An unusual sailboat design and a wealth of experience helped a team from the ISU sailing club overcome a strong field and capture a national championship in Cleveland June 21—22.

A two-man crew of John Snyder, adviser to the sailing club and research assistant professor in materials science and engineering, and Ryan Richardson, a former sailing club president and 1998 graduate of Iowa State, piloted the Sliver to victory in the competition on Lake Erie.

“We went in hoping to hang on to second [place] and possibly get first,” Richardson said Wednesday.

Snyder said he was surprised with the win because of the return of tough competitors from 2002 and the addition of other highly respected sailing teams.

“I expected us to be around maybe fourth or fifth,” he said.

Snyder and Richardson finished second in the competition in 2001 and 2002.

The ISU duo won all three races June 21 and finished in seventh and second in two races June 22 to hold on to the championship.

The ISU sailors’ boat successfully navigated waves of two to four feet in June 21’s races, Snyder said. The waters on June 22 were calm.

“[The races] are intended to take between 30 minutes and one hour to sail,” Richardson said.

The competition helped kick off Cleveland Race Week, a large sailing competition with races in a variety of sailboat classes. Snyder and Richardson won the international flying junior class of the One-Design Series, outracing nine other competitors, including two previous national champions.

The Sliver stood out among the other ships in the races.

“It is made out of wood,” Richardson said. “It’s unusual for the flying junior class.”

Most boats in that class are made of fiberglass, Richardson said, because that material is easier to shape than the wood and epoxy construction used to make the Sliver.

Some other classes also require participants to purchase identical boat models from a manufacturer, Snyder said.

“It’s a minimum weight hull,” he said. “[It’s] supposed to do better in waves.”

The wood hull is generally more sturdy than fiberglass, Snyder said.

Snyder said the Sliver, built in 1981, and other boats in the event still need to conform to specifications for International FJs. The boats measure 13.5 feet in length and are navigated using a mainsail, jib and spinnaker.

Richardson said the jib, which is used for direction, and the mainsail, stay up at all times during a race.

He and Snyder would work together to raise the spinnaker, in Cyclone colors, when the Sliver sailed downwind.

Snyder said Richardson’s sailing expertise came in handy throughout the competition. Over rough waters, he said, he could concentrate on driving the boat while Richardson took over Snyder’s navigating duties, watching the other boats in the competition.

“[It’s] an advantage that we have over some of the crews,” he said. “In difficult conditions, especially upwind, we can do a division of labor.”

While traveling downwind, the Cyclone team depends on Richardson’s skill in directing the use of the extra sail.

“The spinnaker is entirely his business,” Snyder said.

During Richardson’s time at Iowa State, he participated in the sailing club and worked with Snyder when he joined. That experience, coupled with sailing together competitively in the past three years, helped the two men capture the 2003 national title, Richardson said.

Even with that history, the two are not able to sail much together outside of competitions, Richardson said.

Snyder said he keeps busy around central Iowa with sailing activities in other types of boats, usually on Big Creek Lake. He is also a member of the sailing club at the University of Iowa. Richardson teaches science at St. Mary’s School In Storm Lake and instructs classes and clubs in various boats on Storm Lake.

“The two of us do most of our sailing away from each other,” Richardson said.

Their teamwork, though, worked well enough to capture a national championship.