The Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship continued today co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference. The teams are sailing on North San Diego Bay off of the B Street Pier. The top eighteen collegiate teams in the nation advanced from the previous two days of racing in the semifinals to make it to the finals event, which began today.
Racing got underway on time at 10:30 a.m. on windward-leeward courses with four legs. The sailors are competing in FJs.
The marine layer burned off and the sun came out for racing today, a nice change from previous days of racing. It was also warmer with temperatures in the low 70s. The winds ranged from about 6-10 knots. The race committee was able to run ten races in both divisions today leaving eight more races to go in the regatta.
There were many teams that had the lead at one point today as the competition is very difficult and the conditions are challenging, so the sailors all had good and bad races. Yale University was able to minimize their double-digit finishes the best, so they ended the day on top. Georgetown University is close behind Yale, only five points back, in second place. Thirteen points behind Georgetown, in third place, is Boston College.
“No one could string together a run of good races today,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale. “It was gorgeous sailing today, but tricky.”
“When we had a bad race, we didn’t freak out, we kept thinking about the next race,” Healy says of what kept them ahead of people today. “Everyone is so close that tomorrow we really need to treat it like a new regatta.”
Sailing for Yale is Ian Barrows ’17 and Meredith Megarry ’17 in A-division and Nicholas Baird ’17, Charlotte Belling ’16 and Isabelle Rossi De Leon ’17 in B-division.
Georgetown was particularly strong in their B-division today.
“Sean and Isabelle have been sailing together for four years and have strung together wins at good regattas, so I knew they had it in them to do well here and in these conditions,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown, of their B-division boat.
“The conditions are not easy and staying consistent is tough,” Callahan says. “You can’t panic at a bad start or missing a shift, because everyone will struggle and rebound at some point.”
Sailing for Georgetown is Nevin Snow ‘16 and Meghan MacRae ’18 in A-division and Sean Golden ’16 and Isabelle Ruiz De Luzuriaga ’16 in B-division.
Boston College is in third place with the teams behind them in hot pursuit and all very close together in points.
Sailing for Boston College is Raul Rios ’16 and Allison Ferraris ’17 in A-division and Charles Sinks ’18 and Katherine Downey ’16 in B-division.
Racing is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. No race can begin after 5 p.m. An awards ceremony is scheduled to take place after racing at San Diego Port Pier. Awards for podium finishers in this event will be presented, as well as the Everett Morris Memorial Trophy for the Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year, the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy for the best overall performing team and the Robert H. Hobbs Sportsmanship Award.
Top Nine Teams, Finals Day 1
- Yale University, 129
- Georgetown University, 134
- Boston College, 147
- U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 155*
- University of South Florida, 155*
- Old Dominion University, 158
- Stanford University, 163
- U.S. Naval Academy, 179
- Brown University, 183
*Number of high-place (1) finishes
To see more results and learn more about the teams competing in all of the events visit the event website: http://2016nationals.collegesailing.org/.
Dan Egan, of Degan Media, is providing live coverage sponsored by LaserPerformance and Gill North America. It is streaming from the event website, http://2016nationals.collegesailing.org/. Additional live coverage and social media updates will be available throughout the events on the regatta website.
