2014 US Qualifying Series - Rookies and Veterans temper their optimism

Jeff Johnstone, of J Boats, runs the U.S. Qualifying Series competitors through a few pointers for sailing the J/70. Racing in the biennial club-focused regatta starts on Wednesday out of the New York Yacht Club at Harbour Court. Stuart Streuli / New York Yacht Club

2014 U.S. Qualifying Series © Julianna Kurucz/New York Yacht Club

Hovering near the top of that list is The San Francisco Yacht Club team, which is led by two-time USQS skipper Shawn Bennett and former America’s Cup sailor Melissa Feagin. In 2012, Bennett and Feagin helped the SFYC team to a third-place finish and a berth in the 2013 Invitational Cup, where the club finished 13th.

'I think it’s really going to be about consistency for us,' says Bennett. 'We’re going to try to get ourselves into the gold fleet with consistency in (the Sonar and J/70, the two fleets utilized for the USQS) and then see what we can do.'

One factor that may make consistency more of a challenge than it was two years ago is other competitors’ familiarity with the J/70. In 2012, the 22-foot J/70 design was in its infancy. It is now one of the hottest-selling keelboats in the world, with over 600 built. Some of the competitors in the USQS will sail in the class’s inaugural world championship the following week, also hosted out of Harbour Court.

'Last time, it was interesting because nobody had sailed the J/70s before,' says Bennett, 'and this time some teams are clearly going to have more experience in those boats. I haven’t sailed them at all since 2012.'

Still, the SFYC team’s familiarity with the race area and the short-course, small-fleet nature of the competition, which favors quick thinking and fleet management over boatspeed and big-picture strategy, should keep it in contention. Other returning teams of note include Seattle Yacht Club, which placed second in 2012, Eastern (Marblehead, Mass) Yacht Club, which won the inaugural USQS in 2010 and Newport Harbor (Calif.) Yacht Club, which placed third in 2010 and fourth in 2012.

2014 U.S. Qualifying Series © Julianna Kurucz/New York Yacht Club

On the other side of the coin is the self-proclaimed dark-horse team from Harbor Island Yacht Club, on Old Hickory Lake, outside of Nashville, Tenn.

'Anthony Passafiume and I were sitting at the yacht club one day and said we’d really like to do some national sailing,' says tactician Steve LeMay. 'So we sent in a resume to the USQS and a few weeks later we received an invitation.'

While Tennessee isn't known for its major bodies of water, LeMay says sailing is quite strong in the Volunteer State. 'We’ve got a lot of good Lightning sailors, and we sponsor a national Lightning regatta every year called the Blue Nose Regatta,' says LeMay. 'We also have a strong Laser fleet.'

Without previous USQS experience, the team is keeping its expectations in check. 'Our goal is upper half at this point,' he says. 'We’re the dark horses. It could go real good or real bad. There’s some formidable competition out there.' But don't discount Team Music City USA. They have been sailing LeMay's J/70 together for the past year and their polished crew work could be a significant advantage if the breeze picks up as expected for the second half of the regatta.

Racing for the U.S. Qualifying Series for the New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup presented by Rolex will start tomorrow at 10:30 a.m., on the East Passage of Narragansett Bay, and run through Saturday afternoon. For the first two days, the 22 yacht club teams split into two qualifying groups that will alternate sailing in identical fleets of J/70s and Sonars. The top six teams in each group will move to the Gold Fleet, which will sail in J/70s on Friday and Saturday, with the top three yacht clubs earning an invitation to the 2015 Invitational Cup presented by Rolex.