Wednesday, April 18, 2012

2012 New England Dinghy Championship

By Kelly Stannard

The 2012 New England Dinghy Championship was sailed on the Charles River in Cambridge Mass., hosted by Harvard University. NEISA teams battled the fickle breeze all having the same end goal, qualifying for the Semifinal Round of the ICSA Dinghy National Championship. Only the top eight moved on, with the home team, Harvard taking the win. Racing was extremely tight and came down to the last race to determine who would qualify, Roger Williams, Yale, Dartmouth, Boston College, Boston University, Tufts and Brown have successfully made it to Semi's.


One of the most anticipated events in NEISA is the New England Dingy Championships with an abundance of excellent teams and only eight berths to Semifinals. As usual it made for intense competition and extremely tight racing. A division sailed in Harvard's fleet of 18 FJ's and B division sailed MIT's FJ's, divisions did not switch throughout the weekend.

A full 18 races were sailed in both A and B division, all were W-4 courses on the Charles River. Competitors were not disappointed by the river or the westerly breeze. In any given race, dramatic increases and decrease in velocity and some wild shifts were to be expected. It came down to the wire and was a full on fight for the eight spot to Semifinals on Sunday. Brown and MIT were neck and neck until the very end. After race 16 Brown had a total score of 236 and MIT had 249. MIT knew the last two races were what would determine if they had a berth to Semi's. After race 17 the the Brown Bears had a total score of 260, MIT closed the gap and pulled ahead with a score of 259. In race 18 Brown's A division sailed by Colin Smith and Louisa Chafee won their race and B division, sailed by Tyler Rice and Ashley Noble, finished 13th. Meanwhile MIT A squad, Andrew Sommer and Stephanie Tong, posted a 3rd place. After redress was granted an average score of 12 was given to MIT B divsions sailors, Eamon Glackin and Kelden Pehr. This meant that the final scores were tied at 274 a piece. Brown won the tie breaker which making them the final team to qualify for Semifinals from NEISA.

Final Scores of the top eight teams to qualify:
Harvard 231
RWU 240
Yale 250
Dartmouth 258
Boston College 261
Boston University 267
Tufts 272
Brown 274

Congratulations to the teams to qualify and to the winning team, Harvard. Sailing for the Crimson were, Brendan Kopp, Sarah Pierson, Emily Lambert, and Brian Drumm.

2012 New England Champs, Harvard Crimson.
Full results can be seen on Techscore.

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