May 05 2008
Yes, Virginia, Sailing is an Intercollegiate Sport
Yes, that’s right.
Sailing.
It’s an intercollegiate sport at more than 160 colleges and universities. It isn’t an NCAA sport, which probably keeps it off the map somewhat.
Sailing is governed at the collegiate level in the U.S. and parts of Canada by the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA). I love the website description of why the sport isn’t governed by the NCAA:
Early in the 20th century a group of savvy business types got together and founded an organization purely devoted to competitive sailing at the collegiate level (the Inter-Collegiate Yacht Racing Association). In this manner, sailors ensured that they could govern their own sport rather than some ex-basketball coach who couldn’t care less about a bunch of sailors. Most importantly to college sailors, the ICSA hosts the North American championships each year to determine which college is, in fact, #1.
Man, they got that part right! But the organization goes above and beyond just organizing regattas (meets) and tallying scores (and dissing the NCAA). They encourage their member institutions to actively educate the community about sailing, including instruction.
Club sailing began in the 1890’s, and in 1928 the first organized racing began. Most sailing at the competition level takes place in single and double-handed dinghies. Boats are rotated so that each team sails each boat in the fleet once during the competition.
Heck, football teams can’t even share footballs, and sailors share BOATS? Wow!
And talk about an all-inclusive sport. Scrolling down the list of members, you will run across schools large and small. For every Notre Dame, there is a Hope College. Even MIT fields a team. And they all compete together on a level playing field, so to speak. No arguments over who played who, who’s RPI is better. They all compete against each other, may the best team win. The host team provides all the boats, so the sailors just have to show up. Talk about plug and play!
And sailing is a coed sport. Yep, guys and girls compete with each other and against each other.
So what we have here is a sport that the NCAA doesn’t get to dabble in, that is open to everybody, where you get to spend hours out on the water in some of the nation’s most beautiful waterways.
Sign me up!
For more information:
