Gill National Champs 1st round-West

St. Mary’s City, Md. (June 3, 2014) ??" Today was the first day of the Gill Coed National Championship Semi-Finals, hosted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The top 36 collegiate sailing teams in the nation reported to the regatta venue on the St. Mary’s River in St. Mary’s City, Md. to compete for 18 spots in the championship finals, which will begin on Thursday, June 5th.

The semi-finals are divided into two fleets, an Eastern and Western semi-final fleet, each with 18 teams. The top nine teams from each fleet will advance to the finals on Thursday. The sailors are racing on an inner and outer trapezoid course in both FJs and Z420s. Each fleet sails one type of boat one day and swaps boats the next day. Today, the Western fleet sailed in 420s on the outer course and the Eastern in FJs on the inner course.

This morning the skies were mostly sunny with temperatures in the high 70s, rising to the 80s by the afternoon. Clouds and a thunderstorm came through in the late afternoon.

Racing got underway around 9:30 a.m. today, but the winds were light and spotty at around 5 knots from the southwest and dying. The race officials were able to complete two races in A-division and B-division in both of the fleets this morning, but the wind died out and the sailors went to shore to wait for more breeze.

After trying to get on the water a couple of times this afternoon the breeze never filled in. A thunderstorm came through around 5 p.m. and the race officials were hoping for wind to fill after that, but unfortunately it still did not. By about 7 p.m. the officials called the racing for the day and they will try again tomorrow.

After the few races today in really light conditions Yale University is in the lead in the Western fleet and Georgetown University is in the lead in the Eastern fleet. Yale did not place out of the top three in either division today and Georgetown got three firsts and a sixth place finish.

“We had two great starts today and we didn’t get too trapped at the edges,” Bill Healy says, assistant coach for Yale. Despite the wind forecast for tomorrow predicting more light air, Healy says, “We are not worried about tomorrow. We had two great races today.”

Sailing for Yale is: Graham Landy '15 with Katherine Gaumond '15 in A-division and Ian Barrows '17 with Meredith Megarry '17 in B-division.

“Today was mostly about straight line boat speed,” Mike Callahan says, head coach for Georgetown. “We were happy to not have a bad finish,” he says. With so few races completed today and a final championship still to go Callahan says, “You don’t want to dial it back [in this portion of the event], but you need to balance not taking too many risks.”

Sailing for Georgetown is: Nevin Snow '16 with Katia DaSilva '15 in A-division and Alex Post '15 with Bettina Redway '16 in B-division.

There are still 16 races to sail in both A and B-division in each fleet. The first warning for racing is at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. No race can start after 5 p.m.

St. Mary’s City, Md. (June 4, 2014) ??" Today was the second and final day of the Semi-Finals for the Gill Coed National Championship, hosted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The top 36 college sailing teams in the nation competed on the St. Mary’s River in St. Mary’s City, Md. for 18 spots in the championship finals, which begin tomorrow, Thursday, June 5th. The 36 teams are divided into two fleets of 18 teams, Western and Eastern Semi-Final groups, the top nine from each fleet will make up the 18 teams who compete in the finals.

Today the Eastern fleet sailed in 420s and the Western fleet sailed in FJs. This morning, the A-divisions sailed on windward leeward four leg courses and the B-divisions sailed on inner and outer trapezoid courses. This afternoon all of the 420s sailed on the outer trapezoid course and all of the FJs sailed on the inner trapezoid course.

Racing began at 9:30 this morning. The temperature was in the high 70s and the winds were puffy and shifty from the northwest at about 5-10 knots. The winds slowly died around 12:30 p.m. and after completing two races in each division in each fleet, the sailors waited on shore for the wind to fill in.

By around 3 p.m. the sailors were back on the course to start racing. A southerly breeze around 5-7 knots filled in and remained pretty steady until around 4:15 p.m., when it lightened up again and became patchy on the race course. The sailors started to rotate boats on the water rather than from the dock to try and squeeze in as many races as possible.

The deadline for racing today was 5 p.m., so the race officials got in as much racing as the conditions would allow. The Eastern Semi-Final completed four races today in A-division and B-division for a total of six races for the event. The Western Semi-Final completed three races today in A-division and B-division for a total of five races for the event.

Yale University continued to dominate in the racing today and won the Western fleet. They did not place out of the top four in either division during the semi-finals. The light and patchy conditions were something that the sailors were prepared for.

“We like this stuff,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale. “We have a great spot to practice in any conditions [at Yale]. We tucked in close to shore to prepare,” Healy says.

Tomorrow the finals event begins and Healy says Yale’s head coach, Zach Leonard, “Has done a great job getting everyone psyched up for this long event. We are ready to go.”

Sailing for Yale is: Graham Landy '15 with Katherine Gaumond '15 in A-division and Ian Barrows '17 with Meredith Megarry '17 and Marlena Fauer '14 in B-division.

Notable today was Old Dominion University who moved up from sixth place yesterday to second place today. Sailing for Old Dominion is: Esteban Forrer '16 with Julia Wiesner '14 in A-division and Andrea Luna '15 with Chloe Constants '14 in B-division.

Connecticut College overtook Georgetown University today and won the Eastern fleet. They moved up from second place yesterday, one point behind Georgetown, to one point ahead of them today. Sailing for Connecticut College is: Kevin Martland '14 with Lea Bushnell '15 in A-division and IG Schottlaender '14 with Kim Bolick '15 in B-division.

“It was hard to be consistent today,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown. “Even the best sailors had trouble,” he says. Despite dropping to second place by just one point today, Callahan says their focus is on the next two days of racing.

“We are disappointed we did not win this regatta, but we will take lessons from it and focus on the finals ??" we will be racing in the hardest fleet of the year tomorrow with the top 18 teams in the nation,” says Callahan.

Sailing for Georgetown is: Nevin Snow '16 with Katia DaSilva '15 in A-division and Alex Post '15 with Bettina Redway '16 in B-division.

The US Sailing Grit Award is awarded to the teams who qualified for the finals in ninth place in each semi-final fleet; the recipients today were the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Boston College.

The scoreboard is wiped clean for the Gill Coed National Championship Finals tomorrow. The first warning for racing is at 9:30 a.m. The top 18 teams will be competing for the national title and the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy over the next two days.

To view or purchase photos from this event or the previous championships visit this gallery on photographer Brian Schneider’s website: http://www.ebrianschneider.com/gallery-collection/2014-ICSA-National-Championships/C0000zZpBRnclJuY

The following chart shows the relative rank of the teams as of the race indicated. Note that the races are ordered by number, then division, which may not represent the order in which the races were actually sailed.

The first place team as of a given race will always be at the top of the chart. The spacing from one team to the next shows relative gains/losses made from one race to the next. You may hover over the data points to display the total score as of that race.