MARBLEHEAD, MASS. (October 24, 2019) – The Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Match Race National Championship for the Cornelius Shields, Sr. Trophy, is set to begin on Friday, November 1st and will last through Sunday, November 3rd at Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead, Mass. The event is hosted by Corinthian Yacht Club with support from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Racing will take place in Sonars in and around Marblehead Harbor.
The top ten teams from across the nation have qualified from their conference to compete in this championship. The Sonars will have four crew members, one of which must be female. The ten schools competing are: University of Washington, Stanford University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Tulane University, Eckerd College, Jacksonville University, Georgetown University, Fordham University, Tufts University and Bowdoin College.
Match racing pits just one boat against another boat. The regatta will be a round robin format with five stages: Stage One each team will sail each other once to determine a Gold fleet and a Repechage fleet. The top six teams will be in the Gold fleet and the bottom four will be in the Repechage fleet.
In Stage Two the Gold fleet will race each other once to determine seeds first through sixth. The Repechage will race each other once to determine seeds seventh through tenth. In Stage Three seventh and eighth from the Repechage will join first through sixth from the Gold round to compete in the Quarter Finals where first and eighth will race each other, second and seventh will face-off and so on.
Stage Four will be the semi-finals between the top four teams and then Stage Five is the petit finals and finals between the top teams from the semi-finals. The winning team will be awarded the Cornelius Shields Sr. Trophy, given in honor of Mr. Shields of Larchmont, New York, who was one of the most well known sailors of his time.
Racing is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. each day with no race starting after 3 p.m. on Sunday. The final prize giving ceremony is scheduled after racing, Sunday, November 3.
Saturday night will feature a special free program open to the public from Tucker Thompson, an award-winning TV commentator, producer, public speaker and the official host of the 35th America’s Cup, who will provide a live, multimedia show about the America's Cup including never before seen footage of American Magic foiling.
To learn more about the teams competing in all of the events and to follow the racing and results visit the ICSA event website and the Match Racing Results Service website for live scoring.
Additional social media updates and regatta information will be available throughout the events on the Corinthain YC website and social media channels.
Bruce Durkee will be providing photos for these events and can be found on the Corinthian YC website.
Media Contact: Jennifer Mitchell |Toile à Voile for ICSA | media@collegesailing.org | 970-216-7072 m.