Join Us

The sailing team is open to any student at Columbia University, including Barnard, GS, CC, and SEAS. The team is primarily for undergraduates because only undergraduates can compete in ICSA regattas. Graduate students are always welcome at practice but cannot compete.

Prior experience certainly helps, however, some of our top sailors joined with little or no experience. Anyone interested in learning and willing to dedicate the time and work to sailing is welcome at practice. 

College sailing is mainly double-handed dinghies, although there are a few singlehanded regattas sailed in Lasers. We practice in our fleet of FJs and Larchmont's fleet of Z420s. We also have access to Larchmont's fleet of Ideal 18s, which are great boats for teaching fundamental sailing skills. For most regattas, we compete in FJs and 420s, but for some, we may be in keelboats. 

The team hosts several social and alumni events each year. We have a formal to celebrate the close of the fall season and several social events throughout the year. Team members also often eat dinner together in the dining hall after practice.  In the fall, we host the Alumni Regatta, where alumni compete for the coveted Hapgood Trophy. Additionally, we host the Annual, formerly known as the Winter Fundraiser, to celebrate our alumni and team. 

As a club team we are student run, although we have support from our coach, alumni organization and club sports office. In the ICSA regattas have a mix club and varsity teams, so we are all able to compete against the best teams in the nation. As a club team we have many opportunities to get involved in leadership and to compete as an underclassman. Additionally, the time commitment is more flexible and everyone is welcome. We are not able offer admissions support for prospective students, but we are happy to answer any questions you have about Columbia, so please do email us if you are interested. We do have team dues, but financial aid is available, and dues are all inclusive meaning you won’t need to spend additional money to travel to a regatta.

Yes, but we try to make them as cheap as possible, and they are all-inclusive. We are required to charge some amount of money to confirm club registration, but we also need dues money to fund our activities, since we are not fully funded by the University. You will not be charged extra for practice or regatta travel, rental equipment, or per practice attended.

Dues pay for:

• Our rental of Larchmont Yacht Club's facilities
• Our employment of Coach Loghlen and Assistant Coach Yuen
• The free equipment (lifejackets, drysuits, etc.) that we provide to sailors who do not have it
• The maintenance and storage of our fleet of FJs
• Lodging for away regattas
• Car rentals or plane tickets so we can travel to regattas.

We also heavily rely on fundraising from alumni and parents, and several strong years of fundraising have allowed us to not raise dues, even as we pull in less money from other funding sources. If you would like information on how to support us, please click here.

If you are wondering why dues for non-undergraduates are higher than dues for undergraduates, it is because we are required to have them be at least nearly 40% higher by the University. That requirement exists because undergraduates pay a student activities fee as part of their tuition that supports club sports, while graduate students and non-students do not.