2024 Malcolm McIntyre Team Race at SUNY Maritime College
Written by Erin Wojdaszka, with on water racing commentary by Morgan Connor and Henry Millette.
On July 20 -21, 2024, JSA organized the 81st edition of the Malcolm McIntyre Team Race at SUNY Maritime College in Throggs Neck NY. Approximately 60 + racers arrived around 9:00 am, from seven different clubs, along with their coaches.
Nine teams hailing from American YC (3 teams), Cedar Point YC, Indian Harbor YC, Larchmont YC, Orient YC, Pequot YC, and Riverside YC came out to tee up on the East River in the hopes of getting their club’s name engraved on the McIntyre Trophy.
This year coaches from SUNY Tara Foster and Henry Millette ran the team races and lessons over a course of two days. Each team will compete across the East River in a little cove, which typically holds a steady breeze.
Saturday began with a team racing clinic led by SUNY Maritime Coaches Tara Foster and Henry Millette and supplemented by input from the all-star umpire team that consisted of Vanessa Larkhamp, Rachael Silverstein, and TJ Danilek. The teams dove into team racing fundamentals and some finer points of the relevant racing rules to ensure all would be operating on an equal playing field once they hit the water.
The coaches explained the purpose for the day and jumped into reviewing the best boat placement with boats 1-6. They reviewed the different play combinations that would allow for your team to be most successful. Both coaches then taught the key aspects of team racing and the rules that need to be followed. Coach Foster highlighted that one aspect of this type of classic college-style race is to sail fast similar to fleet racing, but more importantly is to communicate with your teammates. Racers were able to participate in discussions with their team around the best plays, how best to communicate with each other, when they should “catch up” which means sail faster to get in a better position. The beginning morning discussion focused on why it is important to keep your team boats balanced throughout the race.
Tara was hoping that the breeze would fill in and they would be able to get on the water by noon, but it looked like it would be more likely to happen after lunch. She said, “We are hoping the breeze starts to fill in and we can eat lunch and start rigging boats, then head out.” 
Luckily, the wind filled in from the south with perfect timing to enable the regatta to get out on the East River. Sailors rigged and sailed out and under the Throgs Neck Bridge to reach the race course that was set in Little Bay off of Queens. Several hours of compelling team racing followed in a shifty southerly that at times escalated to velocities in the upper teens. By the end of the day 21 races had been completed and Riverside Yacht Club was in first place with a perfect 5-0 record. However, Pequot, Larchmont, and Orient lurked right behind them with only one less each. The stage was set for an epic second day of the event.
After racing concluded on day one, sailors were treated to a mini college sailing forum featuring several schools. College coaches and sailors spoke about what to expect when considering college sailing. The event was moderated by SUNY head coach Tara Foster.
Unfortunately, sailors arrived on Sunday to little breeze. After a short delay, Race Committee was able to get a course set thanks to the efforts of Coach Tara and Event Chair Morgan Connor. Sailors headed out and made the most of what the weak northwesterly offered them with four more races completed (and one called off) before the breeze totally died. In the end, it would be Orient Yacht Club that would emerge as the victor thanks to wins over Pequot and Riverside that broke a three-way tie for first in their favor. The drama on the water would end up carrying over back on land, as the residual tie between PYC and RYC ran through every single tiebreaker in the team racing rules and would thus end up having to be decided by a coin flip that went Pequot’s way.
Congratulations to all participants on representing their clubs and themselves notably well at what was an incredibly competitive 2024 McIntyre Team Race. We hope to see the vast majority of this group, along with some new faces, at the 2025 edition of JSA’s classic team race championship and clinic.”
Special thanks to SUNY Maritime College for its continued support of the McIntyre Team Race, coaches Tara Foster and Henry Millette, Kevin Broome at American YC for all of his support including extra RIBs for coaches/umpires, and to our on-water umpires who made this year’s regatta and clinic such a great event!
