May 30, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - The No. 3 Bulldog coed sailing team had a strong first day of competition at the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championships which began today in San Francisco. The Bulldogs, who advanced from their group of seven into the Gold Championship Eight round of competition by virtue of today's performance, will continue to race on Saturday.

The conditions were challenging throughout the day at the event, which is co-hosted by UC-Berkley and California Maritime at Treasure Island Sailing Center in San Francisco Bay. The regatta, hosted in FJs with color coded sails, featured moderate wind in the morning which built as the day went on, leading the Bulldogs to make a number of crew substitutions to deal with the heavier wind. Unlike the open water conditions with waves in the middle of San Francisco Bay that the Bulldogs will face next week at the ICSA/Gill Dinghy National Championships, the team racing featured fairly flat water.

The Bulldogs started competition off in Group One, which had six schools besides the Bulldogs competing. The team went 3-3 in the Group One competition, good enough to make it to the Championship Gold Round of Eight. Today, the team picked up wins over Michigan, Tulane and UC-Irvine. In the Gold Championship Eight round, the Bulldogs will face No. 1 Georgetown, No. 2 Boston College, No. 4 St. Mary's College of Maryland, No. 5 Charleston, No. 9 Harvard, No. 13 SUNY Maritime and No. 14 Stanford. Competition will start at 9:00 a.m. The top four teams will make the Final Four.

Live coverage of the event through streaming video will be available here. As well, follow the coverage live on the event blog, which is available here. Complete results will be available here.

Report filed by Caleb Dorfman '09, Yale Sports Publicity