Final test of the year

US College sailors face ICSA Nationals next week

With their textbooks shelved and already collecting dust, the final test of the year for college sailors – the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) National Championships sponsored by Pentax Imaging Company and Vanguard Sailboats – is set to get underway next week when competitors from 24 schools race for three titles: the ICSA Women's National Championship (23-25 May), the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship (27-29 May), and the ICSA/Gill Coed National Championship (30 May-1 June).

Each school qualified for the national championships through conference eliminations, with only nine schools qualifying to compete in all three events: College of Charleston, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Hobart/William Smith Colleges, St. Mary’s College, U.S. Naval Academy, University of South Florida, University of Washington, and the University of Wisconsin.

Pentax Imaging Company joins Vanguard Sailboats – a longtime ICSA supporter – in sponsoring the 2007 ICSA National Championships. To document all the action – ashore and on-the-water – each school competing at the ICSA/Gill Coed National Championship will be provided a Pentax Optio W30 digital camera which is waterproof in depths up to 10 feet. Parents and friends who can’t be there in person will want to regularly check out the images captured by the teams and uploaded to the ICSA website (www.collegesailing.com) from which a “Pentax Photo of the Day” will be chosen.

For the third consecutive year, noted sailing commentator Gary Jobson (Annapolis, Md.) will produce a one-hour program on the championships for ESPNU, which is set to air July 20, 2007.

Conference eliminations qualified 18 colleges to compete in the women's championships; 14 for the team racing championship; and 16 qualified for the dinghy championship, with an additional two teams selected at-large.