Globe South Sports

Chasing the

wind together

Sailors Patrick Kearney of Dedham and Rachel Guard of Scituate prepare for their first race Tuesday in Scituate. (Photos By Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / August 6, 2009

There’s a fine line between taking a leisurely sail and racing in a regatta.

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Yet, Brittney Cangemi and her skipper, Christina McCourt, are able to enjoy both disciplines. Coming off a ninth-place finish in the recent Duxbury Yacht Club Junior Regatta, their best result since teaming up three years ago, the former Scituate High School tennis teammates competed in the USA Junior Olympic Sailing Festival and 23d annual Scituate Junior Regatta on Monday and Tuesday.

“It’s always something I just did for fun all my summers,’’ said McCourt, whose grandmother, Mary, is a longtime member of the Scituate Harbor Yacht Club. “Being around all these kids that are wicked competitive, you start to get that mentality that it’s not for fun anymore.’’

In the next breath, however, McCourt said sailing with Cangemi is a breeze.

“Of course we want to win, but we just go out and make friends, sing songs, and have fun,’’ said the 17-year-old McCourt, who will be a Scituate High senior this fall while Cangemi, 18, heads to Connecticut College and a berth on its sailing team.

“She’s someone I enjoy sailing with, not someone I have to sail with. She’s someone I want to sail with.’’

Hosting the USA Junior Olympic Sailing Festival for what organizers believe is the first time, the Scituate Harbor club fielded six teams, and was joined by several other South Shore squads competing in the event, which drew 300-plus sailors ages 7 to 18 racing more than 200 boats in four classes. One team traveled from Chicago.

Steve Guard, chairman of the Scituate Junior Regatta committee, said the USA festival is paired with a different local race each summer.

“It’s a huge feather in our cap in that the USA Junior Olympic committee thought enough of our club and the history of our club,’’ he said.

Guard said Scituate’s regatta is renowned for its tradition of serving tacos on the second day of racing, instead of the more common fare of hot dogs and hamburgers.

“It’s funny how the little things matter to these kids,’’ Guard said.

“Many of them are not hardcore, they do regattas for fun. Ninety-five percent of the kids are sailing for fun and five percent are truly competitive at the Olympic level. Most of them are out here to have fun and hone skills in teamwork and problem solving.

“To take on Mother Nature in a small boat and use wind as a propellent is really an awesome feat for these kids at this age.’’

No one in the Scituate junior sailing program, according to Guard, does it much better than Cangemi and McCourt.

“The two of them make a good team,’’ he said. “They’ve been friends for such a long time and they are the leaders for our program. A lot of kids look up to them for the hard work they’ve put into becoming the sailors they are.’

They were also teammates on the Scituate High School girls’ tennis team that advanced to the Division 2 South sectional semifinals this spring, Cangemi playing No. 1 doubles with Shelagh Joyce while McCourt was paired with Shalyn O’Malley on No. 2 tandem.

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“The consistency thing carried over’’ from tennis, Cangemi said. “In tennis you want to make every shot and keep consistent. In sailing, you want the finish to be consistent.’’

She said it will be difficult to sail without McCourt after this summer, because they are so in synch on the boat.

“They do much more team racing in college than we do in the summer,’’ Cangemi said. “That’s going to be exciting. It’s going to take a while to get used to the intensity of sailing every single day. It will be very different because we have our timing on our tacks down.’’

They might be reunited soon enough, however; McCourt hopes to play field hockey at the school in New London, Conn.

“I was telling her I was looking at’’ Connecticut College, McCourt recalled, “and she said, ‘Oh, I just applied there.’ We said maybe we could go to school together if it works out.’’

Cangemi started sailing seven years ago, but McCourt first hit the water with her family when she was 2 and started racing three years later.

“I definitely think it’s an advantage,’’ McCourt said. “I don’t think most people would start that young.’’

The two junior sailors first raced together three years ago when Hingham hosted the USA Junior Olympic festival. They don’t remember how they finished, but they’ll never forget how much fun they had, they said. Still, switching from casual sailing to racing was not easy.

“You have to think more aggressively, which is hard, but we’re getting better as a team,’’ Cangemi said.

With their own club hosting this summer’s USA festival, there was more pressure on Cangemi and McCourt to perform well.

“We know the waters, we practice in them every day and we know the currents, so that’s going to be better,’’ Cangemi said prior to the competition. “Everyone is looking out for us; everyone is looking for the Scituate boats.’’

The regatta was also one of their last together before Cangemi heads off to college.

“We learned a lot this summer,’’ McCourt said. “We also realized Britt can’t do any more regattas, so we’ll try to make the best of what we have left.’’

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.