In winning the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association/Gill National Championship for the first time, the Boston College Eagles became the sixth team to win all three spring collegiate sailing championships (the ICSA Women’s Nationals, ICSA/APS Team Race Nationals and the ICSA/Gill National Championship), along with Navy, Old Dominion, Tufts, St. Mary’s and Harvard. Light air prevailed for the National Championship, which was held May 25 to June 3 on Lake Mendota in Madison, WI. “The conditions made it a tiny bit anticlimactic, but it feels good,” said BC Head Coach Greg Wilkinson.
BC’s final score of 127 points reflects 88 points from A-Division plus 39 from B-Division. No doubt the wait onshore was painful for the teams in second through fifth place coming into the final day. With only a 16-point spread between first and fifth place, had even one race been sailed the outcome could have been vastly different. “All were very close and everyone wanted to sail,” said Mitch Brindley, President of ICSA. “In one race they could have made some significant steps, and that was very frustrating.”
Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) took second place with a final score of 132 points. Tied on 142 points, Brown University (Providence, RI) and St. Mary’s College (St. Mary’s, MD), the defending champion, finished third and fourth overall. Georgetown University (Washington, DC), winners of A-Division, was fifth with 143. Full results are posted at 2010nationals.collegesailing.org.
