Kings Point, NY 11/10/10
Starting this year the Cornelius Shields Trophy will take a new direction and 2010 will be the inaugural ICSA Match Race National Championship. Instead of being a fleet race in sloops, the championship will be contested in as a match race; this new format, although new to college sailing, is not a new discipline in sailing. Organized match racing started with the America’s Cup in 1851 and has been growing ever since. Now, throughout the country, there are weekly match race events, regional match race centers, and even women’s match racing in the Olympics. The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) realized interest was growing in this exciting discipline and decided to make a change.
The actual format of the Shields Trophy is the same; teams still need to qualify in their conferences to advance to the National Championship. The new conference match race qualifiers have proved to be very competitive and this change gives a great opportunity to bring head to head competition against schools. Due to the match race format, the regatta will now have a qualifying round, semifinals, and finals to determine the champion. This format replicates that of many other sports, such as the NCAA Basketball National Championship bracket and the FIFA World Cup.
There will be ten teams from the seven different conferences in ICSA and each team has qualified for the event by sailing in their conference championship. The championship is being held at the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy on November 19th -21st, 2010 in a fleet of Sonars. Each team will have a crew of either 4 or 5 sailors and at least one female.
The ICSA Match Racing Championship is made possible by the support of the USMMA Sailing Foundation, the Chicago Match Race Center and the Intercollegiate Sailing Association.
The teams that qualified for the championship are:
- Mid Atlantic (MAISA): St. Mary's College of Maryland, US Merchant Marine Academy - Kings Point
- Mid West (MCSA): University of Wisconsin, University of Minnesota
- New England (NEISA): Boston College, Brown University
- North West (NWICSA): University of Washington
- Pacific Coast (PCCSC): California Maritime Academy
- South Atlantic (SAISA): College of Charleston
- South Eastern (SEISA): Tulane University
Follow the regatta at www.collegematchrace.com and www.collegesailing.org
For more information, please contact Michael Collins, Assistant Intercollegiate Sailing Coach, US Merchant Marine Academy ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
