Yale leads Team Race Nationals

Newport, RI (May 25, 2019) – The first day of racing in the LaserPerformance College Sailing Team Race National Championship got underway today for 16 of the best college teams across the nation qualified to compete in this event for the Walter C. Wood Trophy, awarded to the winning team.

The format for this event is a series of round robins. In the first round all sixteen teams race each other once. This round determines places 9-16. The top eight teams then advance to a single round robin, which determines places 5-8. The top four remaining teams advance to a “final four” another single round to determine places 1-4.

There are a number of people who contribute to the success of this event on the water including the umpire team who evaluates all of the racing on the water. The chief umpire is Rob Overton and his fellow umpires include: Carrie Green, Kelsey Wheeler, Tony Weiner, Peter Bailey, Cliff Black, Sandy Grosvenor, Sue Reilly, Doc Sullivan, Sam Madden, John Moulthrop, and Bryan Macdonald.

Racing got a late start today due to a light northerly fighting the sea breeze. Around 11:30 a.m. boats hit the water to start racing. The sea breeze filled in and by about 1:30 pm it was hiking conditions for the competitors.

The sailors made it through more than half of the first round of racing today completing 78 races. There are 42 races to go in the first round for a total of 120. The competitors sailed on a digital N course, which has a windward mark, a windward offset mark rounded to starboard and then down to a leeward mark with another leeward offset rounded to port and finish upwind. The N course allows for long upwind and downwind legs – prime for team racing. The sailors are racing in both FJs and Z420s.

Each team has three or four more races to go in the first round robin, so there is room for teams to move around on the scoreboard. Every race is important at this high level of competition.

Yale University had a great start to the regatta and is sitting in first place with an undefeated record.

“We had a hard first race against Boston College,” says Bill Healy, associate head coach of Yale, “and we also had good races against Bowdoin College and Stanford University – they are all solid. The race committee is running great races with Mike O’Connor [Harvard Sailing head coach] getting them off efficiently.

“We sailed well today – team racing is always evolving. so you are on your toes, and we can make small tweaks here and there, but we want to keep it going and do the same thing tomorrow.”

Sailing for Yale University is: Shawn Harvey ’21, Graceann Nicolosi ’20, Nicholas Baird ’19, Kira Woods ’19, Nicolas Hernandez ’19, Claudia Loiacono ’21, Sonia Lingos-Utley ’21, and Christine Klingler ’20.

Georgetown University is in second place, with a record of 8-2. Their two loses were to Boston College and U.S. Naval Academy.

“In our Boston College race we did not start well and in the Navy race we got a red flag at an unfortunate time and could not come back from it,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown. It was very close racing today and the competition is very good – the best it’s been.

“It’s a long day on the water so the goal is to get everyone rested tonight. I am tremendously happy with the good racing we have done.”

Sailing for Georgetown is: Andy Reiter ’19, Haley Shea ’19, Marley Mais ’21, Sean Segerblom ’20, Rebecca Fung ’19, William Logue ’20, Caroline Teare ’21, Noah Kelleher ’19, Jack Hogan ’21, and Claire Mohun ’19.

At the time of this release a protest was still being heard involving the College of Charleston, so the day’s results are protest pending. The defending champion, College of Charleston, is in third place with a record of 8-2, losing to Georgetown and Dartmouth College.

Sailing for Charleston is: Augie Dale ’19, Katherine Lounsbury ’20, Alie Toppa ’20, Annabel Carrington ’19, Steven Leuck ’20, Payton Alexander ’19, Jack Brown ’21, and Oliver Parsons ’21.

The first warning for racing tomorrow is at 10 a.m. The race committee will aim to complete the first round robin and move into the next round of racing with the top eight teams. There is a lot more exciting racing to go.

Day One Results (wins and losses) protest pending:
1. Yale University, 9-0
2. Georgetown University, 8-2
3. College of Charleston, 8-2
3. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 8-2
5. Dartmouth College, 7-2
6. Stanford University, 7-2
7. Boston College, 7-3
8. Bowdoin College, 6-5
9. Fordham University, 5-5
9. U.S. Naval Academy, 5-5
11. Jacksonville University, 2-7
12. University of California at Santa Barbara, 2-8
13. University of Wisconsin, 2-8
14. Texas A&M University at Galveston, 1-8
15. University of Washington, 1-9
16. University of Michigan, 0-10

Event details – Results – Facebook

2019 Spring Nationals
May 21-24 – Women’s Dinghy
May 25-27 – Team Race
May 28-31 – Coed Dinghy

Live coverage will include:
May 23, half day of Women’s coverage.
May 24, full day of Women’s coverage and awards.
May 25, half to 3/4 day of Team Race coverage, release of Women’s recap video.
May 26, full day of Team Race coverage.
May 27, full day of Team Race coverage and awards.
May 28, release of Team Racing recap video.
May 29, full day of Coed coverage.
May 30, full day of Coed coverage.
May 31, full day of Coed coverage and awards.
June 3, release of Coed recap video.

For live coverage… click here.

The 2018-19 season for the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) held the Match Racing Nationals and Singlehanded Nationals during the fall season, with the final three national titles on May 21 to 31 in Newport, RI.