The first day of Finals racing in the Gill College Sailing Coed National Championship began today hosted by Brown University with support from Dartmouth College and NEISA. The top eighteen college teams advanced from the previous two days of Semifinals racing to make it to this event and compete for the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy.
Winds were light this morning, so the sailors were delayed a little over an hour before the first race got underway. When the wind increased from the south the conditions for the day were light to moderate averaging about 6-8 knots with a few higher puffs – there were only a few moments of hiking conditions.
It was the final day of Semifinals racing in the Gill College Sailing Coed National Championships, hosted by Brown University with support from Dartmouth College and NEISA. The competition has been narrowed down to the top 18 teams, who will advance to racing in the finals tomorrow morning out of host site Sail Newport Sailing Center at Fort Adams.
Today was the lightest breeze day overall in the national championship series. The winds started strong in the morning up to about 12 knots from the north, but lightened up in the day. The winds were oscillating and right when it was getting to be too light at the end of the day, pressure built up again for the last races.
Hobart and William Smith Colleges held onto their lead from yesterday throughout the day today. Their A-division team placed in the top three in every race today and B-division stayed in the top ten, giving them a solid lead in front of second place team Yale University. Yale moved up from third place yesterday and Boston College finished the day in third place overall, moving up from fourth place yesterday.
