San Deigo, CA By Tyler Colvin
Coming off a wild weekend at the Laser Performance Team Race Nationals, spirits and expectations were high for the start of the Gill Coed National Championship in San Diego, hosted by San Diego Yacht Club. In the same format as Women’s Nationals, Coed nationals are 2 days of qualifying and 2 days of finals; the top 9 teams from each of the two divisions moving on to the finals.
After a wind delay on the first day of semi finals, racing began in a light and lumpy 5-10 knot westerly. The May Grey was in hard in southern California and consistency was difficult for all but a handful of boats in the light, shifty conditions.
At the conclusion of Day 1 in the Eastern Semifinals, perennial MAISA powers Old Dominion and St Mary’s sat atop the leaderboard, accompanied by dark horse South Florida. In the Western Semifinal, Coast Guard and Women’s College Sailor of the Year, Nikole Barnes led Georgetown and George Washington Universities.
Day 2 of the Semifinals saw similar light winds but from the southwest around 5-10 knots. It was difficult to get races off in the conditions, and only six more races were completed for a total of 12 in each fleet. Qualifying from the Eastern Semifinals were Old Dominion, St Mary’s, Navy, BC, Stanford, Yale, USF, BU and Fordham. In the Western Semifinals, CGA dominated over Georgetown, Charleston, Brown, RWU, Conn, Hobart and William Smith, George Washington and U Penn.
The Coed Finals got underway June 2nd. A welcome change from the previous few days, the marine layer burned off and the pier warmed up to the low 70s, a little more Southern California-like than the earlier June Gloom. Racing was underway on time at 10:30am in 6-10 knots of choppy, shifty races. The wind was up and down, often with hiking conditions at the top of the course and drifting at the leeward gate.
Mid afternoon, the current started picking up which caused for some interesting mark rounding situations in the light air. With all of the challenges on the course, leads were exchanged often depending on who could find pressure. Consistency was the name of the game, and Yale was able to minimize double digit finishes, coming out on top after 10 races at the end of the day.
Day 2 opened with Yale leading Georgetown, BC, CGA, USF, ODU, Stanford, Navy and Brown in the standings. The goal of 18 total races for the regatta was well within sight after completing 10 on day 1. Long shifts and pressure discrepancies on the course again made for challenging racing. The top 4 teams of Georgetown, CGA, Yale and BC traded firsts for last place finishes as the battle for the top was a brutal one.
The wind steadily dropped off throughout the afternoon and tensions rose. Going into the final rotation, BC sat in 4th with 242 points, 5 points out of a podium spot behind a resurgent CGA Bears (237 points), and still in the hunt for the top with Yale (227 points) and Georgetown (224 points). In true Yale fashion, A division skipper Ian Barrows turned in 3 straight bullets in races 14, 15, 16 to keep his team in the hunt. Flashes of Jane Macky in 2009.
Drama was the special of the day as the entire regatta came down to the last race. In 18A, Georgetown’s Nevin Snow, College Sailor of the Year, was bullied to the back of the fleet and into last place; their once 18 point lead was down to 7 points. Second place was a 3-way tie between BC, Yale and CGA, all with 261 points.
Race 18B, for the championship, saw Yale, Georgetown and CGA all in the lead pack off the line with BC looking slow on the wrong side of the course. Nikole Barnes showed the blistering speed she has exhibited all season and ran away with the bullet. Georgetown hung on to a 3 for the win and Yale turned in a 5 to round out the top 3.
Congratulations to the Georgetown Hoyas and coach Mike Callahan on a hard-fought championship!
Blog
College Women’s Nationals: A Look into Women’s Sailing
By Airwaves High School Reporter Sammy Pickell
The competitive spirit innate in all types of sailing is truly no exception at women’s regattas— every talented team projects unmistakable focus and determination an effort to to dominate the other teams. Off the water, spectators and parents alike have often noted that the overall environment t women’s events is composed of calmer sailors, seemingly exhibiting less hype over each rotation and each start watched from the shore. However, at the collegiate level especially, the calm of women’s regattas is traded time and time again for strong sailing and competition the moment the boats leave the dock.
Over the course of four days, women’s college sailing teams from all across the country traveled to San Diego to compete for the national champion title after battling it out in separate eastern and western semifinals. During the finals on Thursday, the conditions were as variable as the results— the morning began with a light, shifty breeze that put most teams’ scores all over the place. However, throughout Friday’s equally light conditions, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy managed to secure a strong lead over its competitors and never dropped a place after that.
Many of the female sailors we questioned reiterated their advice to young girl teams: the key to getting high ranks on the scoreboard and remaining there at any championship event is focusing primarily on consistency. In a high-scoring event such as college nationals, with eighteen races for both divisions, each team is bound to end up with some undesired races regardless of skill level. Keeping errors to a minimum and not allowing the weight of such an important event to facilitate these mistakes results in success for teams. As an example, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Brown University both managed to capitalize on the power of consistency, ending with a fairly strong lead over the fluctuating teams below them.
Many women made clear that the Sperry Women’s Championship event and women’s events in general prove to be some of the most rewarding experiences of being on their teams. Hope Wilson, a graduating senior on the Dartmouth sailing team, had time to reflect on her years on the women’s team. Hope said “My favorite part about being on this team is definitely the people. We have such an awesome group of people who are always excited about getting better every day, so it is hard not to have a good time with all of them.” Hope later reflected on the laughs shared within the women’s team and the irreplaceable experience women’s sailing has been for her.
Although in high school and college sailing the majority of girls still tend to crew for male skippers, the support and domination of girls in the sport of sailing has increased significantly in the past few years. Youth regattas such as the Junior Women’s Doublehanded National Championship, commonly referred to as Ida Lewis, draw women club 420 sailors from all across the nation as well as renowned coaches. Likewise in coed i420 events, the girls consistently manage to beat the male teams. At the 2015 i420 North Americans, Youth Worlds competitors Christine Klinger and Victoria Thompson won the event over the best i420 male teams in the country. With the women’s teams gearing up for the Olympic Games in Rio, the admiration and support of young girl sailors continues to rise.
So, it is evident that people may comment as to how the girls teams tend to stay reserved and calmer while on land. But sailors know well that how the wind blows on land often differs in intensity from a windier breeze out at sea. Girl teams in the sport of sailing never fail to rise to the challenge and race extremely competitively whether in coed or all-girl regattas, and the College Women’s Nationals is proof of that.
About the Author
Sammy Pickell, West Coast/High School Sailing Airwaves Reporter
Sammy started her sailing career at age five in the “Starfish” program at Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club (BCYC) in Corona del Mar, CA. She raced her first regatta at seven and was soon Sabot racing throughout Southern California. Sammy graduated from Sabots to C420s and CFJs, club racing for BCYC and as a varsity member of the Corona del Mar High School Sailing Team, where she helped the Team win the 2016 Pacific Coast Championships. Sammy is a volunteer coach at BCYC, aspiring doctor, and rising junior at Corona del Mar High School. You can reach Sammy at [email protected]
Yale Wins 2016 Team Race National Championship!
Check out the S1D Team Race Nationals Predcitions
Today was the third and final day of the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship on North San Diego Bay. This event is the second of three collegiate sailing national championships co-hosted by San Diego Yacht Club and the Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference this spring. After three days of racing Yale University is the national champion and winner of the Walter C. Wood Trophy for the fourth year in a row.
The day began with completing the top eight round robin. Racing got underway around 10:30 a.m. Competitors sailed in FJs on digital N courses for the top eight and final four rounds. The remaining 19 races were completed in the top eight round today. The conditions were cloudy with light winds to start the day from the west northwest and the winds picked up a bit in the afternoon around 12 knots under sunny skies. Temperatures stayed in the mid to high 60s.
The race officials kept the races going and by about 2:30 p.m. the competitors were into the final four racing. The final four was completed around 3:30 p.m. and a total of 157 races were completed in the event.
Today the teams were fighting to advance into the final four round. Due to the competitiveness of each team in this event, no one went through undefeated. Yale finished the top eight round with two losses, Boston College with four, Georgetown University with one and St. Mary’s College of Maryland with three. Going into the final four any one of the four teams had a chance at winning the regatta. However, after Yale won their second race against St. Mary’s, they clinched the regatta.
This is Yale’s fourth team race national championship title and Walter C. Wood Trophy win in a row. The last team to win four in a row was Tufts University in 1996.
“We are stoked,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale University, “Everyone sailed well and kept their heads on through the whole regatta.”
“Every race was tough and all of the competition was really good,” Healy says. “We were able to execute really well at the bottom mark on the course.”
Everyone on the Yale team will be returning next year, except for senior Charlotte Belling, who was on each of the four winning teams during her college sailing career.
The winning team members are Ian Barrows ’17, Meredith Megarry ’17, Malcolm Lamphere ’18, Chandler Gregoire ’17, Nicholas Baird ’19, Charlotte Belling ’16, Clara Robertson ’17 and Joseph Kiss ’17.
There were six total races scheduled in the final four, however in the first race of the round between Georgetown and St. Mary’s one of the tiller extensions in a St. Mary’s boat broke and they went from winning the race to losing it, so they were allowed a re-sail. Therefore seven races took place and St. Mary’s took the win. This meant that they displaced Boston College and took third overall while Georgetown clenched second place after beating Yale in the last race of the final four.
“Yale was tremendous and the best team won,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown. “We had a lot of opportunities in the races that we lost, but we didn’t do it. We did have the best record in the final four, and that felt good,” he says.
Georgetown will graduate four seniors from their team race team this year.
Sailing for Georgetown was Sean Golden ’16, Isabelle Ruiz De Luzuriaga ’16, Nevin Snow ’16, Meaghan MacRae ’18, AJ Reiter ’17 and Bettina Redway ’16.
St. Mary’s winning their re-sail with Georgetown allowed them the last podium spot.
“We are really happy to be on the podium,” says Bill Ward, director of sailing for St. Mary’s. “All of our races were really close and we made some mistakes. It has been a long season and this was a good way to finish up considering where we came from.”
Sailing for St. Mary’s was Alexander Curtiss ’16, Shelby Jacobs ’17, Edmund Cooper ’17, Mariah Leffingwell ’16, Markus Edegran ’16 and Kaitlyn Noreen ’16.
Final Results, Top 8 (wins and losses) 1. Yale University, 21-4 2. Georgetown University, 19-6 3. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 18-7 4. Boston College, 17-8
- College of Charleston, 15-7 6. Stanford University, 13-9 7. Dartmouth College, 11-11 8. Brown University, 8-14
Top 5
Visit http://scores.collegesailing.org/s16/laserperformance-team-race-nationals/ for full results.
| # | Team | Win | Loss |
| 1 | Yale Bulldogs | 21 | 4 |
| 2 | Georgetown Hoyas | 19 | 6 |
| 3 | St. Mary’s Seahawks | 18 | 7 |
| 4 | Boston College Eagles | 17 | 8 |
| 5 | Charleston Cougars | 15 | 7 |
Sportsmanship: The Integrity of Sailing
By Airwaves Writer Rachel Bennung
In the basic principles sportsmanship and the rules it states, “Competitors in the sport of sailing are governed by a body of rules that they are expected to follow and enforce. A fundamental principle of sportsmanship is that when competitors break a rule they will promptly take a penalty, which may be to retire.” Sailing is a very unique sport for many different reasons, but a major one is that we don’t have umpires or referees. We ourselves monitor the sport of sailing. As sailors we must be respectful to our competitors, and honest with ourselves when we break a rule. However, we still see sailors having a lack of sportsmanship on the water. Without sailors displaying sportsmanship sailing loses all its integrity.
Everyone defines sportsmanship a little bit differently. In an interview Dave Perry defined sportsmanship as saying, “It’s an attitude of respect for the game, the rules, the people you’re racing against and the officials. Respect means you go about your job of competing fairly within the rules and try your hardest to win, without doing anything that is unfair to others.” This definition of sportsmanship is spot on. In sailing we are always trying to win the race, but in doing so we must compete fairly. Not only does sportsmanship mean we compete fairly, but we show respect towards our, competitors, teammates, and race committee. Sportsmanship is the fundamentals of sailing that every sailors needs to follow and enforce.
There are several key components of sportsmanship in sailing:
- Take your penalty turn even if no one saw what happened, or the boat you foul doesn’t protest you.
- Enforce the rules.
- Be respectful to your competitors, teammates, and race committee.
- Be a role model.
- Take your penalty turn even if no one saw what happened, or the boat you foul doesn’t protest you.
This component of sportsmanship can sometimes be very hard for some sailors to follow. They tap a mark and look around and no one saw it, they figure they can keep sailing. I have heard sailors say “Well I may have fouled that boat, but they didn’t protest me so I don’t have to do my spins.” This theory of thinking is completely wrong and is how sailing loses its integrity. As we know, we ourselves monitor the sport of sailing not a referee. We must be honest and play fair no matter what. A great story of honesty and integrity on the race course is the story of Peter 
Barrett a Finn sailor competing in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. While Peter was sailing upwind he tacked onto port and began ducking boats. He then felt his shoulder lightly touch the rudder of a starboard boat, however, the skipper and no one else noticed. Even though no one noticed the incident Peter did. In those days there was no penalty turns, but you had to retire from the race when you fouled. So Peter retired from the race which cost him the gold medal in the Olympics. Peter Barrett showed great honesty and respect for the sport of sailing that day as we all should even when no one witnesses our mistake.
- Enforce the rules.
Not only does sportsmanship mean that we play by the rules, but that we also enforce them on the race course. This doesn’t mean you go out on the water looking for people who are breaking rules. It means when you see someone break a rule and they don’t take their penalty you enforce the rules. This sometimes means you will end up protesting that boat. Some people may mistake protesting as being unsportsmanlike, however, its how the rules are enforced in sailing. When you are enforcing the rules you want to be respectful in how you speak to your competitors. Enforcing the rules can become unsportsmanlike if you are the boat yelling and screaming at your competitors. Remember sportsmanship means showing respect for the game, the rules, and your competitors. To be sportsmanlike in sailing we must not only follow the rules, but help enforce them since sailing is a self-monitoring sport.
- Be respectful to your competitors, teammates, and race committee.
Showing respect is so important not only in sailing, but everyday life. When we give respect, we will receive respect in return. Being respectful can be shown by how we behave, speak, and react towards others. In sailing we need to show respect to our competitors, teammates, and race committee. We have all seen sailors out there that have no respect towards their competitors. However, we need to take the high road and be respectful by not screaming or cursing at our competitors. We also need to remember that sportsmanship doesn’t just apply to your competitors, your teammates and race committee are just as important. As sailors we need to show respect to our teammates by the way we communicate with them. Every team has a different way of communicating and together you need to 
come up with a way to communicate respectfully to each other. We also need to show respect towards our race committee, we wouldn’t be sailing without them out on the water. Show your appreciation by thanking the committee after completing a race. A simple thank you means a lot to people volunteering their time!
- Be a role model.
As sailors we need to remember how unique our sport is. We police ourselves on the water without a referee. We need to show our younger generations how important sportsmanship is in sailing. Younger sailors will look up to you and respect you when you set good examples out on the race course. By you setting good examples and being a good role model we can be assured that sailings integrity will be carried on.
Paul Elvstrom, a famous Olympic sailor once said, “You haven’t won the race, if in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors.” This famous quote on sportsmanship is the essence of sailing. Sailing is a sport where you only win when you respect all aspects of the sport. We ourselves must monitor and protect the integrity of sailing. Sportsmanship is the foundation of the rule book, with the key components being; take your penalty turn even if no one saw what happened, or the boat you foul doesn’t protest you, enforce the rules, be respectful to your competitors, teammates, and race committee, and be a role model. Lets keep sailings integrity, and remember the next time your on the water the key components of sportsmanship!
S1D Coach of the Year Nominations OPEN!!
Sail1Design annually seeks your nominations for the Henri-Lloyd S1D Coach of the Year, for a coach that embodies the qualities (and more) listed in the article below. Sailors, this is your award! The Sail1Design staff chooses the winner only from our readers nominations! This is a great opportunity to recognize a coach that you feel makes a difference! Please write a detailed nomination letter to [email protected]
Nominations close on 15 JUNE 2016
Henri-Lloyd generously supplies the winning coach with a new HL Jacket, and a $500 gift card for Henri-Lloyd Online, to shop and get some of the worlds best sailing technical gear.
All good coaches, regardless of their chosen sport, share some important fundamental qualities that transcend technical knowledge, or specific x’s & o’s. In other words, whether it’s a basketball, tennis, hockey, football, chess, or sailing coach, there are certain key characteristics to good coaching, and none of these really requires technical knowledge of the sport they are in.
Here are some of those characteristics: logistics, organization, energy, leadership, passion, creativity, patience, dedication, motivational skill, humility.
I would bet that you could take a good coach, put him or her in a new sport, and that coach would find some success. Think about the best coach you ever had, and visualize that person in another sport, and you might see just how that person could adapt and still be a difference-maker.
However, we all know that great coaches not only possess these core qualities, but indeed they are also masters of the subtleties, rules, and technical chess moves of the sport they are involved in. Very often, great coaches are former players themselves, and often they are good, but not necessarily great players. In any event, it seems virtually certain that actually having been in the arena at some level, having been a true game player, is a necessary ingredient for a great coach.
So then, what an important advantage sailing coaches have, since the sport allows lifelong top-level competitive opportunities. While it would be impossible for a middle-aged football coach to live, first-hand, what his players go through on the gridiron, middle-aged sailors and coaches can stay current, and can compete right alongside the world’s best sailors, and even win world championships in sailing. Opportunities exist in team racing, match racing, and all types of one-design classes offer regattas, year-round. In this manner, sailing coaches have the ability to get inside the sport, at the highest levels, learn more, and feel the same things that their players go through out on the race course. The empathy gained here is a very powerful tool that great coaches employ when coaching.
Getting into the rhythm of a sailboat race, realizing first-hand the excitement and frustrations of the sport, preparing mentally for each race, “knowing when to tack”, these are all things that coaches must be able to talk to their players about, and talking to them about these things is so much more clear and present when done by someone who is actually good at them, and has done them recently at a high level.
For example, it was always easy for me to say to a team, “make sure when you are in FJ’s at the starting line to allow yourself more leeward room to accelerate since the foils are small and the boats need to go bow down first before they start lifting.” It was really easy to say. It was quite another thing to actually do it, and to go out on the starting line, in FJ’s, and practice what I preached. That was a LOT harder, and I drew a great deal of empathy with my players from that situation and recognized better ways to talk about it and to talk them through it, having been there myself. This is especially true in team racing, where coaches can see plays easily on the coach boat or on the drawing board, but it’s one thing to talk about a mark trap at Mark 1; it’s another thing altogether to go out and be able to execute it. Without being, or having been, in the arena, sailing advice and technical coaching can be somewhat hollow compared to other sailing coaches who know it first-hand and live what they coach.
So, when you look to your coaches for advice or to get to that next level, or if you are a interested in sailing in a college program, take a moment and check out the coaches resumes, just as they will most assuredly be checking yours. The list that makes coaches good coaches should be there for sure, but see if the coaches list how, or if, they stay current in their profession and have the passion to go out on the racecourse themselves. Great coaches usually always have a story, and very recent one, of a lesson learned at a regatta they sailed in themselves. They love to sail and get better, if only to become a better sailor and coach.
While there is a short list of coaches who choose to (and can) do it all, many top collegiate programs now share these coaching qualities by hiring an assistant or co-head coach, who is very often a recent college sailing alumnus and is active in dinghy racing and brings that empathy, right away, to the team. The head coach then ties everything together with experience, maturity, management, and knowledge of the game.
If you’ve ever noticed, baseball coaches actually suit up for games even though they certainly won’t be playing. This historically comes from the old “player-coach” model, and perhaps, this connects them with the game and the player more intimately. Sailing offers the unique ability for all ages to compete at the highest levels of the sport, and great sailing coaches take advantage of this, “suiting up” themselves and making themselves better at coaching by sailing competitively.
About Henri Lloyd
Henri Lloyd was established in 1963 in Manchester, England. Mr Henri, as he is known, founded the company based upon hard earned principles of honesty, integrity and freedom and it is these principles that are the foundations of the Henri-Lloyd brand today. One of Mr Henri’s many talents, passed on to his sons who have steered the business for the last 2 decades, is the ability to treat everyone with the same level of genuine interest, wit and charm whoever they are.
Henri Lloyd’s staff are committed to providing the best service to you, and are always happy to help should you need any assistance in selecting your products.
Past S1D Coach of the Year Winners
2015- Frank Pizzo
2014- Chris Dold
2013- Steve Hunt
2016 ICSA TEAM RACE NATIONALS PREDICTIONS & PROGNOSTICATION!
21 MAY, 2016 – Sponsored by Dynamic Dollies, on the eve of the 2016 ICSA Team Race Nationals, here are our ICSA TR Coaches bold predictions and prognostications. Panelists include Ken Legler (Tufts University), Zach Marks (Eckerd College), Clinton Hayes (Stanford), and Johnny Norfleet (Fordham) and Bill Healy (Yale). Follow the action here: http://2016nationals.collegesailing.org/
