Ivy League Sailors Go From Scratch to Race Billionaires

Before Charlie Enright and Mark Towill could sail through the Southern Ocean’s gales in the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race, they needed help from a Disney movie, a Turkish medical devices company and a business plan.

Enright and Towill are accomplished sailors, alumni of Brown University’s nationally ranked team. Yet it’s their business and economics degrees and not their sailing skills that will put them at the helm of Team Alvimedica’s 65-foot ocean racing yacht when it launches next month to compete against the world’s best -- and best-funded -- sailors.