New London — Sometime soon, their highly-successful sailing season will end. Only then will teammates break up and head off to their summer destinations.

The tight-knit members of the Coast Guard Academy sailing program don't want to think about that right now.

They're focusing on competing in two national championships in nearby Newport.

"It's really sad," junior Avery Fanning said of the looming breakup.

"Hopefully, we'll be celebrating," sophomore Nikole Barnes added.

The Bears have had more than lasting friendships to celebrate this season. The program is sailing along on an elite level.

For the second straight year, Coast Guard qualified for both the women's and coed nationals. Both programs placed second in their respective New England Championship regattas to advance.

"It's pretty cool," coach Brian Swingly said. "In the coed regatta, we were one point away from winning the New England championship. We haven't even been close to that in several years.

"So we're definitely leveraged in the right way going into the nationals. ... Our goal is to win both of them."

The Bears, who've reached the women's nationals four out of the last five years, are considered one of the favorites. They're ranked No. 2 in the country while Yale sits at No. 1. Competition begins on Monday with the semifinals.

The coed program is on the rise, making its second straight appearance after falling short in the previous 15 years. Its national championship begins on June 1. The Bears are ranked seventh.

Swingly points to several factors as reasons for the program's sustained success.

He's elevated the talent level on the roster by focusing his recruiting efforts on sailing hotbeds, bringing in sailors with national and international experience.

Practices are as intense as race days. Competition is fierce, too, just as it is on a daily basis in Academy life.

"We're competing every day for rankings, whether it's in physical fitness or military or grades," Barnes said. "The thing that balances us out is how much we love sailing and how much we love being on the water."

The culture also started to change about four years ago, according to Swingly.

"We started to create this culture of excellence," Swingly said. "When they're here, they're working 110 percent. A lot of sports at the Academy struggle with being able to leave everything up the hill and being able to just focus down here.

"So we've done a good job trying to get the whole team to buy in that when we're here we need to be working hard. And efficiency always has been a big thing.

"We have the right people now. It's setting new goals every single day and never being satisfied with the results that we have now."

The Bears will have an advantage over some teams in the national championships. They're familiar with the sailing conditions in Narragansett Bay, where the races will be held. Their practice conditions on the Thames River are similar to what they'll be dealing with.

"We had our qualifiers for nationals in Newport, so that's a big advantage for our conference and team," Fanning said. "It was perfect sea breeze every single day, which we'll likely see there."

Swingly will bring six Bears to the women's race and nine to the coed, with some crossing over to compete on both teams.

The top nine teams in the two-day women's semifinals will advance to the finals on Wednesday.

Since the first day of practice back in late August, the Bears have worked hard to earn this shot at a national championship. They plan to do everything that they can to try to pull it off.

"We treat every single race like that last one," Swingly said. "We don't treat going into the nationals any different. We started practice Aug. 20 and this has been our goal since then.... This is what we've been building up to.

"When you get there, there is a little bit more hype and more pressure. .... But it's our job as coaches to make it feel like every other event. It's really important that they hit the water with as much comfort as possible so it feels like just like every other race."

Whatever happens, the Bears are on course to be a regular on the national sailing scene. Chances are, they'll be back.

But they'll never forget the bonds that they created during their time together.

"What people don't realize about college sailing is we're together every weekend, all weekend for two seasons out of the year, so the team gets every close," senior Jennifer Lane said. "We all kind have to be friends with each other because it's who you're hanging out with all the time."

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe