Gill Coed National Championship

The Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship continued today co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference. The teams are sailing on North San Diego Bay off of the B Street Pier. The top eighteen collegiate teams in the nation advanced from the previous two days of racing in the semifinals to make it to the finals event, which began today.

Racing got underway on time at 10:30 a.m. on windward-leeward courses with four legs. The sailors are competing in FJs.

The marine layer burned off and the sun came out for racing today, a nice change from previous days of racing. It was also warmer with temperatures in the low 70s. The winds ranged from about 6-10 knots. The race committee was able to run ten races in both divisions today leaving eight more races to go in the regatta.

There were many teams that had the lead at one point today as the competition is very difficult and the conditions are challenging, so the sailors all had good and bad races. Yale University was able to minimize their double-digit finishes the best, so they ended the day on top. Georgetown University is close behind Yale, only five points back, in second place. Thirteen points behind Georgetown, in third place, is Boston College.

“No one could string together a run of good races today,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale. “It was gorgeous sailing today, but tricky.”

“When we had a bad race, we didn’t freak out, we kept thinking about the next race,” Healy says of what kept them ahead of people today. “Everyone is so close that tomorrow we really need to treat it like a new regatta.”

Sailing for Yale is Ian Barrows ’17 and Meredith Megarry ’17 in A-division and Nicholas Baird ’17, Charlotte Belling ’16 and Isabelle Rossi De Leon ’17 in B-division.

Georgetown was particularly strong in their B-division today.

“Sean and Isabelle have been sailing together for four years and have strung together wins at good regattas, so I knew they had it in them to do well here and in these conditions,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown, of their B-division boat.

“The conditions are not easy and staying consistent is tough,” Callahan says. “You can’t panic at a bad start or missing a shift, because everyone will struggle and rebound at some point.”

Sailing for Georgetown is Nevin Snow ‘16 and Meghan MacRae ’18 in A-division and Sean Golden ’16 and Isabelle Ruiz De Luzuriaga ’16 in B-division.

Boston College is in third place with the teams behind them in hot pursuit and all very close together in points.

Sailing for Boston College is Raul Rios ’16 and Allison Ferraris ’17 in A-division and Charles Sinks ’18 and Katherine Downey ’16 in B-division.

Racing is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. No race can begin after 5 p.m. An awards ceremony is scheduled to take place after racing at San Diego Port Pier. Awards for podium finishers in this event will be presented, as well as the Everett Morris Memorial Trophy for the Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year, the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy for the best overall performing team and the Robert H. Hobbs Sportsmanship Award.

Top Nine Teams, Finals Day 1 1. Yale University, 129 2. Georgetown University, 134 3. Boston College, 147 4. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 155* 5. University of South Florida, 155* 6. Old Dominion University, 158 7. Stanford University, 163 8. U.S. Naval Academy, 179 9. Brown University, 183 *Number of high-place (1) finishes

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 last day of the Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship, co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference. This is the last of three high caliber spring college sailing national championships that were run on North San Diego Bay off of the B Street Pier. After four days of intense competition Georgetown University has won the national title and the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy.

The sailors hit the water on time and racing began around 10:30 a.m. The sun came out and temperatures stayed in the 70s. The winds were from the west-northwest 5-7 knots. In the afternoon, however, the winds lightened up and shifted ninety degrees with about two races to go, so the race committee waited for the winds to settle down, re-set the course and start the racing again.

The race committee was able to complete eight races today in both divisions for a total of 18 races for the regatta. Both divisions sailed in FJs on windward-leeward four leg courses. Bill Campbell, Pat Healy and Steve Stewart were the judges for this event.

It was a tough regatta both for the difficult conditions and the intense competition. The top five teams did a lot of swapping places on the scoreboard and it was tight racing up until the last race of the day.

Georgetown took home the win only five points ahead of second place overall and won the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy, which was donated by a group of nationally known yachtsmen as a memorial to Henry A. Morss, a Boston yachtsman and 1907 Bermuda Race winner, as well as an MIT alumnus and benefactor. This is the 80th anniversary of the event and trophy.

“My nerves are frayed,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown. “Today was incredibly stressful and luckily my assistant coach Janel [Zarkowsky] was fantastic and did a good job staying calm.”

“We sent our B-division boat out for the last race and by design did not tell them the point spread

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.