College Sailing Match Race Nationals

The Brown University Bears won the 2023 College Sailing Match Race National Championship, held November 3-5 in Charleston, SC. Ten teams competed in J/22s, with Brown beating Coast Guard 3-0 in the Finals while Yale topped Georgetown 2-1 in the Petit Finals. The winning team was led by Liam O’Keefe ’26 with Guthrie Braun ’26, Charlotte Costikyan ’24, and Cam Spriggs ’27.

The first day offered 6-12 knot winds to complete the first stage’s Round Robin. The defending Champions, Yale University, were perfect after day one with a record of 9-0 trying to become the first team in the history of the event to win three years in a row. The top six teams earned a berth in the Gold Round Robin to determine seeding while the bottom four teams moved to the Repechage to fight for the last two berths in the Quarterfinals.

On Day 2, the breeze was in the low teens which allowed the race committee to complete the Gold Round, Repechage, a first-to-two-point Quarterfinal and a first-to-two-point Semifinals. The final day had the Petit Finals and Finals which were sailed in 5-10 knot winds out of the North.

“Firstly, I want to thank my teammates, my coach Danny, the race committee, and the umpires,” said Brown skipper Liam O’Keefe, “This was an incredible event with us managing to sail 22 races across all three days even with strong current and some tricky breeze. We just focused on improving every race, and adapting to the tricky conditions, and were able to come away with the win in this incredibly competitive fleet.”

Final Results
1. Brown Bears
2. Coast Guard Bears
3. Yale Bulldogs
4. Georgetown Hoyas
5. Stanford Cardinal
6. Charleston Cougars
7. Jacksonville Fins
8. Navy Midshipmen
9. Tulane Green Wave
10. Chicago Maroons

Details: https://scores.collegesailing.org/f23/icsa-match-race-national/