Women's National Invitational Team Race for the Thayer Trophy

by Corinthian Yacht Club 26 Jun 2023 17:25 PDT June 24-25, 2023

Thayer Trophy 2023 © Bruce Durkee

The seven teams competing at this year's Women's National Invitational Team Race for the Thayer Trophy had spectacular head-to-head racing throughout the two-day regatta hosted by Corinthian Yacht Club in Marblehead June 24 and 25th. With an impressive 11 wins and 4 losses, Bristol Yacht Club triumphed for the second year in a row.

The weather ended up being a big all-around win for race organizers and sailors as the forecasts called for just about everything but locusts. Saturday's long string of thunderstorms skirted the race area and Sunday was a picture-postcard sailing day with sun and building breeze.

Corinthian PRO Will Bailey and his team completed 31 races on day one. The first two flights started in very light and damp conditions that tested crews' ability to keep Sonars moving and spinnakers full. Eventually, the stormy weather pattern brought more wind, but pressure was variable and very shifty across the course.

Newport Harbor Yacht Club, sailing Thayer for the first time, dialed right in, racking up a bunch of wins to finish the day with 8 wins out of 11 races, tying with incumbent Bristol.

Another Thayer newcomer, MIT Nautical Association (MITNA), whose team included current MIT sailing team members and alumni, came out of the gate as a potential dark horse. Despite being relatively inexperienced in the keelboat with spinnaker format, the team figured out the boat handling and put their 3v3 team racing acumen to work. After a couple of tough early losses, MITNA closed out the first day with 4 wins, and would go on to make Gold Fleet.

Day two conditions could not have been better. Racers were greeted with sunny skies and a solid 8-to-10-knot southeast wind that built to the low teens. The race committee was able to quickly complete the second round robin, moving on to the Gold and Silver finals in the early afternoon.

Bristol and Newport Harbor went into Gold fleet tied with 8 wins. Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association (CBYRA) and MITNA both had 6 wins. With double points in play and each team sailing three races, the regatta was very much up for grabs.

Bristol came out swinging, finishing the first two races with a solid 1, 2, 3 and 1, 2, 6 respectively. Newport Harbor had one win and one loss going into the last race of the regatta against Bristol. As one would expect, the final race was an all-out battle.

Bristol was on the ropes after an OCS and subsequent penalty put one of their boats in a deep six. They rounded the windward mark with a 1, 3 but Newport Harbor went on the attack on the reach leg to convert to a 2-3-4 combination. Bristol boat five had exceptional downwind boat speed, surfing the waves, to move into second, but Newport Harbor was having none of it and took them out at mark three.

Newport Harbor looked strong with a gapped 2, 3, 4 until Bristol's lead boat went back and compressed the race between marks three and four, giving their fifth and sixth place boats a chance to get within striking distance as they headed into the windward leg to the finish.

Boat six broke away to the left side of the course and made big gains to come back across in second position. Just 50 yards from the finish, Newport Harbor was hanging on to a tenuous 1, 3, 4, when Bristol sat on boat three and boat six seemed to turn on the jets, squeezing passed boat five. Bristol fought its way to a winning 2, 3, 4 to secure its place at the top of the podium.

Newport Harbor sailed an exceptional regatta but was edged out by CBYRA on a tiebreaker.

According to CBYRA Team Captain, Ashley Love, the score sheet is indicative of the caliber of sailing at the Thayer Trophy.

"We've competed in every Thayer Trophy regatta since it started three years ago, and level of competition has gotten stronger every year," Love said. "It's really incredible."

Looking to create more opportunity for women sailors to compete at a high level, the Corinthian Yacht Club introduced the Thayer Trophy regatta in 2021. It is the only women's 3v3 team racing event held in keelboats with spinnakers, which add a degree of difficulty that has become a hallmark in the upper echelons of team-racing competitions.

The Thayer Trophy honors Corinthian's Joan and Elynore "Elli" Thayer's significant contributions to women's sailing: Joan as a passionate one-design skipper and organizer of the National Women's Sailing Association Conference, and Elli as the first women skipper in the 110 Class and Marblehead Racing Association officer for more than 20 years.

Detailed results and video commentary coverage of the Corinthian Yacht Club National Women's Team Race for the Thayer Trophy can be found on the event site.