Gill Coed Western Semifinals

The top 36 collegiate sailing teams in the nation reported to the regatta venue at Sail Newport and New York Yacht Club on Narragansett Bay to compete for 18 spots in the championship finals, which will begin on Wednesday, June 3rd.

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 Wednesday. The sailors are racing on windward leeward courses with three and four legs in both FJs and Z420s. Each fleet sails one type of boat one day and swaps boats the next day. Today, the eastern fleet sailed in Z420s and the western sailed in FJs.

A nor’easter blew in overnight turning what has been warm sunny weather for the last few days, into rainy and cold conditions. Temperatures were in the low to mid 50s and winds were from the northeast around 10 knots, which built to around 15-18 knots at times in the afternoon. Light rain persisted most of the day, but for the last few races it rained steadily.

Racing got underway around 9:30 a.m. and finished before 6:30 p.m. The race officials were able to complete eight races in A-division and B-division in both of the fleets.

After the racing today Boston College is leading the eastern fleet followed closely by College of Charleston and Georgetown University. Stanford University is leading the western fleet winning a tiebreaker with Yale University in second and followed by St. Mary’s College of Maryland in third.

Today was the second and final day of the semi-finals for the Gill Coed National Championship, co-hosted by Brown University, Salve Regina University and New York Yacht Club. The top 36 college sailing teams in the nation have been sailing out of the Sail Newport Waterfront Center at Fort Adams, competing on Narragansett Bay, for 18 spots in the championship finals, which begin tomorrow, Wednesday, June 3rd. The 36 teams are divided into two fleets of 18 teams, eastern and western semi-final groups, the top nine from each fleet will make up the 18 teams who compete in the finals.

Today the eastern fleet switched over to FJs for the rest of the races and the western fleet moved into the Z420s for the rest of their races.

The nor’easter continued today in Newport for another cold, windy, wavy and wet day of racing. Temperatures stayed in the low 50s all day with pockets of rain moving through. The winds were from the northeast at around 12 knots with gusts up to around 16 knots. The sailors were steadily hiking through all of the races.

Racing began quickly at 9:30 this morning and ended just before the 5 p.m. deadline. The race officials got off as many races as they could given the time restriction completing seven races in each division in each fleet, for a total of 15 races for the semi-finals.

Although teams moved around the scoreboard today, all of the top nine teams remained the same in both fleets yesterday and today.

In the western fleet Yale University overtook Stanford University today, having a consistent day of racing with most of their finishes in the top five. Stanford also stayed strong and finished in second. Moving up from fifth yesterday was co-host team Brown University, finishing the semi-finals in third place.

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.