April 28, 2004

Redwood City - With four of eleven teams ranked in the top 20 of Sailing World's college sailing rankings, this weekend's battle for berths to the Intercollegiate National Sailing Championships will be fierce. Stanford is hosting the Pacific Coast Championships for both Team Racing and Fleet Racing this weekend.

Last weekend, the Cardinal Women upset USC to earn the second berth to Women's NA's. U Hawaii took first. Competition between the three school's coed teams promises to be heated this weekend.

The Team Race PCC's will be held in Redwood City Basin, withing viewing distance from the Stanford Boathouse. Team racing features fast, action packed races where three boats from one team use boathandling, rules and strategy to finish ahead of three boats from another team. Color-coded sails distinguish one team from the other. In previous eliminations, 6 teams qualified to compete in this year's event: Stanford, Cal, USC, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, U Hawaii. Two of these teams will earn berths to the ICSA North Americans, to be held May 30-June 1 at Cascade Locks Oregon.

Dinghy Fleet Race PCC's will be held Saturday and Sunday in South San Francisco Bay. Competitors will launch from the Stanford Boathouse. Spectators will be ferried out on Spectator boats. The event consists of two boats from each school competing in a double round robin of races. Scores from the A & B Divisions are added together to determine the low-point winner. After the two days of racing, the top two teams will earn berths to the ICSA Dinghy North Americans June 2-4 at Cascade Locks, Oregon. Competing teams: 10th ranked Stanford, 4th ranked USC, 13th ranked U Hawaii, 11th ranked UC Irvine, Cal, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly, CSU Monterey Bay, UC San Diego, Orange Coast College.

For more information call the Sailing Office at 650-725-0745.