MAISA News


LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship Day 1


Today was the first day of racing for the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship on North San Diego Bay co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference. Sixteen collegiate teams from across the nation qualified to compete in this event for the national title and the Walter C. Wood Trophy, awarded to the winning team.

The boats hit the water around 10:30 a.m., but due to light winds the racing got sort of a slow start. The May Gray, typical of San Diego, lingered all day, so the skies stayedcloudy and temperatures hovered around the low 60s. The winds were out of the west, southwest starting out light around 5-7 knots building to around 8-10 knots for a period of time and tapering off again as the sun set on racing this evening.

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 9-14. 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.

The competitors made it through a total of 84 races today and there are 36 more total races to go in this first round. 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 collegiate and club FJs provided by San Diego Yacht Club and Stanford University.

Each team has about five more races to go in the first round robin, so there is room for the teams to move around on the scoreboard.

Yale is sitting in first place after today with one loss to St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Yale is the defending champion of this regatta having won it the last three years. They finished all but one race today with a winning 1,2 combination, which shows their strength in the racing so far.

Sailing for Yale is: Ian Barrows '17, Meredith Megarry '17, Malcolm Lamphere '18, Chandler Gregoire '17, Nicholas Baird '19 and Charlotte Belling '16.

Boston College finished the day tied in second place with St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Sailing for Boston College is Raul Rios '16, Allison Ferraris '17, Harry Koeppel '17, Hannah Lynn '17, Charles Sinks '18 and Katherine Downey '16.

Sitting tied in second place with a record of 9-1 is St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Their one loss was to Old Dominion University and they are also the one team that was able to upset Yale preventing them from finishing the day with a perfect record.

“Most of our matches today were really close,” says Bill Ward, director of sailing for St. Mary’s. “But we had good come backs,” he says. “Tomorrow I would like to see us leading at the first mark more,” he says.

“We had good speed and boat handling and we would like to see good starts tomorrow,” Ward says. “We will talk a little bit about racing this evening, but mainly we will get food and get rested,” he says.

Sailing for St. Mary’s is Alexander Curtiss '16, Shelby Jacobs '17, Edmund Cooper '17, Mariah Leffingwell '16, Markus Edegran '16 and Kaitlyn Noreen '16.

The first warning for racing tomorrow is at 10:30 a.m. The race committee will aim to complete the first round robin as quickly as possible to move into the next round of racing with the top eight teams.

Day One Results (wins and losses)
1. Yale University, 10-1
2. Boston College, 9-1*
3. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 9-1*
4. Georgetown University, 8-2
5. Stanford University, 7-3
6. College of Charleston, 7-4
7. U.S. Naval Academy, 6-5 **
8. Old Dominion University, 6-5 b
9. University of California Santa Barbara, 5-5
10. Brown University, 5-6 **
11. Dartmouth College, 5-6 b
12. Eckerd College, 4-7
13. University of Michigan, 1-9 *
14. University of Wisconsin, 1-9
15. Texas A&M University at Galveston, 1-10
16. University of Washington, 0-10

*Tie stand

** Number of races won when tied teams met (1)

b Number of races won when tied teams met (0)

To see more results and learn more about the teams competing in all of the events visit the event website: http://2016nationals.collegesailing.org/.

Dan Egan, of Degan Media, is providing live coveragesponsored by LaserPerformance and Gill North America. It is streaming from the event website, http://2016nationals.collegesailing.org/. Additional live coverage and social media updates will be available throughout the events on the regatta website.

Contact: Jennifer Mitchell | Toile à Voile for ICSA | media@collegesailing.org | 763-234-8286 m.

About SDYC
“The San Diego Yacht Club encourages and fosters an environment that helps and continues to produce the best in the world of yachting-related activities. Founded in 1886, SDYC has become a world renown yachting community recognized for its success in bay sailing, ocean racing, cruising, angling, and its world class youth sailing program. SDYC is consistently ranked among the top 5 yacht clubs in the U.S. and is recognized by the Club Leadership Forum as one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world.”

The ICSA sponsors and partners through the 2015-2016 season are: LaserPerformance (www.laserperformance.com), title sponsor of “LaserPerformance Men’s and Women’s Singlehanded National Championship”, title sponsor of “LaserPerformance College Sailing Team Race National Championship” and Official Boat Supplier of the ICSA Spring National Championships. Sperry (www.sperry.com), title sponsor of the “Sperry College Sailing Women’s National Championship”. Gill North American (gillna.com), title sponsor of “The Gill College Sailing National Championship”. Quantum Sail Design Group (www.quantumsails.com), official sponsor of the “Quantum Women’s College Sailor of the Year”. Marlow Ropes (www.marlowropes.com), presenting sponsor of the “Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year Award” and “Official Rope of College Sailing”. US Sailing (www.ussailing.org), supporting sponsor of the “ICSA National Championship Semi-finals”.

Photo Credit: Cynthia Sinclair Photography and Stacy Childers Photography & House of Style Studio