2025 Team Racing World Championship at New York Yacht Club - Day 1
by Michelle Slade 29 May 20:02 PDT
May 28 - June 1, 2025
Team Racing World Championship at New York Yacht Club Day 1 © Paul Todd / OUTSIDEIMAGES.COM
Gray skies, intermittent rain and shifty light winds were not enough to dampen the energy and enthusiasm on Narragansett Bay for Day 1 of the Team Racing World Championship under way at Harbour Court.
Early favorites were no surprise in stage one of the four-day regatta as leaders Newport Harbor Yacht Club and Corinthian Yacht Club (Marblehead, Mass.) finished the day with six points each after six races, and West Kirby Hawks (Great Britain) sailed five races finishing with five points.
Newport Harbor Yacht Club positioned themselves well not to lose a race and maintained a consistent focus on boat handling and keeping calm. Last year their home club converted its major team racing of the year, the Baldwin Cup, to the 2v2 format so the West Coast team does have some relevant experience to draw on.
"From a results perspective we had a great day, we came out ahead in all of our races, it was a bit wet out there but we had a good time, kept a positive attitude, trusted our teammates and we're looking forward to tomorrow," says crew Chris Segerblom. "We haven't sailed Sonars since last summer so we did a lot of warming up before the starts to make sure our boat handling was sharp; we talked a lot about starting strategy and getting off the line. We don't really know the competition too well, or at least their skill sets, and their strengths and weaknesses; the teams we have raced before we haven't raced yet so tomorrow we have a few really challenging races ahead of us."
Equal in experience and tenacity to the West Coast team, the Corinthian Yacht Club team view these next few days as a warmup for the final stages of the regatta where the challenge will be at its peak.
"We had a great start to the event today," says Tim Wadlow, skipper. "There are a lot of good teams and some of the races could have gone either way but we were happy to get six wins today. There are a lot of good teams who we have raced over the years and we know that they will have their day. We're getting comfortable in the boats, getting our routines down, getting used to the new course and all the new details. I love the 2v2 format; it creates a lot of conflict, there are very few stable combinations so you have to make a lot of plays and pass backs, it's a super exciting format. Not having a spinnaker allows us to really focus on the details of the team racing so it's been a fun new challenge."
It's early days yet and the very experienced British team West Kirby Hawks were happy with their result on Day 1.
"Our day went really well - we went out first and had five races on the bounce with very different teams in a lot lighter conditions that we thought it would be," says Andy Cornah, skipper. "We had good close racing, the current was definitely a factor out there, it got pretty strong which made things tricky coming around the marks into the finish but we were happy with how we were adjusting to things. It was good fun. It's a new challenge, it's not what we are used to with downwind finishes, windward leeward legs, and fewer reaching legs. It's great to race against all these different countries. A lot of the team racing we do is all just GBR/USA/IRE, so to race teams from the Bahamas and Italy is pretty exciting actually. It adds some nice dimensions to it."
While there is an early pack emerging at the top level, the Argentinian team, coming in with little to no experience, took three wins today finding a steady pace amongst the middle tier teams. Pepe Bettini, head coach for the LISOT Sailing Foundation where he coaches Opti 4v4 team racing noted that today was actually the team's first day team racing in a regatta.
"It was exciting from the beginning," says Bettini, skipper. "We had three wins and three losses, one of them a very good win against New York Yacht Club, which we were really happy about. We are very excited about tomorrow, to get back on the boat and fight again. I don't like the rain much but the wind was great and the location is amazing. I have been here many times, and I love it. The Race Committee ran a great day with many races."
The Team Racing World Championship returns after a ten-year hiatus, in large part inspired by the growth in popularity in team racing in the U.S., and more recently, a strong interest in 2v2 racing in Europe, notes former NYYC former Commodore Phil Lotz, who has been a driving force behind the growing interest in the discipline.
"While team racing has always been popular at the college level, it has become very popular amongst adult sailing in the club scene, and recently there has been strong interest in 2v2 racing in Europe where a 2v2 league has become popular," says Phil Lotz, former NYYC Commodore and a driving force behind the Global Team Race Regatta. "The reason that 2v2 has developed as it has compared to 3v3 is for a number of reasons; 2v2 is less complicated, less boats, umpires and crew are required making it easier for people to get involved with it. Whoever loses the race loses the match, so it's easier to understand it from that point of view. 2v2 is the entry level experience that people always felt they were missing."
Racing resumes on Friday May 30, with Day 2 of the 2025 Team Racing World Championship. Current results are available here.