APS Team Race Championship

Today was the first day of racing for the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championships on Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg, Fla. The event is co-hosted by the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Eckerd College and St. Petersburg Yacht Club. Fourteen collegiate teams from across the nation qualified to compete for the Walter C. Wood Trophy, awarded to the winning team at the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship. The trophy honors Walter C. “Jack” Wood, MIT’s first sailing director and whom in conjunction with Leonard M. Fowle, was a founder of college racing.

Racing got underway around 10 a.m. under sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s. Due to a front that was passing through the day started with steady winds from the east ranging from 12 to 17 knots. The breeze was the strongest in the morning and then as the day warmed up and the wind started to clock to the north the breeze lightened up. It got really light in the evening around 5 knots.

The format for the event is different from past years. This year the event begins with a round robin of all 14 teams. This round determines places 9-14. The top eight teams then sail a round robin to determine places 5-8. The top four teams remaining compete in a final round robin to determine places 1-4. Each round robin is a single round and all scores carry over to count in final points.

This new format helps to ensure that every team gets a fair shot at competing for the top. The top eight teams will be strong teams and there will still be strong teams that do not make the top eight. It also allows for everyone to have a little more sailing in this format than in past formats.

Today the competitors made it through 16 flights of racing in the first round robin. A total of 64 races were completed. There are 23 flights total in the first round, leaving seven more to go. The competitors sailed on a digital N course, which has a windward mark, a windward offset mark and then down to a leeward mark with another leeward offset and finish upwind.

Racing began today around 10 a.m. with the first round robin of the regatta including all 14 teams. This round determined places 9-14. Sailors arrived to steady 8-10 knot winds from the Southeast. Temperatures started in the 70s and warmed up into the 80s later in the day.

Twenty-six races were completed in the first round today. The conditions were nice for racing with an even course to compete on making it great for team racing. The top three teams tied for first after yesterday finished the preliminary round on top. Yale University made it through with only one loss followed by Brown University with two losses and Stanford University with three losses.

The racing continued to be close, which resulted in a few ties after the first round. The U.S. Naval Academy, Boston College and Hobart and William Smith Colleges all had to compete in a sail-off to determine who would advance in the top eight. Navy won both sail-offs sending them into the top eight round.

During the sail-off races the wind began to lighten up and die down. There was significantly less wind as the top eight round robin began in the afternoon. The course had streakier conditions, which complicated the team racing. Teams had to not only focus on their team race maneuvers, but also concentrate on fleet racing skills to win races.

The day began with completing the top eight round robin. Competitors sailed in FJs on digital N courses. Thirteen races were completed in the top eight round today. The morning saw steady wind conditions from the Northeast about 12-15 knots with higher gusts. Temperatures stayed warm in the 80s all day.

There was a three-way tie after the round in which Brown University, College of Charleston and Georgetown University had a sail-off to determine the third and fourth teams to go on to the final four round.

Normally, under college sailing rules, this tie would be broken with their records of wins and losses, however because this is a National Championship, Nationals conditions apply and require a sail-off between the teams. It took a lot of work from ICSA umpires and officials to determine how the sail-off would be structured, but they mapped it out and racing continued.

Unfortunately the winds began to lighten up and the conditions were the most variable during the sail-off. The racing staff led by University of South Florida, St. Petersburg coach Allison Jolly and the ICSA umpires worked tirelessly to manage the event well and helped put on excellent racing.

Charleston needed to win their two races and Georgetown needed to lose a race for Charleston to advance to the final four. However after some close racing they did not advance to the final four and finished the regatta in fifth place.

Leading into the final four round the conditions improved slightly, but they were still variable with big shifts.

There were six races in the final four round. Yale was leading with a record of 16-4 followed by St. Mary’s with 14-6 and Georgetown and Brown both with 13-7 records.

They lost their last race of the finals against St. Mary’s after waiting while races before them were getting called off due to the patchy conditions and then their race was re-started due to the winds as well. Despite their loss, they raced consistently the whole regatta and came away the champions.