Gill Coed Eastern Semifinal

Today was the first day of the Gill Coed National Championship Semifinals, co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference. The top 36 collegiate sailing teams in the nation reported to the regatta venue at the Port of San Diego to compete for 18 spots in the championship finals, which will begin on Thursday, June 2.

The semifinals are divided into two fleets, an Eastern and Western, each with 18 teams. The top nine teams from each fleet will advance to the finals on Thursday. The sailors are racing on windward leeward courses with four legs in FJs.

Due to a wind delay this morning, racing got underway about an hour later than planned around 11:30 a.m. The race committee waited for enough wind to run good races. Temperatures were in the low to mid 60s and winds were from the west around 5-10 knots.

The race officials were able to complete six races in A and B-division in both of the semifinal fleets. Racing finished up around 6 p.m.

Old Dominion University is leading the Eastern fleet after today closely followed by St. Mary’s College of Maryland and University of South Florida in third. Hanging on to a qualifying spot, in ninth place after racing today is Tufts University.

“We sailed pretty solidly,” says Mitch Brindley, head coach for Old Dominion. “We were able to turn some tough races around and that’s what we were looking to be able to do.”

“We will keep plugging away and take what we learned today and apply it to racing tomorrow,” Brindley says.

Sailing for Old Dominion is Esteban Forrer '16 and Gabriel Smith '17 in A-division and Augie Dale '18 and Kaylie Gallagher '16 in B-division.

On top of the Western fleet is the U.S. Coast Guard Academy who has a 15-point lead over Georgetown University in second place. Coast Guard’s B-division is just coming off of winning the Sperry Women’s National Championship and they finished the day with only 11 points winning half of the races today. George Washington University is in third behind Georgetown and holding on to qualifying in ninth place is Brown University.

“We approach this regatta just like every other regatta,” says Brian Swingly, head coach for Coast Guard. “We were able to put our boats in favorable positions on the race coarse including avoiding congestion that occurred at the starting line today.”

“We will hope to carry this momentum into winning the regatta,” says Swingly.

Sailing for Coast Guard is Avery Fanning '16 and Robert Turley '16 in A-division and Nikole Barnes '17 and Anna Morin '19 in B-division.

There are still 12 races to sail in both A and B-division in each fleet. The first warning for racing is at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. No race can start after 5 p.m.

Top Nine Teams Eastern Semi-Final, Day 1: 1. Old Dominion University, 51 2. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 58 3. University of South Florida, 65 4. U.S. Naval Academy, 72* 5. Boston University, 72* 6. Yale University, 86 * 7. Stanford University, 86 8. Boston College, 86 b 9. Tufts University, 116 c Number of high-place (2) finishes ** Number of high-place (3) finishes b Head-to-head tiebreaker c Number of high-place (1) finishes

Top Nine Teams Western Semi-Final, Day 1: 1. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 49 2. Georgetown University, 64 3. George Washington University, 67 4. College of Charleston, 85 5. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 88 6. Connecticut College, 91 7. Dartmouth College, 92* 8. University of Pennsylvania, 92* 9. Brown University, 92* * Head-to-head tiebreaker

The alumni Afterguard regatta is suppose to take place on Saturday, June 4th; however, the regatta has been cancelled due to low registration for the event.

To see more results and learn more about the teams competing in all of the events visit the event website: http://2016nationals.collegesailing.org/.

Dan Egan, of Degan Media, is providing live coverage sponsored by LaserPerformance and Gill North America. It is streaming from the event website, http://2016nationals.collegesailing.org/. Additional live coverage and social media updates will be available throughout the events on the regatta website.

Contact: Jennifer Mitchell | Toile à Voile for ICSA | media@collegesailing.org | 763-234-8286 m.

About SDYC “The San Diego Yacht Club encourages and fosters an environment that helps and continues to produce the best in the world of yachting-related activities. Founded in 1886, SDYC has become a world renown yachting community recognized for its success in bay sailing, ocean racing, cruising, angling, and its world class youth sailing program. SDYC is consistently ranked among the top 5 yacht clubs in the U.S. and is recognized by the Club Leadership Forum as one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world.”

The ICSA sponsors and partners through the 2015-2016 season are: LaserPerformance (www.laserperformance.com), title sponsor of “LaserPerformance Men’s and Women’s Singlehanded National Championship”, title sponsor of “LaserPerformance College Sailing Team Race National Championship” and Official Boat Supplier of the ICSA Spring National Championships. Sperry (www.sperry.com), title sponsor of the “Sperry College Sailing Women’s National Championship”. Gill North American (gillna.com), title sponsor of “The Gill College Sailing National Championship”. Quantum Sail Design Group (www.quantumsails.com), official sponsor of the “Quantum Women’s College Sailor of the Year”. Marlow Ropes (www.marlowropes.com), presenting sponsor of the “Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year Award” and “Official Rope of College Sailing”. US Sailing (www.ussailing.org), supporting sponsor of the “ICSA National Championship Semi-finals”.

Photo Credit: Cynthia Sinclair Photography and Stacy Childers Photography & House of Style Studio

Today was the second and final day of the semifinals for the Gill Coed National Championship, co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference. The top 36 college sailing teams in the nation have been sailing on North San Diego Bay by the Port of San Diego, for 18 spots in the championship finals, which begin tomorrow, Thursday, June 2. The 36 teams are divided into two fleets of 18 teams, Eastern and Western semifinal groups, the top nine from each fleet will make up the 18 teams who compete in the finals.

The teams are sailing in FJs and competing on windward-leeward courses with four legs.

Today racing started on time around 10:30 a.m. in a light southwesterly under grey skies. Temperatures were in the mid 60s. The winds remained around 5-10 knots and the westerly never fully filled in, so it stayed coming from a southwesterly direction, which is unlike the other days of racing.

The race officials got off as many races as they could given the time restriction completing six races in each division in each fleet, for a total of 12 races for the semifinals event. Racing wrapped up just before 5 p.m.

In the Eastern fleet Old Dominion University held onto their lead from yesterday, by winning a tiebreaker with St. Mary’s College of Maryland today. The U.S. Naval Academy moved up the standings today to finish in third place.

“We used the same game plan today that we did yesterday,” says Mitch Brindley head coach for Old Dominion, “And that was to keep it nice and simple.”

“It was straightforward sailing today and we were able to give our starters a break and put some other sailors in,” Brindley says. “We will plan to start fresh tomorrow.”

Sailing for Old Dominion is Esteban Forrer '16, Gabriel Smith '17, Joseph David '16, and Katelyn Talley '16 in A-division and Augie Dale '18, Kaylie Gallagher '16, Jeremy Herrin '18 and Grace Mason '16 in B-division.

In the Western fleet Coast Guard was also able to hold onto their lead from yesterday and Georgetown University held onto second, while College of Charleston moved up to third place today.

“Semifinals is kind of about surviving and working out the kinks to advance through,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown University. “We tried a few sailors in B-division to prepare for finals today and learn about the conditions.”

“Tomorrow’s racing will be twice as hard and it may the hardest this event has been in three or four years,” Callahan says. “We will try and perform and limit the double digit finishes.”

Sailing for Georgetown is Nevin Snow '16 and Meaghan MacRae '18 in A-division and Sean Golden '16, Campbell D'Eliscu '19, Roger Dorr '18, Isabelle Ruiz De Luzuriaga '16 and Bettina Redway '16 in B-division.

“The different wind direction today had us studying it closely,” says Brian Swingly, head coach for Coast Guard. “We executed well today and studied all of the boats to try and keep our edge.”

“There are 36 new races tomorrow and we will take it one at a time,” says Swingly.

Sailing for Coast Guard is Avery Fanning '16 and Robert Turley '16 in A-division and Nikole Barnes '17 and Anna Morin '19 in B-division.

The US Sailing Grit Award is awarded to the teams who qualified for the finals in ninth place in each semifinal fleet; the recipients today were Fordham University in the Eastern fleet and the University of Pennsylvania in the Western fleet. Pennsylvania dropped into ninth after finishing yesterday in eighth, but Fordham was not qualifying yesterday, so they sailed their way into ninth with some single digit finishes today.

The scoreboard is wiped clean for the Gill Coed National Championship Finals tomorrow. The first warning for racing is at 10:30 a.m. The top 18 teams will be competing for the national title and the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy (celebrating its 80th anniversary) over the next two days. This evening at 6 p.m. there will be a barbeque and Competitors Briefing for Finals at the San Diego Yacht Club.

Final Nine Teams Eastern Semifinal, Day 2: 1. Old Dominion University, 118* 2. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 118* 3. U.S. Naval Academy, 141 4. Boston College, 149 5. Stanford University, 150 6. Yale University, 153 7. University of South Florida, 156 8. Boston University, 199 9. Fordham University, 214 *Head-to-head tiebreaker

Final Nine Teams Western Semifinal, Day 2: 1. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 93 2. Georgetown University, 136 3. College of Charleston, 151 4. Brown University, 160 5. Roger Williams University, 164 6. Connecticut College, 166* 7. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 166* 8. George Washington University, 170 9. University of Pennsylvania, 185 *Head-to-head tiebreaker

As a reminder, the alumni Afterguard regatta was suppose to take place on Saturday, June 4th; however, the regatta has been cancelled due to low registration for the event.

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.