For Doug Sabin, one approach to getting more of his yacht-club peers active and on the water was simple: adult team racing. Sailing’s energetic and all-­encompassing ­discipline, Sabin knew, would appeal to younger members at Marblehead’s Corinthian YC, and he was right. Corinthian’s success in building a team-­racing program and engaging its membership in a new and exciting way is a great example for any club or organization looking to jump-start its stagnant sailing program.

Team racing is a ­strategic ­battle where boat position, clever tactics, precise boathandling, tactical skill and teamwork are the ingredients for success. The top teams practice maneuvers to gain an advantage. When one team is winning, it is on defense, and when a team is losing, they are on offense. Like other sports, including basketball and hockey, there are man-to-man ­matchups and zone defenses. It is a fast-­moving game as positions change. Sailors must be quick at math as the scores change. The most popular format is three boats versus three matches. Watch a competitive intercollegiate team race and you will see teams attacking and ­trading the lead during fast-paced ­maneuvers at turning marks. Often there will be a lot of noise during these moments, although the best teams are remarkably quiet as they execute their plays. Champion teams are fluid and make it look like ballet.

It’s no surprise to me that participation in team racing has grown dramatically over the past 20 years in ­several yacht clubs—domestically and abroad. Clubs that have invested in building and growing their programs have seen membership rosters grow as a direct result. Sabin, who sailed at MIT, says the stakeholders at Corinthian recognized that providing boats for sailing is one viable way to attract young members.

When they initiated the team-racing program, they borrowed boats, but as the local one-design Sonar fleet faded, the three yacht clubs on Marblehead Harbor (Corinthian, Eastern and Boston) purchased a dozen used Sonars, which allowed them to have two sets of boats for team racing.

“For most of my career, Eastern and Boston were the strongest sailing clubs in the harbor,” Sabin says. “Thanks to team racing, Corinthian is now a very strong sailing club.”

If there’s any doubt to Sabin’s assessment of Corinthian’s competitive standing today, consider that he, along with younger members Wade Waddell, Miranda Bakos and Duncan Swain, won the New York YC Resolute Cup last September. That win qualified Corinthian for the Rolex NYYC Invitational Cup in the fall of 2023, the club’s marquee international amateur keelboat championship.

While the Resolute Cup was a fleet-racing competition, Sabin says their triumph over many of the United States’ premier yacht-club teams was in a large part due to their team-racing focus. “None of us had sailed in the Resolute [Cup] before. The reason we were successful is that we have this tight definition of what keelboat sailing is at Corinthian. So, we could fall into our roles and work together as a team very quickly. We practiced in an RS21 against Eastern YC for about two weeks before the regatta. We all knew how to communicate, and we knew our roles because of team racing.”

For Corinthian to get its team race program up and running at full speed, it tapped two-time Olympian Tim Wadlow. “For us, it was connecting with the college sailors. It’s all about youth and bringing those people into the club. Tim is a team-­racing world champion, and with people of that level, we got into organized practices. He encouraged us to use spinnakers, which really changes the game quite a bit. The game really begins at the windward mark with the spinnaker because you are so much more powerful downwind. Tim understood that and made it part of our practice.”

For a yacht club to acquire a fleet of boats requires a big investment, but the use of small and stable keelboats allows for a wider range of ages to get in on the action. Sabin says they’re hoping to purchase a new fleet of Sonars that would be owned by all three yacht clubs within the next year. “Both New York YC and Seawanhaka Corinthian YC (in New York) have fleets,” Sabin says. “We are following their model.”

The Annapolis YC has ordered a fleet of 14 new Sonars with the goal of upgrading members’ team-racing skills and attracting new members. Past commodore Jonathan Bartlett, who initiated the program, says: “The biggest reason we ordered the boats was to go play in the team-racing arena. We have to learn to sail the boats and how they race. Where is the best team racing? It’s in New England.”

Sonars, designed by Bruce Kirby and first built in 1980, are now being built in England, where the only set of molds still exists. Bartlett credits Annapolis YC’s incoming rear commodore, Ted Kaczmarski, for selecting the Sonar and convincing the club’s board to provide the funding, saying, “It is a good investment.”

Creating a fleet of yacht-club-owned boats is a big operational and financial undertaking. As with all boats, there are considerations and budgeting for storage requirements, routine maintenance, insurance costs, and equitable scheduling of the use of the fleet among members. There is a long list of possible applications for a fleet of boats in addition to team racing, which could include adult-program sailing instruction, recreational daysailing, clinics, weeknight races and invitational regattas. Some clubs maintain two sets of sails for their fleet, one for recreation and instruction, and another reserved for racing. Including the club’s burgee on the sails and naming the boats after club luminaries, donors or famous yachts add to the spirit. Also, it’s important that a fleet be maintained equally so the boats sail at the same speed.

Another important consideration is to make sure the boats can launch easily. Minimal time preparing for sailing or putting boats away is an attractive factor. An organization looking to purchase a fleet for the first time might consider an existing fleet of used boats. A few sources of funding might include a grant from a club, a group of members ­creating a syndicate to purchase individual boats, donations, charter fees (try to keep fees at a modest level) or foundation grants. The class of boat selected is an important factor. The selection criteria centers around the cost, storage, typical sailing venue and number of crew. It must, of course, be a suitable boat for the prevailing wind conditions.

Team racing is practiced by people of all ages—the Hinman Masters and Hinman Grandmasters regattas are popular events—and the engagement goes beyond younger sailors. Corinthian’s program, Sabin says, has boosted participation among female members, which resulted in the creation of the Thayer Cup, its first women’s team-­racing regatta using spinnakers.

A team race event typically engages many other supporting roles as well, from race officials to umpires and volunteers. “We always use umpires for our planned events,” Sabin says. “We don’t use umpires for ­practices or for pickup team racing on Thursday nights.”

Umpires, he adds, ­typically take the time to discuss on-the-water calls with ­competitors after racing, which makes it a learning experience for everyone. They want to make accurate rulings and learn from the sailors’ input. It is a two-way street, and I would add that damage deposits at regattas are an effective deterrent to collisions.

My first article in this magazine appeared in the spring of 1974, and at the time, I advocated for team racing to be included in the Olympic Games. Now, 49 years later, I still believe sailing at the Olympics could use freshening up. The Games hosts 10 classes, and team racing would be a welcome addition and generate top international competition with exciting, fast-paced, athletic sailing on a small course that’s certainly broadcast-friendly.

Perhaps it’s time we have that conversation again.

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With a potent combination of boatspeed, tactical acumen and team racing skills, the New York Yacht Club team strung together 13 straight victories en route to a win in the inaugural Women’s 2v2 Team Race, hosted by the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court this weekend. The team’s lone loss—to the eventual runner-up from the College of Charleston in the final flight of races—came with overall victory already in hand. The New York Yacht Club team, led by skipper/captain Emily Maxwell and skipper Erika Reineke, finished with 13 points. Charleston was second with 11, while Southern Yacht Club took third with 8 points.

“We sailed well, we almost went undefeated,” said Maxwell. “In my boat it was the teamwork, the boat handling. My crew was amazing. There were times we were behind, but we did a lot of boat handling around other teams. Erika and I worked well to pin people. The teamwork within our team, the boat handling, really helped us around the course.

“Our two boats sailed very well together. Sometimes when you have a lot of great sailors, they don’t always mix well. But we happened to mesh very well.”

Maxwell (at right, holding tiller) didn’t just sail in the regatta, she was also the driving force behind it. For the past decade, the New York Yacht Club has hosted each August a trio of team races that draw top competitors from around the country and abroad. Each event is coed and, due to the age restrictions for two of the three regattas, caters to a different demographic. But this regatta was the first women’s-only team race the Club has hosted.

The response was significantly better than expected, with twice as many requests for invitation as there were spots available, and an incredible array of talented women sailors, including world champions, Olympic medalists and America’s Cup sailors.

“I’ve been trying to get more women’s team racing in general post-college because there’s not a lot of opportunities for women to do team racing,” says Maxwell. “So I and a few others at the Club came up with this proposal in the fall and put it forth to the Sailing Committee. It was approved, and we started creating the event in the winter.”

Just getting the event off the ground, especially after such a challenging year for any sporting event, was a victory. The smiles on the face of all the competitors and the easy camaraderie in the parking lot after racing were unassailable proof that the event was a success for each team, regardless of the final standings.

Winning the title as well was icing on the cake for Maxwell, who earned All-American honors at Boston College. But she’s already looking ahead.

“I think this event will continue to further women’s sailing and give more opportunities for women to continue team racing and to sail every position on the boat,” she says. “Often, when you’re sailing a coed team race, you’re not driving or trimming main, you’re more in the front of the boat. You might also see more additional clubs popping up with events, and hopefully there will be a women’s team racing circuit eventually.”

For more details on the Women’s 2v2 Team Race, please click here.

Winning New York Yacht Club Team (top photo, left to right): Allison Ferraris, Bianca Rom, Cory Sertl, Emily Maxwell (Team Captain), PRO Clare Harrington, Abby Preston, Laura Ann Keller, Erika Reineke and Lyndsey Gibbons-Neff

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Proponents of team racing have set their sights on the discipline’s inclusion in the 2028 Olympic Regatta. The inaugural Global Team Race, which will be held Oct. 5 to 7 at the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court, may prove a crucial milestone on the long road to earning a place on sailing’s grandest stage.

The Global Team Race was created from scratch less than a year ago and will feature two-on-two team racing in the New York Yacht Club’s fleet of Sonar keelboats.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the response we have received,” says event chair Steven Wolff, a veteran team racer and umpire. “We have teams coming from South America, Asia, Australia, Europe and the United Kingdom, in addition to teams from the United States. We had to turn away a handful of teams and there were others that would’ve applied to compete if they’d had more time to plan. Team racing is growing dramatically in Europe, particularly the two-on-two format. We are already planning a second edition for next year in Britain and hope to confirm shortly the following year in Europe.”

Keelboat team racing, which has been increasing in popularity over the last quarter century, is a comprehensive test of tactics, strategy, boatspeed and team work. Spinnakers are regularly used, adding another layer of difficulty to the mark roundings and downwind legs and increasing the opportunities for boats behind to catch up.

Traditionally, team racing was sailed in a three-on-three or four-on-four format. But two-on-two is logistically less demanding for both teams and regatta organizers. It’s also easier for spectators to follow. The winner of the match is whichever team doesn’t cross the finish line last.

“As long as one of a team’s boats is behind a one boat from the other team, there’s a chance for a comeback,” says Wolff. “Two-on-two is a better fit for international competition where competitors have to travel great distances because there’s fewer people required. And you can get more sailing with the same amount of resources. With the Club’s fleet of 22 Sonars, we can have 10 teams on the water at one time. We expect to do a tremendous number of races.”

The more races, the more opportunity for the best teams to rise to the top for an eventual championship round that will determine the overall winner. But choosing a champion is just one goal for this event. Whether it’s the America’s Cup; the Annual Regatta, which has run nearly every year since 1845; or the Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup the New York Yacht Club has a knack and a passion for creating long-standing, iconic sailing events. Organizers hope the Global Team Race follows a similar pattern.

“We have invited the anticipated hosts of the next two events in the hopes of improving the regatta for future editions,” says Wolff. “We’re preparing a declaration of trust for the Global Team Race, which is a deed of gift that will perpetuate the event. The ultimate goal is for this event to be seen as a world championship of keelboat team racing.”

Competing teams include Bayerischer YC (Germany), Dutch Match & Team Racing Assn. (Netherlands), Japan Sailing Federation (Japan), New York YC (New York), Reale Circolo Canottieri Tevere Remo (Italy), Royal Cork YC (Ireland), Royal Northern & Clyde YC (Scotland), Royal Thames YC (England), Sorrento Sailing Couta Boat Club (Australia), St. Francis YC (San Francisco), Yacht Club Argentino (Argentina) and Yacht Club Costa Smeralda (Italy).

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Team USA beat Team China in a dramatic, hard-won, winner-takes-all ‘Sail Off’ in the team racing portion of the Optimist World Championship 2017, retaining its hold on the IODA Challenge Cup team racing trophy for the second year in a row. In high winds of 13-18 knots, huge swell, and choppy seas, the Americans set off in the morning alongside 15 other teams, each determined to do their best on the final day of the team racing championship.

“It was going to be challenging. All the teams are excellent. We knew that going into the day,” said Justin Callahan, Team USA’s sailor spokesman and the only remaining member of last year’s winning team. The day opened with a series of flights which ensured each of the top 16 teams had a chance to race twice before being eliminated if they lost twice. Team USA skillfully bested Ireland, Germany, Thailand, and Singapore in turn to earn the first assured place in the final Sail Off.

In contrast, the Chinese had to duel with six teams to secure their spot in the finals. Ironically, in their second race, they were beaten by the Malaysians, but, in the showdown for the second seat in the Sail Off, they found themselves up against Team Malaysia again, this time besting them and sending them to shore with bronze.

The final Sail Off was a best-of-three race series, the first race won by Team USA, the second by Team China. This made the third race a ‘must win’. As the race committee, described it, the deciding race was a “great race”, the winner unclear until the very end.

As Justin described it, “We were first, second and third at Mark 3 in the final race, but then things got a little messy”. After an incident with a Chinese sailor who pushed the limits of what is allowed in team racing, Justin found himself in sixth position.

He managed to gain ground, and, as he put it “somehow, right at the finish, we pinned them back and finished first, second and third. It was a very close finish.”

On the water, observers described a lot of shouting by sailors and whistle blowing by umpires as rules were broken and sailors called each other out, all part of the drama of team racing, in which competitors may push or hold their opponents back in what might otherwise be considered unsportsmanlike behavior.

Team USA had no complaints about the high intensity of the action on the water, however. As Justin said, “The umpiring was amazing. They were calling all the right calls. We got flags when we knew should have got flags.”

Asked what the team’s secret to success was, he did not hesitate. “Chemistry. Synergy on the team,” he said.

“Training. Training in team racing,” answered the team’s coach, Lior Lavie, who credited silver medalists Team China as excellent in the event.

“Their devotion to excellence in sailing,” added Paul Callahan, country representative, president of the US Optimist Dinghy Association, a two time Paralympian, and, most importantly today, proud father to Justin and his twin brother Mitchell, who both qualified for Team USA on their own merits.

Other members of the team – Stephan Baker, Liam O’Keefe, and Charlotte Leigh – were beaming ear to ear at the end of the day as well.

The team’s only issue now is how to get the large IODA Challenge Cup back to the USA, the box they carried it over in damaged. We trust event organizers will be able to find a replacement.

On Tuesday, the individual world championships series continues with fleets split into four based on their rankings after six earlier this week. The Americans can expect to do battle with the Chinese again in the coming days. Four members of Team USA and three of Team China are in the gold fleet.

The 2017 Optimist World Championship, which has a record-breaking 281 sailors from 62 countries participating, is organized by the Royal Varuna Yacht Club with the endorsement of the Yacht Racing Association of Thailand and the Junior Sailing Squadron of Thailand under the International Optimist Dinghy Association.

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CJ Buckley

Attention all Junior Racing Programs:
11th Annual CJ Buckley Club 420 Team Race Regatta
Club 420 Association National Jr. Team Race Championship

Monday through Wednesday
JULY 29-30-31, 2013
Goddard Park Carousel, East Greenwich, RI

As always, team uniforms are HIGHLY encouraged!

DETAILS
The CJ Buckley Team Race Regatta began in 2003 to honor the memory of a young sailor who passed away December 2002 after a courageous battle with brain cancer. CJ was a fierce competitor on the water, and team racing was his passion. To keep his love of sailing alive, Greenwich Bay Sailing Association and the East Greenwich Yacht Club are pleased to host this 3-day regatta.

Entry Cost – $60 per contestant. After 7/15 – $75 per contestant
Open to sailors of all levels of ability. Sailors must not reach their 19th birthday within the 2013 calendar year. Teams must bring their own boats.

Fee Includes:
Regatta T-shirt
Daily: Breakfast, Famous “Flying Lunches,” Bottled Water
Dinner Monday and Tuesday Nights
Team Photos
Great Prizes and Awards

Registration and Information:
www.cjbuckleyregatta.net

Space is limited. Teams should register as soon as possible.

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Wilson Trophy Spectators

After 345 fully-umpired races, the 2013 Wilson Trophy has come to a close. Of those races, we competed in 22; 18 in the regular racing, followed by two quick wins in the quarterfinals, followed by two quick losses in the semifinals. We didn’t win, didn’t take home the glory of being the25th and newest title defenders. That honor went instead to Wessex Exempt, who sailed cleanly and classily throughout the regatta, both when they knocked us out in the best of three formatted semifinals and when they went 3 and 1 in the best of five finals.

The losses in the semifinals hurt. We flipped in the first of the two, closing the door at the windward offset too sharply in a puff, and then finished just a couple boatlengths shy of a winning combo despite a fairly quick righting and our teammates’ well-executed slowing. The second race we lost off the line, and never quite got back into. When we sailed back to the dock past the cheering fans, it was hard to shake off the malaise that comes with the absolute defeat of a knockout. We de-rigged the boats and dollied them up, replaying the moments that cost us our shot at the title in our heads.

By the time the boats were away and we had changed and gotten a snack, it was time to watch the finals between Wessex Exempt and** the Grafham Grilling Gorillas.** As we walked towards the packed grandstand full of fans, highlighted by the booming voices of the announcers projected for a mile around, the disappointment became a bit less sharp, and the magic of our surroundings began to sink in. As Dinneen pointed out, it’s pretty amazing to be cheered on by so many people while you do what you love to do–the fans were going wild. Their own beloved West Kirby Hawks, the (until today) reigning Wilson _and _World Team Racing Championship titleholders got knocked out in the semifinals along with us, so the fans resorted to rooting uproariously and indiscriminately during any exciting engagement. After Wessex clinched their victory in the finals, they sailed past the fans to a standing ovation that I was proud to be a part of.

The only time I’ve experienced anything even close to this kind of fan adoration and respect for the sport of sailing was at the America’s Cup World Series event in Newport, R.I., which thousands of people came to watch. That was incredibly cool in its own right, but it lacked the grassroots feeling that the Wilson offers, not to mention the fact that scoring a spot on an AC45 or AC72 is much more realistic for those with decades of professional sailing under their belts. Here, the West Kirby Sailing Club members and the surrounding community came together to put on the most fantastic regatta I’ve ever been to in my life.

At the awards ceremony at the end of the day, the commodore first read off a long list of thank-yous, from Chief Umpire Peter Johnson to Helen (a club member who organized the housing for all of the competitors and umpires), to the gracious hosts themselves, to the women who sewed the tapestries that transformed the boatshed into a classy banquet hall. This event would be completely impossible without the massive support from the locals, the umpires, and the donors who helped provide the boats. How’s this for dedication: Both Saturday and Sunday mornings as we complained about waking up at 7:30 a.m., volunteers had already awoken at the crack of dawn and were out setting up our boats and course for us.

It’s not a moneymaking scheme of an event; instead, it’s something that the locals love and pour their energy into in order to make it a reality. It’s something that the umpires love enough to sacrifice their time and money to in order to get yelled at by disgruntled competitors (and participate in a “wine wave” or two while they’re at it). And it’s something that the competitors love enough to fly halfway around the world for, just to fly home a couple days later battered, exhausted, and jet-lagged. The venue, the people, and the race management are so mind-blowing that you have to see it to believe it. As Wessex Exempt’s Jon Pinner—a first-time victor and tenth-time competitor—said in his acceptance speech, 363 days until the next Wilson Trophy begins. ****

Amelia Quinn is a senior at Tufts University, studying a little bit of Arts and Sciences and a lot of sailing. Check out her blog Rolling Start for more on the Wilson Trophy!

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Wilson Trophy 2013

Today dawned grey with a hint of drizzle. We got to the club by 7:30 a.m. and quickly dressed, skipping coffee and breakfast in order to make it to the boats that were already awaiting us by the water. Our first race started just after 8:00 a.m. in about 5 knots, leading to a whole new set of potential boathandling concerns—unlike college sailing, you can’t come out of a tack or jibe faster than you went into it, and with umpires everywhere there’s no chance of slipping by unnoticed.

The boats glided smoothly in the light air across the flat water, even with us rolling a fraction of how we would in college sailing, and after a conservative start we converted to a 1-2-5 without too many issues against New York Yacht Club with my boat in the 5. On the final beat, the NYYC boat in the 6 was flagged for breaking Rule 42 for rocking an infinitesimal amount. Watch out.

Sailing with so many umpires watching our every move is not something I do very often, and so far this regatta has been a pretty rough crash course in what not to do. Yesterday, we waited too long before flying the yellow flag (you must fly the red flag for about 5-10 seconds, making sure that the umpire sees you, and then if the boat you’re protesting doesn’t spin, fly the yellow to call for a referee), and so one of our protests got green flagged, meaning that no one had to spin. Lesson #1: Time the flags correctly. The flags are kept in the crew’s lifejacket, so although the skipper makes the call of when to fly them, I feel responsible for making sure they’re executed correctly. To keep up consistency, it’s red on right, yellow on left, attached by a small bungee wrapped around each of my lifejacket straps.

By the time we started our second race, the breeze had picked up to 10-20, where it stayed all day. That didn’t mean that we were out of the woods, though; we had three bad run-ins with the umpires. First, let me say that I’m incredibly impressed with the umpires at this regatta; they represent a total of seven different countries and all funded their trips here with their own money. All of the sailors are indebted to their dedication. That said, there are bound to be differences in opinion, a few of which we encountered today. They can all be chalked up to lessons learned, although the hard way.

In what I believe was our third race, we fouled port-starboard at about 30 seconds. Pinned between two of our opponents, Greenfield yelled “we’re spinning!” while we struggled to get clear enough to do our penalty turn. Despite his hailing and our attempts to get clear, we got red flagged, and ended having to do two-turns instead, _after _we were slowly shot out the back. We started the race in a deep 6, completely unable to help our teammates. After the race was over, we sailed to the umpire boat to ask them what they had seen. Apparently, we hadn’t hailed loudly enough that we were spinning. Lesson #2: Be as clear and as loud as possible when it comes to communicating with the umpires.

A couple races later, we again ran into trouble. We were in a precarious combination, the 4 in a 1-4-6, and were tightly covering our opponent after the leeward offset. An umpire boat motored straight into our path, and we had to tack off, losing our guy and ultimately the race. We didn’t know what to do; Greenfield didn’t think that we could seek redress, and I had no idea. Apparently, had we flown the red flag, we could have had a shot at a re-sail. Lesson #3: Be quick to fly the red flag. You can only really get in trouble if you improperly fly the yellow, and you have no shot at redress if you don’t.

Two races after that, we ran into trouble once again. We lost flow on the starting line, and were stalled and trying to bear off at GO when the block on the end of the boom burst off. I flew the red flag immediately, keeping in mind Lesson #3, but the judges told us to keep on sailing. Trimming and easing were difficult for Greenfield, and we sailed around the course in a downspeed 6. After finishing the race in a losing 1-5-6 we filed for redress, as the screw in the block had come out, not merely a ring ding. We were denied a re-sail. Why? Because we had been in the “deep 6” when our boat broke, even though we could have easily had a fighting chance to catch up quickly if we’d had a functioning main. Lesson #4: Win on the water.

Despite these pitfalls, we’re well within striking distance for the quarterfinals tomorrow, in which the top eight teams will sail with the winners then moving on to semifinals and the subsequent finals. The Swiss League format ensured that we didn’t have a single dull race, and that there wasn’t a single moment when we could let our guard down. As one of the Royal Thames skippers said, “The Swiss League is a right emotional rollercoaster, yeh?” I couldn’t agree more. Now it’s time to find out just what they mean by “God save the Queen.”

Amelia Quinn is a senior at Tufts University, studying a little bit of Arts and Sciences and a lot of sailing. Check out her blog Rolling Start for more on the Wilson Trophy!

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Wilson Trophy 2013

Today was the first day of racing at the 64th annual Wilson Trophy in West Kirby, England. The fleet had a scheduled late start—the first warning signal wasn’t until 12:57 in the afternoon, although we arrived at the West Kirby Sailing Club (WKSC) promptly at 9 a.m. We had signed up for a 9:30-10:30 practice time, but all practices were cancelled due to the breeze already whistling through the boatyard and the desire to prevent breaking boats before racing began. The breeze only built throughout the day, until racing was called off a bit after 5:00 p.m.

I’m crewing for Ben Greenfield (BU ‘11), and our teammates are Ben Spiller (BU ’09) sailing with Fiona Gordon (BU ’12), and Mark Dinneen (Bowdoin ’08) sailing with Andrea Bailey (Georgetown ’09). Our team is the Rhode Island Pistols, although our light blue pinnies sadly say just “Rhode Island.” Greenfield, Gordon, Spiller, and I flew in yesterday morning so we’ve already beaten the jet lag, but Dineen and Bailey flew in early this morning. They have yet to complain about their exhaustion, but as I spent a significant part of yesterday on the WKSC’s sofa under a Delta Airlines blanket, I can’t imagine that they can be feeling especially chipper.

Today went decently. Our record is 3-1, putting us in either the second or third bracket (it’s in a Swiss League format, meaning that teams with similar records will sail each other in subsequent rounds, in theory leading to more competitive racing throughout the regatta). It’s not a bad place to be, but our one loss, which was in the first race, was entirely my boat’s fault. In team racing, sometimes the blame can be shared, but in this case it was definitely singular. The issue boiled down to boathandling, which as a crew is especially painful. We’re sailing in the British Fireflies, which are significantly different from those at MIT.

The vang is not on the mast, but instead exactly where a crew’s body would normally be. To compensate, the jib leads are farther back than in any boat I have ever sailed and are located on the thwart. In addition, the sheets in most of the boats are incredibly long, leading some crews to tie them to be continuous, which I tried out for the first race with pretty poor results. My tacks were much sloppier than they should have been, but our real trouble came on the runs.

We had the vang cranked on for our runs in the first two races, which made jibing tough. The boom didn’t come across when we expected it to, and so we swamped on our first jibe in the first race and lost largely because of it. Ouch. Adjusting to the new boats in the nuking breeze was not ideal, but I definitely could’ve done it better. At least we both jumped to the windward rail and didn’t capsize—during the competitor’s meeting this morning, they had announced that any boat whose mast hits the water must retire so that racing can continue efficiently.

Efficiency is a pretty high priority here in general. With 34 teams and 36 boats (each flight has six races, and they roll into each other fairly seamlessly), making any error that can hold up racing results in the penalty of either pounds, half a win, or an entire win. Teams must promptly “muster” on the apron and catch their boats as they come in, or suffer the consequences. They called the racing off today just before we were set to sail New York Yacht Club, partially because of the breeze and partially (I suspect) so that both American teams will be in the first race tomorrow. The warning will go off promptly at 7:57 a.m., which means that we’ll be waking up bright and early.

So far, none of the warnings that I had gotten about England have been true. Yesterday was a beautifully sunny day, and although today was overcast, it hasn’t rained a drop. I have yet to encounter any dry British humor—the members of West Kirby SC are incredibly friendly and welcoming, and our hosts, the Emmanuels, are lovely. They do take their tea very seriously—their kitchen sink even has a spigot just for boiling water in one of the greatest marvels of modern science I have ever seen. The food is decent, and the instant coffee surprisingly tasty. In terms of drinks, we made a point to sample nearly all the beers at WKSC’s bar yesterday, and although I only made it through a couple, I’d say that the Doom Bar is the best and the Tetley’s the worst. On that note, I’m pretty sure it’s my turn to buy a round …

Amelia Quinn is a senior at Tufts University, studying a little bit of Arts and Sciences and a lot of sailing. Stay tuned to her blog Rolling Start for more on the Wilson Trophy!

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And find out more about what makes this event unique:

Click here to view photos of the Baldwin Cup.

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