Sailing World College Rankings, October 29th 2015

Sailing World’s College Rankings, presented by Gill and Sailors for the Sea, are determined by an open coaches poll. For more information on the poll, or on how your team’s coach can become a part of it, visit http://bit.ly/9jqgev. The number of first place votes a team received is in brackets. This is the third national ranking for the Fall 2015 season, based on results through October 28th.

For easy viewing and sharing, the PDF is available here:

Charles Higgins, the assistant sailing coach at Old Dominion University, weighs in on the rankings:

The 2015 Fall College Sailing season is well underway and the leaderboard at regattas has shown some familiar names as well as some pleasant surprises. On the women’s side, graduation hit some teams particularly hard as several of last year’s top teams have new players filling key roles, while others have reloaded with veteran performers. So far, the Lady Bears from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy have looked rock-solid, winning the Stu Nelson, Yale Women’s, and Mrs. Hurst inter-conference regattas. In fact, Georgetown and Brown are the only other teams to have been atop the leaderboard with a victory at the Navy Fall Women’s 3-Division event for the Hoyas, and a win for Brown’s Lindsay Baab at the NEISA Women’s Singlehanded Championship.

On the Coed side, the results have been very unpredictable, as fifteen different schools have made it into the top 5 at the 7 biggest inter-conference regattas so far: the Hatch Brown, Nevins Trophy, Danmark, Truxton-Umsted, Capt. Hurst, and Hoyt Trophy regattas. Making it more complex is the fact none of the events so far have featured each school’s top players at the same time. At this point, it is tough to glean much from teams on the West Coast, but a congratulations should not be missed for the University of Hawaii for winning the Stoney Burke regatta. As the season progresses we will get to see a little more mixing of teams at the various regattas around the country. So far, though, when Georgetown and Boston College are playing their top players in dinghies, they are tough to beat. Once you mix some singlehanded sailors in though, the Cougars from Charleston perform very well. Several teams are right on the leaders’ heels and as we venture into the next 3 weekends, the differences between rankings and performance will ultimately be shown through Fall Conference Championships, the LaserPerformance Singlehanded National Championships hosted at Old Dominion University, and the always tough Women’s and Coed Atlantic/Pacific Coast Championship Regattas.

It’s a long road to San Diego for the 2016 ICSA Spring National Championships, and as of right now every team has a shot. Can the top teams hold on ‘til then, or have other teams yet to reach their peak performance? Only time and results will tell the whole story, or as they say: That’s why they play the game.

Also receiving votes: Hobart/Wm. Smith, Connecticut College, Univ. Pennsylvania, Hawaii, King’s Point, South Florida, Wisconsin, Univ. Rhode Island, Texas A&M, UC Santa Barbara, Vermont, Hampton, Baylor, UC Berkeley, SUNY Maritime, Southern California, Salve Regina, Western Washington, Christopher Newport, Cornell

Also receiving votes: Boston University, Connecticut College, Navy, Fordham, Hobart/Wm. Smith, Eckerd, Cornell, UC Santa Barbara, MIT, Harvard, Wisconsin, Santa Barbara City College, Univ. Washington, Hawaii, Western Washington

21 coaches participated in the poll: Roger Williams, Univ. Pennsylvania, South Florida, Bowdoin, Georgetown, Vermont, UC San Diego, Hawaii, Dartmouth, Mitchell, George Washington, Coast Guard, St. Mary’s, Fordham, Charleston, Hobart/Wm. Smith, Brown, Eckerd, Hampton, Cornell, Christopher Newport