The McIntyre Team Race event was once again held at SUNY Maritime in a provided fleet of 18 Zim 420’s. Coaches Brian Clancy (Cornell University), John Pearce (George Washington University) and Chris Klevan (US Coast Guard Academy) led the event with support from local coaches Will Holz, Alec Taylor, Beka Schiff, JJ Monro, Brendan Shanahan and Alex Curtiss.

Brian, John and Chris were in unanimous agreement that this was the best in the three years they had participated in the event. It was a lot of fun.

Monday began with a clinic session focusing on passback drills on the water, followed by debrief over lunch. The first round robin was completed in a SW breeze ranging from 6 to 12 mph. AYC came out strong and led after day one.

Tuesday began similarly with great breeze all day, right from the start. The clinic session focused on execution at mark three and team racing in current. Again, local coaches gave support in facilitating the drills and debrief at lunch. Round two brought another SW breeze ranging from 12 to 15mph.

Wednesday, the final day called for less than ideal sailing conditions and the plan was to start the third round right away taking knowledge and discussion from the previous two days into account. It was a light Westerly about 5 to 8 mph and was dying. Once current kicked into full ebb, it became quite difficult to navigate the racecourse. Sailors and coaches headed in for an earlier lunch break after completing 17 of 21 anticipated races (81 percent).
Breeze never materialized from that point forward and teams were unable to head back out to complete the round.

However, the team racing appendix allows for incomplete rounds to be counted so long as 80% was completed.
Noroton and AYC tied for the lead with a 13 to 4 win-to-loss record. Noroton won two of three head to head meetings and took the championship. Riverside was not far behind and after a slow start (3 to 3), managed to finish the event with a 9 to 1 record and overall record of 12 to 5, just behind the leaders.

Racing was challenging but it was clear that competitors enjoyed team racing against their JSA rivals. New teams joined in on the action this year. One can only hope that more will follow suit next year. Big thanks to SUNY Maritime and Rob Crafa for hosting for three days and providing motor boats and marks.

– Contribution from McIntyre Head Coach Brian Clancy

See photo album here.

View results here.