LaserPerformance Team Race National Championships

Today was the first day of racing for the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship on Narragansett Bay co-hosted by Brown University, Salve Regina University and New York Yacht Club. Sixteen collegiate teams from across the nation qualified to compete in this event for the national title and the Walter C. Wood Trophy, awarded to the winning team.

After a competitor’s briefing, boats slowly hit the water around 9:50 a.m., but the winds were too light, so the race committee went into a postponement. The postponement lasted for about three hours and racing finally got underway around 12:30 p.m. The temperature was in the low 70s under partly sunny skies and winds were from the southeast ranging from around 5-8 knots.

The format for this event is a series of round robins. In the first round all sixteen teams race each other once. This round determines places 9-14. The top eight teams then advance to a single round robin, which determines places 5-8. The top four remaining teams advance to a “final four” another single round to determine places 1-4.

Due to a slow start today and light winds; it was a long tough day for the competitors. But the race officials and umpires kept the races rolling. This is the first year that the umpires are using only green and red flags, there are no yellow flags being flown.

The competitors made it through a total of 84 races today and there are 36 more total races to go in this first round. The competitors sailed on a digital N course, which has a windward mark, a windward offset mark rounded to starboard and then down to a leeward mark with another leeward offset rounded to port and finish upwind. The N course allows for long upwind and downwind legs

Racing continued today in the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship on Narragansett Bay, co-hosted by Brown University, Salve Regina University and New York Yacht Club. The top sixteen collegiate team racing teams in the nation are vying for the national title and the Walter C. Wood Trophy.

The sailors were greeted by fog this morning and light winds. The fog came in and out all day making for interesting conditions with wind pressure up and down. The winds started around 8-12 knots and when the sea breeze came in this afternoon it picked up to 12-15 knots with higher gusts. Temperatures stayed in the low 70s.

Today was the third and final day of the LaserPerformance Team Race National Championship on Narragansett Bay. This event is the second of three collegiate sailing national championships co-hosted by Brown University, Salve Regina University and New York Yacht Club this spring. After three days of racing Yale University is the national champion and winner of the Walter C. Wood Trophy for the third year in a row.

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 for the top eight and in Z420s for the final four round. The remaining 13 races were completed in the top eight round today. The conditions were cloudy with lingering rain and thunderstorms in the area. Winds started around 10-12 knots and by the end of the day a southwesterly sea breeze brought steady 15 knots with gusts around 20 knots.

The race officials kept the races going and by 1 p.m. the competitors were into the final four racing. A total of 154 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 three losses, Boston College with two, Stanford University with four and College of Charleston with two. Then again in the final four everyone took a hit, but Yale came out on top.

This is Yale University’s third team race national championship title and Walter C. Wood Trophy win, having just won the event the last two consecutive years.

The winning team members are: Ian Barrows ’17, Graham Landy '15, Malcolm Lamphere '18, Clara Robertson '17, Natalya Doris '17, Christopher Champa '18, Katherine Gaumond '15, Charlotte Belling '16 and Meredith Megarry '17.

A huge thanks to our incredible list of umpires and to Peter Johns and Steven Wolff for being co-chief umpires and putting this incredible team together: Bryan MacDonald, Katie Maxim, John Pratt, Don Becker, Tom Duggan, Pat Healy, Christine Accettella, Jeff Borland, Dilllon Paiva, Sandy Grosvenor, Rick Sullivan, Rob Overton, Colin Smith, John Moulthrop, and Geoff Pedrick. A huge thanks as well to everyone who helped run great races on the water, 154 of them: Ned Jones (PRO), Pete Levesque, Chip Johns, George Hinman, Robin Wallace, John Ingalls, Michael Komar, the Brown University and Salve Regina Sailing Teams, and Danielle Richards for the being the ICSA Representative. Special thanks as well to Rob Migliaccio for his incredible photography, and to all of our coach boats (Pearson Potts, Bill Canfield, and Nick Bailey). Thanks so much to Laser Performance and Dan Eagan and his team for the awesome on the water live action. We cannot thank Brad Dellenbaugh, Beth Duggan, Dani Burton, and event co-chair Susan Daly from the New York Yacht Club enough for their tremendous efforts in helping organize all of the events along with Kim Hapgood and Brad Read from Sail Newport. Thanks so much for opening your doors to college sailing and helping make the 2015 College Sailing Spring Nationals such a tremendous success!