Senior Quinn Vangelos, an enthusiastic and highly successful member of Tam’s sailing team, recently attracted recruitment attention from Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.

Vangelos discovered sailing during her freshman year and soon became part of the sport’s tight-knit community, gaining experience and honing her skills throughout both the school and yacht club seasons. “Everybody should [sail] at some point in their lives,” she said.

While sailing isn’t a typical varsity sport, it still requires serious amounts time and energy at practice and regattas.

Vangelos still feels she has much to learn, which is something she enjoys about sailing. “There’s such a vast amount of things to learn, and different techniques you can learn to improve yourself,” she said, adding that even national champions and America’s Cup sailors can find room for improvement. “You could [improve] forever – you can’t perfect sailing, and that’s really cool.”

Vangelos expressed appreciation for her coaches, including Sausalito Yacht Club’s Christine Bletzer, and added that this year’s team is progressing well. “We have a lot of new freshmen on the team this year, and they’re all awesome, and they’re all learning so much,” she said.

Though she acknowledges the risks that go hand in hand with sailing, she is confident in her and her teammates’ abilities, especially sailing partner and senior Sam Gates. “If you know how to avoid being hurt, the worst that could happen is that you just get wet,” she said.

Confidence aside, facing the elements armed with a mere sailboat can prove daunting. “There have been a lot of really scary times,” she said, “It can get really windy.”

When asked how many times she’s capsized while sailing, Vangelos only grinned. “Oh,” she said. “Too many to count.”