St. Mary’s City, Md. (June 6, 2014) – Today was the last day of the Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship, hosted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland. This is the last of three high caliber spring College Sailing National Championships, where were co-hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. After winning their semi-final fleet leading up to the finals portion of this event Yale University has won the national title and the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy.
Racing got underway at 9:15 a.m. Winds were from the northwest at around 5-8 knots. It was sunny and the temperatures were in the 70s. The wind started to shift to the north and get light. After completing a few races the race officials postponed the racing to wait for wind. After about an hour a westerly wind around 8-12 knots held steady and the racing started up again. Later in the afternoon the wind shifted 180-degrees to the north. It did not hold and there was not enough to complete more races before the 5 p.m. deadline.
A-division sailed in 420s and completed six races today. B-division sailed in FJs and completed five races for an event total of 15 races in both divisions. The sailors competed on windward-leeward four leg courses today.
Yale finished 88 points ahead of second place overall and won the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy, which 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.
“We tried to sail our own races for this event and sail smart,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale. “You couldn’t sail safe up the middle today or you would miss the shifts,” Healy says of the conditions today, “We looked to sail for the pressure closest to us and use our boat speed,” he says.
This is the second championship Yale has one in this spring series and Healy says, “Everyone is so excited and can’t wait to get home and share the good news with their friends.”
Sailing for Yale: Graham Landy ’15 with Eugenia Custo Greig ’14 and Katherine Gaumond ’15 in A-division and Ian Barrows ’17 with Amanda Salvesen ’14 and Marlena Fauer ’14 in B-division.
Georgetown University finished 45 points ahead of third place overall and won the Oxford University Trophy for the second year in a row. It is awarded to the second place team in the 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.
“We are happy to get second,” says Mike Callahan, head coach for Georgetown. “It was an extremely difficult regatta against the top teams in the nation,” he says. “It was difficult to be consistent and Yale did an amazing job,” Callahan says.
Sailing for Georgetown: Nevin Snow ’16 with Katia DaSilva ’15 in A-division and Alex Post ’15 with Katie Olsen ’15 and Bettina Redway ’16 in B-division.
Boston College finished in third place winning the Metropolitan Sailing League Trophy, which was first presented in 1971. Boston College was in sixth place yesterday, but today they worked up the scoreboard to win a spot on the podium.
Sailing for Boston College: Raul Rios ’16 with Shelby Hamilton ’14 and Allison Ferraris ’17 in A-division and Erika Reineke ’16 and William Bailey ’15 with Elizabeth Barnard ’15, Christopher Dwyer ’15 and Katherine Wysocki ’15 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 Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship. Graham Landy ’15 with Eugenia Custo Greig ’14 and Katherine Gaumond ’15 from Yale won A-division with 71 points, twenty-seven points ahead of second place. Ian Barrows ’17 with Amanda Salvesen ’14 and Marlena Fauer ’14 also from Yale won B-division with 50 points, 57 points ahead of second place.
For full results and additional regatta information visit the event website: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org/
FINAL RESULTS
1. Yale University, 121
2. Georgetown University, 209
3. Boston College, 254
4. Stanford University, 260
5. Tufts University, 261
6. Old Dominion University, 264
7. College of Charleston, 269
8. Dartmouth College, 275
9. U.S. Naval Academy, 281
10. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 283
11. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 288
12. University of South Florida, 322
13. University of Hawaii, 325
14. Bowdoin College, 334
15. University of Wisconsin, 340
16. Connecticut College, 341
17. Brown University, 351
18. Harvard University, 355
Blog
BREEZE ON: Heavy Air Downwind Symmetric Spinnaker Sailing
by Airwaves writer Andrew Kerr
What is heavy air?
For each team this can vary depending on the experience level aboard – but for most teams it is about 20 knots of wind and above – especially in open unprotected water when the seas have a chance to build and are influenced by the current.
Be prepared – get psyched!!
If you don’t like like light air – practice in it as much as you can – the same can be said of heavy air – particularly downwind – go out with your lifejackets on, the rig tightened to the max setting required by the tuning guide and your old sails and go sail in it! It’s important to change your mind set to a positive one for the given conditions, try and avoid talking yourself out of doing well just because the wind isn’t ideal for you.
It’s really important to go over every piece of rigging on the boat – every pin and ring ding- if a halyard or sheet is worn – don’t risk it – replace it. I remember one heavy air J24 World Championship day sailing with Jeff Johnstone of J Boats – we put safety lines on the outhaul, spinnaker ratchet blocks as backups in case they blew up – you can never be too prepared and it paid dividends.
Talk with your team also on the risk management involved with deciding to set the spinnaker or not – there may be a case not too if it is really howling with big seas, more on that later. What i have seen time again is the importance of getting around the course clean and in one peace – generally if you can do this with no broaches, gear failure or other incidents you can finish in the top half of the fleet just based on those things. It can be a classic war of attrition out there!
Lets look at sailing dead downwind, (or as low as possible on a windward/ leeward course) with a symmetric spinnaker, most if not all of the key elements apply to an Asymmetric spinnaker as well in this article .
In a future article we will look at heavy air Asymmetric downwind sailing and also reaching with both symmetric and Asymmetric spinnakers.
Rounding the weather mark:
When rounding the weather mark keep everyone on the rail to keep the boat flat and be sure to ease the jib out a lot in tandem with the mainsail to keep the boat level. If you don’t the mainsail will flog and the boat will be driven straight sideways by the over trimmed jib!
If it is very windy then a good idea is to ease the vang an inch or two as you approach the weather mark – this twists off the leech of the mainsail and helps the boat bear away.
If you don’t do this on some boats the boat will simply not bear away even though the Mainsail is completely eased out!
If you are sailing to an offset mark like we have typically been doing at bigger events and it is really windy then don’t bother setting the pole until you have rounded the offset mark – keep everyone on the rail as you are likely very overpowered and concentrate on trimming the sails well for max speed and control. If you can set the pole ok then make sure everyone hikes as hard as possible while the weight is on the rail.
Shall we set and when?
This is the big question!! If you are leading the fleet and it is blowing 30 knots with big waves then what we have done in the past is make sure we are on the correct /closest jibe to the mark, made sure the boat is flat and perfectly under control, set the pole and then watched our competition carefully to see how they are doing. Can they hold the sail up effectively or are they having difficulties?
If they are doing fine then we set, if they don’t set then we don’t either as there is no need to risk anything.
At one regatta when it was blowing 35 knots we watched two boats set behind us and just as we were thinking of matching them they both death rolled – one capsized, (they came up fairly quickly) and the other rounded up hard head to wind with the chute flogging wildly – seeing this we didn’t set and pulled away with our jib wing and wing on the closest jibe to the mark.
If your team is practiced and the gains seem like they are there to be made then go for it, but here a checklist to make sure it works out as well as can be expected:
1) Make sure the boat is perfectly level and under control.
2) Don’t ease off the mainsail controls or the backstay or aft lowers if you have them – leave everything on as if you were going upwind – easing them is not going to help performance much and you will not have time to put them back on as the leeward mark will come right at you!!
3) Make sure you are on the correct headed jibe to the mark – a lot of team set, get on a plane, lose track of the mark and sail tons of extra distance, they can actually be beaten to the mark by teams that sail on the correct jibe and who sail very low with no spinnaker in 30 knots of wind! It’s a classic case of the tortoise beating the hare!
4) Set in a lull – not the biggest puff of the day!
5) Leave the small jib up with the sheet eased out, it’s one less thing to worry about and it helps stop the chute from hour glassing around the forestay. If you have the Genoa then the advice is to take it down when the boat is under control – don’t try pulling the sail down when the bow is submarining – get aft, wait for the boat to level out and then sneak forward and pull it down. The weight forward in a puff can cause the boat to round up as the rudder comes out of the water.
6) Keep the outboard end of the pole down a few inches from your normal setting – this will tighten the luff of the sail, pull the draft forward and spill the leech – make the analogy of the Cunningham on the mainsail which does a similar thing. I remember watching a past America’s cup final and it was interesting to note Alinghi would do this for max control and safety as Team NZ had retired with gear failure , the goal was to get around the course in one peace – that is very true in heavy air fleet sailing as well.
7) Make sure the windward and leeward twing’s are on tight so that the spinnaker is choked down. The trimmers should both sit down in 30 knots to help steady the boat and so they don’t fall down in a broach or roll. John Burnham makes this excellent point in Sailing World Magazine when reviewing the first J24 World’s in Newport in 1978.
8) Don’t set until the skipper say’s hoist and make sure everyone is in the correct position.
9) When the spinnaker fills – over trim the sheet to keep the sail in front of the boat and move the whole crew way back to get the bow out of the water and keep the rudder in the water!
10) Be ready to hike to leeward as the spinnaker will want to pull the boat hard to windward, an effective method to sail low is to have a number of crew on the leeward side to counteract the boats tendency to want to heel to weather in big lifting gusts, this can enable the skipper to sail low with more confidence.
This is fun – whoops we are starting to roll!!
The fun meter is right up there as your team blasts downwind, with the bow calling the puffs suddenly you hear the call “ here comes a huge blast” and the boat starts to roll hard to windward – what to do? Here’s a checklist:
1) Skipper – steer the bow directly under the center seam of the spinnaker – if it yaws’s to windward- steered to windward, if it yaws to leeward – steer to leeward. This keeps you right under the sail for max balance.
2) Spin sheet trimmer – over trim the sheet on the spinnaker about a foot and a half to put the sail directly in front of the boat, hike out to leeward a little too if the skipper is sitting on the weather side to keep the boat balanced. Make sure both twings are hammered down to deck level to reduce the oscillating tendency of the sail to a minimum.
3) Guy trimmer – ready to ease the pole forward if the boat heels really hard to windward.
4) Mast – hike out to leeward to counter the weather heel – double-checking the downhaul on the pole is tight and the twings are cleated really well are good personal checklists. The Mast person needs to be double-checking everything and being able to back up the bow if needed in any situation. This boat handling versatility is a necessary ingredient of your teams make up – especially when it is very windy.
5) Bow – Call the puffs – hike out to leeward to counter the weather heel and have a hand on the tail end of the vang ready to release it if the boat starts to round up in to the wind. Otherwise make sure the vang is very tight so that the leech of the mainsail has power in it to counteract the power of the spinnaker to help dampen the rolling. A common misconception is to ease the vang downwind to depower the mainsail – this actually increase the rolling and can cause a death roll (Jibe broach to leeward or round up to windward) because there is a large inequity in balance between the mainsail and the overpowering spinnaker.
Pump the mainsail and spinnaker sheet:
As skipper bears away in a puff or the stern lifts on a wave and the bow goes down, (the apparent wind shifts forward) try pumping the mainsail and spinnaker sheet together – this will accentuate the apparent wind across the sails and promote / prolong a surf or plane. As the bow lifts and/ or the apparent wind shifts aft – ease the sheets back out.
The limitation in the rules on this is you cannot pump more than once per wave or gust and planing or surfing conditions must exist. In the ideal world you would pump the spinnaker guy as well but this can be a little too much physically to do, as the boat is a borderline handful at this point! Pumping the sails when it is windy is a work out but the gains are tangible if it is done properly and with the right timing.
Bad roll to windward – possible Jibe broach:
If the boat rolls really badly to windward then ease the pole forward – this will put the spinnaker behind the mainsail and help you regain composure. We have done this in the big waves of windy regattas many times. The boat is heeling hard to weather and on the verge of jibing and broaching – we ease the pole forward and over trim the sheet to put the spinnaker behind the mainsail, in tandem with the skipper steering under the center seam – it saves the day!
Marginal conditions:
On days when the wind is very gusty with lulls followed by big blasts it’s very effective to play the leeward twing and the spinnaker sheet.
For instance in the lull the trimmer will ease the sheet out and pit ( or person designated) will ease the leeward twing for max power and projection of the sail, the bow then spots a big gust and the pit or other designated crew member pulls the leeward twing line down and over trims the spinnaker sheet to keep the spinnaker and the boat steady and to dampen the rolling – in the subsequent lull the sheet and twing are eased out, the two are essentially a gas pedal. Be careful with the fore and aft weight placement as well – in a substantial lull move everyone forward to reduce drag.
Boat is rounding up:
If the boats roll to leeward, or a big blast starts to lay the boat over then the action to prevent this starts from the back of the boat:
1) Skipper pumps the helm to reattach flow on the rudder.
2) Trimmer eases the spinnaker sheet out – goes with a bigger curl in the luff to depower the sail.
3) Bow dumps the vang to depower the mainsail – keep calling the puffs!
4) Trimmer dumps the spinnaker sheet completely.
Note: Don’t dump the guy off, as the spinnaker will blow out to leeward and have 5 times the heeling moment in it!
5) To recover – pump the helm and bear the boat off to a manageable broad reach heading, retrim the spinnaker sheet and then retrim the vang – off you go again. If you are pinned over – consider blowing the spin halyard, this very often rights the boat on a bad knockdown.
Jibing:
This really is a function of timing and keeping the boat steered under the center seam of the spinnaker. Good times to jibe include:
1) In a substantial lull – if available!
2) On the top of a wave – this enables the boat to be jibed going down the wave with minimum pressure on the sails.
3) When the boat is planing – this is a great time as there is very little pressure on the sails and the main and spinnaker pole can be jibed easily.
Key elements include:
1) The skipper steering the bow under the center seam of the spinnaker and using very little rudder. The skipper or main trimmer should also trim the mainsail in at least half way prior to the jibe – this allows the boat to be jibed with less rudder, as the wind has to travel a lot less distance around the leech to jibe the sail. When it is really blowing we have had the trimmer jibe the mainsail across so the skipper can focus just on steering – this one takes practice and co ordination.
2) The trimmer keeping the spinnaker chocked down with the sheet and twinged down to reduce oscillation to a minimum.
3) Every one is ready and on the same page!
4) If there are big waves then a technique you can use on the bow to jibe the pole is to jibe the spinnaker pole with the roll of the boat in a wave.
The pole would be jibed across as normal – and then as the last part of pushing the pole out may be somewhat difficult, (blowing 30 knots) , the trick is to wait for the boat to heel to windward and then push it out and be able to make it easily on the inboard end. Like so many aspects of life – a little patience can be the key!
Broaches or bad jibes usually occur because of over steering, not being able to jibe the mainsail, jibing in the trough of a wave or with the spinnaker too eased out. Jibing in the biggest blast and shift of the run doesn’t help either!
The trick is for the skipper not to sail too dead downwind as this can cause a major hourglass in the sail and for the trimmer to keep the spinnaker slightly overtimmed to keep it as steady as possible. Once the bow person has jibed the pole the cockpit trimmer can jibe the jib across (the leech of the jib has been wandering back and forth across the centerline fairly eased out to enable the pole to be jibed) and cleat the jib sheet on the leeward winch.
If you experience a bad hourglass in the sail because the boat has been held by the lee too much then jibe the mainsail back and the reverse flow off the sail will unwrap the spinnaker – seeing it in practice tends to make believers of that technique!
A very conservative- and very often very effective approach is to take the spinnaker down to windward, store the pole, jibe the main and jib, reset the pole and if the conditions are right – reset the spinnaker. This can be a great move if it is just too much wind to jibe in or the risk/ reward formula is a poor one for your team. This also works particularly well on short downwind legs when the team risks flying by the leeward mark trying to find the right time/ courage to jibe!
Alternatives to the spinnaker:
If it is very windy – 25 to 35 knots plus – we have found it very effective – particularly in big waves to wing the jib out and sail as low as we can to the mark. Pumping the mainsail once per wave or puff helps accentuate a surf/ plane. There will be some teams who can hold the spinnaker very well, but a large number will be struggling – this tactic can work well when your goal is to get around the course clean with no breakdowns and the crew and spinnaker in one piece, (the crew always hope that is one of the goals!) and a solid respectable finish added to your score line.
With the war of attrition in a long series or with no throw outs – this can be an effective tactic for moving up the standings.
In one heavy air J24 race I was in the whole fleet was caught out with Genoa’s in a 25 to 30 knot squall with just the downwind leg to go – we found it very effective to wing the Genoa out using the spinnaker pole. The boat sailed low and fast to the finish and we got there in great shape amidst the chaos around us!
Heavy air Dousing: Try the “Halyard drop”!
Get the spinnaker down very very early – much earlier than you think! Can’t emphasis this one enough. Budget lots of time to hoist the headsail, store the pole and douse the sail and get cleaned up.
The “halyard drop” takedown works great for leeward takedowns, takedowns on a reaching angle (dousing to leeward) or for the last takedown of the race when the spinnaker can come down on either side if necessary for the conditions. It’s a good one to add to your repertoire of takedowns.
Ease the guy forward to the forestay with the sheet tight and then blow the spinnaker halyard right off – the spinnaker will float out to leeward and can be gathered in easily at the foot. Once the foot is under control – overhaul the guy and the spinnaker will be in the cabin very quickly. Then take down and store the pole.
The benefit of this is it keep the spinnaker close to the boat and reduces the heeling moment the sail can generate, it also enables the crew to stay on the high side if necessary as well.
A conventional leeward takedown of overhauling the guy can very often broach the boat badly as the spinnaker goes way out to leeward and tips the boat right over. KABLAM! It produces the type of picture you see in Sailing calendars! Getting around the mark clean with everyone on the rail and ready to go upwind will give big tangible gains on teams that don’t. Typically you choreograph this so everyone is max hiking as you go around the mark. If the team isn’t max hiking the boat will heel over and go straight side ways.
It’s super important to get a ton of Jib/ Genoa halyard tension on – triple team this if you have too
You need to budget time accordingly to do this so that you can come around the mark , it is critical for the leeward mark rounding.
With a very firm luff tension with the draft pulled forward to provide a more forgiving shape and wider groove of steering in the heavy air your team will be ablke to hold there lane longer as you look to get away from the leeward mark. When you see teams come around the leeward mark in heavy air with scallops in the luff of the Jib/ Genoa you know the skipper is having a hard time steering with a tight groove to work with and the draft too far aft in the sail, this team usually sags and loses there lane and is forced to tack away.
Conclusion:
Like any skill there is no substitute for practice, heavy air is very much a big test of your teams boat handling and it’s ability to work together in the challenging situations that can be presented. Your decisions on how you tackle the heavy air downwind leg will typically be a function of how much experience the team has and how comfortable your team feels with the conditions. Methodical boat preparation and generally conservative tactics with a solid backing in the fundamentals will produce consistency in a series that will help the team realize it’s overall potential in these challenging conditions.
Introducing the Zim 15 – Moving Dinghy Sailing Forward
The drawing board:
Over the past two and a half years the collegiate and post collegiate market has changed quite a bit. While other companies worked to freshen up the 420 the Zim team was not content to put a new deck on a boat designed in 1959. These introductions are not new, but based on old designs and old technology. The market deserves better! We enlisted the expertise of long time performance sailor and former owner of Vanguard Sailboats, Steve Clark to design a new “forward thinking dinghy” using technology of today. Over the past several years, ex college sailors have been settling for slow keelboats, or expensive one design classes after graduation. The North American small sailboat marketplace is eager for a performance based dinghy that is a blast to sail. The Zim 15 is all new cutting edge technology for production sailboats and will move dinghy sailing forward.
The target market:
We designed Zim 15 as a performance dinghy for the 20-30 year olds looking for more excitement. The high drop off rate after college is not new and we feel a more exciting product will help keep more young sailors on the water. The Zim 15 will appeal to the growing team race market as well as a great boat to fleet race. The Zim 15 is the perfect boat for yacht clubs to purchase fleets and provide organized team and fleet racing. This model will provide outstanding value to young members. The tunable rig and large sail plan will raise and widen the competitive weight range of the sailors relative to other products making the boat a far more favorable option with a broader appeal.
Features and benefits:
- The typical rolled lip hull to deck joint, which is highly prone to stress cracks, has been eliminated.
- The rig, designed by Southern Spars pushes development to a new level. The spars and sails, designed by North Sails, have been tuned with complex modeling software to provide spar to sail synergy.
- The mast is designed with specific flex characteristics that enable a large upwind sail plan without the boat being heavily overpowered in higher wind speeds.
- The large sail plan increases the boats potential performance off the wind eliminating the need for a spinnaker or genniker.
- The gnav strut and cunningham are the primary sail controls and are led to the thwart between the sailors for easy adjustment.
- Mast & sail combination is very tunable relative to the current boats in the marketplace. The ability to adjust the rig tension while sailing will allow the boat to be powered up or depowered easily.
- The incorporation of the dangly pole in not only to be used as a whisker pole downwind but greatly improves the jib effectiveness upwind and reaching while keeping the crew more engaged.
- The integrated bow and corner bumpers will provide additional durability.
- Pivoting rudder blade without using a rudder head.
- We have included the ability to raise the centerboard pivot position. This reduces draft and moves the center of effort closer to the waterline. Lighter teams will be able to “reef” the centerboard as part of de powering in fresh conditions and allow for a wider crew weigh range.
Construction:
The Zim 15 is built using a fully cored resin infusion process. This allows a very repeatable build in terms of quality and boat weight while reducing the styrene emission and exposure for the workers. The hull to deck joint is bonded with Plexus to ensure maximum strength and durability. The foam core enables a far stiffer panel to weight ratio relative to non-cored laminates. In short, the construction process is environmentally friendly and will provide a very stiff and light boat that will stand up to the demands of today’s performance dinghy sailor.
For additional information visit www.zimsailing.com or follow the progress on the Zim Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Zim-Sailing/80529607394
Specifications
Length 14’9”
Beam 5’5”
Draft 3’8”
Mainsail Area 114.64 ft2
Jib Area 39.92 ft2
Designer – Steve H. Clark
YALE UNIVERSITY WINS 2014 APS TEAM RACE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Check out our last rankings and coaches poll, Coach Healy called it! https://www.sail1design.com/college-team-race-rankings/
St. Mary’s City, Md. (June 2, 2014) – Today was the third and final day of the APS Team Race National Championship on the St. Mary’s River at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. This event is the second of three collegiate sailing national championships co-hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy and St. Mary’s College of Maryland this spring. After three days of racing Yale University is the national champion and winner of the Walter C. Wood Trophy.
Brian Schneider photo
The day began with completing the top eight round robin. Racing got underway around 9:30 a.m. Competitors sailed in FJs on digital N courses. The remaining ten races were completed in the top eight round today. The morning conditions were sunny, temperatures in the 70s and winds from a southerly direction at around 5-10 knots.
Principal race officer, Chris Gaffney, was methodical making sure to run the races efficiently and taking the time to make sure the course was square so that the sailing was fair. He and the race officials ran 154 total races in this event.
Today the teams were fighting to advance into the final four round. The competition was tough and the sailors were working hard on the racecourse. Yale made it through the top eight round undefeated, with only one loss on their record from the very first round robin of the regatta.
Before Yale sailed their last race in this round they had clinched the regatta win. Once they had their 20th win in the event, they mathematically won, even before the final four began. This is the first time this has happened in at least eight years and it may even be the first time a team has clinched a national win so early on in the regatta. Still, the racing continued and after some real battles on the racecourse, the final four were decided.
“Since we were just taking it race by race it just kind of happened [clinching the regatta],” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale University. “The team is totally psyched and everybody is happy – the regatta was so awesome, it was perfect,” Healy says of their win.
“I am really happy for the team. They worked so hard for it all spring and Zeke Horowitz, who helped us a lot, was a key contributor to this win,” Healy explains. Healy also gave a shout out to the hard work of St. Mary’s Sailing head coach Adam Werblow and Chris Gaffney and his crew, “They were so incredible and efficient and patient when they needed to be. It was the smoothest team race event I have ever been to,” he says.
This is Yale University’s second APS Team Race National Championship title and Walter C. Wood Trophy win, having just won the event last year.
The winning team members are: Ian Barrows ’17, Christopher Segerblom ’14, Graham Landy ’15, Max Nickbarg ’14, Amanda Salvesen ’14, Eugenia Custo Greig ’14, Marlena Fauer ’14, Katherine Gaumond ’15, Charlotte Belling ’16 and Meredith Megarry ’17.
By lunchtime the top eight racing was complete and after a short break the final four round began. Yale advanced into the round with Stanford University, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and Boston College all tied with a 15-7 record.
There were six races total in the final four. The temperature was up around 75 degrees and the winds were a steady southerly around 7-11 knots. St. Mary’s and Stanford came out of the gate strong and won their first races in the round. Stanford gave Yale their second loss of the regatta. This momentum carried them through until they had to face each other to determine who would take second place.
Stanford started the race winning and was ahead almost all of the way around the course, but St. Mary’s started to make gains on the Stanford sailors and eventually chipped away at them up the last beat of the race and crossed the finish line with a winning 2,3,4 combination. St. Mary’s continued to be undefeated in the final four.
This is the third year in a row that St. Mary’s has placed second at this championship.
“We had a really hard time starting today and had to play catch up in almost every race,” says Adam Werblow, head coach for St. Mary’s. “But the team was a team and the guys have been together now for a long time and really battled and it was fun to see,” he says.
“Bill [Healy] did a great job getting fired up and wanted to do their absolute best in the final four and without a question Yale was dominant and they should have won. Everybody else was really close and we were fortunate to come out in second place again,” Werblow says.
Sailing for St. Mary’s was: Fletcher Sims ’14, Joshua Greenslade ’14, John Wallace ’14, Kelley Merryman ’14, Nicole DeAngeli ’14 and Allison Shane ’15.
This is the first time since 1996 that Stanford has finished on the nationals’ podium.
“It means a lot to the West Coast, to our conference and especially to Stanford to get back on the nationals podium,” says John Vandemoer, head coach for Stanford. “I am proud of these guys for so many things,” Vandemoer says about his team and especially the seniors. “It’s incredible what the seniors have done both on the water and off the water to really lead and establish Stanford as a powerhouse in college sailing. I can’t say enough about their support and all of their work,” he continues.
“Big shout out to our two captains, Yuri and Hans, they have really lead this team all year. The team racing is tough, everyone is good and it takes strong leaders to make it happen,” Vandemoer says.
Sailing for Stanford was: Kevin Laube ’14, Hans Henken ’15, Kieran Chung ’15, Mateo Vargas ’14, Yuri Namikawa ’14, Tally Buckstaff ’14, Haley Kirk ’15 and Mary Vangelos ’17.
For complete results and regatta information visit the regatta website: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org/
Final Results, Top 8 (wins and losses)
1. Yale University, 22-3
2. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 18-7
3. Stanford University, 17-8
4. Boston College, 15-10
5. Georgetown University, 14-8
6. U.S. Naval Academy, 14-8
7. Roger Williams University, 12-10
8. Tufts University, 11-11
To view or purchase photos from today’s racing and awards visit: www.ebrianschneider.com.
Racing continues tomorrow in the Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship with the first day of Semi-Finals. The top 36 collegiate teams in the nation have qualified to compete in this stellar event. The competitors’ briefing will be held at St. Mary’s tonight at 6 p.m. and the first warning for racing is tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.
Live coverage, sponsored by LaserPerformance, will continue tomorrow with highlights and updates. Click on “Live Coverage” on the event website (http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org/) for these up-to-date racing details. Social media coverage will be provided on collegesailing.org
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE WINS THE SPERRY TOP-SIDER WOMEN’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Annapolis, Md. (May 30, 2014) – Today was the last day of racing for the Sperry Top-Sider Women’s National Championship on the Severn River at the U.S. Naval Academy. Eighteen women’s collegiate teams raced for the Gerald C. Miller Trophy and Dartmouth College came out the victor for the second year in a row.
The day started with a short on shore postponement while the race officials waited for the breeze to fill in. The temperature was in the 60s with cloudy skies. A light northerly at around 4 knots filled in and racing got underway. After a set and a half the breeze died again and the teams went in for a long lunch break. By the afternoon temperatures rose to about 70 degrees with more sun in the sky and the winds shifted to the east remaining light and eventually shifted to a southerly direction, which was stable, but light again around 5 knots.
Today the divisions swapped boats again, A-division sailed in Z420s and B-division sailed in FJs. The sailors completed seven races today in both divisions on windward leeward courses with 4 legs for a total of 17 races in each division for the championship. The race committee was able to start the last race of the day minutes before the 5 p.m. racing time limit.
Going into today’s racing Yale University and Dartmouth were neck-and-neck with only three points separating them. The U.S. Naval Academy trailed the top two by 35 points and behind Navy, the other teams were more condensed, which allowed for movement on the scoreboard today. Most notable was Old Dominion University who moved up from ninth place yesterday to finish just one point behind Navy in fourth place.
The home and host team, Navy, won the Ann Campbell Trophy for finishing the event in third place. The Navy women sailed consistently and were a well-balanced team. Sailing for Navy was Mary Hall ’15 with Elizabeth Morrison ‘14 in A-division and Marissa Lihan ’14 with Emma Ferris ’15 and Megan Hough ’16 in B-division.
After an all-day battle, Yale finished second winning the New England Women’s Trophy. It was not until the fourth to last race of the day that Yale gave up their lead. They battled back and forth with Dartmouth and even had some leads in B-division, but they could not hang on to them.
“Dartmouth’s A-division was pretty much unbeatable today,” says Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale, “We tried to stay as close as we could.” Yale’s A-division suffered a few over-early starts and while Healy says their B-division did a fabulous job, in the end it was not enough to take home the win.
“It is bittersweet for us,” Healy says of finishing second, “Especially for the seniors who have worked hard for four years and wanted the win.” Sailing for Yale was Morgan Kiss ’15 with Katherine Gaumond ’15 in A-division and Marlena Fauer ’14 with Eugenia Custo Greig ’14 and Charlotte Belling ’16 in B-division.
Winning the Women’s Championship title and the Gerald C. Miller Trophy for the second year in a row is Dartmouth. Deirdre Lambert ’15 with Avery Plough ’14 sailed in A-division and Kelsey Wheeler ’14 and Lizzie Guynn ’16 sailed in B-division. Lambert and Plough won four of the last five races helping their team to stay well ahead of Yale.
“We knew it was going to be a really tough day. Conditions were changing all of the time as they had been the whole regatta,” John Stork III, co-head coach for Dartmouth says. “There were two things we knew we had to do well. We had to start well and we had to be fast. So if we could control our destiny off of the starting line and be fast then we knew we would have a shot,” Stork explains about going for the win today.
Dartmouth did not talk about winning the event for the second year in a row, but Stork confessed, “We quietly all believed it was possible.”
This will be Stork’s last year coaching college sailing and he says, “It’s been an amazing run with these girls and with this team and it’s something I am going to cherish for the rest of my life.”
Lambert, Wheeler and Guynn were also part of the pairings that won the championship last year. This is the fourth time that Dartmouth has won the Sperry Top-Sider Women’s National Championship they also won in 1992, 2000 and 2013.
After racing awards were presented at the Robert Crown Center for the top teams and also for the first place finishers in each division. Deirdre Lambert ’15 and Avery Plough ’14 from Dartmouth won the Madeleine Trophy, awarded to the low-point A- division team. They finished with 60 points total, 41 points ahead of the second place pairing.
Marlena Fauer ’14 with Eugenia Custo Greig ’14 and Charlotte Belling ’16 from Yale won the Judy Lawson Trophy, awarded to the low-point B-division team. They finished with 89 points total, 20 points ahead of the second place pairing.
For full results visit the event website: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org/. To view or purchase photos from today’s racing and awards visit: www.ebrianschneider.com.
Women’s Final Overall Results
1. Dartmouth College, 185
2. Yale University, 190
3. U.S. Naval Academy, 275
4. Old Dominion University, 276
5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 286
6. U.S. Coast Guard Academy, 291
7. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 296
8. College of Charleston, 305*
9. University of Rhode Island, 305*
10. Boston College, 328*
11. Eckerd College, 328*
12. Stanford University, 336
13. Bowdoin College, 359
14. Brown University, 381
15. University of Hawaii, 414
16. Georgetown University, 417
17. University of South Florida, 419
18. University of Wisconsin, 423
* Head-to-head tiebreaker
Racing will continue in the Spring Intercollegiate National Sailing Championships with the APS Team Racing National Championship, which will take place over the next three days at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Sixteen teams will report at 8:30 a.m. for a Competitor’s Briefing and the racing will follow.
Live coverage, sponsored by LaserPerformance, will continue tomorrow with highlights and updates. Click on “Live Coverage” on the event website for these up-to-date racing details. Social media coverage will be provided on collegesailing.org. To learn more about the teams competing in the events and to follow the racing and results visit the event website: http://2014nationals.collegesailing.org/.
The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. Visit www.collegesailing.org to learn more.
S1D Welcomes our Newest Team Member: Selden Mast!
Selden Mast …for Sailing; and for Summer
Greetings! Allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Selden Mast Inc.; your connection to the Selden Group. For over 50 years, Selden is proud to have manufactured the most durable and reliable sailing spars in the world.
Located in Charleston, South Carolina, Selden Mast Inc. is the largest dinghy spar manufacturer in North America. We also distribute a large array of Selden dinghy products ranging from our complete line of dinghy deck hardware to a huge selection of all the well-known Selden dinghy components.
On this page, we will provide monthly updates from our company to keep you in the loop on what we’ve got cooking down here! From product reviews and announcements to updates on Team Selden we got you covered.
With the summer sailing season just around the corner, we are hard at work producing all of your dinghy needs to guarantee you have a fun and enjoyable season on the water. Be sure to check out our freshly redesigned website at www.seldenmast.com to find the Selden dealer closest to you.
If you have any reason to contact us directly, feel free to e-mail us at dinghy@seldenus.com.
