I‘m so excited! The Sauder MBA Sailing team came in 3rd place in the MBA’s Cup, a regatta among the top business schools in the world, which takes place every year in Santa Margherita, Italy.
This year’s participating team was made up of my cohort: MBA students from the 2010 class.
During the two days, the team sailed on the Favela Bianca, a Beneteau 36.7, in five races. The Sauder MBA team remained consistently among the top 4 and won first place in the first race on the second day. Fourteen other schools participated in Division A, the racing division, including HEC, Kellog-WHU, Columbia, Insead, Chicago Booth, Wharton and the host, SDA Bocconi.
Besides the excitement of sailing, we were able to network with these great schools during dinners and parties on the Mediterranean sea. We also had a conference on Business and Sustainability, with a panel that included leaders of Deloitte and Microsoft. The dinner of the second day took place in Villa Cervara, a 14th century abbey which is considered a national historical monument of Italy. Imagine dining and dancing under the stars in a palace-like villa on the hills of Portofino!
The races were full of exciting moments. Three of the crew members (including myself) arrived in Milan on the day of the race, making it to Santa Margherita just after all the sailboats had taken off for the race and would not return during that day, leaving the Favela Bianca with only 4 crew members. We finally found a crew that took us out to find our boat. It wasn’t easy… we hadn’t seen the boat, and all of them look alike. Finally, we spotted them using binoculars and hopped on just minutes before the first race, without stopping the boats. At that moment we heard the gunshot announcing the beginning of the race. Another exciting moment was at the beginning of the race on the second day, when we barely avoided “a million dollar collision” because of a crowded start line. Luckily the Favela Bianca was under skillful helmsmenship and had a competent crew to carry out the tactics that would sail the boat safely across the start line.
This is the best finish for the Sauder MBA Sailing Team since it began competing in the MBA’s Cup in 2006. Like other years, this year’s team stood out because of outstanding teamwork and effort. The Sailing team has become a great tradition of the MBA. Prior teams have handed us great connections and know-how to help our cohort get started. We are handed the new team a boat to train on and are hoping to get a permanent alumni team started (and hopefully make it out to Italy again as a Division B team!).
