Becoming the fastest dinghy sailor in the world was the last thing on his mind. There was no room for daydreaming on his Mach 2 Moth, no time for distractions when he was speeding across the Charleston Harbor at 36.6 knots, or 42.11 mph.
“That’s one thing I love about sailing: It clears your head. It gets your mind off all the things you have to think about: the bills you have to pay, the tasks you have to do. It gets your mind out of all that and into the moment,” says Ned Goss ’02, the College’s dockmaster and offshore sailing coach. “When I’m sailing, my mind is in that specific moment, and it carries me with the moment. I’m completely tuned into that moment.”
The moment Goss ended his record-breaking ride, however, he tuned into the numbers.
“I knew I’d gone fast, and, at the end, I felt complete excitement,” says Goss, who was a member of the U.S. Sailing Team from 2003 to 2005. “When I hit the button on the GPS and saw the speed and that it beat the record, it was complete elation.”
Now that he’s the fastest dinghy sailor in the world, Goss has some other goals in mind: a 40-knot run, perhaps.
“Every time I go out on the water, I go as fast as I can. That’s the fun of the sport,” he says. “I’m always trying to go faster and be better. I’m always driven to improve.”
And, once he’s focused on a certain goal, there’s no reason Goss can’t do whatever he sets his mind to.
Photos by Gately Williams
