Yale leads LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship Day 1

by Jennfier Mitchell on 28 May 2016 Today was the first day of racing for the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship on North San Diego Bay co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference. Sixteen collegiate teams from across the nation qualified to compete in this event for the national title and the Walter C. Wood Trophy, awarded to the winning team.

The boats hit the water around 10:30 a.m., but due to light winds the racing got sort of a slow start. The May Gray, typical of San Diego, lingered all day, so the skies stayed cloudy and temperatures hovered around the low 60s. The winds were out of the west, southwest starting out light around five - seven knots building to around eight - ten knots for a period of time and tapering off again as the sun set on racing this evening.

The format for this event is a series of round robins. In the first round all sixteen teams race each other once. This round determines places nine - fourteen. The top eight teams then advance to a single round robin, which determines places five - eight. The top four remaining teams advance to a “final four” another single round to determine places one - four.

The competitors made it through a total of 84 races today and there are 36 more total races to go in this first round. The competitors sailed on a digital N course, which has a windward mark, a windward offset mark rounded to starboard and then down to a leeward mark with another leeward offset rounded to port and finish upwind. The N course allows for long upwind and downwind legs – prime for team racing. The sailors are racing in both collegiate and club FJs provided by San Diego Yacht Club and Stanford University.

Each team has about five more races to go in the first round robin, so there is room for the teams to move around on the scoreboard.

Yale is sitting in first place after today with one loss to St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Yale is the defending champion of this regatta having won it the last three years. They finished all but one race today with a winning one, two combination, which shows their strength in the racing so far.

Sailing for Yale is: Ian Barrows '17, Meredith Megarry '17, Malcolm Lamphere '18, Chandler Gregoire '17, Nicholas Baird '19 and Charlotte Belling '16.

Boston College finished the day tied in second place with St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Sailing for Boston College is Raul Rios '16, Allison Ferraris '17, Harry Koeppel '17, Hannah Lynn '17, Charles Sinks '18 and Katherine Downey '16.

Sitting tied in second place with a record of nine - one is St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Their one loss was to Old Dominion University and they are also the one team that was able to upset Yale preventing them from finishing the day with a perfect record.

“Most of our matches today were really close,” says Bill Ward, director of sailing for St. Mary’s. “But we had good come backs,” he says. “Tomorrow I would like to see us leading at the first mark more,” he says.

“We had good speed and boat handling and we would like to see good starts tomorrow,” Ward says. “We will talk a little bit about racing this evening, but mainly we will get food and get rested,” he says.

Sailing for St. Mary’s is Alexander Curtiss '16, Shelby Jacobs '17, Edmund Cooper '17, Mariah Leffingwell '16, Markus Edegran '16 and Kaitlyn Noreen '16.

The first warning for racing tomorrow is at 10:30 a.m. The race committee will aim to complete the first round robin as quickly as possible to move into the next round of racing with the top eight teams.

Day One Results (wins and losses)

1. Yale University, 10-1
2. Boston College, 9-1*
2. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 9-1*
4. Georgetown University, 8-2
5. Stanford University, 7-3
6. College of Charleston, 7-4
7. U.S. Naval Academy, 6-5 **
8. Old Dominion University, 6-5 b
9. University of California Santa Barbara, 5-5
10. Brown University, 5-6 **
11. Dartmouth College, 5-6 b
12. Eckerd College, 4-7
13. University of Michigan, 1-9 *
13.University of Wisconsin, 1-9
15. Texas A&M University at Galveston, 1-10
16. University of Washington, 0-10

* Tie stands
** Number of races won when tied teams met (1)
b Number of races won when tied teams met (0)

To learn more about the teams competing in all of the events visit the event website.