ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship win to Georgetown

by Jennifer Mitchell on 9 Jun 2012 Today was the last day of the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship, the last of three highly anticipated spring college sailing National Championships.

The events were co-hosted by the University of Texas Sailing Team and the Austin Yacht Club on Lake Travis. Light and shifty winds made for difficult conditions today, but it did not stop the Hoyas from dominating the regatta. Leading all three days of the event, Georgetown University won the National Title and the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy.

Competitors arrived this morning around 9 a.m. and sailing was postponed for a lack of wind at 10 a.m. The weather was cloudy, hot and humid. Forty-five minutes later wind began to fill in and A-division hit the water for their first race. The winds were about three-five knots out of the northeast. The wind direction was similar to yesterday, but the shifts were long and spotty.

Roger Williams University won the first A-division race, 11 A and Harvard University won the next race in the set. B-division hit the water for their first set of the day in a northeast breeze around three-five knots.

The cloud cover was shifting the wind around and race 13 in A-division faced the brunt of the unstable conditions. The race was abandoned three times before the wind direction and speed held steady. The fourth try was a success, but by this time it was 4 p.m. and time in the event was running out. This was the last race for A-division in the regatta. The University of Wisconsin-Madison won the race by about 43 seconds followed by Yale University and Tufts University.

The last race of the day and the event was 13B, which had one general recall. Georgetown was leading the race in the beginning, but was overtaken by Brown University. Brown won the race followed by Yale and the College of Charleston.

Three races in each division were completed today for a total of 13 in each division for the regatta.

Georgetown sailed a solid and consistent regatta to win the title and the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy awarded to the winning team. The trophy 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.

Georgetown approached each day of the event like three different regattas, Mike Callahan Georgetown’s head coach says. The sailors started each day fresh and did not worry about other teams, they just focused on their own sailing, he says.

Typically at the end of a regatta the leading team has to be careful of close competitors, however Georgetown had a significant lead over second and clinched the regatta before the last race. They finished the regatta 32 points ahead of second place.

'It was fun to go into the last race winning the event,' Callahan says. This is the second time Georgetown has won the ICSA/Gill Championship and the fifth time they have placed in it in the last nine years.

Callahan is especially proud of the seniors who competed in the event, B-division sailors, Evan Aras ’12 (Annapolis, Md.) and Katherine Canty ’12 (Vero Beach, Fla.). 'I am happy for the seniors to win a national title in their last year of college,' he says. Aras was always able to catch up when he fell behind and Chris Barnard ’13 (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Hilary Kenyon ’13 (Wayzata, Minn.) in A-division were rock solid, Callahan says.

Roger Williams University won the Oxford University Trophy, awarded to the second place team in the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship. The Oxford University Yacht Club team and its captain Jeremy Thomas presented this trophy in 1954 on the occasion of the first of a continuing series of college regattas between British and North American teams held alternately in the United States and Great Britain every two years.

Roger Williams sailed a consistent regatta. They finished the first two days in third place and moved up to second place after today’s racing. 'We were fired up to go sailing today, but the wind did not cooperate,' Amanda Callahan, Roger Williams’ head coach says.

Roger Williams did get enough racing in today to get past Yale. 'We are very proud, both of our boats sailed amazing,' Callahan says. The team’s strength is sailing in shifty conditions and they were able to minimize mistakes and stay in the top of the fleet, she says.

This is the first time Roger Williams has placed in the ICSA/Gill Championships and only the fifth time they have qualified for the event. They have not placed above fourth place before today.

Roger Williams’ sailors: Alec Anderson ’13 (Tortola, B.V.I.) and Sophie Bellacosa ’13 (Winchester, Mass.) in A-division and Sean Bouchard ’12 (Bermuda) and Kelly Stannard ’12 (Salem, Conn.) in B-division.

Yale University came in third place winning the Metropolitan Sailing League Trophy, which was first presented in 1971. Yale moved up from fourth on the first day to second on day two and finally finishing in third place. Their goal today was to catch up to Georgetown, but the Hoyas proved too tough to beat.

'Georgetown had good starts, they were solid tactically and always seemed to do the right thing,' Bill Healy, Yale’s assistant coach said.

It feels really good to get a podium finish, he says. The team’s big highlight of the event: Graham Landy ’15 (Norfolk, Va.) and Heather May ’13 (Newport Beach, Calif.) winning B-division.

Sailing for Yale: Joe Morris ’12 (Annapolis, Md.) and Isabel Elliman ’12 (New York, N.Y.) in A-division and Graham Landy ’15 and Heather May ’13 in B-division.

The Robert Allan, Sr. and Robert Allan, Jr. Trophies are awarded to the low point 'A' and 'B' teams, respectively, in the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship. Chris Barnard ’13 (Newport Beach, Calif.) and Hilary Kenyon ’13 (Wayzata, Minn.) is the A-division winner with 71 points; and Graham Landy ’15 and Heather May ’13 are the B-division winners with 60 points.

Final results
1. Georgetown University, 137
2. Roger Williams University, 169
3. Yale University, 171
4. College of Charleston, 207
5. Harvard University, 213
6. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 231
7. Boston College, 231
8. Stanford University, 246
9. Tufts University, 252
10. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 255
11. University of South Florida, 263
12. Boston University, 264
13. University of Miami, 267
14. Dartmouth College, 277
15. Brown University, 284
16. U.S. Naval Academy, 306
17. Old Dominion University, 318
18. SUNY Maritime College, 358

Event website

Gary Jobson filmed highlights of the three days of racing for the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship, which will air on ESPNU a number of times throughout the summer. These are the initial airdate times: Friday, July 6 at 6 p.m. ET, Friday, July 6 at 4 a.m. ET, and Sunday, July 8 at 9 a.m. ET. This will be the eighth time the ICSA/Gill Coed Dinghy Nationals have been covered on ESPNU.

Thank you to the University of Texas for the daily text and photo updates for all of the Championships. Thank you to Chris Love Productions for the live media feed and video coverage presented by Maclaren.

To view or purchase photos of the action from any of the National Championships, visit the link for photographer Bruce McDonald: http://www.mcdonaldphoto.com/Sailing/2012-Intercollegiate