2013-14 College Sailing Match Race National Championship

by Jennifer Mitchell on 23 Nov 2013 The Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Match Race National Championship for the Cornelius Shields, Sr. Trophy, is set to begin tomorrow, Friday, November 22 and will last through Sunday, November 24. The event is hosted by the St. Petersburg Yacht Club and racing will take place in Tampa Bay.

The Sloop Championship was inaugurated in 1972, but was changed to a Match Race format in 2010. Match racing pits just one boat against another boat. The regatta will be a round robin format with five stages.

In Stage One each team will sail each other once to determine a Gold fleet and a Repechage fleet. The top six teams will be in the Gold fleet and the bottom four will be in the Repechage fleet. In Stage Two the Gold fleet will race each other once to determine seeds first through sixth. The Repechage will race each other once to determine seeds seventh through tenth. In Stage Three seventh and eighth from the Repechage will join first through sixth from the Gold round to compete in the Quarter Finals where first and eighth will race each other, second and seventh will face-off and so on.

Stage Four will be the semi-finals between the top four teams and then Stage Five is the petite finals and finals between the top teams from the semi-finals. The winning team will be awarded the Cornelius Shields Sr. Trophy, given in honor of Mr. Shields of Larchmont, New York, who was one of the most well known sailors of his time. An early benefactor of college sailing, Shields donated more than eighty Shields class sloops to colleges throughout the United States and was named to the ICSA Hall of Fame in its initial year.

The top ten teams from across the nation have qualified from their conference to compete in this championship. The regatta will be sailed in Sonars with four crewmembers, one of which must be female. The ten schools competing are: Georgetown University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, Yale University, Boston College, Oregon State University, Stanford University, College of Charleston and University of West Florida.

Competitors will sail on Windward/Leeward courses with a leeward gate, marks rounded to starboard.

Racing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. each day with no race starting after 3 p.m. on Sunday. The final prize giving ceremony is scheduled for 4 p.m., Sunday, November 24.

Schools and Competitors:
Georgetown University
Nevin Snow '16
AJ Reiter '17
Alexander Post '15
Katia DaSilva '15

St. Mary's College of Maryland
Jake LaDow '15
John Wallace '14
Kaitlyn Noreen '16
Ian Liberty '14

University of Wisconsin
Whitney Kent '15
Megan McMahon '17
Harrison Faust '14
Ian Walter '16

University of Michigan
Will Cyr 2014
David Oliver 2014
Ansley Semack 2014
Chris Cyr 2016

Yale University
Chris Segerblom '14,
Max Nickbarg '14,
Graham Landy '15,
Marly Isler '16

Boston College
William Bailey '15
Domenic Bove '15
Katja Sertl '16
Harry Koeppel '17

Oregon State University
Brian Hickman (2015)
Aike Burger (2016)
Austin Sandifer (2016)
Cragan Smith (2014)

Stanford University
Scott Buckstaff '17
Hans Henken '15
Cam Hutton '14
McKenzie Wilson '14

College of Charleston
Ryan Davidson 2016
Brandon Folkman 2016
Ali Blumenthal 2015
Jake Reynolds 2016

University of West Florida
Harrison Prochaska -2014
Zach Grant -2015
Anthony Scott -2017
Danielle Le -2016

To learn more about the event, the competitors and results visit the College Sailing website: http://collegesailing.org/.

Results will be updated in real time on the College Sailing Scores site: http://scores.collegesailing.org/.

The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. Visit www.collegesailing.org to learn more. Marlow Ropes (www.marlowropes.com) is the Official Rope of College Sailing.