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National sailing The start of the 2002 Intercollegiate Sailing Championships is a mixed plate of emotions for Hawaii coach Andy Johnson.
event on course
for Hawaii
The UH women's team defends
its title at Keehi Lagoon,
starting tomorrowBy Grace Wen
gwen@starbulletin.comHosting the championships is a credit to Johnson, who proposed many of the elements seen in the Keehi Lagoon sailing facility adjacent to the Honolulu Community College Marine Education and Training Center.
But Johnson didn't quite realize the work involved in hosting the championship. Twenty-eight schools from around the nation will converge on Keehi Lagoon to vie for three championships.
The nine-day event begins tomorrow with the women's championship that runs through Friday. The team race championship follows on June 2-4, with the June 5-7 coed dinghy championship concluding the competition. Each regatta is a marathon event, with as many as 18 races a day.
"I'm looking forward to getting them over with," Johnson joked. "It's been so much work. It's funny because two weeks ago, everybody was coming into my office when they finished their finals, going 'whoo-hoo!' It was a big relief and everything. That's the way I'm going to be on June 7th.
"But it's going to be really exciting to have all these guys. There are already teams flying in and trying to get adjusted to the time and the weather. The funny thing is none of them are going to be able to practice. The rules say you can't. Once you qualify for the national championships, you can't sail at the site until the championships began unless you're the host school."
Hawaii faced similar circumstances last year when the team flew into Boston for the championships that were co-hosted by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Rainbows won despite never racing on the championship waters and having to practice at Tufts University.
The challenges are different now for Hawaii, which qualified for all three championships for the second consecutive year. Only six schools have that distinction (Charleston, Old Dominion, Tufts, Washington, and Wisconsin).
"We're climbing a bigger mountain this year," Johnson said. "All of our teams could win it. There's no question about that. I don't think the women have a better shot of winning than our other two teams.
"To win a national championship, you have to do everything right and then you have to have some luck. That's what we did last year. We did everything right and then some things fell in place for us."
Things almost didn't fall in place for the women's team. Hawaii nearly missed defending its national title as the Wahine had to battle back to clinch second at the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association championship a month ago. The top two teams from the PCIYRA qualify for the national championship.
"They went out there and they sailed like they were the national champions and all they had to do was be there," Johnson said. "And all of a sudden, they realized they were on the outside looking in and if they didn't pick it up on day two, they weren't going to be going to their own party. They had a 23-point turnaround and they didn't even win the Pacific Coast Championships. But it's going to be hard to beat us in our own lagoon."
And that's a privilege that Johnson is happy to have.