For those who missed it, we held the first GUST Career Day this past Sunday, January 31st.  The turnout for the event was fantastic; we had around 40 sailors and 30 alums present - with only a few minor casualties from the previous night!

We survived the qualification series and are moving on to Gold fleet racing on the Laser course. Charlie skipped the offset mark and had to retire from race 1, but recovered well enough to get in to the top group for the final two days of racing. 

Sydney is learning heaps in the Women's 470 group, sitting 16th out of the 26 boat fleet. 

http://rmocr.ussailing.org/Results.htm

Although this thing may drag on in court forever, the America's Cup is now only two weeks away from being sailed on the waters of Valencia.  On February 8th, the Alinghi and BMWOracle monsters will be unleashed in match race for all the marbles. 

BMW Oracle has upped their wing sail to 210', which has allowed coach Joey Allen to up the hyperbole correspondingly.

Although BMW Oracle has been out training in conditions into the low 20 knot range, both boats have been grounded by strong winds the past few days.  For their part, Defender Alinghi (who have not dared venture out in anything approaching strong breeze) cites safety and their NOR, which limits competition to a weather window of 15 knots measured at 60 meters--ensuring a light air cup.  Despite such cheese-eating cowardice, they've got a sweet looking machine with some staggering numbers of its own, including an 1,100 square meter gennaker(!).  Watching it on the water, Alinghi's clearly a powerful boat--this video shows Russell Coutts and the BMW Oracle guys struggling to keep up in a RIB.

However you look at the teams, these are cool boats.

For those GUST sailors and alums deskbound during the day, you'll be happy to know that the match will be broadcast live online at www.americascup.com.  I can't wait!

With a 14th in the final race, Andrew Campbell '06 finished up 11th at the Star Worlds in Rio de Janeiro.  Andrew and crew Brad Nichol were the top Americans and were just one point off the top 10.  Head over to www.campbellsailing.com to get Andrew's thoughts from the event, and make sure to catch the Star shredding the Rio waterfront on YouTube.

Final results are at the Star Worlds site.

Hopefully you have been following the action in the 2010 Star World Championship.  Many of the the best sailors in the world are battling it out in Rio for the coveted title.  I believe there are 2 races left and Andrew is currently top American and beating the legendary Robert Sheidt (among others).

The regatta website is http://www.starworlds2010.com/ 

Check out this youtube video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TtcZjAuF4A

It looks similar to log canoe racing so many of you would already have a leg up on the competition.  Anyone down to form a team?  I know....I'm only kidding, but it looks like it would be pretty fun.

Congratulations on the Rose Bowl victory!  Way to represent on the west (best) coast.

 The Georgetown University Sailing started off 2010 with a victory at the Rose Bowl Regatta held at the US Sailing Center in Long Beach, CA. 

Sailing in beautiful Long Beach, CA on Alamitos Bay the Hoyas bested a field of 26 teams to win their first ever Rose Bowl Regatta.  The Hoyas team consisted of skippers Charlie Buckingham and Chris Barnard and crews Ashley Phillips and Sydney Bolger.  Charlie and Chris were teammates in High School at Newport Harbor High and Sydney is from Long Beach so the Hoyas were very familiar with the conditions and sailing in Long Beach.   The Rose Bowl regatta, now in its 24^th year is one of the biggest West Coast sailing events of the year.  26 College Teams and 54 High School teams raced in the event this year.  The High School Regatta features some of the best High School teams in the Nation and provides coaches with a great opportunity to scout new talent. 

While the temperatures on the West Coast were in the mid 70’s the wind was very light and the race committee was only able to get 5 races off per division.    The Hoyas saw some close competition from a young College of Charleston team and held a slim point lead going into the final day of racing.   In the first (and ultimately only) A race of Sunday Buckingham and Phillips finished 2^nd while CofC grabbed 1^st putting the teams in a tie heading into B division.  Freshman skipper Barnard and All-American sophomore Bolger (crewing for the 1^st time) had the pressuere on going into the last race but sailed exceptionally well and won while CofC finished 7^th giving the Hoyas the win.  Buckingham and Phillips ended up 1^st in A division while Barnard and Bolger finished 2^nd in B one point out of 1^st. 

The Hoyas won’t compete again until mid February. 

Final Results

A div. 1^st w/ 18 points Charlie Buckingham / Ashley Phillips

B div. 2^nd w/ 17 points Chris Barnard / Sydney Bolger

Top 3 of 26

1.     Georgetown                          35 points

2.     College of Charleston         42 points

 3.    Stanford                                 56 points

 Hoyas finish 5^th at both the coed and women’s Atlantic Coast Championships

Coed Atlantic Coast Championship @ Harvard

A div. 3^rd Charlie Buckingham / Alex Taylor

B div. 6^th Evan Aras / Caila Johnson

Overall (top 10 of 18)

1.      Boston College

2.      Brown

3.      St. Mary’s

4.      Yale

5.      Georgetown

6.      Charleston

7.      Vermont

8.      Harvard

9.      Roger Williams

10.  Tufts

The 2009 Coed Atlantic Coast Championships is the traditional end of the fall season and pits the top teams from New England, Mid Atlantic and South Atlantic against each other.  This years regatta was hosted by Harvard and held on the Charles River in Boston, MA.  The Charles River is one of the most challenging venues to sail at in college due to the unpredictability of the wind as it whips through the skyscrapers in downtown Boston.  The Hoyas generally try to steer clear of the Charles even though it is where the team won its 1^st National Championship in 2001.  The first day of competition at the ACC’s saw some pretty dismal conditions.  Steady rain and light NE winds greeted the sailors as they headed out on the water.  10 races in each division were completed by sundown and the Hoyas stood in 5^th place but within striking distance of 1^st.  Sunday Mother Nature didn’t cooperate and there was absolutely no wind at all.  The sailors waited patiently until he regatta was called off at 2PM.  For the Hoyas a 5^th place finish is impressive considering the conditions and the fact that it was the first time any of the starters had sailed on the Charles.  Both divisions performed well and we are confident that we can beat any of the teams that finished in front of us. 

 The team would like to thank all the parents and the alums who came out to support the team in Boston.  The Taylor Family, Peter Johns, Hope Woodhouse, Zack Kavanaugh, Dan Esdorn, Chris and Maureen Abularrage and Andy Schneider.  Thanks for your continued support!

Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship @ Brown

A div. 1^st Sydney Bolger / Rebecca Evans

B div. 12^th Lauren Burke / Brooks Walker, Ashley Phillips

Overall (top 10 0f 18)

1.      Boston College

2.      Charleston

3.      Yale

4.      Eckerd

5.      Georgetown

6.      Old Dominion

7.      Brown

8.      Hobart / William Smith

9.      Tufts

10.  South Florida

The Georgetown University Women’s team went into the Atlantic Coast Championship having just finished a disappointing 4^th place at their Conference Championship the weekend before.  The Lady Hoyas were determined to do better and were the defending Champions of the Women’s ACC’s having won the regatta in 2008.  The regatta was much like the Coed ACC’s light wind and rain on Saturday and almost no wind on Sunday.  The A division duo of sophomores Sydney Bolger and Rebecca Evans came out of the gates on fire and won the first two races.  They sailed an almost flawless event to end up 1^st in A.  The Hoyas struggled a bit in B division but got a 1^st and a 2^nd in the two of the last four races to help moves the Hoyas to fifth overall and only 20 points out of 1^st.  There were two more A division races sailed on Sunday that brought the team to within 5 points of 1^st but the wind died completely before the B races could be sailed and therefore the last two A races didn’t count.  All in all it was a tremendous performance for the Hoyas and gives the team the confidence boost it needed to head into the spring season.

 The team would like to thank the parents and alums who helped out this weekend.  The Burke family for housing the team and the Burke and Evans family for coming down to Providence to root for the Hoyas.  And the team would like to give a big thank you to Emily Babbitt for coaching the team all weekend.  Thank Emily!

The fall 2009 season is now complete and both teams end the season ranked #5 in the Nation.  

For those of you not following court room drama that is this edition of the America's Cup, it might be time to start paying attention.  A couple of big events happened today. 

First, The squabbling over the venue of the AC ended, with the Swiss Defender Alinghi issuing a notice of race confirming that Valencia, Spain will once again be the venue for the best-of-three match, which will begin February 1st.  After months languishing in court, which saw Alinghi's first choice of Ras Al Kaimah, UAE thrown out as against the rules, the venue question is finally over.  Next step: sailing (fingers crossed)!

Second, and probably more exciting, is that the Challenger, US syndicate BMW-Oracle, is raising the biggest hard wing ever created (approx. twice the length of a 747 wing) to become the new mast/sail for their 90' x 90' trimaran, USA, that will sail the match.  Just last week, the BMWO gang suffered what seemed to be a giant setback when their 200' foot conventional mast snapped while the crew was practicing off of San Diego.  Days later, though, they are stepping their 190' monster wing and look set to get the training program back into high gear.

Much of the sailing media have been covering the mast-raising, which has been going on all morning out in San Diego.  Proving that they can be useful from time to time, Sailing Anarchy has an extremely active forum with many updates on progress, borrowing heavily from the San Diego Union Tribune's web cam, which has a bird's eye view of the BMWO base.  Providing some stunning high-res pictures of the entire process is SailKarma.com.  Finally, BMW Oracle themselves have been very open throughout the process, with great updates and the best pictures of the bunch on their BMW Oracle Racing Blog.

The next several days promise to be pretty exciting as this monster goes out for its first sails.  I can't decide whether it'll make the boat go like gangbusters or whether it'll snap as soon as it gets a breath of air.  Either way, the BMWO camp looks to be the place to follow in sailing the next few days.