After a summer of rest, coaching, and internships, college sailors around the country return to their respective schools and look to the water. The 2017 ICSA Fall Season is upon us. With regattas starting in early September and ending in mid-November, spanning from coast to coast, the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) will sanction hundreds of regattas just this fall alone.
With so many regattas slated for the upcoming weeks – including singlehand and match-racing national championship – this fall will prove to be an exciting one. All three national championships will be held in SAISA this season. The ICSA Match Racing National Championship will be held at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, while the men’s and women’s singlehanded nationals will take place in St. Petersburg, Florida. These events will help set the tone for the season, culminating in both the Coed Atlantic Coast Championship at SUNY Maritime College in New York, and the Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship hosted by Connecticut College.
Looking back to the previous fall season, Georgetown University topped the podium at the 2016 ICSA Match Race National Championship in San Diego. The 2016 Cornelius Shields Jr. Trophy, was hard fought, as the best of three series came down to a nail-biting three races between the Hoyas and their fellow MAISA rival, Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Returning most of last year’s championship team, Georgetown will look to repeat as champions this fall.
Boston College reigned supreme at both the Men’s and the Women’s Singlehanded National Championships last year, with the men’s champion, Scott Rasmussen returning for another shot at the singlehand title. Erika Reinekeclaimed the women’s title on the way to her winning of the Quantum Women’s Sailor of the Year before her graduation in the spring.
Further north, the MIT Engineers won the 2016 Coed Atlantic Coast Championship on their home turf of the Charles River in Boston, and the United States Coast Guard Academy won the 2016 Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship at College of Charleston. The Engineer should return both starters from last fall’s championship effort and will be looking strong for the fall 2017 campaign. The Coast Guard Bears graduated 2016 Quantum Women’s Sailor of the Year, Nikole Barnes. Questions remain as to who will step forward as this year’s power in women’s sailing.
Some of the first events of the 2017 fall season will be held this weekend, including men’s and women’s Laser events at both the United States Naval Academy and UC Santa Barbara, the Pine Trophy at the United States Coast Guard Academy, and the interconference Fall Fury regatta hosted by University of Wisconsin.
