Come Sail Away

By Jack Daly ’01

For the first time in program history, NC State’s sailing team made it to nationals this year, competing in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association regatta in June in Annapolis, Md. The team finished 17th.

The sailing team is a club team, which means the coach, Dana Magliola ’16 MBA, is a volunteer who works a full-time job with the N.C. Department of Transportation. There are no scholarships for members of the coed team. We talked with Magliola about the team’s recent success and what the future might hold:

What were the highlights from nationals for you?

First of all, qualifying. Because it was the realization of a goal . . . being able to compete against the best sailors from the best teams in the country. The highlight there was realizing we can keep pace. There were 32 races over the course of two days. We won a race; we came in second in a race.

How do competitions work?

You travel to a host location, and we use their fleet of boats. You rotate over the course of a regatta so any differences in the boats are worked out. It’s a lot like a track meet with golf scoring, where you have all of the teams competing on the same playing field at the same time.

What’s possible for the program?

That NC State becomes a very permanent fixture in the landscape of college sailing. We’re there now, but if you look at the 50-year history of the sailing program, we’ve had peaks and valleys. We need to flatten that out and be consistent.