Adaptability will be among the skills tested when the University of Hawaii sailing teams report for the national championships.

It’s a trait UH seniors Madeline Kennedy and Ana-Melissa Kea have honed since joining the program.

Kennedy grew up sailing in relatively light winds on lakes and rivers in Minnesota before adjusting to the brisk breezes off Keehi Lagoon.

Kea’s experience on the water was limited to fishing trips with her father off the Waianae coast when she enrolled at UH and "was one of those people who didn’t even realize we had a sailing team."

Coming from disparate backgrounds, they’ve both grown into leaders for the UH women’s and coed teams and will end their college careers at the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association National Championships in Maryland.

Along with adjusting to the six-hour time difference, the UH crews will have to determine how best to navigate the conditions they find at the race sites.

"The best way I’ve heard it described is playing a game of chess while you’re doing a sit-up, because it has a physical aspect and the mental aspect," said Kennedy, who will compete in both championships. "So it’s just trying to see the conditions and understand what they’re going to do and best adapt for them."

The ICSA/Sperry Top-Sider Women’s National Championship begins Tuesday with the first of two days of semifinal competition at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. The top nine teams from both of the 14-team semifinal regattas advance to the finals, which are scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

The Gill Coed Dinghy National Championship begins June 3 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Like the women’s race, the top nine finishers in the 18-team semifinals advance to the finals.

Prior to departing for the East Coast, the Rainbows practiced in conditions similar to those coach Andy Johnson expects them to encounter in Maryland.

"It was good to have some light wind to practice in," Johnson said. "We generally fare better if it’s heavier wind because we’re always sailing in heavy wind. But we’ll take what comes and do our best."

Both UH teams qualified for the nationals by finishing second in the Pacific Coast Sailing Conference championships. Both fell just short of qualifying for the national finals last year in Florida, a memory that’s propelling them into this week’s races.

"Last year we pretty much only had one day of competition because the second day there was no wind," Kennedy said. "So now we know we have to put it all out there on the first day because who knows what’ll happen the next day."

Kennedy partnered with junior Katrina Berry to win the A Division at the PCSC Championship in Santa Barbara, Calif., in April. Cecillia Jansson, Louise Currie and Annie Kelly are also key members of a women’s team making its second trip to Annapolis this season after competing in the Navy Women’s Intersectional in early March.

"It’ll be hopefully warmer," Kennedy said. "Just knowing how the current is in the river there, the winds will probably be different, but it definitely helps having been there."

Kea will sail with fellow senior Adam Pokras as part of UH’s entry in the coed championships, along with Chuck Eaton and Kellie Yamada.

In Kea’s first year after graduating from Kamehameha, a chance encounter with Johnson sparked the idea to try out for the sailing team despite having no previous experience in the sport.

"I didn’t think I would get this far. I came out to be part of something in college," Kea said. "When Andy approached me about joining the sailing team I decided I’m going to do it and just find out for myself if I like it or not."

Dealing with potentially light winds in Maryland will demonstrate how far she’s progressed since.

"Light wind is when technique really comes in," Kea said. "Every little movement and you have to make every tack and every jibe count.

"I give a lot of credit to the skippers who have to remember all the tactics and all the moves we can make to get ahead," she said. "They have to be able to predict what the other person is going to do and be able to counter and play offense out on the water."