{"id":82429,"date":"2025-07-28T13:27:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/?p=82429"},"modified":"2025-07-28T13:31:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T17:31:58","slug":"family-sailing-in-the-melges-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/racing\/family-sailing-in-the-melges-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Sailing in the Melges 15"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Morgan-Kinney_Jun24ECC86-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image disable-lazyload\" alt=\"Emily and John Haig\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Morgan-Kinney_Jun24ECC86-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Morgan-Kinney_Jun24ECC86-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Morgan-Kinney_Jun24ECC86-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Morgan-Kinney_Jun24ECC86-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Morgan-Kinney_Jun24ECC86.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Emily and John Haig at the Melges 15 Mindwinters.<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Morgan Kinney<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n<p>Over the past three years, one father and his two 20-something daughters have consistently finished at the top of big fleets\u2014on a \u00addoublehanded boat. You read that right: If two plus one is three, how is it possible for a trio of Haig family members to fit on board a two-person Melges 15? This was indeed a problem, until they solved it by buying a second boat. Now daughters Emily and Dana take turns racing, with their father, John, as permanent forward crew. Whenever one daughter creates the familial pairing, the other races with a friend. And obviously this interfamily rivalry has upped everyone\u2019s game. Emily, for example, won the 2025 Melges 15 Winter Series overall, and Dana was third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe id=\"x8aa2rgac1\" src=\"https:\/\/Sailingworld.dragonforms.com\/x8aa2rgac1\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:165px;border:none;overflow:hidden;\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Dad, the lowly crew, rarely gets mentioned in the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cooperative competitiveness is nothing new for the sisters; they were only one year apart in school. \u201cWe were always duking it out in high school,\u201d Emily says. Both were selected Female Skipper of the Year at New Jersey\u2019s Southern Regional High School and All-American skippers at MIT. \u201cDana was in the MIT class right behind me,\u201d Emily says. \u201cSelfishly, it was nice to have her on the same team, so I never had to worry about my younger sister beating me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now that they\u2019re both in the workforce, they\u2019ve carried this team approach to the Melges 15 circuit. Dana enjoys racing in the same fleet with her sister, and says that they both benefit from talking between races, doing speed tests or split tacks before the races. \u201cAt the end of the day,\u201d she says, \u201cwe\u2019re competitors, but we\u2019re still family. And she\u2019s a great sailor. I\u2019ve learned so much by sailing against her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for their father, Dana says: \u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s whiplash for him going back and forth between me and my sister. We definitely have differences in how we sail, so kudos to him for putting up with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDad has some fun stories about Dana and me,\u201d Emily says. \u201cI\u2019ll yell at him to do something, and she\u2019ll yell at him to do the opposite thing. He\u2019s like, \u2018What do you expect from me?\u2019 And I\u2019m like: \u2018To win, Dad. To win.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John Haig didn\u2019t sail in college and accepts that the college crews his daughters are used to \u201cdo a lot more than I do.\u201d When asked to compare his daughters, he says: \u201cEmily is definitely more chill. But they\u2019re college sailors, so they both get really hyped up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More specifically, he says that Emily usually wants him to focus on sail trim, while Dana wants him to look around more. One time, he says, \u201cI\u2019m literally watching the chute but also watching this airplane, and somehow Emily knew. She doesn\u2019t want me to look around because then she feels like she\u2019s doing something wrong\u2014and I don\u2019t really know enough to even think she is doing something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dana\u2019s different, he continues. \u201cAt the start, she wants to know when people tack\u2014and it\u2019s completely behind me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The younger sister admits that she prefers as many eyes out of the boat as possible, \u201cso I definitely ask Dad more questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She parrots an example of their dialogue:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dana: \u201cWhat\u2019s happening on the right side of the course?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John: \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dana: \u201cWell, look.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John: \u201cMy neck hurts.\u201d (\u201cI\u2019m not really flexible,\u201d he says.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dana also remembers her dad once telling her that Emily doesn\u2019t have him do as much&nbsp;work. \u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018Well, you\u2019re \u00adsailing with me now. I love&nbsp;you!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only jealous moment either Haig sisters mention is when their father bought the family\u2019s first Melges 15. \u201cMy dad actually took my younger sister out to sail it\u2014not me,\u201d Emily says. \u201cI\u2019m still salty about that. He bought the boat, and I hadn\u2019t even sailed it yet. I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, Dad, whatever.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But when planning for their first Melges 15 winter \u00adcircuit began, Dana was still in school\u2014and Emily, out in the workforce and hungry to keep dinghy sailing, jumped at the chance for a winter escape. She and John won the second regatta of the series and finished third at Midwinters. After that, it wasn\u2019t long before\u2014as Emily puts it\u2014\u201cwe hit a point where we both always wanted to sail, so we ended up getting a second boat. Kind of crazy but a really great balance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250323-M15awards-EMK-HIrt-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image disable-lazyload\" alt=\"2024 Melges 15 Winter Series podium\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250323-M15awards-EMK-HIrt-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250323-M15awards-EMK-HIrt-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250323-M15awards-EMK-HIrt-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250323-M15awards-EMK-HIrt-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250323-M15awards-EMK-HIrt.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">The 2024 Melges 15 Winter Series podium showcases the breadth of competitive teams: overall winners Emily and John Haig (center), Ava Cohen and Ryan Keenan (on left) and Dana Haig and Nika Silkin (on right).<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Morgan Kinney<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s definitely an adjustment going back and forth between college crews and sailing with our dad,\u201d Dana adds. \u201cIn college sailing, you sail with the same person six days a week for sometimes years, so there\u2019s a different level of muscle memory. I\u2019d never really sailed with my dad before. It\u2019s been a super-awesome experience. He\u2019s a great sailor, and he\u2019s in great shape. He can lock in and hike just as well as any college sailing crew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Emily agrees that their dad \u201chikes harder than anyone else, which is awesome.\u201d But he did start out with a few bad habits. \u201cHe grew up sailing E Scows as a jib man,\u201d one of the smaller crews. \u201cSo, he could jibe and cross the boat super early, and there were no problems. But he has like 40 to 50 pounds on Dana and me, so if he jibes early, we feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their father also gets very stressed if they are in the top five. \u201cDana and I both had to train him: \u2018No, Dad, we deserve to be here. This is normal. We\u2019re \u00adactually gonna pass boats now!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Emily calls this \u201ca fun transition between the one-off E&nbsp;Scow race, where maybe you\u2019re in the top, versus the expectation of we\u2019ve worked really hard and we deserve to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both daughters fully appreciate their dad\u2019s logistical support. \u201cWe\u2019re so lucky that he\u2019s able to drive the boats,\u201d Dana says. \u201cWithout that, we wouldn\u2019t be able to do a fraction of the events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of fun for me,\u201d John says, \u201cbecause I\u2019m not rushed. I drive to the venue and set&nbsp;up the boats, to a point. Mast up,&nbsp;spreaders right.\u201d After work, Emily and Dana arrive to finish tuning their boats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both sisters also enjoy the \u201cin-between\u201d regattas, when they sail with friends. \u201cAfter college sailing,\u201d Dana says, \u201cthe number of opportunities just kind of drops. It\u2019s been great to keep some of our crews in the loop. The Melges 15 came along at a perfect time. It\u2019s been a really fun transition for us into more-adult sailing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And regattas are a great way to spend time together as a family. Emily\u2019s boyfriend, Jimmy Muller, will crew for her at the Melges 15 Europeans in Ireland this summer, while Dana sails with John. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see the fleet expanding,\u201d Dana says. \u201cFrom literally seeing the first eight boats to now becoming an international class. You see a lot more families in the boat\u2014some siblings, recent college grads. It\u2019s been cool seeing the fleet change throughout the years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their competitors have definitely noticed the \u00adfamily\u2019s consistent results. At every regatta, Emily says, \u201cI have \u00adpeople coming up to me asking if they can measure my mainsheet bridle height. I\u2019m happy to answer questions. But with a lot of the settings, I very much go by feel and what looks good on the water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re both pretty \u00adtechnical people,\u201d Dana says. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to overthink things, so once I\u2019m out on the water, the most important thing for me is \u00adkeeping it simple.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been really great to sail in a community,\u201d Emily adds. \u201cI have a bunch of friends from college who don\u2019t have the opportunities to sail, or it\u2019s just too much. Thankfully my parents do a lot of it, and I\u2019m so, so grateful for that. It\u2019s a lot of fun but definitely not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two daughters, two cool boats\u2014and one proud papa. The Melges 15 was \u201cmade for us,\u201d John says. \u201cWe really are the brochure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Haig enjoys the perks of dinghy racing with his daughters. It&#8217;s not just keeping him young. It&#8217;s keeping him connected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":82430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Carol Cronin","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"ad_targeting":"","alternate_title_newsletter":"","alternate_content_newsletter":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[159],"tags":[3013,232,3003,177,178],"class_list":["post-82429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","tag-melges-15","tag-one-design","tag-print-summer-2025","tag-racing","tag-sailboat-racing"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sailingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}