USF Women's Team Race

Seven teams enjoyed sunny skies post frontal passage on Saturday. Racing began in Bayboro Harbor, but winds were too shifty, both in velocity and direction, for good courses. Winds varied from 2 knots to 10 knots, and from WNW to NNE, every few minutes. A lunch break was called while the course was moved out to Tampa Bay.

The second half of the day was very different, with winds building to the 10-15 knot range and settling in consistently from the NW. Two full round robins were completed, 42 races. With only limited umpiring, 4 protests were filed - they will be heard on Sunday.

Sunday's races were conducted in completely different conditions. Winds were light, 4 to 6 knots, but directionally stable in each race, very slowly progressing from ENE to E to ESE throughout the day. Round 3 was completed by 1:30pm, but after 63 races, 18 for each team, the consensus was that no final four was needed. As the sailors finished putting the boats away a lovely seabreeze filled in, as predicted.

Many thanks to ICSA rep Caroline Young from MIT and for the assistance from the coaches with umpiring duties.

In the end, College of Charleston dominated the field with a 16-2 record, followed by MIT with a 13-5 record. In some close racing, ODU and USF tied with 11-7 records, with ODU winning the tiebreaker. Special thanks to the JU, Hawaii, and Northwestern teams for rounding out the field in that order and making the regatta a success.