Despite each having held the No. 1 ranking for longer than any other school in the country, the No. 2 coed sailing team and No. 2 women’s sailing team both came up short at the Atlantic Coast Championships this weekend.

The coed team claimed third place at the event, which was hosted by the College of Charleston. The women had anything but smooth sailing, recording a sixth-place finish at the Cornell-hosted regatta.

In Charleston, S.C., the coed team faced difficult conditions thanks to a strong current and a light but volatile wind. When all was said and done, the Bulldogs finished well behind champion and No. 1 Georgetown, but were able to squeak out two-point advantages over both No. 3 Dartmouth and host No. 6 College of Charleston.

Yale’s A division was sailed by skipper Graham Landy ’15 and crew Katherine Gaumond ’15. Though the duo finished sixth, they were a mere two points out of fourth, signaling how tight the action was between the top teams from the Atlantic seaboard.

The A division tandem got off to a hot start, winning two of the first five races, but five finishes outside the top 10 prevented a higher finish.

Landy said that some of those poorer finishes were due to the team’s risk-taking mentality.

“We struggled most in risk management, trying to make up all of the points at once instead of chipping away at the lead that Georgetown developed early in the regatta,” Landy said.

The Bulldogs’ B division team saw some turnover, as two different pairs sailed for Yale. Captain Chris Segerblom ’14 skippered the first four races alongside crew Sarah Smith ’15.

The experienced duo had some difficulties on the tricky water, as their best result was a 10th-place finish in the first race. As was the case for many other schools that could not consistently handle Crab Bank, substitutions ensued.

Skipper Ian Barrows ’17 and crew Charlotte Belling ’16 took over for the remaining 10 races, putting together some impressive results. The young group ended just two races outside the top 10 and managed to tally four top-five finishes.

Landy said that the team’s efforts this season were still admirable.

“I don’t think this regatta discounts how we have done this fall,” Landy said. “We finished a respectable third [place] in incredibly trying conditions.”

As for the women, racing on Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, N.Y. proved troublesome. Captain Marlena Fauer ’14 skippered Yale’s A division dinghy for 10 of 11 races before being relieved by Urska Kosir ’15. Crew Eugenia Custo Greig ’14 remained on board for the duration of the weekend’s races.

The A division squad had some bright moments, including a second-place result in the third race of the regatta. The Elis struggled with inconsistency though, finishing outside the top 10 six times. Yale’s A division team ended up in 11th place in the 18-school field.

Fauer said she was still searching for answers, as the result did not meet the team’s expectations.

“I am still processing everything that happened this weekend, but the conditions were very tricky,” Fauer said. “We started on Saturday in very light wind that was unstable and kept dying. The wind eventually came up, and as a team we just struggled with adjusting.”

Yale’s B division saw more success behind skipper Morgan Kiss ’15 and crew Amanda Salvesen ’14, finishing fifth place overall in the division and winning two races. Custo Greig stepped in at crew for the final of the 11 races, which resulted in a third and final race win for the Elis.

Yale’s 182 points were not enough though to crack the top five overall, however, and No. 3 Dartmouth edged out No. 1 Boston College for the championship.

While the women’s fall season ended sourly, the team still had an impressive season. Besides holding the top spot in the national polls for six consecutive weeks, the Elis also had a five-regatta winning streak.

With the spring season ultimately holding more importance, Fauer said she is optimistic that the Bulldogs can right their wrongs.

“I think we had a great season regardless of our result at ACCs,” Fauer said. “It is just a matter of peaking at the right time. Now that we had a sort of “wake up” moment this past weekend, we are more motivated going into the spring season to really prove ourselves and perform to our potential.”

As for the coed team, they will have one more crack at victory when the match racing team travels to Florida for the ICSA Match Racing Championship, an event in which Yale finished second last year.

JAMES BADAS