ICSA: College Dinghy Nationals – Day 2 report

St. Petersburg, FL (May 29, 2013) -Today was the second day of the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship. The top 18 college sailing teams in the nation are gathered on Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg, Fla. after qualifying in a semi-final championship held at Hampton University in April. The National Championships are co-hosted by the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Eckerd College and the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

Teams arrived to great winds this morning and racing got underway at 9:45 a.m. Temperatures were in the 80s and Easterly winds built to around 17 knots with higher gusts in the afternoon. The breeze also brought wavy conditions making a lot of the racing about boat speed. A lot of teams changed up their pairings to get more weight in the boat to handle the bigger breeze.

The race committee was able to run a lot of races quickly due to the strong winds. It was a long day for the competitors with few breaks, but the racing stayed competitive. The University of Florida, St. Petersburg and Eckerd College volunteers have been running a quality event and have used good judgment with the sailing on and off the water.

College of Charleston managed to hold onto their lead today sailing consistently in the top of the fleet. Sixteen points behind them in second place is Georgetown University who moved up from fourth place after yesterday’s racing. Brown University is another 16 points behind Georgetown in third place having moved up from ninth place after yesterday’s racing.

“The competition is the best there is,” says Greg Fisher, director of sailing for Charleston. The races are close all the way around and he says the time between the first and last place boats was really short today. Charleston has been able to hold onto their lead with good boat speed and consistency.

“Juan is exceptionally fast,” he says. In one race today he rounded the first mark in 15th, but was able to climb back to a fifth place finish. “It makes a huge difference in consistency in the regatta,” he says.

Tomorrow Fisher says the team will stick with their game plan and be conservative on the race course. “We will try to not allow ourselves to give too much leverage away to the rest of the fleet,” he says.

Sailing for Charleston is Juan Maegli ’13 with Septima McAdams ’16 and Corinna DeCollibus ’13 in A-division and Ben Spector ’13 with Alicia Blumenthal ’15 and Brooks Clark ’13 as well as Mac Mace ’13 and Sarah Somes ’13 in B-division.

Georgetown moved into second place today. “Today we were more consistent and were able to catch up when we were behind,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown. Despite the really challenging conditions the Georgetown sailors were able to manage the ups and downs of the day and charge the end of the day with some top scores.

“Tomorrow we will try and have four good races,” Callahan says. The scores are still close, so teams can move up and down with only a few races. “We are just going to worry about getting good scores,” he says.

Sailing for Georgetown is Chris Barnard ’13 with Katia DaSilva ’15, Leslie Cowen ’13 and Sean Golden ’16 in A-division and Nevin Snow ’16 with Victoria Lynch ’13 and Nancy Hagood ’14 in B-division.

Tomorrow will be the last day of racing for the ICSA/Gill Coed National Championship. Racing is set to begin around 9:45 a.m. The race committee is hoping to run four more races in each division tomorrow for a total of 18 races in each division in the Championship. The deadline for racing is 5 p.m.

The event will wrap up with an awards banquet at 7 p.m. at the St. Petersburg yacht Club, where the top three coed dinghy champions will receive their awards, the College Sailor of the Year will be announced and the ICSA All-American Team will be presented in addition to other ICSA awards.

Event website: https://2013nationals.collegesailing.org/.

Results Day 2 – Top 9
1. College of Charleston, 169
2. Georgetown University, 185
3. Brown University, 201
4. Dartmouth College, 210
5. Boston College, 214
6. Yale University, 223
7. Roger Williams University, 231
8. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 246
9. Old Dominion University, 248

Complete results: http://scores.collegesailing.org/s13/gill-coed/

Gary Jobson will be filming highlights of the three days of racing, which will air on ESPNU on Friday, July 12 at 6 p.m. This will be the ninth time the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy Nationals have been covered on ESPNU.

Watch live media coverage of the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship by clicking on the Live Media link at: https://2013nationals.collegesailing.org/.  The University of South Florida, St. Petersburg and Eckerd College will provide daily text and photo updates.

* To view or purchase photos of the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championships, visit the link for photographer John Payne: johnpaynephoto.com

*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. Visit www.collegesailing.org to learn more. Sperry Top-Sider (www.sperrytopsider.com), Annapolis Performance Sailing (www.apsltd.com) and Gill North America (www.gillna.com) sponsor the ICSA National Championships. Supporting sponsorship is from LaserPerformance (www.laserperformance.com) and US SAILING (home.ussailing.org).

Contact: Jen Vandemoer Mitchell | Toile à Voile for ICSA | media@collegesailing.org