Family Sailing in the Melges 15

Emily and John Haig at the Melges 15 Mindwinters. Morgan Kinney

Over the past three years, one father and his two 20-something daughters have consistently finished at the top of big fleets—on a ­doublehanded 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’s game. Emily, for example, won the 2025 Melges 15 Winter Series overall, and Dana was third.

Dad, the lowly crew, rarely gets mentioned in the press.

Cooperative competitiveness is nothing new for the sisters; they were only one year apart in school. “We were always duking it out in high school,” Emily says. Both were selected Female Skipper of the Year at New Jersey’s Southern Regional High School and All-American skippers at MIT. “Dana was in the MIT class right behind me,” Emily says. “Selfishly, it was nice to have her on the same team, so I never had to worry about my younger sister beating me.”

Now that they’re both in the workforce, they’ve 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. “At the end of the day,” she says, “we’re competitors, but we’re still family. And she’s a great sailor. I’ve learned so much by sailing against her.”

As for their father, Dana says: “I’m sure it’s 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.”

“Dad has some fun stories about Dana and me,” Emily says. “I’ll yell at him to do something, and she’ll yell at him to do the opposite thing. He’s like, ‘What do you expect from me?’ And I’m like: ‘To win, Dad. To win.’”

John Haig didn’t sail in college and accepts that the college crews his daughters are used to “do a lot more than I do.” When asked to compare his daughters, he says: “Emily is definitely more chill. But they’re college sailors, so they both get really hyped up.”

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, “I’m literally watching the chute but also watching this airplane, and somehow Emily knew. She doesn’t want me to look around because then she feels like she’s doing something wrong—and I don’t really know enough to even think she is doing something wrong.”

Dana’s different, he continues. “At the start, she wants to know when people tack—and it’s completely behind me!”

The younger sister admits that she prefers as many eyes out of the boat as possible, “so I definitely ask Dad more questions.”

She parrots an example of their dialogue:

Dana: “What’s happening on the right side of the course?”

John: “I don’t know.”

Dana: “Well, look.”

John: “My neck hurts.” (“I’m not really flexible,” he says.)

Dana also remembers her dad once telling her that Emily doesn’t have him do as much work. “And I’m like, ‘Well, you’re ­sailing with me now. I love you!’”

The only jealous moment either Haig sisters mention is when their father bought the family’s first Melges 15. “My dad actually took my younger sister out to sail it—not me,” Emily says. “I’m still salty about that. He bought the boat, and I hadn’t even sailed it yet. I’m like, ‘OK, Dad, whatever.’”

But when planning for their first Melges 15 winter ­circuit began, Dana was still in school—and 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’t long before—as Emily puts it—“we 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.”

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). Morgan Kinney

“It’s definitely an adjustment going back and forth between college crews and sailing with our dad,” Dana adds. “In college sailing, you sail with the same person six days a week for sometimes years, so there’s a different level of muscle memory. I’d never really sailed with my dad before. It’s been a super-awesome experience. He’s a great sailor, and he’s in great shape. He can lock in and hike just as well as any college sailing crew.”

Emily agrees that their dad “hikes harder than anyone else, which is awesome.” But he did start out with a few bad habits. “He grew up sailing E Scows as a jib man,” one of the smaller crews. “So, 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.”

Their father also gets very stressed if they are in the top five. “Dana and I both had to train him: ‘No, Dad, we deserve to be here. This is normal. We’re ­actually gonna pass boats now!’”

Emily calls this “a fun transition between the one-off E Scow race, where maybe you’re in the top, versus the expectation of we’ve worked really hard and we deserve to be here.”

Both daughters fully appreciate their dad’s logistical support. “We’re so lucky that he’s able to drive the boats,” Dana says. “Without that, we wouldn’t be able to do a fraction of the events.”

“It’s kind of fun for me,” John says, “because I’m not rushed. I drive to the venue and set up the boats, to a point. Mast up, spreaders right.” After work, Emily and Dana arrive to finish tuning their boats.

Both sisters also enjoy the “in-between” regattas, when they sail with friends. “After college sailing,” Dana says, “the number of opportunities just kind of drops. It’s been great to keep some of our crews in the loop. The Melges 15 came along at a perfect time. It’s been a really fun transition for us into more-adult sailing.”

And regattas are a great way to spend time together as a family. Emily’s boyfriend, Jimmy Muller, will crew for her at the Melges 15 Europeans in Ireland this summer, while Dana sails with John. “It’s great to see the fleet expanding,” Dana says. “From literally seeing the first eight boats to now becoming an international class. You see a lot more families in the boat—some siblings, recent college grads. It’s been cool seeing the fleet change throughout the years.”

Their competitors have definitely noticed the ­family’s consistent results. At every regatta, Emily says, “I have ­people coming up to me asking if they can measure my mainsheet bridle height. I’m happy to answer questions. But with a lot of the settings, I very much go by feel and what looks good on the water.”

“We’re both pretty ­technical people,” Dana says. “It’s easy to overthink things, so once I’m out on the water, the most important thing for me is ­keeping it simple.”

“It’s been really great to sail in a community,” Emily adds. “I have a bunch of friends from college who don’t have the opportunities to sail, or it’s just too much. Thankfully my parents do a lot of it, and I’m so, so grateful for that. It’s a lot of fun but definitely not easy.”

Two daughters, two cool boats—and one proud papa. The Melges 15 was “made for us,” John says. “We really are the brochure.”

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