From light winds to big wins: N.C. State sailing looks to make waves in 2024

Coach Dana Magliola stands by a whiteboard, reviewing the practice plan for the day. The snap of buckles — from sailors fastening their life vests — underscores his pep talk.

Today’s mantras: no mistakes and be weary of your weight. Ready? Go!

But when the team hit the water on this particular afternoon, the sailors soon discovered it was going to be one of those days. The wind at Raleigh’s Lake Crabtree wasn’t just light — it was nonexistent.

“I mean it’s hard practicing, particularly, you know, our venue doesn’t have the most variety of conditions compared to other venues — especially on the coast,” captain Robert Chase said.

Founded in 1954, N.C. State’s sailing team is the oldest club sport on campus. Over the past decade, the team has grown from a small, local group to a nationally competitive program. Now boasting an active roster of over 30 athletes, N.C. State Sailing is the top-ranked team in North Carolina.

Their growth comes despite the fact that these Wolfpackers compete as a club team, without the funding and scholarships available to many varsity programs. Teams like the College of Charleston, a powerhouse in the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association, have extensive resources and a dedicated coaching staff.

But the Wolfpack, with its grit and technical know-how, have still been able to pave a path to success.

“Just getting out here on these light air days, you know, when the conditions aren’t great, and staying at it, staying on the grind and just committing to practice has really been what’s able to keep us up on par with the other teams,” Chase said.

‘We started getting better and better’

Sailing is a sport that depends on the elements. Wind, water and weather all need to align for an ideal practice. Raleigh’s conditions often test the team’s patience, as light and shifty winds are more common than not.

But the Wolfpack sailors see it as an opportunity. These are the exact conditions that make for resilient, adaptable and nimble sailors, Magliola quips.

N.C. State’s sailors come from a variety of academic backgrounds, but many are engineers who bring their technical expertise to the water. Whether it’s problem-solving on the fly or adjusting the sails to optimize speed, their scientific background helps them adapt to Raleigh’s unpredictable weather.

The flexibility is critical at regattas, where they often compete against teams from coastal schools with much more favorable conditions.

“I definitely think, particularly some of my physics classes, have benefited my sailing skill,” Chase said. “I’m just understanding how the sails work better and how the wind works. I know we have a couple kids studying meteorology as well, which can be very beneficial.”

Whereas a lot of other varsity teams have the money to fly, the Wolfpack peruse the coast in their cars or pile together in a huge van, traveling up to Providence, Rhode Island or down to Tampa, Florida for regattas. The cost of food and snacks may come out of their own pockets. Whenever the team can crash with a family member or distant friend rather than splurge on a hotel, they take the former.

And yet N.C. State continues to close the gap.

The team sails an ambitious schedule of up to 15-20 regattas each season. The Wolfpack has made nationals four years in a row for co-ed and three years in a row for women’s. And now the program — which began to revive itself nearly a decade ago by starting a nonprofit in 2013 — regularly recruits talented sailors from around the country.

“We started to get better and better,” Magliola said. “The roster got bigger and, you know, I learned more about what I was doing and now we’re at the point where we’re a top-30 program in the country.”

‘I don’t really know what I’m doing but I’m happy to help’

Magliola’s path to becoming N.C State’s coach started in 2011 when he bought a $600 sailboat — a decision he now jokingly warns others about, given the high costs of repairs.

One day, while launching his boat at Lake Wheeler, Magliola met a small group of students who were trying to rescue the University’s fizzling sailing club. Magliola had a flexible work schedule, and while he didn’t have formal coaching experience, he offered to help in any way he could.

“I just said, ‘Hey y’all, if you need someone to move marks and blow a whistle, I don’t really know what I’m doing but I’m happy to help,’” Magliola said.

That’s how he began assisting with practices. Over time, more students began to join — including a few who chose N.C. State specifically for the sailing program. Well that, and the academics.

“The engineering is a huge draw for a lot of recruits,” Magliola said. “Because if you want to sail in college competitively, at a high level, and you want to study engineering — there’s not that many schools that you can do both.”

Next week, the team is welcoming 20 top recruits from across the country. These sailors hail from California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, Virginia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Michigan and Connecticut.

“We’re recruiting aggressively,” Magliola said. “No one on this team right now did not have sailing experience coming in. When I first started, it was like, ‘Oh, you’re the right size, like, to be in a boat. Can you swim?’ Like, that was it. I mean, honestly. And now we’re probably one of the more active college programs in the country.”

That community and commitment have paid off, as the Wolfpack sailing team is enjoying one of its strongest seasons yet — coming off of nationals in Boston. Heading into this season, captain Annika Milstien said the team hopes to keep the momentum going.

“With us sailing and having national appearances, and then doing well at nationals,” Milstien said, “that’s also gotten us some good attention.”

And would Milstien loop in her sailing squad’s success with this year’s Wolfpack magic?

“I’d say so,” Milstien said. “If our other teams are doing well, it definitely makes us want to do well too. We have a lot of Wolfpack pride and being able to represent the school that’s doing so well in other ways is really exciting.”

For those interested in catching N.C. State Sailing in action, the team’s homecoming event — the 2024 Triangle Tango Intercollegiate Regatta — will take place in Raleigh at Lake Crabtree on Nov. 9-10. The team’s fall schedule can be found here.