Sperry Women's Eastern Semifinal

The 2014 Sperry Top-Sider College Sailing Women's National Championship began on a beautiful and warm day in Annapolis with the winds blowing out of the West at 5-10 knots. The Eastern Semifinal began the event sailing the new Z420s. The course was set off Triton Point near the entrance to Annapolis Harbor. All races were W4 courses. Even though the West is one of the most challenging directions to race from in Annapolis, PRO Gary Bodie and his team of volunteers did a terrific job of getting off quality races all day. Assisting Gary on the Race Committee were Taran Teague, Pat Dawson, Dan Corzenwitz, Jim Wojcik, Frieda Wildey, Bob Gebbia and members of the Navy Sailing Team. The light and shifting winds forced numerous course adjustments, but Gary and his team were on top of things all day. Don Becker and his judge team of Morgan Wilson, Dick Morin and Maureen Mills kept the competitors honest all day on the water. Two protests were filed on shore with one resulting in a DSQ and the other being disallowed for procedural reasons. Approaching thunderstorms forced the RC to end the day at 5:30 PM after race 6A.

On the Second day of competition, racing began right on time off Triton Point again in a Westerly. The fleet switched over to FJs for Wednesday's racing. The skies were more overcast this day however and the temperature was cooler, with a few rain showers. After the first set, the wind shifted Northwest and the course was moved into the Severn River off the Robert Crown Center. The wind was light, 3-8 knots all day and variable, forcing numerous course changes again. PRO Bodie kept his team busy again shifting the boats and the marks throughout the day to stay ahead of the changing conditions. On this day most races were W4 courses, but a few W3 and W5 courses were used in the second races of some of the sets. During race 9B, the wind got really light and shifted 160 degrees to the East, forcing the race to be abandoned. After a quick course adjustment, races 9 and 10 B were completed to close out the event just before the cutoff time. One protest was filed on land and later withdrawn.

Congratulations to the top 9 teams who advanced on to the final round of the 2014 Sperry Top-Sider College Sailing Women's National Championship.

After racing, competitors were treated to a regatta dinner in Dahlgren Hall at the Naval Academy. At the dinner, Scott Ikle from Hobart and William Smith Colleges was awarded the Graham Hall award for outstanding service by a college sailing professional. His team also won the US Sailing grit award for finishing ninth along with Wisconsin from the other semifinal.

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.