After having to take the show on the road in years past, Bay college sailors were fortunate enough to have three high caliber spring college sailing national championships hosted on their own local waters. The U.S. Naval Academy played host to 14 teams for the Sperry Top-Sider Women’s Championship, while St. Mary’s College of Maryland brought in the national qualifiers for the APS Team Race Championships and the Gill Coed Championships. First up were the Women’s National Championships in Annapolis May 29-30, where 28 teams were in the hunt for the Gerald C. Miller trophy. An overnight cold front hit the fleet first thing Thursday morning, putting temps in the 50s with steady rain and overnight skies. But despite the weather, PRO Gary Bodie and his race committee got ten races off in five to 10 knots of northeast breeze. The women competed in FJs and Z420s on four-legged windward-leeward courses.
Photo by Brian Schneider[/caption] On Friday morning, teams woke to an entirely different set of conditions with wind delays until a light northerly settled on the river. Again, four-legged windward-leeward courses were set up off Triton Point, and eight races were completed with Dartmouth and Yale fighting for the win. In the end, it was Dartmouth who came out on top with 185 points. Yale was close behind with 190, and the Naval Academy captured the final podium spot with 275. Dartmouth won the championships for the second year in a row, with A-division sailors Deidre Lambert and Avery Plough and B-division sailors Kelsey Wheeler and Lizzie Guynn. “It is bittersweet for us,” said Bill Healy, assistant coach for Yale. But bouncing back immediately, the Yale team sure handled the loss well. Moving right on to the APS Team Race Championships hosted by St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Yale managed to move into the top eight round undefeated. Once they had their 20th win in the event, they had mathematically won the regatta even before the final four had begun. Race organizers admitted that it may be the first time a team has clinched a national win so early on in the regatta. But that doesn’t mean that the competition was over. St. Mary’s and Stanford both put on their game faces for the final four round, with temps hovering around 75 degrees and winds steadily out of the south at seven to 11 knots. Both teams managed to win their first races in the round, with Stanford handing Yale its second loss of the regatta. During a final deciding race, Stanford was ahead almost the entire way around the course, but Yale was continually chipping away at them up the last beat and managed to cross the line with a winning 2-3-4 combination. St. Mary’s was undefeated in the final four, securing second place for the third year in a row. “Bill (Healy) did a great job getting fired up and wanted to do their absolute best in the final four,” explained Adam Werblow, head coach for St. Mary’s. “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.” Rolling right into the Gill Coed Dinghy National Championships June 5-6, sailors weren’t given any sort of break with conditions bumping it up a notch with winds clocking in at 10-12 knots from the west-northwest and putting whitecaps on the St. Mary’s River. Yale was in a groove that refused to be stopped, as evidenced by the 48-point gap between them and Tufts University, the second place team, after the first day of racing. [caption id="attachment_11565" align="alignleft" width="346"]
Photo by Brian Schneider[/caption] After getting a good night’s sleep (by college student standards), racing was underway at 9:15 a.m. with winds out of the northwest at five to eight knots. A slight wind postponement threw a snag in the event, but after an hour, racing resumed with winds in the eight- to 12-knot range. Swapping boats after the previous day, A-division raced in 420s and completed six windward-leeward races, while B-division sailed FJs and got in five races. At the end of the regatta, Yale was an impressive 88 points ahead of the second place team overall, and the Elis took home the Henry A. Morss trophy for the second time. “Everyone is so excited and can’t wait to get home and share the good news with friends,” said Healy. After such a whirlwind week, we think they deserve a good rest.
