College Sailing: Spring Season Update

Chris Klevan provides this week’s update on activity in the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA).

#5 Brown University won the Dellenbaugh Women’s Trophy decisively in sporty conditions. Leaving nothing to chance, the home team captured the regatta lead after race 4 in A-Division and never looked back. The Brown Bears won by 54 points after 34 total races and left much of the event, arguably the deepest women’s interconference seen yet this spring, in a race for second place.

The vast majority of the regatta was sailed in a seabreeze averaging 10-15 knots with waves as Brown’s sailing venue, at the north end of the Providence River, opens up to the south. Brown’s Ragna Agerup ‘20 and Lindsey Baab ‘18, splitting time driving, with Megha Malpani ‘19, Maxine De Havenon ‘19, and Abigayle Konys ‘19 crewing by committee, finished second in A-Division, 13 points behind Coast Guard’s Dana Rohde ‘18 and Anna Morin ‘19 (77 points).

The Division winners, Rohde and Morin, sailed the regatta in its entirety, despite seeing all conditions, from gusts up to 20 knots to a dying Northerly registering breeze towards the bottom end sailable racing. The tandem sailed a consistent event, scoring only one race outside the top-8. Rohde is the front-runner to be this year’s Quantum Women’s College Sailor of the Year with much still unwritten, including the Women’s National Championship, held at Old Dominion University on May 24-25.

Maia Agerup ‘20 with Caroline Salas ‘18 and Allison Cahn ‘20 of Boston University narrowly won B-Division over Brown’s Hannah Steadman ‘20 with Annabelle Hutchinson ‘21 and Maxine Havenon. Agerup, Salas, and Cahn finished with 88 points, 2 points ahead of Steadman, Hutchinson, and Havenon who caught fire in race 4, scoring nothing but top-3’s until race 10. Despite coming up short of wins in each division, Brown showed the value of depth, as the team effort, three skippers and four crews won the Regatta.

“It certainly was a team effort at the Dellenbaugh,” said Brown University Coach, John Mollicone. “We sailed three different skippers and four crews and they all stepped up and sailed really well. They are all really supportive of one another and they all were very good at making the proper adjustments throughout the weekend. This year’s women’s team at Brown has five good women’s boats pushing each other on a daily basis.”

#9 Stanford finished second overall with 234 points and #3 Yale finished 3rd with 247 points.
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The Lynne Marchiando Team Race Regatta, held on the Charles River in Boston, is the preeminent team race in New England. Featuring 15 of the top-20 nationally ranked teams, this rendition of the regatta lived up to the hype.

With the iconic Charles River serving as host for the event and MIT’s college sailing legend Franny Charles calling the shots, the historic event paid homage to college sailing’s historic roots and embodied the spirit of the game.

With two minute rolling starts, the regatta officials were channeling their inner Wilson and the efforts paid off. After 182 races run, #7 Boston College came out on top, winning narrowly over #5 Yale.

The Eagles finished with 19 wins and 5 losses, one loss ahead of Yale (18-6). Boston College led the event throughout, starting the first, full round robin with 13 wins and 2 losses. Yale, on the other hand, started slowly and found their stride as the event continued. Despite the 7 and 2 record in the double final 6, the Bulldogs of Yale could not catch the Eagles.

Unfortunately, the final and potentially tie-breaking final race between the two front runners was not completed due to time constraints. Though the second round robin of 6 was not completed, scores were counted due to the 80% rule, allowing a round to be scored as long as 80% of the intended races were sailed. The volunteers at MIT managed just that as 12 of 15 races were finished in the final round.

Boston College showed a starting lineup not yet seen with lightning-quick freshman Sophia Reineke sailing with veterans Lily McGrath ‘18 and Tara Ferraris ‘19 splitting time, joining an improving Wade Waddell ‘19 with Alice Bohan ‘18 and Katherine Bowman ‘20 alongside team race champion, Charles “Scotty” Sinks ‘18 with Alice Bohan and Emma Perry ‘19 doing the crew work.

The Eagles knew how to navigate the tricky team race conditions with speed as almost all of their wins came with 1-2’s.

Coach Greg Wilkinson said of the victory, “We’re moving on to Connecticut.” Mr. Wilkinson was referring to the Fowle Trophy held at Connecticut College next weekend. The Fowle will serve as New England’s conference championship and the qualifier for the ICSA Team Race National Championship held at Old Dominion University on May 26-28.

#16 Bowdoin College and #9 Harvard finished tied for third (14-10) with Bowdoin winning the tiebreaker decided by head-to-head record. #6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology finished fifth at 13-11 and #1 Roger Williams finished sixth at 11-13.

This was easily the worst finish thus far for the #1 ranked Roger Williams team. The dip in performance was clearly due to the absence of one of their usual starting skippers, Connor Harding who dislocated his shoulder late in the Friis Trophy the weekend prior. Mr. Harding is expected to return next weekend for the conference championship.

Background: The 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