The Hotchkiss School is looking for an accomplished and enthusiastic head coach to lead the school’s sailing team. For more information and to apply, please see our formal job ad HERE.
Hotchkiss Sailing began in 1931. A long tradition for sure, but one that is continually evolving, growing stronger and fostering team. Our motto is “Remember Why You Love this Sport.” We sail fast and we sail fair.
Sailing is a self-governing and self-disciplined sport. While we are not afraid to protest we do not use the protest as an offensive weapon. We sail within the rules but know them very well.
Sailing at Hotchkiss is a spring sport. We begin our season in Florida for a weeklong clinic organized and coordinated by the coaching staff. We use the days to practice boat speed and boat handling and the evenings to bond as a team and to learn tactics and rules. When we arrive on campus after our spring break we hope Lake Wononscopomuc is ice-free. We begin our lake practices the day after (or the day of) ice out. Needless-to-say, drysuits and several layers of warm clothes are necessary and required.
We practice four-days a week and compete on the weekends. Practices are designed to isolate a specific skill (mark rounding, mark trap, pass back, etc.) for each ability level or to race as a fifteen-boat fleet. We usually have 28-30 sailors on the team with 8 on the varsity team, 10-12 on the JV team and 8-10 on the instructional squad Our weekend regattas are either home or away with some of our competitions several hours away. We usually sail three or four other teams each weekend day in a best of three or five team race format. High school team racing is three vs. three.
We often have graduate sailors join us in Florida or for a day or two on the water. It is gratifying to see the interaction between an All-American college sailor and a young sailor on The Hotchkiss team! The greatest benefit the team members enjoy, as part of the sailing team is that of camaraderie. Team members, having the opportunity to travel, learn, and sail together as part of team racing competition, not only develop advanced sailing techniques but also form several close friendships. The advantages of training as a team are that skills are shared and the learning curve is accelerated among all team members.
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