2015 College Sailing Coed National Championship – Day 2

by Jennifer Mitchell on 4 Jun 2015 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 eastern fleet College of Charleston overtook Boston College, who was leading after yesterday, and came in first place. Also moving up in the eastern fleet was Georgetown University who finished in second and Boston College took third.

“We have similar wind and current in Charleston,” says Mitch Hall, assistant coach for Charleston, of today’s conditions. “Today was relatively simple, we aimed to be on the lifted tack, sail to the favored side of the course and minimize unforced errors,” Hall says.

“We were able to rest some of our sailors today and we will stay rested and fresh for the next two days,” Hall says of their strategy for the finals racing.

Sailing for Charleston is: Jake Reynolds ’16 with Alicia Blumenthal ’15 and Rebekah Schiff ’16 in A-division and Charles Rees ’16 and Ryan Davidson ’16 with Tierney Driscoll ’15, Emily Stuart ’16, Reed Baldridge ’16 and Roy Shaw ’15 in B-division.

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.

“It’s been a long five days of racing, so we put in some different sailors today to see what the rest of the team could do for us,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale. “We focused on not pulling the trigger too early on the starting line today, and we may have been too conservative, but our boat speed made up for it, so it didn’t matter,” Healy says.

“We are just taking it one race at a time, staying calm and focused,” Healy says. “Our focus has been to practice as hard as we can and sail as well as we can and the results will follow – so far it’s worked,” he says.

Sailing for Yale is: Graham Landy '15 and Joseph Kiss ’17 with Katherine Gaumond '15, Charlotte Belling ’16, Christopher Champa ’18 and Natalya Doris ‘17 in A-division and Ian Barrows '17 and Malcolm Lamphere ’18 with Meredith Megarry '17, Natalya Doris ’17 and Clara Robertson ‘17 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 Harvard University in the eastern fleet, who held onto their ninth place position after yesterday, and USMMA Kings Point in the western fleet.

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.

Final nine teams Eastern semi-final, day 2
1. College of Charleston, 140
2. Georgetown University, 150
3. Boston College, 161
4. Tufts University, 183
5. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 198
6. U.S. Naval Academy, 202
7. Fordham University, 204
8. SUNY Maritime, 219
9. Harvard University, 237

Final nine teams Western semi-final
1. Yale University, 118
2. Stanford University, 154
3. Brown University, 181
4. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 183
5. University of Wisconsin, 204
6. Bowdoin College, 207
7. Roger Williams University, 210
8. Old Dominion University, 219
9. USMMA Kings Point, 239