The sailing team learned this weekend that icebreakers do not always break ice.

The United States Coast Guard Academy announced Feb. 25 it would cancel the Icebreaker Invite, scheduled for the Thames River in New London March 1 and 2.

The Icebreaker, traditionally the first regatta of the spring, and the Team Racing Invitational, which Brown planned to host, were two of numerous northeast athletic events cancelled or postponed due to weather the past week.

Both softball and baseball had games postponed due to unfavorable field conditions. Softball’s March 1 game against Marist was postponed, and the team’s double header with Central Connecticut on March 5 was moved to April 4. No makeup date for the Marist game has been announced. The baseball team’s March 5 contest with Quinnipiac University has been postponed, with no makeup date announced yet.

But baseball and softball games scheduled before Spring Break often are cancelled due to weather. Sailing events are rarely, if ever, cancelled. Kate Littlefield ’04, the new captain of the coed sailing team, said she has been to regattas in snow, sleet, and 30-knot wind.

The weather this winter has been bad for sailing, with many Connecticut rivers freezing for the first time in decades. The average January temperature was 16 degrees colder than the 100-year average, and the water temperature has been 5 degrees colder than normal.

Littlefield said the lower water temperature poses an even greater concern for sailors than the air temperature.

“When you’re boat capsizes, you really have to get out immediately if you don’t want to get hypothermia,” she said.

Other sporting events could still get bumped.

“The first regatta after March break is the Boston Dinghy Cup — the BDC,” Stu McNay ’04 said. “MIT and Harvard usually host it, but since the Charles [River] is frozen, it’s possible that Coast Guard may have to host it instead.”