 | |
| Abbreviation | ICSA |
|---|---|
| Legal status | Association |
| Headquarters | Norfolk, Virginia, United States |
Region served | United States and Canada |
President | Mitchell Brindley |
| Website | collegesailing |
The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is a volunteer organization that serves as the governing authority for all sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada.
The first college sailing club to be formed in the United States was the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club, established in Branford, Connecticut in 1881, three years before the founding of the Oxford University Yacht Club at the University of Oxford in 1884 followed by the Cambridge University Yacht Club at the University of Cambridge in 1893, the Harvard University Yacht Club in 1894, and Brown University Yacht Club in 1896. [1]
Harvard and Yale held a sailing event in 1911, [2] [3] but this was a long-distance 'cruise' rather than a fleet or team race, and only one Yale yacht attended the event. Organized intercollegiate fleet racing began in 1928 between just a few schools in Eight-Metres for the Oliver Hay Trophy, now known as the McMillan Cup. [4] [5] [6]
The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) [7] was formed June 16, 1930, as the Inter-Collegiate Yacht Racing Association (ICYRA).
The first inter-collegiate dinghy fleet event, the Boston Dinghy Club Challenge Cup, took place with 34 entrants in 1930 in parallel with the founding of the ICYRA. There was also a major sailing event between Princeton and Dartmouth in 1934, but details of its format are not recorded. [4]
The initial emphasis of the ICSA was very much on fleet racing, rather than team racing, but during the 1930s, team racing between individual colleges started to emerge, with 2 to 4 colleges meeting up, each fielding 2 to 5 boats. Collegiate dinghy sailing blossomed in 1934–36 with initiatives taken by Princeton with its 'Tiger' dinghies (1934), [4] MIT (the famous Pavilion was founded and built in 1935 at the instigation of Walter C. "Jack" Wood), [8] and Brown (1936). [1] The first ICSA dinghy fleet regatta took place in the spring of 1937 at the MIT Pavilion and was won by MIT, [9] with Brown, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, Williams, and Yale also competing. [10]
In the fall of 1937, 19 colleges took part in another ICSA dinghy regatta at the MIT Pavilion. [11] The Morss Trophy was also first awarded in 1937, being won by MIT [12] [13]
Following World War II, collegiate sailing spread across the U.S. and parts of Canada, with ICSA membership rapidly growing to modern numbers. George O’Day (Harvard), Harry Anderson (Yale) and Bill Cox Sr. (Princeton) helped develop the ICYRA team race rules in the 1940s, and these were the forerunners of the NAYRU (now US Sailing) and International Yacht Racing Union (later International Sailing Federation) team race rules.
A regional team racing championship, four-a-side format, first took place in 1950 in the New England District for the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy, a separate trophy from the new Fowle Trophy that is awarded to the best overall collegiate team. [14] National team racing for the Walter Cromwell Wood Bowl, four-a-side format, commenced in 1970 between teams formed with sailors within a particular ICSA district or 'conference', and, since 1977, individuals from one college. The University of Rhode Island was the first winner of the current team racing championship in 1977. [15]
In 2011, a group of Canadian University teams formed the Canadian Intercollegiate Sailing Association (CICSA), based on the ICSA's model. CICSA's two most successful teams, Queen's University and McGill University, also compete in the ICSA. [16]
36 schools launch fully funded varsity teams, while the other 163 are club teams. Varsity teams are:
Boston College 
Bowdoin College 
Brown University 
California State University Maritime Academy 
Christopher Newport University 
College of Charleston 
Connecticut College 
Cornell University 
Dartmouth College 
Eckerd College 
Georgetown University 
Hampton University 
Harvard University 
Hobart and William Smith Colleges 
Maine Maritime Academy 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
Massachusetts Maritime Academy 
Old Dominion University 
Roger Williams University 
Rollins College 
Salve Regina University 
St. Mary's College of Maryland 
Stanford University 
State University of New York Maritime College 
Tufts University 
Tulane University 
United States Coast Guard Academy 
United States Merchant Marine Academy 
United States Naval Academy 
University of Hawaii at Manoa 
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth 
University of South Florida 
Washington College 
Webb Institute 
Yale University There are 7 conferences with 200 teams competing in college sailing. The conferences within ICSA schedule and administer regattas within their established regions: [17]
Each conference is supervised by a Graduate Secretary and an executive committee, which comprises both graduate and undergraduate students. Both the Graduate Secretary and the executive committee are elected by representatives from each school in the conference. Each conference conducts local and intersectional regattas and holds district championships in both the fall and the spring.
The conference or district championships allow schools to qualify for the Intercollegiate Sailing Association National Championships.
The ICSA College Sailing Hall of Fame [18] was established in 1969. The Hall of Fame is located in the Robert Crown Sailing Center [19] at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
There are several awards that are bestowed upon collegiate sailors at the end of every full racing season:
ICSA seeks to promote the sport of sailing throughout North America and encourage participation in the sport among young people. Although both varsity and club teams compete fiercely to qualify for district championships and nationals, the overall goal is to promote sailing and have fun on the water. Thus, most college sailing programs do not require previous sailing experience and encourage widespread participation among students. However, most schools also value students who have high school sailing experience.
As education and training have been two cornerstones of the ICSA since its inception most college sailing programs offer general instruction to the student body, and in some cases the general public. Often college sailing programs serve to introduce many people to the sport of sailing.
Many college sailors have gone on to race in the America's Cup as well as in the Olympics.
Vanguard Sailboats was an official partner of ICSA for many years and the boatbuilder annually sponsored the ICSA National Championships. More recently, LaserPerformance was the official sponsor.
Team racing, also known as team sailing, is a popular form of dinghy racing and yacht racing. Two teams compete in a race, each sailing two to four boats of the same class. The winning team is decided by combining the results of each team's boats. This differs from an inter-club fleet race where boats from three or more clubs compete, with the results of each club's boats combined to determine its overall position.
Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other water-borne craft for as long as such watercraft have existed.
The New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) is one of the seven conferences affiliated with the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) that schedule and administer regattas within their established geographic regions.
The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) holds National Championships in seven different categories:
Buccaneer Yacht Club is a member-run sailing club which has operated out of Mobile Bay, Alabama since 1928. It is a member club of the Gulf Yachting Association and the United States Sailing Association. Its members are active competitors in Finn, Viper 640, 420, Fish class sloop, Flying Scot, Laser, Optimist, Sunfish, PHRF and Portsmouth class events. While the Mobile Yacht Club predates it, BucYC remains arguably the oldest continuously operating sailing club in Alabama.
The University of Texas Sailing Team is a nationally competitive club sports team of the University of Texas at Austin. Their goal is to expand the love and knowledge of competitive sailing throughout the university community and their conference at large.
The Tufts Jumbos are the varsity intercollegiate athletic programs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The Jumbos compete at NCAA Division III level as member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). Like all Division III schools, Tufts does not offer athletic scholarships. Coed and women's sailing are the only Division I sports at the school.
The United States Coast Guard Academy's intercollegiate sports teams are called the Bears. They compete in NCAA Division III as members of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference. Through the 2016 season, the Bears played football in the New England Football Conference, but after that season moved their football program into the NEWMAC, which started sponsoring the sport in 2017.
The St. Mary's Seahawks are the intercollegiate athletic teams of St. Mary's College of Maryland, located in St. Mary's City, Maryland, that they are members in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the United East Conference for most of their sports since the 2021–22 academic year.; except for rowing, which they compete in the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference (MARC); and for sailing, which they compete in the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA) within the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA).
The United States Merchant Marine Academy's intercollegiate sports teams are called the Mariners and they compete in the Division III of the NCAA, generally as once a charter member of the Landmark Conference. In 2016, they returned to the Skyline Conference in all sports. Men's sports include baseball, football, basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, wrestling and track and field. Women's sports include basketball, cross country, lacrosse, swimming and diving, track and field, and volleyball.
ICSA College Sailor of the Year, also known as Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year because of the sponsorship by Marlow Ropes, is an award annually presented, since 1968, by the United States Naval Academy and the executive committee of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) to the “Best Intercollegiate Sailor” within ICSA competition, who receives the Everett Morris Memorial Trophy. The trophy is awarded annually for outstanding performance at the highest level of sailing in the collegiate year. The trophy is named in memory of a distinguished journalist who spent more than 30 years as a yachting writer and editor.
The Leonard M. Fowle Trophy is a sailing trophy awarded annually by the Intercollegiate Sailing Association to the best overall collegiate team.
ICSA Coed Dinghy National Championship is the oldest and most prestigious of the American Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association National Championships.
The Charleston sailing team is generally considered one of the top programs in the nation, as the team is consistently ranked among Sailing World Magazine's top-20 collegiate teams year in and year out, and has received the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy to the best overall collegiate team in 1986, 1988, 1998, 2007, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2021.
The Tufts University Sailing Team represents Tufts University in the intercollegiate sport of sailing. They are members of the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA), the governing body for collegiate sailing, and compete at the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA).
The St. Mary's Seahawks Sailing Team represents St. Mary's College of Maryland in the intercollegiate sport of sailing. They are members of the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA), the governing body for collegiate sailing, and compete at the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA). The St. Mary's Seahawks are a powerhouse in college sailing.
The Yale Bulldogs sailing team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The team is a member of the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association, which is part of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association.
The Harvard University sailing team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The team is a member of the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association, which is part of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association.
The Brown University sailing team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. The team is a member of the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association, which is part of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association.
The South Florida Bulls sailing team represents the University of South Florida in the sport of sailing. The team competes in the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association within the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association. The Bulls are coached by Allison Jolly, a member of the National Sailing Hall of Fame and gold medalist in the first Olympic women's sailing event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. She has coached the team since 2004. The team's home venue is within Tampa Bay, at the Donald A. Haney Landing Sailing Center on the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus. It is the university's only varsity sport based on the St. Petersburg campus.