2021 JSA McIntyre Trophy Team Race Championships
This year’s JSA of LIS Team Race Championship for the Malcolm McIntyre Trophy was hosted by SUNY Maritime College, Bronx, NY, on July 24-25, 2021. Eight teams traveled to SUNY Maritime each day and were led by Ken Legler, head sailing coach from Tufts University and SUNY Maritime head sailing coach Zach Runci. We want to thank all of the competitive junior sailors and the coaches from the JSA member clubs for their support throughout the event, on and off the water.
2021 JSA McIntyre Trophy Team Race Championships- Event Overview
The 2021 JSA Malcom McIntyre Team Race Regatta and Clinic was a great success, with eight teams participating. The weekend event featured two teams each from Larchmont and American yacht clubs, together with teams from Noroton YC, Cedar Point YC, and Stamford YC. Team “Sound Waves,” with a mix of participants from various western Long Island Sound clubs, used this event to prepare for the national championship CJ Buckley Team Race Regatta. Some teams were relatively new to team racing, while other teams had more team racing background from the Optimist Class and from high school sailing.
Ken Legler, the College Sailing Hall of Fame coach from Tufts University teamed up with SUNY Maritime head coach, Zach Runci to run a superb team race clinic on shore Saturday morning, prior to afternoon racing. The regatta utilized on-water umpires led by college sailing official Tony Weiner and college All-American sailors Michelle Lahrkamp and Ciara Rodriguez-Horan. Sailors began heading out to the course at 1PM. By 2PM the breeze began to fill in and the sailors completed (14) races in a nearby cove to the east of the Throgs Neck Bridge. The teams kept racing to 4:30 PM to maximize the number of races in the building afternoon breeze!
On Sunday, Ken and Zach kicked off the day with an on-shore debrief, including observations made from the previous day’s races, then followed with a brief “speed overview,” including the differences in techniques required to sail a Flying Junior vs. a Club 420. Once on the water for Championship Sunday, the regatta was sailed in a beautiful 8-12 knot west/southwest breeze on the west side of the bridge. A knock-out bracket format was used to eventually split the 8 teams into championship and consolation fleets. Over 20 races were completed on Sunday and the kids we’re all smiles and wiped out after a super weekend of wire-to-wire team racing!! Some of the comments made by sailors included, “this was the most fun regatta of the summer! and “we learned so much – we’ll definitely be back next year!”
In the end, Team Sound Waves set the bar, winning the overall regatta, but was not eligible for the McIntyre Trophy because some of their sailors were not currently active in JSA club summer programs.
Therefore, the 2021 Malcolm McIntyre Trophy goes to American YC 1.
We hope to see everyone back at the McIntyre Team Race Regatta next summer. Get your team together and start practicing now!! A big thanks to Rob Crafa, Waterfront Director at SUNY Maritime College, for making this event possible again this year!
Here are the final results:
1: Sound Waves (mixed team ineligible for trophy)
2: American YC 1 (1st JSA club team and winner of Malcolm McIntyre Trophy)
3: Larchmont YC 1 (2nd JSA club team)
4: Stamford YC (3rd JSA club team)
5: Noroton YC
6: American YC 2
7: Cedar Point YC
8: Larchmont YC 2
Event Overview contributed by JSA Regatta Chair, John Lombard.
View photos of the event in our Facebook album here
