The South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (SAISA) is a conference in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association and was founded April 25, 1964. SAISA encompasses a geographic area that includes Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and northern Alabama. There are 27 active members, which include both public and private universities. The conference is separated into two districts: the South Division which contains Florida schools and Emory, and the North Division which comprises the rest of the schools. Several schools feature nationally ranked varsity sailing teams, such as the College of Charleston and Eckerd College, while others only regularly compete at conference level regattas.
Contents
Competition
The conference participates in both fall and spring college sailing season. There are coed, single handed, women's, match racing and team racing regattas nearly each weekend.
Coed Dinghy Events
Dinghy regattas sailed on FJs and 420s are the main events and focus of the conference. The regular season of each semester begins with a conference wide regatta called the SAISA Open. Then, each division has Points events, of which there are four or five North Points and five or six South Points. These events determine the points a team will receive to qualify for the championship. After regular season events, 12 teams will qualify for the SAISA Co-Ed Conference Championships. The host of the championship rotates between divisions each season. A certain number of berths are then given to the conference for participation in the subsequent Atlantic Coast Dinghy Championship and the Intercollegiate Sailing Association National Championships
Other Events
Each semester there are also several independently organized regattas, Men's Single handed Championship, Women's Single handed Championship, Women's Dinghy regattas and Championship, Team Race Championship, and Match Race Championship. SAISA also participates in Intersectional regattas against other conferences each year.
Members
The organization has three classifications for a member team: Associate, Provisional, and Regular. Those schools are also classified by their schools as either a Club or Varsity team.
Effective September 2014 members included: