Im currently a high school sophomore, and my sailing coach just talked to me about beginning looking for colleges to sail at. I was wondering how the best ways were to get on colleges radar, and things I should be doing to get prepared for talking to coaches and visits.
I think your coach might have some connections, but have a look at the college rankings on www.collegesailing.org. See if any schools might be a place you are interested WITHOUT SAILING. Then email the coach (I suggest next year since you are a sophomore), and introduce yourself. You might want to work on a sailing “resume” so you have something to give any coach who asks. Try to do some summer sailing and maybe a clinic like the Neill Clinic in Chicago… not so much to get “discovered” but more so you have a known clinic in your background. Keep in mind, a lot of college sailors either start in college or join after they arrive on campus. There is also the “club vs. varsity” thing to understand. MANY colleges have competitive sailing teams which are a club. Clubs and varsity teams sail against one another and are treated the same by ICSA. Don’t rule a good college match out just because they have a club team. College comes first, remember!
Also, sailing has no recruiting per se. There are no scholarships for college sailing. That is one reason the club teams can be competitive. I am not saying you wouldn’t get some form of aid or award at a college, but don’t count on a “full ride” type thing like other sports offer. Sailing is not an NCAA sport.
Some info here: http://www.sail1design.com/college-recruiting-from-the-recruits-point-of-view/
Hey there! I know I’m late to the convo but I just searched “sailing” on CC and found this, haha. I’m a freshman on a varsity team in NEISA, went through the entire recruiting process last year, and now I sometimes help my coach with some recruitment-related matters, so I’m pretty familiar with how it all works. Figured I’d offer my two cents. 
Take a look at this video of a recent college sailing talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OdnyzDyoD4 That should give you a bit of an overview of the process.
You won’t be able to get on a coach’s radar without initiating the conversation unless you’re already a world-class sailor, so you’ll probably have to reach out to coaches yourself. In order to make yourself more attractive as a recruit, build your academic strengths and sailing resume now as a sophomore. Challenge yourself both in the classroom and on the water. Take hard classes if you can handle them, but be sure to keep your GPA up. The higher your grades and scores are, the more options you’ll have. Sail a variety of boats in a variety of positions so that coaches will see you as versatile and multi-talented (also, it’s just fun).
If you are a top-tier youth sailor and in contention for a likely letter (which I was not lmao), your process should be easier since you’ll know who wants you/where you’re going much earlier. Likely letters are usually decided over September and October of senior year, so your process will need to be speeded up a bit. Start talking to coaches and taking standardized tests earlier; you need your complete applicant profile to be ready before your peers have even submitted their ED/EA applications.
That Amanda Salvesen S1D article that @london203 posted is great.
If you want to start making your college list, here are a few things to keep in mind:
-for your own happiness, you should like the school for reasons other than sailing. What if something goes wrong on the team and you end up quitting? What if you get injured and can’t sail for a while (the “broken leg rule” as referenced by that article)? You need to still be able to be happy at your school even without the team. Also, being able to articulate why you like the school for reasons other than sailing will make your interview and Why X essay that much stronger.
-don’t rule out a school just because it doesn’t have a varsity team (club teams like Brown, Cornell coed, BU, UVM, Fordham are still really solid), but if you want to go to a top sailing school, that will narrow down your list by quite a bit anyway
-when choosing schools, be sure to build your list the same way a non-recruit would with safeties/matches/reaches; unless you’re top tier, no amount of coach interest will be able to compensate for low grades or scores
-sailing will likely affect where regionally you want to go to school (I’m biased as a NEISA sailor, but NEISA is the best; it’s such a deep conference and the teams have so many talented sailors that I’ve sailed nearly every weekend this fall and I’ve improved more than I thought was possible in my first season!)
-as per ICSA regulations, there are no scholarships for sailing, so if cost is an issue look into merit scholarships, need-based financial aid, and/or the service academies with strong sailing teams
-you probably won’t get a likely letter unless you’re one of the top few recruits at some of the college sailing powerhouses (Yale comes to mind, as well as Dartmouth, Stanford, BC, the other coaches with “pull”). Some of the strong teams/schools can’t guarantee anything at all, even though recruitment can be critical to getting into a school of that caliber (think Tufts)
Then start reaching out to coaches during your junior year. Talk to coaches at every school on your list with a coached team (even if it’s your safety – this will come in handy should you end up going there and wanting to sail for that school). Give them your stats, sailing resume, extracurriculars, etc etc so they can determine whether they think you have a chance of getting in. Keep up communication with coaches over any major events (significant regatta results, new grades, new scores, etc) so that they have updated info about you. This also doubles as a way to repeatedly get your name in front of them more often. For example, at my school, my coach is currently in contact with 140 sailors in the HS class of 2018. This will likely translate to around 14 recruits. Don’t take that 10% statistic too seriously; that list includes recruits whose grades/scores are nowhere near our standard, and sailors who will likely (as in “likely letter”) be snatched up by another school with more recruiting power.
For visits, do them during your junior spring or senior fall as you narrow down your REA/ED1/ED2 schools. I had my list set more or less in stone at the beginning of senior year, and the four recruit visits that I did were all to help me finalize the order of my top four schools. During a visit, you’ll go to class with a sailor, eat in the dining hall, go to practice (sometimes you’ll even get to sail in practice), and possibly stay overnight depending on the school.
The most important thing right now for you as a sophomore is to get good grades and build your sailing skill. Come junior year, you should probably start thinking about the steps I recommended in the rest of this post. Best of luck with your schoolwork, and feel free to reach out to me with any questions about my process, the process in general, what it’s like to sail in college, or really just anything at all!
When we toured the University of Wisconsin, we were told that only the U.S. Navy has more sailboats than UW. Sot that’d be one place to look. 
Wisco only makes it to national semis every year because MCSA has no depth
@blowusallaway Just curious, who do you think the likely letter contenders are for the '19 for sailing