After three days of racing on the Charles River, the Roger Williams University Hawks took first place in the College Sailing Open Team Race National Championship hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. The final day of the Championship delivered more challenging conditions while waiting for the sea breeze to be established. Tension peaked when a redress was filed after the last race of the day, leading sailors and coaches to anxiously await the verdict that would potentially determine the National Champions.
Reflecting on the event, Aidan Hoogland, a skipper for Roger Williams University, expressed his gratitude and admiration for the team's journey. “The team has been working for the past four years. It was such an amazing run event from PRO to judges to Harvard and MIT doing everything they could to make the event run smoothly. We had 30 alumni and past coaches from our school drive up to cheer us on all day. It gave us the energy we needed and everything we needed to put this win together for them. It was for everyone else, it isn’t just 6 people on the water, it is everyone all together.”
The competition kicked off on day one with sailors contending with challenging wind conditions, characterized by a battle between a NNW gradient and a SE seabreeze, interspersed with gusts from various directions. Despite the adversities, 30 races were sailed with the final race concluding late in the evening. Day two presented a different set of challenges, with an ESE wind ranging from 5 to 15 knots, accompanied by frequent shifts and puffs. The race committee managed to oversee a staggering 102 races, completing the 16-team round-robin, conducting three tiebreak sail-off races, and initiating the first three flights of the final eight. After day two, Harvard University was holding the lead with a 14.50/3 record, Roger Williams University in second with a 14/3 record, and Brown University in third with a 13/4 record. Harvard had half a point deducted from their record due to boat damage.
Today, with the challenging conditions on the Charles, the race committee was able to hold the final eight in the southeasterly seabreeze. However, there was no time to run a final four. At the end of racing today, Roger Williams University was holding the lead with a record of 18/4. However, two hearings occurred during the final day that could have changed the outcome of the regatta. The first hearing occurred during the Roger Williams University versus Brown University race during the final round of eight. RWU won that race, but at some point during the race, a Brown boat had a tiller break. Brown then filed for a breakdown and there was a related hearing. Brown was not granted a re-sail of that race. At the end of the final eight, Brown filed for a redress on the grounds that one of the judges who was party to the hearing was both a witness and an umpire hearing the hearing. Brown was granted another hearing; however, after that hearing, they were denied a re-sail. Greg Wilkinson, President of ICSA, commented on the event: “Given the quite challenging conditions, the hosts of the event put on a spectacular event. Despite wind delays on two of the three days, we got to see some of the highest level of team racing that we will see this year in the U.S.'
Roger Williams University won the Open Team Race National Championship, Harvard University took 2nd, Yale University claimed 3rd, and Brown University rounded out the Top 4. This is RWU’s second Open Team Race title since they won back in 2011.
Author: Arielle Darrow
Photos: Dave Curtis
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