The ICSA Nationals are around the corner which will be held in Newport, Rhode Island and hosted by the New York Yacht Club. Brown University and Salve Regina's 420 sailboats will be stationed at the New York Yacht Club's Harbour Court Facility. The ICSA Women's National Championship will be the 1st set of racing done during May 26th through the 28th. Collegiate sailors that are waiting for further races will hang out at the Museum of Yachting at Fort Adams State Park which will have a regatta tent available. The second series will be the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship followed by the ICSA/Gill National Championships.

All seven districts will be involved at both the Women's National Championship and the Team Race National Championship including: NEISA, SAISA, SEISA, MAISA, MCSA, PCIYRA & NWICAS.

The schedule is as follows:

ICSA Women's Nationals: May 26th-28th
ICSA/APS Team Nationals: May 30th-June 1st
ICSA/Gill Nationals: June 2nd-June 4th

The women's Nationals will have nineteen collegiate teams involved with #1 ranked College of Charleston and #2 St. Mary's College of MD while the APS Team Race Nationals will involve fourteen teams with #1 Boston College and #2 ranked Georgetown University.
The ICSA Gill Nationals competing last with eighteen teams involved.

Posted on: 20 May 2008

We did a couple of articles on Middlebury College Sailing Club and the fundraiser they started to raise cash-ola for a new fleet of FJ's called "ROCK THE BOAT CAMPAIGN". Their original goal was $50,000 to raise by May of 2008. Happily to say they ended up over their expectations and fell in the neighborhood of $91,000 +. Not a bad couple months of work to earn themselves twelve brand new FJ boats and then some.

A big hand goes out to everyone that donated which you can find the donation categories and names of the donors over at the Middle College Sailing website. Just click their banner to the right.



Photograph: A few of the Middlebury College Sailing Club.
Photography: MCSC


It's good to see that a generous amount of people contributed to this worthy event to keep one of many collegiate teams on the water and in new competitive fiberglass.

The club plans on twelve new FJ's (as mentioned above), plus a few new sails for their 420's.
They will also sink a little under 10K into the structure of the boathouse and throw in some floating docks.

Job well done.

Posted on: 19 May 2008

Senior Beck Mabardy has been named Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference Co-Sportswomen of the Year after helping U of H earn a title to the ICSA National Regatta.

Mabardy, along with four of her teammates get the all conference honors. Mabardy and Tuson-Turner aided in the U of H team (Rainbows) place second in the PCCSC (Pacific Coast Collegiate Sailing Conference) Women's Championship to earn their rights to the 18 school ISA Women's National Championship held in Newport, RI on May 25th through May 27th.

Andrew Meade and Mike Scott led the coed team to a number 16 ranking and a title in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association national semi-finals, where they narrowly missed a shot at the Nationals.

Posted on: 08 May 2008

High Octane One Designs has found yet another collegiate sailing school that has team sailing gear to offer, or at least a cool Georgetown Sailing t-shirt. We've moved to link over to our collegiate merchandise page, so click here to check it out.

With Georgetown having a couple of great days on the water at the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association National Championship, Western Semifinal, it's a good time to buy and show your support.

Chris Behm and Carly Chamberlain won the A-Division while their equivalents, Charlie Buckingham and Alex Taylor finished up in second place in the B-Division. Along with Yale, Charleston, Brown, Roger Williams, Kings Point, South Florida and NY Maritime, Georgetown also qualified for the finals.

Posted on: 29 Apr 2008

Currently a soccer player at Lake Forest, Annie Haeger will be trading in her soccer shoes next year for a dinghy smock. Annie Haeger, a senior soccer defender, will be going off to Boston College to dive into her sailing career. The Laser Radial Trials were held at the Rhode Island Sailing Foundation, Newport, Rhode Island, where Haeger took the number four spot in October of 2007.

Boston College is currently ranked 2nd in co-ed and 3rd in womens sailing. They recently won the Eastern Semi-Finals of the ICSA Co-ed National Championships on April 26th & 27th that was hosted by Hobart and Willam Smith College.

Since clinching the semi-finals, BC will head to Newport, Rhode Island for the Coed National Finals on June 2nd through the 4th.

Other winnings of Boston Collegiate Sailing Team this weekend:
BU Trophy
Geiger Trophy
2nd at Southern Series at Salve Regina.

Posted on: 28 Apr 2008

A detailed re-cap of the up-and-coming Eastern and Western collegiate Semi-Finals in April. See second story for a list of competing teams.

Sports fans, for whom filling in their college basketball “brackets” is a seasonal ritual, will soon get another chance to make the right picks as college sailing moves to a bracket system to determine who will play in the ICSA/Gill Coed National Championship scheduled for June 2-4, 2008, in Newport, R.I.

The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) has adopted the format in part to accommodate the growing numbers of highly competitive teams. Where colleges once qualified for the coed national championship through conference eliminations, there is now a two-step process that will expand and strengthen the competitive field.

For the 200 ICSA-member sailing teams in North America, the first hurdle is to perform well enough in your conference (there are seven) to earn a spot in one of two semifinal events: the ICSA National Championship Eastern Semifinals will be held at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (Geneva, N.Y.) in 420s, while simultaneously the ICSA National Championship Western Semifinals will be hosted by the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, Calif.) in FJs. Set to take place the weekend of April 26-27, the two events will have a collective 36 teams competing (18 at each event) with the top nine finishers from each semifinal championship advancing to the grand finale – the ICSA/Gill Coed National Championship. The new system will also eliminate the two controversial At-Large berths.

“One great thing about the new format was that double the teams made it into the tournament,” said ICSA President Mitch Brindley. “The bracket assignments were made to ensure each semifinal was as equal as possible, and that virtually guarantees that those competing in the coed national championship are the most competitive teams in North America.”

Qualifying for the two remaining events that fall under the ICSA National Championship umbrella: the ICSA Women's National Championship (May 26-28), and the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship (May 30-June 1), will continue to be through conference eliminations with 18 teams competing in the women’s event, and 14 in the team racing event. New York Yacht Club’s Harbour Court will be the headquarters for all three championships, and competitors will utilize the Museum of Yachting’s boat basin at Fort Adams State Park for their boat rotations. Racing will take place south of Rose Island and west of Goat Island which will offer spectators several vantage points from which to view the action. New York Yacht Club will host the championships – all three to be sailed in 420s – along with Brown University (Providence, R.I.) and Salve Regina University (Newport, R.I.).

Posted on: 15 Apr 2008

The ICSA Semi-Finals are right around the corner with the Eastern Semi-Final being held, April 26th and the 27th at Bozzuto Boathouse affiliated with Hobart and William Smith Collegiate Sailing and also the host team. The Eastern Semi-finals will hold eighteen races per A and B divisions sailed on Vanguard Collegiate 420's supplied by HWS College.



photo courtesy: HWS

Eastern Semifinal Participants are as follows:

Boston College
Florida
Hobart and Willliam Smith
St. Mary's (Md)
Stanford
Washington(Md.0
Connecticut College
Florida Atlantic
Michigan
UC-San Diego
Tufts
Washington(Wash.)
Eckerd College
Harvard
Pennsylvania
South Alabama
Vermont
Wisconsin

The Western Semi-Finals will be held at the University of Southern California posing as Host on the same dates as the Eastern's. Boats sailed will be Vanguard Collegiate FJ's in which host team will provide.



Photo courtesy: USC


Western Semifinal Participants are as follows:

Georgetown
NY Maritime
Kings Point
Old Dominion
Minnesota
Notre Dame
Northwestern
Brown
Yale
MIT
Roger Williams
Western Washington
USC (Host)
Hawaii
Charleston
South Florida
Texas A & M
Galveston
Texas

The top nine teams move on to Finals being held at Newport, Rhode Island on June 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

Posted on: 14 Apr 2008

The Bowdoin College sailing team qualified for the New England Dinghy Championships and New England Team Racing Championships in competitions held last weekend.
The Polar Bears will compete in the regattas in the weeks ahead, with the Dinghy Championships will be in Newport, Rhode Island this weekend. Bowdoin sailors Stu MacNeil, Eric Loss, Charlotte Williams, Billy Rohman and Claire Collery earned the bid for the upcoming race and have eyes set on qualifying for National Semifinals later this month.
Bowdoin will then compete at the New England Team Racing Championships at Brown University on May 3-4.

Posted on: 09 Apr 2008

PERPETUAL TROPHY TO RECOGNIZE PAUL HOFFMAN


Donated by Hoffman’s family, the trophy memorializes the man who was not only a prominent member (1958 to 1996) and a Commodore of Larchmont Yacht Club but also a long-time member of the Storm Trysail Club. During a sailing career that spanned more than 40 years, Hoffman was a dominant force in cruising boat racing on Long Island Sound. He twice won the Stamford-Vineyard Race (1957, 1958) and was awarded the DeCoursey Fales Trophy – presented to the cruising boat with the best cumulative performance on the sound – three times.

“Paul Hoffman had a huge presence in the Long Island racing community,” said STC Commodore John Fisher. “As both a promoter of the sport and a great competitor who always had a mix of crew ages on his boats, it is apropos for the STC Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta to present a perpetual award in his honor.”

For the fifth year, the STC Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta will bring together boats and their owners with college sailors to expose the latter to the challenges and teamwork required in big-boat racing. In 2007, 33 teams consisting of 235 college sailors competed, and this year organizers expect to see participation at this popular event reach an all-time high. Racing takes place in five classes (J/44, J/122, J/109, J/105 and Level 72), and the winning percentage of each class winner will be calculated. The boat with the highest percentage will be awarded the Paul Hoffmann Trophy.

Joining Prestige Toyota in supporting the regatta are Vineyard Vines, Rolex Watch U.S.A., Safe Flight, UK-Halsey Sailmakers, J/Boats, Gill and Dax One Touch Winch Handles.

About the Storm Trysail Club - The Storm Trysail Club (STC), reflecting in its name the sail which must be shortened when facing adverse conditions, is one of the world’s most respected sailing clubs, with its membership comprised strictly of skilled blue water and ocean racing sailors. In addition to holding various prestigious offshore racing events (including the Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race, Block Island Race Week presented by Rolex and Block Island Race), STC also hosts the Intercollegiate Offshore Regatta and annual junior safety-at-sea seminars. It also has developed the Storm Trysail Transpac 65 and the Box Rule that will govern its design.

Posted on: 09 Apr 2008

Bill Ward was recently given the National Coach of the Year Award by U.S. Sailing Association's Olympic Sailing Committee. A sailing coach at St. Mary's College of Maryland, (currently ranked #1 in coed and womens sailing) Bill Ward has driven his team to win three 2007 national championships. He also coached the U.S. team to win two gold medals and a bronze at the Pan-American Games in Brazil.

"Last year was an amazingly successful year for the college's sailing teams and for me. It was a long battle with lots of obstacles, but we brought home the national championships in the sloop, team and women's division," says Ward.

The St. Mary's Collegiate Sailing program has an impressive tradition of excellence. Bill Ward has raised our level of competitiveness to help bring three more national titles to the college since he started coaching at St. Mary's.

Posted on: 06 Apr 2008