College Nationals: Light winds derail Coed Championship

St. Mary’s City, MD (June 3, 2014) – Today was the first day of the Gill Coed National Championship Semi-Finals, hosted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The top 36 collegiate sailing teams in the nation reported to the regatta venue on the St. Mary’s River to compete for 18 spots in the championship finals, which will begin on Thursday, June 5th.

The semi-finals are divided into two fleets, an Eastern and Western semi-final fleet, each with 18 teams. The top nine teams from each fleet will advance to the finals on Thursday. The sailors are racing on an inner and outer trapezoid course in both FJs and Z420s. Each fleet sails one type of boat one day and swaps boats the next day. Today, the Western fleet sailed in 420s on the outer course and the Eastern in FJs on the inner course.

This morning the skies were mostly sunny with temperatures in the high 70s, rising to the 80s by the afternoon. Clouds and a thunderstorm came through in the late afternoon.

Racing got underway around 9:30 a.m. today, but the winds were light and spotty at around 5 knots from the southwest and dying. The race officials were able to complete two races in A-division and B-division in both of the fleets this morning, but the wind died out and the sailors went to shore to wait for more breeze.

After trying to get on the water a couple of times this afternoon the breeze never filled in. A thunderstorm came through around 5 p.m. and the race officials were hoping for wind to fill after that, but unfortunately it still did not. By about 7 p.m. the officials called the racing for the day and they will try again tomorrow.

After the few races today in really light conditions Yale University is in the lead in the Western fleet and Georgetown University is in the lead in the Eastern fleet. Yale did not place out of the top three in either division today and Georgetown got three firsts and a sixth place finish.

“We had two great starts today and we didn’t get too trapped at the edges,” Bill Healy says, assistant coach for Yale. Despite the wind forecast for tomorrow predicting more light air, Healy says, “We are not worried about tomorrow. We had two great races today.”

Sailing for Yale is: Graham Landy ’15 with Katherine Gaumond ’15 in A-division and Ian Barrows ’17 with Meredith Megarry ’17 in B-division.

“Today was mostly about straight line boat speed,” Mike Callahan says, head coach for Georgetown. “We were happy to not have a bad finish,” he says. With so few races completed today and a final championship still to go Callahan says, “You don’t want to dial it back [in this portion of the event], but you need to balance not taking too many risks.”

Sailing for Georgetown is: Nevin Snow ’16 with Katia DaSilva ’15 in A-division and Alex Post ’15 with Bettina Redway ’16 in B-division.

There are still 16 races to sail in both A and B-division in each fleet. The first warning for racing is at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. No race can start after 5 p.m.

Top Nine Teams Eastern Semi-Final, Day 1:
1. Georgetown University, 9
2. Connecticut College, 10
3. U.S. Naval Academy, 16
4. College of Charleston, 18
5. Dartmouth College, 23
6. Tufts University, 28
7. University of California at Santa Barbara, 35
8. Stanford University, 35
9. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 35
Full results

Top Nine Teams Western Semi-Final, Day 1:
1. Yale University, 8
2. Bowdoin College, 18
3. Brown University, 21
4. University of Hawaii, 22
5. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 24
6. Old Dominion University, 25
7. University of South Florida, 25
8. Harvard University, 29
9. Eckerd College, 32
Full results

Coed Championship website: 2014nationals.collegesailing.org/gill-coed-championship

Chalk Talk recaps the 2014 Sperry Top-Sider Women’s Nationals and APS Team Race Nationals which concluded in Maryland this week. The gang looks over the list for Gill Coed Dinghy Nationals, which includes two days of Semifinals racing this year, and tells you who to watch out for. Watch video here…

Background: The fall and spring seasons of college racing focuses on six National Championships. In the Fall season were the Match Race Nationals and Men’s and Women’s Singlehanded Nationals. The Spring season closes out with the ICSA/Sperry Women’s Nationals (May 27-30), College Sailing/APS Team Race Championship (May 31-June 2), and the College Sailing/Gill Coed Championship (June 3-6). Nationals website: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org