The Brown women's team finished the 2008 spring season with an impressive second place finish at the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Women's National Championship. Co-hosted by the New York Yacht Club, Brown University, and Salve Regina University from May 26-28 in Newport, RI, the Women's Nationals featured the top 18 teams in college sailing. Conditions were very windy for the first two days, with gusts as high as 25 knots and numerous capsizes. The Brown women were strong in these conditions, remaining in the top three overall standings. With only four races remaining in each division on the last day, the conditions were much lighter with winds in the 4-6 knot range. Brown's A-division had finishes of 5-5-8-9 and B-division had all first place finishes. However, Boston College was very strong in both divisions and held on to win by just two points over Brown in the end. So close, and a great finish for our young women's team who will certainly have a lot of confidence heading into the fall season.

Brown's A-division boat was sailed by Charlotte Lipschitz '10 (Chevy Chase, MD) and crew Meris Tombari '08 (Fishers Island, NY) who finished sixth with 120 points. In B-division, Freshmen Elizabeth Barry '11 (Riverside, CT) and crews Jennifer Adler '11 (Manchester, MA) and Maria Mahler-Haug '09 (Branford, CT) dominated with 68 points in 18 races and a 29 point victory over their nearest competition.

Coed Finishes Fourth at Team Race Nationals

The ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship was held May 30-June 1 in Newport, and like the Women's Nationals, it ended in dramatic fashion for the Brown Bears. The team struggled a bit over the first two days of racing, but managed to qualify for the eight team championship round in the 14 team event. On the last day, Brown had an impressive record of six wins and only one loss to make the final four round. Heading into the last three races of the event, Brown was in second place overall with an 8-6 record. A few tough umpire calls, and some very close finishes kept the Bears out of the top three in the final four round. Brown's overall record was 8-9 and the team finished a respectable fourth place overall.

Brown's three boat team consisted of Charles Enright '08 (Bristol, RI), Malay Khamsyvoravong '09 (Barrington, RI), Andrew Perry '08 (Sarasota, FL), Maria-Mahler-Haug, Hugh Cullman '08 (Rye, NY), Theresa O'Neil '10 (Glendale, CA), Meris Tombari, and Will Turnbull '08 (Sausalito, CA).

Coed Finishes Ninth at Dinghy Nationals, Wins A-Division

The culmination of the college sailing season took place from June 2-4 at the ICSA/Gill Dinghy National Championship in Newport. A new format was used for this event, with the top 18 coed teams qualifying from an Eastern and Western National Semifinal. Brown finished third at the Western Semifinal at the University of Southern California on April 26-27 to qualify for the Nationals. This would prove to be arguably the toughest Nationals in college sailing history, with the top 18 ranked teams in the college sailing rankings on hand.

Conditions were on the lighter side for this event, with only race above 12 knots of wind. Brown's A-division of Andrew Perry and crews Maria Mahler-Haug and Meris Tombari (one race) sailed very conservatively to win their division by six points. Despite struggling to a 13th place overall finish in B-division, Brown was still in the top five overall heading into the last race. A 16th place finish in the last B-division race dropped the Bears to 9th overall. Only 20 points separated fifth through ninth place overall, and mistakes proved very costly in this event. Every team could win races, and only seconds separated the majority of the fleet at finishes.

Six Brown Sailors Earn All-American Team Honors

At the conclusion of the Nationals, the award winners were announced and Brown was honored with six members to the All-American Team for the 2007-2008 season. Andrew Perry was named one of 13 Coed All-American Skippers and Charles Enright was named one of six Honorable-Mention All-American Skippers, earning this honor for the fourth time. Charlotte Lipschitz and Elizabeth Barry were each named Women's Honorable-Mention All-American Skippers, and Maria Mahler-Haug and Meris Tombari were named All-American Crews. Five women made the Honorable-Mention team and 20 sailors were named All-American Crews.

The Women's team received the New England Women's Trophy, awarded to the second place finisher at Women's Nationals. Brown has won this award six times (1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1997, 2008) and has won the Women's Nationals four times (1985, 1988, 1989, 1998).

Freshmen Elizabeth Barry was awarded the Judy Lawson Trophy, given to the winning skipper of B-division at the Women's Nationals. Emma Lichtenstein '03 last won this award for Brown in 2002 in Honolulu, HI.

Andrew Perry received the The Robert Allan, Sr. Trophy as the winning skipper of A-division at the Dinghy Nationals. Charles Ill was the last Brown skipper to win this award back in 1949.

The Brown women's team finished the season as the #2 ranked team in college sailing, and the coed was ranked #5.

Thanks

A huge thanks to everyone who made hosting the 2008 ICSA Spring National Championships possible. It was a huge success and we cannot thank you enough: