Just before guests arrived at a midtown club to celebrate the growth and success of Fordham Sailing, Dennis Ruppel ’68 recounted stories of American sailing history, including the 132 years American sailors held the America’s Cup. With a nationally ranked club team, Ruppel sees a way for the University to help carry that tradition forward.
“The world needs more Fordham sailors,” he would later tell the assembled crowd of student sailors, coaches, alumni, and parents at the dinner, which closed the third annual Fordham Sailing Parents and Alumni Weekend. A Fordham trustee fellow and former student member of the sailing program, Ruppel was honored with his wife Patricia in September for their magnanimous support of Fordham Sailing, including donating the land for the club’s new waterfront center. He told the crowd that while much success has been achieved, more challenges lie ahead.
“Just like the formula for successful Fordham sailors, we must muster our inner strength … it may take longer than we would prefer, but we must not accept a DNF,” he said, using the sailing abbreviation for “did not finish.”
On the Rise
“Without a doubt, we are on the rise,” said Annika Ekholm ’20, director of Fordham Community Sailing, who helped organize the weekend’s events on and off the water. “Fordham sailing is in a really great place right now. I believe we have one of the best recruiting classes in the country with this current freshman team, across all of college sailing, including top varsity programs.”
Fordham club sailing has both a coed team and a women’s team, both of which have consistently ranked among the top 20 in the country. At the 2026 national championships, the coed team finished 18th out of 36 teams that made it to the nationals. This fall, the women’s team qualified for the Atlantic Coast Championship, where it placed 11th. As a member of the Intercollegiate Sailing Association of North America, Fordham Sailing competes regularly against both club and varsity sailing programs from around the country.
A New Waterfront Center, with Work Ahead
At the Fordham Sailing Waterfront Center on Eastchester Bay in the Bronx, pilings and a dock are already in place; the team hosted their first event in their new home in October 2025. Work continues on plans for a building on the site, which, in addition to housing the team, would become a space to teach local kids about sailing and the environment, said Ekholm. The Ruppels have been longtime supporters of the project: They have already given more than $5 million, and at last year’s sailing dinner Dennis announced a $1.25 million challenge gift to encourage other donations.
The work ahead includes completing the building and landscape design, securing approvals, and raising the money to bring the project to completion. With the team’s national rankings and an evolving waterfront facility, Ruppel said he also would like to see Fordham Sailing become a varsity sport. Athletics Director Charles Guthrie said he would “love to see the sailing team as a varsity sport,” but that funding remains an obstacle.
“We’ve got some hurdles to overcome,” he said. “And so we need to figure out a financial plan that makes sense.”
Regardless of varsity qualifications, first-year student Amelon Rule said the team’s coed makeup is a strength, and that she sees men and women contributing equally at practices and regattas.
Going with the Wind
“Everybody adds something to the team,” she said. “There’s women at the top, there’s men at the top.”
Head coach Brendan Feeney said the team’s success is rooted in the relationships its sailors have built with one another.
“I used to spell fun W-I-N,” he said. But his time with the Fordham team has changed that outlook. Now as much as they want to win, the camaraderie is key to their success. “I’ve never worked with a group that was so close.”
Together, the sailors navigate the unpredictable conditions particular to their sport, said Lucas “Luke” Thress, who graduated from Fordham in 2026. A sunny day, he noted, doesn’t necessarily mean a good day for sailing: Without wind, the boats can’t move.
“You have to go with the wind, and the wind dictates so many other things besides what you can control,” he said. “So it’s controlling the controllables.”
That ability to adapt also helped the team through three coaching changes and the usual rotations that happen with each school year, said assistant coach Spencer Kriegstein as he presented Thress with the Joseph J. Sullivan Jr. Leadership Award.
“As generations of sailors graduated and new ones came in to fill the ranks from all over the country with all different backgrounds, all different perspectives, tonight’s winner has been a unifying force.”
Thress, now an assistant coach, thanked the team for the honor.
“I love this team. I live for this team. I still do,” he said.
Written by Tom Stoelker
