College Sailing: Spring Season Update

(March 7, 2017) – While sub-freezing temperatures and gale-force winds kept New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association from racing, the College spring season had team racing heating up elsewhere in the first weekend of March.

The weekend was headlined by the Bob Bavier Team Race, where ten teams made the trip to Charleston, SC for a refreshingly cool weekend of sailing. After 102 races, the College of Charleston Cougars came away from their home event victorious with an 18-3 record. The Georgetown Hoyas were a close second with 17 wins and 4 losses, including a 2-1 record against the home team.

“The conditions were very tricky with lots of wind shifts, velocity changes and strong current,” noted Mike Callahan, head coach of the Hoyas. “All the races were close and I’m happy that we were able to pull out some wins on the last beat but we have a lot of work to do if we are to qualify for the National Championship.”

The US Naval Academy finished third while the Dartmouth College Big Green rounded out the final four. Clearly a great start to the major team race season.

The inaugural ODU Women’s Interconference was sailed at Old Dominion University with Yale University Bulldogs as the victors of this event with 89 total points.

“ODU stepped up and created a much needed quality early season women’s interconference regatta,” said Yale Coach, Bill Healy. “The Bulldogs are proud to win the inaugural event after a great back and forth battle with the Charleston Cougars. Although it was quite cold, the Monarchs did a great job running a flawless event.”

Charleston finished second overall with 91 total points. First year skippers won both divisions: Yale’s Louisa Nordstrom (‘20) and Isabelle Rossi De Leon (‘17) dominated A-Division with 28 points. Charleston’s Alie Toppa (‘20) with Annabel Carrigan (‘19) and Caroline Bracken (‘19) tandeming the crew spot, finished first in B-Division with 47 points.

Hobart and Williams Smith Colleges won the GW Team Race with a 13-2 record while Jacksonville University won the Eckerd Interconference with 77 total points.

Background: The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. There are seven Conferences that schedule and administer regattas within their established geographic regions, with ICSA hosting two national championships in the fall (singlehanded, match racing) and three national championships in the spring (team, women’s, coed). collegesailing.org

Source: ICSA