Endo
4th year, Life Science and Technology
I am delighted to have participated in the All Japan Snipe Class Championship, which is a major sailing competition in Japan. Both Takahashi and I only started sailing after entering university. As a fairly inexperienced pair, we are very happy to have achieved such a result at the end of our final year's racing season.
We were still below the qualifying line right up until the final regatta, and we approached it with feelings of both anxiety and anticipation. Takahashi guided us steadily through the course even in such circumstances, and I felt very reassured. I still could not fully trust my own abilities, and I realized that I still lacked the skill to consistently achieve stable results throughout the racing season. However, as a pair, I feel we have been steadily improving since the formation of our crew last fall.
Amid our busy lives balancing research and sailing activities, I feel that this experience will certainly be beneficial for our future research activities. I am deeply grateful to my teammates on the sailing team, who always practice with me, and to everyone who supports and cheers us on. I will continue to practice with all my might, without forgetting my gratitude to those around me.
I hope I can gain as much as possible from this valuable opportunity to compete in the All Japan Snipe Class Championship.
Snipe crew member Yuki Takahashi
4th year, Computer Science
Last year, I participated in the All Japan Snipe Class Championship held in Tottori Prefecture. Since my first year at Science Tokyo, I have constantly been told that the contest is mostly for skilled sailors already in working life, and only a handful of students who have been sailing since they were young can participate. However, many of our races went smoothly throughout last year. Also, with the venue being far away, we were given a reserve spot. As a result, our team was able to compete in the All Japan Snipe Class Championship, which Science Tokyo had not achieved for some time.
For me, simply participating seemed beyond my reach, and that itself became the goal. The result was not something to be proud of. From the moment I heard on the final day of last year’s competition that the next venue would be Enoshima, I made it my goal to come back to this stage and achieve noteworthy results. With that goal in mind, I worked hard with Endo for a year, and as a result, we qualified. I am happy to have been able to participate in this contest again.
This year's qualifiers were held locally, and despite the fierce competition, we were able to secure an official spot, not a reserve spot. This is the first such achievement since the club was founded. It is also the first time in eight years that we have achieved this in the Female Skipper category in the Kanto region (excluding Olympians), and the first time in many years in the Beginner category, as we both started sailing at university.
Endo’s results as a skipper while competing against working professionals have been truly amazing. In fact, many of this year's races were held in strong winds, which required more power, but Endo managed to finish the year ahead of many male skippers. In the light winds that she excels in, she raced without letting anyone else get close, which helped me many times as a fellow skipper. Witnessing her bold attitude has been a great encouragement to me in my research and daily life.
I would like to express my gratitude to Endo, who guided us to this tournament, the club members, and the people at the harbor who always support us. We are proud of our results at the All Japan Snipe Class Championship, and we aim to do well at the All Japan Intercollegiate Sailing Championships.
We appreciate your continued support and encouragement.
Competitive sailing
Competitive sailing is a sport that requires a high level of strategy and tactics, such as reading the constantly changing winds and tides, and deciding on the best course for the boat while maintaining speed. In a race, participating boats start at the same time, sail around buoys in the prescribed order a specific number of times, and compete to cross the finish line first. All-Japan student competitions include two classes — the Snipe class and the 470 class.
Snipe-class dinghies use two sails — a mainsail and a jib. Speed can be hard to come by, so sailors must utilize the wind skillfully while maneuvering strategically in relation to the other boats. Sailors lean over the edge to achieve balance while hooking their feet under straps attached to the boat.
In addition to a mainsail and a jib, 470-class dinghies also use a spinnaker sail. This gives the boat more speed than a Snipe-class dinghy, but also makes balancing more difficult. To prevent the boat from capsizing, "trapeze" wires are attached to the boat, allowing sailors to hang outside the vessel with their feet on the edge of the dinghy.
In both the Snipe and 470 classes, a skipper and a crew member operate the boat as a pair. The skipper is in charge of steering the boat, mainly operating the mainsail, while the crew member balances the boat and decides on the strategy and course based on the surrounding conditions.
About Science Tokyo Sailing Team
The Science Tokyo Sailing Team has a long history and is fully supported by the Kuramae Ushio Association, an alumni association boasting 400 members. Their motto is "developing full-fledged sailors, full-fledged members of society."
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The Science Tokyo Sailing Team is supported by the Science Tokyo Fund.
Contact
Science Tokyo Sailing Team
Email scitech.sailing@gmail.com